Forget the people that call this a “binary” presidential election. That is nonsense. I like the way this explains it:
If you are like me and have decided not to vote for either the Democrat or Republican nominee, it is important to remember that there are other choices on the ballot. The Libertarian Party nominee is Gary Johnson and the Green Party nominee is Jill Stein. I’m not sure if Stein will be on all 50 state ballots but Johnson will. There will probably be others on the ballot but those two are the ones with the most publicity. Of course, most of that publicity is negative because our system is designed to demean and mock people that are not part of the dominant two parties. Still, if you search around, you can find out a lot about Stein and Johnson and much of it is pretty good. Especially compared to the two nominees at the top of the D and R tickets.
Gary Johnson
The best article that I can find on Johnson comes from the Washington Post with the headline “Years before ‘Aleppo moment,’ Gary Johnson showed little interest in details of governing“. Clearly the headline writer is not a Johnson fan and since most people don’t bother to read more than headlines, you would expect the article to be negative. Instead, it is full of information that should make any conservative smile. Here are a few snippets:
As governor, he imposed schedule discipline. His Cabinet would meet precisely at 8 a.m. every Monday, power bars and water at the table. Each member had only two minutes to deliver a report.
“If you can’t explain it in two minutes, it doesn’t need to be done,” said Diane Kinderwater, Johnson’s former communications director.
…
The first time the legislature sent a budget to Johnson’s desk, Ingle said, lawmakers thought they had done well by allotting only “a couple hundred-thousand dollars” more than Johnson’s goal of $2.8 billion.
Johnson vetoed it.
“We couldn’t believe it,” Ingle said. “But I said, at least he told us what he was going to do. This man is honest.”
…
Steven Neville was a Republican county commissioner in rural San Juan County, in the state’s upper northwest corner, when the legislature agreed to spend $1 million in preparation for a national rodeo competition being held there. Johnson vetoed the measure. As a result, the county had to find money on its own.
“We actually did what we needed to do to have a good rodeo,” said Neville, now a state senator. “It was annoying, but he was fair.”
…
An examination of eight years of legislation showed that Johnson vetoed a bill to create specialized license plates because he thought it was too costly. He vetoed the formation of an African American affairs committee and a task force examining how to get equal pay for women because he thought they were a waste of time and money.
Although he describes himself as a social liberal, Johnson angered many on the left when he ended collective bargaining for state employees and cut off Medicaid funding for abortions that doctors deemed medically necessary. Johnson now says he regrets the Medicaid decision.
…
By the end, Johnson praised himself for delivering a tax cut worth at least $60 million, expanding the highway system and repealing a gas tax. He left with a $1 billion state surplus and, according to the Albuquerque Journal, a 45 percent approval rating.
(click here to read Robert Samuels’ complete story in the Washington Post)
Like I said, good stuff for any conservative or freedom loving person. You should also read the comments.
Dr. Jill Stein
I don’t know much about Dr. Jill Stein and her overall philosophy is certainly different from mine. But former presidential candidate Dr. Ron Paul likes her:
“If you have a sincere progressive, I knew ’em, I’ve worked with ’em, and they say ‘one of the most important issues to me is civil liberties and change in our foreign policy,’ Jill Stein, vote for her….”
Well, those are also important issues to me. Extremely important. If Johnson wasn’t on the ballot, I’d vote for Stein on those issues alone. Here is a short introduction to her while she answers foreign policy questions from Charles Krauthammer and George Will.
Perry Dorrell over at Brains and Eggs is a supporter of Stein and you can find much more about her there.
Like I said at the start of this post, don’t believe those who claim this is a “binary” election and you MUST vote for the D or the R. Study the candidates, find one that best matches your own issues and beliefs, then vote your conscience. That is the only path to real change.
Are you really considering voting for a man who supports abortion and regrets vetoing Medicaid funding of it? And to be clear medically necessary has in the past included economic status and included late-term abortions costing up to $10k. Not my conscience. Don’t believe it’s yours either.
Uhh, no thanks. If ever there were such a thing as a big-government libertarian, Johnson would be it. And Weld is simply a liberal. Too bad the LP wasn’t serious (again) about their party.
You can vote for whomever you want, but if it’s not for one of the big 2, it’s a wasted vote.
And you may end up with the one you were most against. Stupid
The crucial equation here is:
Fiscal Conservative + Social Liberal = Liberal.
If you’re comfortable voting for a man who supports open borders, legal abortions and legalizing all drugs, and who’s running mate is a traditional big government liberal, feel free. It’s not what I would have expected of you, but in the end it doesn’t matter, the only way Johnson could win is if Trump and Clinton both drop dead.
Johnson has short term memory problems. People like that can’t be trusted. Weld seems ok. You don’t have memory issues, do you Fat? Remember our bet?
Your options do not include Evan McMullin the independent candidate who is actually a conservative both fiscally and socially.
Evan McMullin is not on the ballot of 39 states, including Texas and California. He’s not a realistic candidate.
Protest votes are an absolutely valid way of expressing disapproval of both major party candidates. Carry on Bi9 Jolly!
Thanks for the linkage, Big J!
As you have experienced, no dismantling of the either/or, fish or chicken, less evil or more evil, zero sum binary thought process is accomplished without lots of howling from those who cannot compute it.
The recent developments from the “Make America Grope Again” candidate add a little lubrication to the gears, however.
Major props, Mr. Jennings.
People on both sides of the aisle grumpily complain about epistemic closure and bias bubbles for good reason. Folks myopically focus on their own little patch of grass and tend to fight over it fiercely without ever considering the possibility that there might be multiple ways of nurturing that turf at lower cost and with more beneficial, long term results.
I think it’s long past time to consider the ideas percolating in outsider political movements as viable alternatives to the moribund party lines., They at least try to address systemic problems that our two major parties seem unwilling to confront in any substantial manner.
Neither major party offers concrete solutions to address our debt crisis, speaks of a sound foreign policy or has reasonable plans to boost domestic growth, Both major candidates are amoral, unqualified and equally abhorrent. Their policies on any of the issues I care about are either non-existent, intentionally sketchy or clearly delusional
I won’t vote for either one.
I’ve been reading you for 10+ years for good reason. Please keep speaking your mind. I think you’re a decent man with a solid moral compass who has little time for the current PC political bullshit that’s endemic on both the left and the right.
You protest voters need to repeat this mantra: Supreme Court. Supreme Court. Supreme Court… Breathe deeply and think about all the implications. I’m not a Trump lover, but I have grandchildren, and I want this Republic to survive. Will it survive Hillary?
The real question is will the country survive a Trump Supreme Court?
No, the real question is: who will give us a better court – Trump or Clinton?
Well, it is a crapshoot with Trump. If you are willing to bet the Supreme Court on a crapshoot, more power to you. Given his penchant for authoritarian dictators, my guess is that he would be worse than Clinton, who would certainly appoint liberal justices but they would also be more traditional.
Come noon on January 20, either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will be taking the oath as president. There’s no third option. The only question is which one.
When it comes time to vote, ask yourself which one has proposed POLICIES not platitudes to solve the country’s problems ranging from the national debt to the war on terror. Who will do what to reduce the deficit? How about badly needed infrastructure improvements? How do we pay for them?
What about the military? We’re coming out of 15 years of two wars and it’s the first time we’ve fought a war without increasing the size of the military.
Does defeating ISIS mean committing ground troops to a free-for-all civil war in Syria? Do we really want to have a “no fly” zone there and risk shooting down Russian aircraft? After all, that would be an act of war.
Those are things you better think about before casting a ballot for president.