With Gary Johnson picking up more speed and getting more media
coverage, I want to further explain why I will not vote for him. I think
I laid down some good groundwork earlier, explaining how I was
sympathetic to his social positions, but not his economics, but I did
not really explain very well why I did not agree with him economically.
Today, I will focus more on that.
I think this Reddit post that is remaking the rounds will make a good segue into discussing the depravity of Johnson’s worldview, and actually does a good job encapsulating why I dislike Gary Johnson and his economic worldview at large. Here, a guy expresses his lack of hope and frustration with the economic system, and asks what Gary Johnson will do for him when he is in office. Johnson responds with a post telling this guy to make his own job and take control of his own future. Basically, it’s being given recent attention with Johnson being back in the spotlight as a bootstraps argument.
What Johnson gave there, is the extent of the hope that the libertarian party offers this country economically. As I have stated time and time again, we have real systemic issues in this country. Capitalism is not a perfect system. It needs regulation and reform. The libertarian party, and Gary Johnson, do not have what it takes to fix these problems. He turns a blind eye on them, and more or less tells you to fix them yourself. This sounds so nice and empowering on the surface, but as the first comment below his points out, it’s just an empty platitude. That’s all the libertarian party has to offer. Imagine you are sick and in need of some serious medical care. Imagine that when asked what to do about the sickness, the doctor told you to make your own cure! He would be a bad doctor. The way I see it, governments are supposed to solve problems. But libertarians are against using government. Therefore, as far as I’m concerned, libertarianism is an obstacle to solving our problems. They might have good ideas on social issues, because I don’t think we need or should have a lot of government intervention there, but we do need it in terms of economic issues.
I want to remind people why I am to the point I am considering voting a third party. It has to do with the democratic party and its unwillingness to solve problems too. It has to do with Hillary Clinton and the establishment condescendingly lecturing progressive Bernie supporters that real change is impossible, and that we better rally behind her, or else. Compared to libertarians, at least the democrats want to preserve existing safety nets and make token expansions when politically convenient. In terms of the doctor example, they might not cure what ails us, but they at least give us pain killers and put us on life support. The libertarians, and also, the republicans while I’m on the subject, just want to tell us to walk it off and take control of our own health. This is unacceptable to me.
As such, while I may respect Gary Johnson a bit more than I respect a lot of libertarians (I’ll get to this in another post I’m planning on doing in the near future), I would never vote for the guy and believe he would take the country in the wrong direction. My primary issues in 2016 have to do with getting money out of politics, fixing our broken electoral system, and, of course, the economy. I’ve outlined a lot of what I believe the problems are in the economy are and how to fix that. Gary Johnson and the libertarian party are antithetical to that. They won’t get my vote. Hillary, while still inadequate at the task of fixing this country, is a vastly superior option over Johnson in terms of my priorities. Trump, depending on how he flip flops, may even be a superior option to Johnson on economic policy in my opinion. I’m not sure, since Trump has some awful ideas too. That’s how turned off I am from Johnson on economic policy though.
I think this Reddit post that is remaking the rounds will make a good segue into discussing the depravity of Johnson’s worldview, and actually does a good job encapsulating why I dislike Gary Johnson and his economic worldview at large. Here, a guy expresses his lack of hope and frustration with the economic system, and asks what Gary Johnson will do for him when he is in office. Johnson responds with a post telling this guy to make his own job and take control of his own future. Basically, it’s being given recent attention with Johnson being back in the spotlight as a bootstraps argument.
What Johnson gave there, is the extent of the hope that the libertarian party offers this country economically. As I have stated time and time again, we have real systemic issues in this country. Capitalism is not a perfect system. It needs regulation and reform. The libertarian party, and Gary Johnson, do not have what it takes to fix these problems. He turns a blind eye on them, and more or less tells you to fix them yourself. This sounds so nice and empowering on the surface, but as the first comment below his points out, it’s just an empty platitude. That’s all the libertarian party has to offer. Imagine you are sick and in need of some serious medical care. Imagine that when asked what to do about the sickness, the doctor told you to make your own cure! He would be a bad doctor. The way I see it, governments are supposed to solve problems. But libertarians are against using government. Therefore, as far as I’m concerned, libertarianism is an obstacle to solving our problems. They might have good ideas on social issues, because I don’t think we need or should have a lot of government intervention there, but we do need it in terms of economic issues.
I want to remind people why I am to the point I am considering voting a third party. It has to do with the democratic party and its unwillingness to solve problems too. It has to do with Hillary Clinton and the establishment condescendingly lecturing progressive Bernie supporters that real change is impossible, and that we better rally behind her, or else. Compared to libertarians, at least the democrats want to preserve existing safety nets and make token expansions when politically convenient. In terms of the doctor example, they might not cure what ails us, but they at least give us pain killers and put us on life support. The libertarians, and also, the republicans while I’m on the subject, just want to tell us to walk it off and take control of our own health. This is unacceptable to me.
As such, while I may respect Gary Johnson a bit more than I respect a lot of libertarians (I’ll get to this in another post I’m planning on doing in the near future), I would never vote for the guy and believe he would take the country in the wrong direction. My primary issues in 2016 have to do with getting money out of politics, fixing our broken electoral system, and, of course, the economy. I’ve outlined a lot of what I believe the problems are in the economy are and how to fix that. Gary Johnson and the libertarian party are antithetical to that. They won’t get my vote. Hillary, while still inadequate at the task of fixing this country, is a vastly superior option over Johnson in terms of my priorities. Trump, depending on how he flip flops, may even be a superior option to Johnson on economic policy in my opinion. I’m not sure, since Trump has some awful ideas too. That’s how turned off I am from Johnson on economic policy though.
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