Now wouldn't that be a great campaign slogan?
OK, maybe not.
I'm just home from a few hours playing at Mandalay Bay during the early football games. I noticed that another player at my table was wearing a Gary Johnson t-shirt. I showed him on my phone the post that I wrote last year about why I thought Johnson was the best presidential candidate. It turns out that he works for the Johnson campaign, and he offered me a t-shirt, which I gladly accepted. I promised him I would post a picture of me wearing it:
Why do I like Johnson so much? Well, I answered that in a fair amount of detail in that previous post, so I'll refer you to it. But here's the Reader's Digest condensed version.
The three issues I care most passionately about can broadly be described as follows:
- Radical cuts in federal spending in order to put us on a path of fiscal responsibility, before we experience a catastrophic economic meltdown from what I believe is an imminently looming combination of crushing debt, hyperinflation, and soaring interest rates.
- Maximizing individual liberties--especially, but not exclusively, those enumerated in the Bill of Rights.
- Strictly limiting the size, scope, power, and responsibilities of all branches of the federal government to those spelled out in the Constitution.
The differences between the two major-party candidates pale next to the fact that you can be absolutely certain that both of them would substantially worsen the nation's health on all three of my major points. Neither of them is even the least bit interested in cutting the federal deficit and debt. Neither of them gives two hoots about individual rights. And both of them explicitly tell us that they want to expand, not contract, the size and power of the federal government (though each in different areas). I won't stand for that--and I certainly won't vote for it.
Conversely, all three are areas on which Johnson and I see eye to eye, and I believe him when he says that he would make these things among the top priorities and guiding principles of his presidency.
It is an added bonus that Gary Johnson is the only candidate explicitly calling for full decriminalization of online poker (which, of course, I'm legally and morally obligated to point out in a poker blog). The others won't. Both Romney personally and the GOP platform are opposed to online gaming of any sort. If Obama is in favor of your right to play poker from home legally, he's too much of a political weenie to say so, which means you can't count on him.
There. I hope this mini-screed was worth the cost of a t-shirt to the campaign.
P.S. Confidential to the Johnson campaign people: Were I in charge of things over there, I would consider adopting as a campaign slogan that great phrase from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address: "A New Birth of Freedom." That is what this country most sorely needs right now, and your guy is the only one who is interested in bringing it about.
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11 comments:
you convinced me
I'm IN! But am still a big loser with 24.
You need to retake your photo and this time make a duckface.
... And that is why liberatarians are crazy. So blinded by ideology that they would rather pretend they are making a point by voting for Johnson than casting a vote that might actually advance some of their cause. The difference between Obama and Romney is so great that the very existence of this nation as we know it could hinge on this election. But Johnson supporting idiots with no knowledge of political realities might just be enough to nudge this nation into socialism. Thanks for the "RANT", now maybe the true patriots can get back to trying to save us while you sit in the crap of your own ideology. I'm sure if he really tries, Johnson can muster 1/2 percent of the popular vote.
Another "A vote for Obama/Romney" fool. A vote for Gary Johnson is a vote for Gary Johnson. Your pathetic attempts to call my vote worthless makes you a shining example of what is wrong with American voters today. There is close to no difference between Obama and Romney on the crucial issues of this election. Our national debt along with our personal freedoms are really the only things that should matter to any sane citizen, but people are still blinded by mass media into thinking that either of the two major political parties care about the common Joe. To quote George Carlin, they don't.
Good for you. The political system in the US is screwed and except for the "Personal liberties" take I think you views are wrong, but nothing will ever change by voting for Kodos or Kang.
You are concerned that a Libertarian President will open a window to archaic conditions. It would put us back, when everybody had a chance to crap his share of success and happiness. Or, you might be concerned about labor being less protected and the needy are on their own.
You may have overlooked that there are 535 elected Senators and Representatives in Washington, that all have to work together. For many years the power has concentrated to an unhealthy level. I am inclined to say, to the point where the system of checks and balances does not work anymore.
