In my last article, I started my two-part series “Voting Third Party,” and introduced you to Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party, who will be on the ballot this November and could be an alternative to voting for the stale piece of white bread or the racist love child of Macklemore and Chester Cheetah. Now, I think it’s only fair if I talk about the other candidate who will be on the third party ticket this election.
Meet Gary Johnson, the candidate for the Libertarian Party currently polling at nine per cent. He served as the governor of New Mexico as a Republican because, a lot like Bernie, he saw the value of working within the system to get as many of his Libertarian ideals into the mainstream as possible. And what are those, exactly? Libertarians advocate for personal liberty with little to no government interference, to the point that Johnson raised eyebrows at his convention when he advocated for keeping drivers’ licenses out of the hands of blind people and heroin out of the hands of toddlers. That’s right; the Libertarians are so anti-government that they think toddlers should be allowed to do heroin.
Obviously, Johnson can’t say that on the campaign trail, so he describes himself as “fiscally conservative and socially liberal.” By this, he means being in favor of marijuana legalization, a woman’s right to choose and gay marriage, but also against Wall Street regulations and breaking up the big banks. He also advocated for abolishing all gun control laws and the IRS, which allows Americans to pay taxes. He also supports privatizing Social Security and Medicare, because what could possibly go wrong?
Now, I’ve made it clear that I’m not a Libertarian in any way; I actually see it as a road to anarchy when people are allowed to do whatever they want without mediation and regulation. But, just because I disagree with it doesn’t mean I don’t see the appeal of it. In describing himself as “fiscally conservative and socially liberal,” Johnson has grabbed the interest of the Tea Party Republicans who hate the government as well as members of Team Revolution who are fed up with the status quo. A recent CNN poll has him polling at 13 per cent, which is great for Libertarians because Johnson is only two points away from being included in the debates beside Trump and Clinton.
The rise of Gary Johnson could be appealing to the Democrats who say they’ll never choose Hillary, and the Republicans who say they’ll never choose Trump. Now, should you vote for him or for Dr. Jill Stein, who I wrote about in my last article? Well, that’s honestly up to you, but here’s my advice. I live in New York, a deeply blue state that has never mattered in a general election; a state that Donald Trump, or any Republican nominee, is never going to win. So, since I know that Hillary is going to win no matter what, I can vote for the candidate I most agree with: Dr. Jill Stein. If I lived in Florida, Ohio, or any other swing state that actually mattered, I would hold my nose and vote for Clinton if for nothing else but to defeat the carnival barker Donald Trump. If you are in the nearly half of voters who are voting for one of the two main nominees only to defeat the other, and if you live in a deeply red or deeply blue state, I wouldn’t hold it against you if you voted for Stein or Johnson. If not, and I cannot say this enough, your vote matters. Go out to the polls on November 8th and contribute to our democracy.
