By nominating Gary Johnson as its presidential nominee, the Libertarian Party has once again doomed itself to a humiliating defeat.
As Liz Sheld reported for PJ Media yesterday, the Libertarian Party has nominated former Governor Gary Johnson for the second time in a row. Liz added:
In 2012, Johnson only received 1% of the vote, but he might fare better this year with two “unpopular offerings.”
A recent poll had Johnson receiving 10% of the vote among registered voters. Coupled with another poll showing 44% of registered voters would like a 3rd option for president, Johnson might do very well with a field offering Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton…
If the Libertarian Party is ever going to make a difference, this is the year to do it.
There’s just one minor problem: Gary Johnson.
If the Libertarian Party really wanted to stand out this time, it should have nominated a real constitutionalist. They had one running: Austin Petersen, who finished in second place, well behind Johnson. Petersen is pro-life, pro-free markets, and pro-religious freedom. In other words, he stands for all the principles the Republican Party once held dear. If he were the nominee, Petersen would have been able to reach out to many conservative and libertarian constitutionalists who used to vote for the Republican nominee, but who can’t do so this time because they think Donald Trump is a progressive megalomaniac.
Instead, the Libertarian Party once again nominated a guy whose only libertarian credential is his support for the legalization of marijuana. In most if not all other areas, he’s nothing but a big-government liberal who want to force his views on everybody else.
Let’s not forget that this is the same guy who said during a recent Libertarian debate that, as president, he’d force Christian bakers to bake cakes for a gay wedding. Just to make sure everybody understood his fascist intentions, he added that a Jewish baker should do the same thing for a Nazi wedding. Can you imagine that? A Jewish baker being forced to bake a cake with a swastika on it? Well, it’s bound to happen in Johnson’s America.
Not even Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders — radicals themselves — take such an extreme position.
As a result, disenfranchised conservative constitutionalists will refuse to vote for Johnson, and rightfully so.
The Libertarian Party’s timing couldn’t have been worse. Americans can now choose between three big-government liberals. And guess what? Libertarians, when faced with the real thing and two copies, always opt for the former. Good luck at the fringes: you’ve doomed yourselves once again to irrelevancy.
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