On September 11, 2017, Smith released his first comedy special, Libertas.[14]
He was the MC for FreedomFest, a libertarian festival, in 2021,[21] and a featured speaker there in 2022.[22] According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Smith was running the Libertarian Party's social media,[22] but he has denied this saying that he only "helped with the Twitter".[23]
Smith is a member of the Mises Caucus of the Libertarian Party.[12][25][26] Smith said in a 2017 Reason interview that he "became a libertarian through the Ron Paul movement".[27] He has opposed what he sees as big tech hegemony, describing it as "the biggest threat to liberty" aside from the "tyranny of COVID-19".[28] He believes vaccine mandates are an infringement of personal liberty[29] and told Reason in 2021 that he did not plan to vaccinate himself or his child against COVID-19.[28][30] Smith defended the Libertarian Party of Kentucky when it criticized proposed vaccine passports by comparing them to yellow stars that Jews were forced to wear.[31]Reason described him as "a vocal opponent of wokeness and political correctness".[28] An admirer of the anarcho-capitalist economist Murray Rothbard, he told Reason that like Rothbard he would abolish government if he could.[32]
Smith has been noted for interviews and debates with far-right figures, such as Gavin McInnes,[33][34]Nick Fuentes, Richard Spencer, and Christopher Cantwell.[33][35][22] Smith has called Fuentes a "fellow traveler", according to the SPLC.[22] In 2021, The New Republic called Smith "a Nazi sympathizer".[33] The SPLC noted that Smith is Jewish and has disagreed with far-right figures on the creation of a white ethnostate and the alt-right's tactics.[35] Debating with Fuentes, the SPLC said, Smith argued for "hard-right libertarian viewpoints".[35] In an interview with Nick Gillespie, Smith defended his friendliness towards alt-right figures, saying "People who listen to my podcasts have no doubt about where I stand on all of these issues" and said that his libertarian beliefs are "the antithesis of National Socialism."[14]
Smith has said he did not support the 2024 Libertarian Party nominee, Chase Oliver, claiming that Oliver did not do enough to fight COVID-19 policies, such as lockdowns and vaccine mandates.[36]
In 2024 Smith endorsed Donald Trump and said that he would vote for Trump.[28] Smith cited Trump's promise made at the 2024 Libertarian Party National Convention to "...commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht on the first day [of being elected president]...", as a major part of his reasoning for voting for Trump. Smith also said on an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience after Trump had been declared the winner of the presidential election that Trump "...better follow through on that promise and free Ross, because a lot of libertarians got behind Trump because of that promise..."[37]
^Dave Smith (July 17, 2022). "A Response to the S.P.L.C". Part of the Problem (Podcast). GaS Digital Network. Event occurs at 29:09. Retrieved June 20, 2024. I don't run the party's social media. That's just not true. I've helped with the Twitter. That's it. I don't even run the Twitter. Most of the tweets aren't from me.
^ abcSimons, Seth (February 9, 2021). "The Comedy Industry Has a Big Alt-Right Problem". The New Republic. Retrieved July 18, 2022. In 2017, Dave Smith used a TGMS guest-hosting spot to interview Richard Spencer and Christopher Cantwell, giving both a friendly platform to lay out their vision for a white ethnostate.
