Spike Cohen, founder of "You Are the Power" and former Libertarian Vice Presidential candidate, has been a driving force in spreading liberty in a way that connects with people. He’s all about empowering individuals and helping regular people to make a real impact in their communities. I had the chance to sit down with him and chat about his journey ahead of our 2025 LPF Convention, the work his nonprofit is doing, and what he sees ahead for the future of liberty in Florida and beyond. From his take on criminal justice reform to his advice for Floridians looking to get involved, Spike’s perspective is one everyone in the liberty movement should hear.

"You Are the Power" has made a significant impact since its inception. What inspired you to start this nonprofit, and how has the journey been so far?

My mission for spreading liberty has always been threefold:

1. Explain libertarianism in a way that people can connect with, not just as abstract ideas.
2. Give them a feasible way to become liberty evangelists themselves.
3. Help people who are being abused by out-of-control government NOW, not in some distant libertarian utopia.

YATP does all of that. We find people who need help fighting back against abusive government officials, we tell their stories to the world, and we invite everyone to join us in getting those officials to back off and leave innocent people alone. In doing so, we are spreading the core message of liberty: when we are respected as individual human beings, we are more prosperous, more harmonious, and ultimately happier.

What are some of the most notable successes or accomplishments of "You Are the Power" that you’re particularly proud of?

We have reunited children who were stolen from their innocent parents by corrupt CPS officials. We have gotten charges dropped against innocent people who spoke in front of their city councils. We have gotten city governments to release body cam footage showing that their police had assaulted and wrongfully arrested innocent people. Just last week, we got the Georgia CPS to radically revamp their policies in order to prevent their caseworkers and pediatricians from taking children from innocent parents. We just keep winning, and we’re just getting started.

As someone who advocates for grassroots activism, what advice would you give to Floridians looking to make a difference in their local communities?

Number one, show up. And not just to political stuff. Show up to community events, park/beach/street cleanups, events to feed those in need, toys for tots, city council meetings. Show up to as many things as possible, with a primary goal of serving people who need help. People want to know that you care. Only then will they care about what you know.

Florida has seen a growing libertarian movement. What opportunities do you see for libertarian principles to influence policies in Florida?

The principles have always been true. People do best when they’re most free. The problem has never been that. It is up to us to get the message out there, and the best way we can do that is by showing people how our principles work in a way that connects with them. And unlike us, most people connect with people, not ideas. We call them normies because they’re normal. We’re the weird ones. And it’s our weirdness that allows us to spot issues, and solutions, before anyone else. But it’s also our weirdness that keeps us from sharing those solutions with others, because we think and speak differently than them. We need to speak like them to them.

How does "You Are the Power" work to educate communities about the principles of human respect and non-coercion? Can you share a specific example of this in action?

I’ll give one of the more recent examples. Rebekah Massie showed up to her local city council meeting (in Surprise, AZ) to call out the mayor and council members for multiple corrupt things they were trying to do in secret. They responded by having her arrested, in front of everyone, for speaking. We found out, we got the word out, we put tremendous public pressure on the Surprise city government to back off and leave Rebekah alone. As a result, her charges were all dropped, the mayor and city attorney resigned, and Rebekah is now on a warpath to root out all of the corruption in Surprise, with many more by her side in support.

In doing this, we not only educated the public about what happens when individuals aren’t respected, we also gave them the opportunity to demand respect. Most people learn best through demonstration and participation. We give them a chance to participate before even fully understanding our ideas. Again, that’s how most people learn.

What are the biggest challenges "You Are the Power" has faced in building community-driven solutions, and how have you overcome them?

The number one challenge we face is the number one challenge most organizations face: funding. We spend around 60 hours vetting and implementing action plans for each cause we take on, and much of that work is done by staff who do this work full-time.  We rely heavily on volunteers for most of what we do, but some of it is work that we simply can’t ask people to do, week in and week out, for free. 

The average cause costs between $5000-10,000 from start to finish. When you think about it, that’s not much money to reunite a family or stop someone’s home from being stolen from them, but we do a lot of it, and it takes a lot of money.

Every penny we receive goes directly to spreading liberty by helping people fight back against out-of-control government.

You’ve traveled extensively advocating for liberty. What lessons from other states or communities do you think could benefit Florida’s libertarian movement?

The more I travel, the more I realize that we’re all facing the same things. There are small local differences of course, but it’s all pretty much the same thing. We all want the same things, and for the most part we all want to live in relative peace and harmony with our neighbors, but then a handful of opportunists will exploit that desire to wrest our agency from us and use the power they take to impose themselves on us. It’s up to us to point out how this arrangement hurts all of us, and to create movements to rest that agency and power back.

Looking ahead, what are your goals for "You Are the Power" in 2025 and beyond? Are there any specific projects or initiatives you’re particularly excited about?

Starting this year, we now have a dedicated cause vetting team. This was always the bottleneck in our organization, and for good reason. If I unknowingly help one family that ISN’T innocent one time, that would wreck the reputation we’ve built. So we are very careful in our vetting. But before, that would often delay how quickly we could get to work on a cause, sometimes by weeks.

With this dedicated cause vetting team, we’ll be able to work on causes more quickly, and work on more causes at the same time. I anticipate a massive expansion of activity for YATP this year.

You’ve been a strong proponent of criminal justice reform and ending qualified immunity. How do you think these issues can resonate with voters in Florida?

Again, it’s about connecting with people on something they care about. People want the criminal justice system to protect them, by punishing those who do us harm and protecting those who’ve been wrongfully accused. We just need to point out the stories of people who were failed: the wrongfully accused, people whose lives were destroyed by victimless crime laws, people who were not protected from their abusers despite begging for help, etc. When people see actually human beings who are harmed by the status quo, they’re much more likely to support what we propose to make things better. This is something the left figured out long ago.

With Florida being a popular destination for those seeking more freedom and opportunity, have you ever considered moving to Florida yourself? Why or why not?

If I ever move from SC, it will almost certainly be to Florida. I’ll leave it at that for now.

As a libertarian activist, how do you approach bridging ideological divides, especially in a politically diverse state like Florida?

When you’re actually present in your local community, you’ll discover that the divides aren’t anywhere near as difficult to bridge as they appear on social media and TV. Just about everyone naturally wants to live in harmony with their neighbors, and when we show up and offer to help, they see that we’re on “their side”. 1 hour of working in person with your neighbors undoes 10 hours of the arguing you did with them on social media lol

Finally, for libertarians across Florida who are inspired by your work, what’s the most important message you’d like to leave with them?

Show up. Get involved in LPF and your local affiliate. Join YATP. If you’re a person of faith, go to your local place of worship and serve your God and His congregation. If you find that this eats into your time of doomscrolling or arguing online, all the better.