Brian4Liberty
01-03-2017, 06:33 PM
Thank You, Gary Johnson, for Being the Best Thing in 2016!
By Nick Gillespie | Jan. 3, 2017
Before we completely flush 2016 down the memory hole, let us pause to remember Gary Johnson, the former two-term governor of New Mexico who generated a record number of votes as the Libertarian Party's candidate for president. If there was anything good that happened in 2016—a year filled so much awfulness that even the Chicago Cubs could win the World Series after a thousand-year drought—it was @govgaryjohnson's ramshackle campaign to bring a very different way of thinking and talking about national politics to America.
In the end, of course, there was a lot of disappointment. He didn't crack 15 percent in polls to route around the bullshit criteria created by the two major parties to keep people like him off the stage; he supported the inalienable rights of gay Nazis to force homophobic Jewish bakers to make German chocolate cakes in the shapes of swastikas; he spaced out while talking to recidivist plagiarist Mike Barnicle on Morning Joe and asked, What is Aleppo?; and so much more. Yeah, yeah, I get it. In fact, as a professional libertarian, I was there for lots and lots of it, including a year ago when he outlined his bizarre and quickly walked-back comments about banning burqas in America. I read all the crocodile-tear complaints about from conservatives and liberals who said that GovGary wasn't libertarian enough for them and from the "thin libertarians" who said they bailed on him the minute he refused to start every answer to every question with a recitation of the non-aggression principle. Bloomberg View's Eli Lake called it in August, pre-"Aleppo Moment," when he said that Johnson "is a gangly ball of nerves who exudes the charisma of Don Knotts from his Three's Company years" and that Americans couldn't see him as a commander-in-chief. Then there's Bill Weld, the governor's running mate who infuriated almost everyone (except me, tbh) with his charming and idiosyncratic riffs on all sorts of non-libertarian ideas before semi-endorsing Hillary Clinton just before Election Day....
To all of it, I say, politely: Go screw yourselves, all of you.
...
The tragicomedy of America is that we mostly get the government we demand. For all his faults, Johnson articulated the broadly felt desire for government that does less and costs less and personified a down-to-earth politician. In doing so, he prototyped what the politics and politicians of the future will be like. Gary, we hardly knew ye, but we will, and sooner than most of us think.
...
More: https://reason.com/blog/2017/01/03/thank-you-gary-johnson-for-being-the-bes
By Nick Gillespie | Jan. 3, 2017
Before we completely flush 2016 down the memory hole, let us pause to remember Gary Johnson, the former two-term governor of New Mexico who generated a record number of votes as the Libertarian Party's candidate for president. If there was anything good that happened in 2016—a year filled so much awfulness that even the Chicago Cubs could win the World Series after a thousand-year drought—it was @govgaryjohnson's ramshackle campaign to bring a very different way of thinking and talking about national politics to America.
In the end, of course, there was a lot of disappointment. He didn't crack 15 percent in polls to route around the bullshit criteria created by the two major parties to keep people like him off the stage; he supported the inalienable rights of gay Nazis to force homophobic Jewish bakers to make German chocolate cakes in the shapes of swastikas; he spaced out while talking to recidivist plagiarist Mike Barnicle on Morning Joe and asked, What is Aleppo?; and so much more. Yeah, yeah, I get it. In fact, as a professional libertarian, I was there for lots and lots of it, including a year ago when he outlined his bizarre and quickly walked-back comments about banning burqas in America. I read all the crocodile-tear complaints about from conservatives and liberals who said that GovGary wasn't libertarian enough for them and from the "thin libertarians" who said they bailed on him the minute he refused to start every answer to every question with a recitation of the non-aggression principle. Bloomberg View's Eli Lake called it in August, pre-"Aleppo Moment," when he said that Johnson "is a gangly ball of nerves who exudes the charisma of Don Knotts from his Three's Company years" and that Americans couldn't see him as a commander-in-chief. Then there's Bill Weld, the governor's running mate who infuriated almost everyone (except me, tbh) with his charming and idiosyncratic riffs on all sorts of non-libertarian ideas before semi-endorsing Hillary Clinton just before Election Day....
To all of it, I say, politely: Go screw yourselves, all of you.
...
The tragicomedy of America is that we mostly get the government we demand. For all his faults, Johnson articulated the broadly felt desire for government that does less and costs less and personified a down-to-earth politician. In doing so, he prototyped what the politics and politicians of the future will be like. Gary, we hardly knew ye, but we will, and sooner than most of us think.
...
More: https://reason.com/blog/2017/01/03/thank-you-gary-johnson-for-being-the-bes