Spike Cohen: Announcing a New Way to Fight for Liberty at the Grassroots

The liberty movement is famous for its infighting. On most days, members can be found duking it out on Facebook and Twitter, arguing over public policy approaches to controversial issues like immigration, abortion, or homelessness. But, if there’s one thing the movement seems to agree on, it’s this: we really like Spike Cohen.

Cohen was nominated as the Libertarian Party’s Vice-Presidential candidate in 2020, emerging from a crowded primary field and previous obscurity to secure the position. Since that time, he has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers online, regularly appears on popular cable news shows, and speaks across the country. 

Cohen describes himself as an anarcho-capitalist/voluntarist, which is to say he does not believe in government at all but rather thinks society should be structured around a capitalist economy with citizens undertaking projects on a voluntary basis. While this worldview might be considered radical by some, you’re not likely to notice when speaking with Cohen. He’s well-versed in public policy across the political spectrum and is a gifted communicator.

Recently, Spike sat down for an interview with Hannah and Brad where we discussed his career trajectory, some of his free-market, anti-government solutions to heated policy debates, and the work he is doing to create an infrastructure that will help libertarians actually get things done despite their disagreements.

In his interview on the BASEDBrief, Cohen said, “In the last two years especially, I have seen what I think is the biggest missing piece in the liberty movement.”

He continued, “We don’t have an actual structure for building grassroots activism. And so I built it, and it’s called ‘You Are the Power.’”

“We have created a network that has the tools and resources you need to do all the activism work you want to do. It has the A-Z on how to get involved locally, how to accomplish various legislative goals…including sample legislation you can present…and then a directory of groups that are already working on different specific issues both nationally and locally, as well as a network of advocates who want to work on the same thing,” Cohen told us.

“Anyone in the Libertarian movement who has watched the constant and perpetual infighting that comes from it being a democratic organization where everyone is trying to rally the biggest group to win the most votes to take it over, knows they focus all or most of their efforts on that instead of working together. We’re the opposite of that. If this member of ‘You Are the Power’ doesn’t like this one, good. Don’t work together. We don’t have any hierarchy. You decide, it’s spontaneous order.” 

https://twitter.com/HannahDCox/status/1482829880744189959

“This is not about whose side wins. If you guys are more focused on this stuff, go fight over there. And if you guys are more focused on this stuff, you go fight over there. Leave each other alone….We have a decentralized way for everyone to work together.”

It’s an exciting development, and Cohen has a record of successful entrepreneurship behind him so there’s good reason to think this will be a smashing success. And we love to see people putting their principles into practice.

Listen to our full interview with Spike Cohen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or here: