*Written by Rob Rimes.
If Ron Paul wasn’t in the 2012 election, nearly every libertarian and true constitutional conservative would be supporting Gary Johnson. In fact, I think Gary Johnson has a very bright future and, in elections after this current one, will be a force to be reckoned with. This just isn’t Gary’s year and he had to of known that going into this election. Considering that Ron Paul simply owns the libertarian vote, Johnson had to have been prepared to be overshadowed by his like-minded competitor. Now whether or not he could have eclipsed Ron Paul as the libertarians’ choice doesn’t really matter at this point, what matters is that this guy is a great candidate and unfortunately, he has been treated like shit by the Republican Party and the mainstream media.
Johnson was excluded from nearly every debate, except for three, if my memory serves me correctly. His exclusion was due to the fact that he wasn’t polling high enough or so that’s what the media and the GOP claim. The truth is, more often than not, Gary Johnson was left off of these polls and therefore, didn’t even have the ability to get any poll support to even earn a spot in these debates. Then again, Mike Huckabee and Michele Bachmann were both invited to debates when they weren’t even officially on the ticket. Hell, Huckabee was fucking invited even after he declared that he was not running!
Now Johnson wasn’t alone in this mistreatment. Another candidate, Congressman Thaddeus McCotter from Michigan, was also faced with a similar situation and he didn’t even get included in any of the debates. McCotter was out of the race as quickly as he was in and most people still have never heard of the guy. At least Johnson got a little bit more respect than that. Being a two term Governor holds some weight I guess.
Due to the fact that the Republicans wouldn’t take him seriously and that he had no way to gain any traction in the shadow of the giant elephant, Gary Johnson dropped that party like a bad habit and signed on to the Libertarian Party. This is actually something I knew about a few months before it was official. One source of mine clued me in on the fact that Gary Johnson was not going to run on the Republican ticket in any of the states that have a “sore loser” law. I was also informed that Johnson’s campaign manager was going to be traveling to Las Vegas on December 10th, which was the date of a major Libertarian Party board meeting regarding the 2012 election. Even before that, as far back as July of last year, a close friend and political insider told me that there was a plan in place with the Libertarian Party to be ready to go gangbusters if they were able to snag Gary Johnson or even Ron Paul. That’s all water under the bridge now however.
In any event, Gary Johnson is now a third party candidate and he honestly has the potential to make as much of an impact as Ross Perot did twenty years ago. Because of that, many people feel like Gary Johnson is going to take votes away from the Republican candidate and will, in effect, secure Obama’s re-election as Ross Perot supposedly took enough votes away from Bush The First, allowing Bill Clinton to win the presidency. Frankly, I think when Republicans blame Ross Perot for George Bush’s loss, it is a cop out. If Bush was the favorite candidate, Bush would have won. Then again, the game of politics is full of excuses.
Realistically though, could Gary Johnson cost the Republicans the election? Fuck yes he could and for good reason. You see, Gary Johnson represents the core beliefs of libertarians and real constitutional conservatives and he is probably the most prolific third party candidate in recent memory. If Ron Paul does not get the Republican nomination, then all those Paulites are going to be jumping on the Gary Johnson train. From the standpoint of the Libertarian Party, this is the greatest thing that could ever happen. In fact, in a country where third parties are never taken seriously, America’s largest third party might have just enough steam to take a giant leap forward and shake up the two party system in a way that might actually change things! One can only hope.
Does this guarantee that Barack Obama will get re-elected? No, not really but if the Republicans don’t have a strong enough candidate to take on the onslaught from both fronts, expect that candidate to get eaten alive. Besides, who says that Johnson will just take votes away from Republicans? Libertarians and Republicans aren’t exactly made from the same mold. In fact, the libertarian stance probably has just as much in common with Democrats as they do Republicans: depending upon the issue. If there are enough angry liberals still pissed off about the ongoing wars and the growing police state, you can bet that they’d vote for Johnson over Obama, who has done nothing but lie about these things since taking office. Hell, maybe the Blue Republicans, a group of Democrats who registered Republican to vote for Ron Paul, might jump on the Johnson train and help push this pro-liberty candidate over the top.
In the same way that Ron Paul attracts the youth vote, Gary Johnson, a man with almost the same message, might be able to tap into that as well. That is, if Ron Paul is out of the picture. Hell, I don’t think that it would be much of a shock for Gary Johnson to be able to tap into the liberal youth vote either, as many of them must be sick of Obama’s bullshit. You’d like to think so, right? Point is, Johnson could cost Obama the election just as easily as he could Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich or anyone else that isn’t Ron Paul.
Now if Ron Paul were to win, the best thing Gary Johnson could do for liberty and to ensure the best possible future for this country, based off of our choices, would be to bow out of the race and endorse Dr. Paul. Hell, the Libertarian Party should look beyond party politics and endorse Paul too. Now I know that that might not be the best business decision but what kind of message would that send? A rival political party believing in a candidate so much that they endorsed him and didn’t put up a guy against him would actually boost the Libertarian Party in the long run. Not only would they earn the respect of libertarian-minded individuals but they would show that they are the one party above the shit show and that they are willing to put what’s best for the country over what’s best for the party. Hell, I’d blast that information out every chance that I got and my words are read by over a hundred-thousand people a month.
If Ron Paul does not get the nomination, then my vote will go to Gary Johnson. If you are a Paul supporter, the best thing you could do would be to vote for Johnson as well. Fuck the Republican Party. They no longer represent what they once did. In fact, the Republican Party has become a second party fueled by progressivism. If on election day, the choice is between the progressive from the left, the progressive from the right or a real pro-Constitution candidate, why would you not vote for Gary Johnson? Who cares if he is a third party candidate? Third party candidates can win if we vote for them. Stop letting these people that say “third parties can’t win” dictate to you how you should vote. They are the same idiots that call Ron Paul “unelectable”. If you believe their nonsense, they are right.
Truth be told, I’d rather there be no political parties and candidates just running as individuals. That’s wishful thinking I know but if the element of party politics was eliminated, people wouldn’t vote for some useless asshole just because he is wearing their colors. They would vote for the best person to do the job and not just settle on the lesser of two evils. The system is fucked; I know that’s trendy to say but it is true. It’s time to pick the best guy and ignore the party lines. The Blue Republicans were smart enough to jump over to the GOP to support Paul and Johnson was smart enough to jump over to the Libertarian Party when his own party wasn’t giving him a fair shake.
In the end, if given the proper platform and respect, Gary Johnson could not only hurt the Republicans, he could hurt the Democrats. To be frank, I don’t want to hear any crying from the right-wingers if this guy comes to the dance fully loaded and rips apart the GOP from the seams. Hell, I hope he fucking does. So if it comes down to Gary Johnson against two progressives, which just may happen, how could you vote for anyone else?
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