The Republicans and Democrats have made it impossible for me to vote for either of their candidates. Hillary Clinton is a criminal and Donald Trump at best is an idiot and at worst a spy for Russia; in my humble opinion. I believe both candidates could do significant damage to this country.
Whether it be presidential elections, city, state, or some ridiculous mid-season ballot initiative I’ve never not voted. And I’m certainly not sitting out this seasons disaster. So where does that leave me. It caused me to take a long hard look at what I personally believe in as an individual barring any outside influence from friends, the media, special interests or celebrities; who try to convince me that I must vote for one of the two major political parties.
Just like when Yoda says to Luke “There is another Skywalker”. Guess what? There is another candidate. The Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and his vice presidential pick Bill Weld are experienced, intelligent and prepared for the office of the president of the United States.
But in order for me to truly support a candidate outside of my own party; I needed to research what his party's platform is all about. Each person who goes to the polls has certain things that they believe their candidate should agree with. I basically have five primary issues: Gay Rights, Legalizing Cannabis, Gun Rights because I firmly believe in the second amendment but I believe we need to make sure criminals and the mentally ill can’t get their hands on guns, Defending Our Borders and I believe that NAFTA and the upcoming TPP trade agreement have ruined blue collar middle class America.
So let’s quickly go through the Libertarian party platform on these issues and see if it matches with my personal beliefs. I’ll put a link to the party's platform in the description below so you can review it against your personal agenda.
First, personal liberties. Libertarian’s feel individuals should be free to make choices for themselves and must accept responsibility for the consequences of the choices they make. When it comes to sexual orientation Libertarian’s believe consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships. Well that’s definitely aligned with my thinking on this issue.
Libertarian’s favor the repeal of all laws creating “crimes” without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes. That certainly fits within my agenda and Libertarian’s affirm the individual right recognized by the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms, and oppose the prosecution of individuals for exercising their rights of self-defense. They also oppose all laws at any level of government restricting, registering, or monitoring the ownership, manufacture, or transfer of firearms or ammunition. So we kind of disagree on the gun rights issue where it pertains to registration and monitoring but at least they aren’t like the democrats who want to take all guns away.
Libertarian’s support building a sufficient military to defend the United States against aggression. More importantly they feel we should both avoid entangling alliances and abandon attempts to act as policeman for the world. That’s where I 100% agree. They also understand the importance of adequate intelligence to detect and to counter threats to domestic security but that it shouldn’t take priority over maintaining the civil liberties of our citizens. It would be refreshing to have someone in office who got control over the NSA.
But it seems we adamantly disagree when it comes to migration and free trade. Libertarian’s support the removal of governmental impediments to free trade and feel people shouldn’t be constrained in crossing country borders. They feel economic freedom demands the unrestricted movement of human as well as financial capital across national borders. So they kind of fail on that topic for me.
All-in-all it seems like four of my top five issues align with Libertarian’s but we completely disagree on trade and migration. So Am I a Libertarian? Well not just yet. It’s certainly going to take a little more understanding of their party platform but am I voting for Gary Johnson? Absolutely! Because he’s really the only sane candidate running.