There are five major reasons why it may make a lot of sense to have a Libertarian President at this time in history:
a) This president is likely to appoint 3 Supreme Court Judges, the ultimate guardians of the constitution and our civil rights. Shy of Ron Paul, and a few good men in Washington, all not running for President, I couldn't think of a better man for the job. Our children will thank us, for electing a President that truly embraces the constitution.
b) Bringing the troops home is a major step towards redirecting the country back to economy advancement. There is not a citizen alive that has lived a single day without his country being in war, to the point that people have casual discussions about, what country to invade next.
c) Over a decade of Terror Laws have driven away High Profile Investors and Business Leaders, that left the country with their money. Small and large businesses have no planning security and some laws even put property rights in question. Cleaning up this legislation and provide a predictable set of rules will do wonders for the economy.
d) Re-establishing trust in the financial system and our currency and simplifying regulations and taxation will make America, once again the most attractive place in the world to conduct business. This is where jobs will come back to the US and new jobs will be created.
e) Reducing the "financial size” of government, I wrote it that way, because it does not equate to "head count size” of government, will lead to simplified regulations, allowing for more innovation. This, combined with legalizing Marijuana has the potential to create an entirely new Hemp Industry, with 20000+ products that are in demand worldwide. Every economic revolution was started by the emergence of a new industry. Gary's credentials are excellent and documented. New Mexico is world leader in ecologically sustainable housing due to limited regulation.
The sum of all components of his program add up to economic gross, a balanced budget, stronger dollar, more jobs, more liberties, renewed respect for America and the elimination of parasitic practices in politics. With a common sense business approach SS will be most likely financially independent from the political budget, like it is in all countries where SS works. Health Care will be purchased at market price, and not government subsidized, without the ability to negotiate. That's how you and I go shopping to find the best bang for the buck.
Common sense might be a new concept for Washington, but Congress will learn quickly, if they want to get anything past President Gary Johnson's desk. With the checks and balances in place again, we will do just fine. I think Governor VETO deserves a promotion to President VETO.
PS: Just to be absolutely clear, I totally oppose the WAR on ELMO's Family.
PPS: That t-shirt looks just like mine.
Gary Johnson and Judge Gray are the most experienced candidates running hands down. Judge Gray, as a judge has the best grasp on our rights of any candidate running. And they have real solutions. Concur. I have the Live Free t-shirts myself.
Excellent Article!
I can respect your positions and understand your subsequent voting selection. I don't agree with two of your three bullets, most notably the debt one, but I suppose we can agree to disagree.
I'll just mention why I don't agree about the debt, though, as you may find my reasoning interesting: I'm an engineer by trade and live by the notion of testing hypotheses.
The "hyperinflation and soaring interest rates" have been predicted to "be right around the corner", complete with dates approximately one year out, for the past four years. Neither has ever materialized, nor have they even come close.
That is enough evidence for my engineer brain to tell me that the hypothesis that increasing the debt equals hyperinflation is demonstrably false. We have increased the debt significantly for the past few years and no hyperinflation (indeed, no inflation of any note) has occurred. Ergo, that's not a cause of such things. Propose some other hypothesis and test it, but no fair just saying "Well, it didn't happen this year, but I'm sure it will next year." That's not testing a hypothesis, that's clinging to an ideology in the face of contrary evidence.
Make no mistake, I'm not claiming that endless debt is good or that everything can go on like this forever. But I've now come to the opinion that those who say the time to borrow money is exactly when rates are low may have it right. This theory states that we should borrow *more* and use it to goose the economy while we can do so for essentially no cost, and pay down the debt when rates start to rise (presumably, as the economy recovers). This will, of course, naturally require raising taxes to pay down the debt, but as we will have just had years of largesse off the credit card, it is only right to pay for it once the economy can handle doing so.
Of course, I don't control monetary policy, and politicians in general are crowd-beholden idiots, so I don't expect anything logical to be done about our deficit until a real crisis has already occurred and is not merely predicted.
*sigh*
Great comments Liza. You should post this to the newspaper.
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