HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle

Justin Amash on Quitting the GOP: ‘It’s Nice to Be Happy and Free’

Views: 843
The Michigan congressman is carving a path as an independent unburdened by the two-party system.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/reasontv
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason
Subscribe to our podcast at Apple Podcasts: https://goo.gl/az3a7a

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.

----------------

When Michigan Rep. Justin Amash declared his independence from the Republican Party on July 4, he instantly became one of the most controversial politicians in America. Donald Trump immediately took to Twitter to denounce Amash as a "total loser" and "one of the dumbest & most disloyal" members of the GOP.

Whether or not you agree with the five-term congressman's choice to leave the Republican Party, he's anything but dumb and unprincipled. Amash has been the most consistently libertarian member of Congress since taking office in 2011, repeatedly voting to reduce the size and spending of the federal government, to stop mass surveillance of American citizens, and to end wars that he believes lack constitutional authorization.

Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with Amash, the 39-year-old son of Middle Eastern immigrants, to talk about what it feels like to be independent, why he won't be joining Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's social-justice "squad" anytime soon, whether he thinks Donald Trump is racist, if he's going to run for president as a Libertarian, and why he believes we need to talk more about love in national politics.

Interview by Nick Gillespie. Edited by Ian Keyser. Intro by Paul Detrick. Cameras by Jim Epstein and Meredith Bragg.

Music Credit: 'Jack's Garage' by Midnight North

Photo Credits:
Photos of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Stefani Reynolds/CNP/Polaris/Newscom
Photos of President Donald Trump; Credit: MICHAEL REYNOLDS/UPI/Newscom
Photos of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez; Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
Photo of President Donald Trump; Credit: KEVIN DIETSCH/UPI/Newscom
Photos of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
Photo of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
Photo of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Jim West/ZUMA Press/Newscom
Photos of Rep. Justin Amash townhall; Credit: Jim West/ZUMA Press/Newscom
Photo of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Jeff Malet/SIPA/Newscom
Photo of U.S. Capitol; Credit: Frank Fell/robertharding/robertharding/Newscom
Photo of Rep. Justin Amash; Credit: Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/Newscom
@ReasonVidsfollow
Thumbnail for Do Free Societies Need Postmodernism? A Debate1:28:47
Do Free Societies Need Postmodernism? A Debate
ReasonVids
731 views
Thumbnail for Bitcoin and the Blockchain Will Stomp Out Wall Street Fraud34:53
Bitcoin and the Blockchain Will Stomp Out Wall Street Fraud
ReasonVids
893 views
Thumbnail for The Battle for Free Speech on Campus: Greg Lukianoff at the Museum of Sex52:05
The Battle for Free Speech on Campus: Greg Lukianoff at the Museum of Sex
ReasonVids
946 views
Thumbnail for Gary Taubes on How Big Government Made Us Fat22:32
Gary Taubes on How Big Government Made Us Fat
ReasonVids
870 views
Thumbnail for Boardwalk Violinist vs. City Hall: Challenging Ocean City's Noise Ban2:52
Boardwalk Violinist vs. City Hall: Challenging Ocean City's Noise Ban
ReasonVids
979 views
Thumbnail for How Deregulation Gave Us FM Radio, HBO, and the iPhone47:45
How Deregulation Gave Us FM Radio, HBO, and the iPhone
ReasonVids
886 views
Thumbnail for Remy's Occupy Wall Street Protest Song2:49
Remy's Occupy Wall Street Protest Song
ReasonVids
917 views
Thumbnail for Biden Is Clueless About Inflation3:51
Biden Is Clueless About Inflation
ReasonVids
1011 views
Thumbnail for Defining the Anti-War Right: Dan McCarthy & The American Conservative Magazine5:01
Defining the Anti-War Right: Dan McCarthy & The American Conservative Magazine
ReasonVids
862 views
Thumbnail for Why McCain Won't Talk About Ideas2:06
Why McCain Won't Talk About Ideas
ReasonVids
860 views
Thumbnail for Why the Middle Class is Better Off Than You Think4:58
Why the Middle Class is Better Off Than You Think
ReasonVids
914 views
Thumbnail for Two Cheers for the Coming Collapse of the U.S. Economy!14:26
Two Cheers for the Coming Collapse of the U.S. Economy!
ReasonVids
902 views
Thumbnail for 3 Reasons Mitt Romney and Republicans Lost Big in Election 20122:31
3 Reasons Mitt Romney and Republicans Lost Big in Election 2012
ReasonVids
891 views
Thumbnail for Do we have more to fear from an unrestrained majority or narrow special interests?2:29
Do we have more to fear from an unrestrained majority or narrow special interests?
ReasonVids
857 views
Thumbnail for Cobra Kat0:12
Cobra Kat
bestofvoatxyz
1195 views
Thumbnail for William Weld on Why Libertarians Can Trust Him as Vice President9:40
William Weld on Why Libertarians Can Trust Him as Vice President
ReasonVids
793 views
Thumbnail for Remy: Bitcoin Billionaire2:55
Remy: Bitcoin Billionaire
ReasonVids
866 views
Thumbnail for Stossel: $2 Million Bathroom4:43
Stossel: $2 Million Bathroom
ReasonVids
804 views
Thumbnail for 10 Years to Life for Medical Marijuana: The Trial of Aaron Sandusky6:32
10 Years to Life for Medical Marijuana: The Trial of Aaron Sandusky
ReasonVids
948 views
Thumbnail for MARTES! NUEVA REPUBLICA DE JALISCO ¡ALFARO ESTA LOCO! CLAUDIA NO SE LO VA PERMITIR CAMPECHANEANDO | Campechaneando42:10
MARTES! NUEVA REPUBLICA DE JALISCO ¡ALFARO ESTA LOCO! CLAUDIA NO SE LO VA PERMITIR CAMPECHANEANDO | Campechaneando
invidious
97 views
Thumbnail for Trump Denounces Racism in Charlottesville. Too Little, Too Late.3:25
Trump Denounces Racism in Charlottesville. Too Little, Too Late.
ReasonVids
1060 views
Thumbnail for The Sounds of Capitalism: Kennedy Talks with Ethnomusicology Professor Tim Taylor23:25
The Sounds of Capitalism: Kennedy Talks with Ethnomusicology Professor Tim Taylor
ReasonVids
861 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian, reason magazine, reason.com, reason.tv, reasontv, republican party, partisan identification, independents
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle