originally posted in:Liberty Hub
The 2016 presidential election is both amusing and distressing from a Libertarian standpoint.
One on hand, you have an entrenched statist - Clinton. She's historically been [i]very[/i] hawkish (she supported the invasion of Iraq; she supported buckling down on nation-building in Afghanistan; she designed the strike on Libya; she supports continued military action in Syria), and she shows little regard for individual liberty.
On the other hand, you have an unprincipled wild card, liable to take any stance on any new issue. That's Trump. For every issue that he gets right, he gets another one terribly wrong. Trump's foreign policy is damn good for a new-age Republican. Excluding his stance on ISIS, he's basically a non-interventionist. However, he gets trade wrong. Very wrong. Trade protectionism is only good for buying votes - no true economic benefits come of it. George W. Bush made a mistake when he tried to protect the American steel industry, and now we're seeing Trump double-down on the same blunder.
It's this year's ballot's bleak future that has shed some much-needed light on Gary Johnson. Gary Johnson is the Libertarian Party candidate. I've linked to his website, where it explains his stance on the issues. Take a look and see where you agree and disagree.
Here are some other cool facts about Johnson.
-He's climbed the Seven Summits (reaching the peak of Everest on a broken leg, toes black with frostbite)
-He's an avid athlete - completing both marathons and triathlons
-He started Big J Enterprises in 1976. He sold it in '99 as a multi-million dollar corporation
-He was involved in a paragliding accident. He survived a 50 foot fall to the ground.
-Due to the injuries in the paragliding accident, he stands 1.5 inches shorter than he used to.
Johnson also has 7 Principles of Good Government (his book goes into depth about them). He carries them in his wallet.
1) "Become reality driven. Don’t kid yourself or others. Find out what’s what and base your decisions and actions on that."
2) "Always be honest and tell the truth. It’s extremely difficult to do any damage to anybody when you are willing to tell the truth–regardless of the consequences."
3) "Always do what’s right and fair. Remember, the more you actually accomplish, the louder your critics become. You’ve got to learn to ignore your critics. You’ve got to continue to do what you think is right. You’ve got to maintain your integrity."
4) "Determine your goal, develop a plan to reach that goal, and then act. Don’t procrastinate."
5) "Make sure everybody who ought to know what you’re doing knows what you’re doing. Communicate."
6) "Don’t hesitate to deliver bad news. There is always time to salvage things. There is always time to fix things. Henry Kissinger said that anything that can be revealed eventually should be revealed immediately."
7) "Last, be willing to do whatever it takes to get your job done. If you’ve got a job that you don’t love enough to do what it takes to get your job done, then quit and get one that you do love, and then make a difference."
These aren't necessarily exclusive to Libertarians. These are strong principles for any individual, regardless of whether or not they're governing.
We need to get this man some notoriety.
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I was going to write in Rand Paul. C-Span had the libertarian convention on when he spoke after the party nomination. I'll be voting for him now unless by some act of God out of left field Trump picks Rand as his VP. I live in a state that has never gone blue tho so my vote really doesn't matter.
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He's better than candidates from any of the other parties, but that's not saying much. We'd have some pretty important disagreements. Ultimately, you can't fight politics with politics.
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I'm no expert, but don't you have to have digits removed if they're black with frostbite? How many toes were frostbitten? I'm sorry, I'm neither of legal voting age nor American, so the rest of the information isn't of paramount importance to me right now.
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How about Sgt Johnson? He'd be a good candidate
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He had said that government should get out of marriage. Does that mean he thinks there shouldn't be any benefits or protections afforded to legally married couples?
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He's got my vote. Waste or not.
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I like his 7 principles. He wouldn't exactly be my first choice, but he would be far superior to Trump or Clinton.
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>Voting third party Why not just draw a penis on the ballot or save yourself the time and stay home?
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>Voting lolbertarian
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Ah, libertarians. The only people on the right who actually believe in liberty.
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Libertarian is backwards I'm sorry. We need to secure sustainability or humanity will face extinction through multiple means without a strong government. My #1 goal above all else is the survival of mankind and I don't see libertarianism to really align with that Also whoever is prez always expands government (republican or democrat) republicans just say they wouldn't but they do just as much as the dems. They are both the same party just republicans draw off the stupid voters to win the election. Sorry not sorry
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Oh I do know about Johnsons...
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Do you think that, if by some miracle, Johnson won the presidency, that the Libertarian Party would rise to the prominence of the two major parties? Do see any reasonable chance of this happening in another way in your lifetime? And if not, do you thing that the ideals of the Libertarian party could ever become influential enough to change policy on a relatively consistent basis?[spoiler]these aren't meant to be condescending, I honestly want to know what you think about the future of the Libertarian party[/spoiler]
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This guy sounds awesome
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Trumps the next president, so settle down
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I dont read
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He acknowledges that a wall will never work at least.
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Guys, stop it right now! If you keep being intelligent on bnet the core will have a meltdown!
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Gary?
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Better than Trump or Hillary, still not Bernie Sanders I'd rather vote for Jill Stein or write in Sanders.
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Johnson's a pothead that believes in open borders. No thank you. - Der
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So .... You want to make the ballot a penis poll ?
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Is he related to Cave Johnson?
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Edited by Tosevite 187: 6/10/2016 5:41:20 AMThe only trouble I have with libertarian policy is the chance that everything will drastically become more expensive, complicated, and confusing. It's hard to imagine a world with a a completely free market and no large gov entity governing it's people simply because of the way we live now. But looking at something like healthcare for example it's undeniable that the US spends way more money on healthcare than socialists like Denmark for example. I'm not here to debate morality or which system is better - just stating the fact that a Danish health care system is more cost effective as there are fewer middle men that need to take their own profits. So I just wonder if other things would play out in a similar manner of completely privatized. Then you also have difficult questions about how would a fire/police department work? How would pharmaceuticals be regulated? GMO's? Are patents ok? Etc. Also I noticed he would be for immigration through background checks and work visas that are checked to make sure they have real employers which would be a VERY costly, complicated, and extensive program that will be hard to pay for and arbitrarily enforce without a border patrol which isn't very 'free' to have
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America needs a border.
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I agree with a lot of his stances, and he's definitely preferable to the two main candidates we find ourselves with. His stances do leave me with wanting more, but that may just be because I put a higher value on equality than he does.