Later this month, the United States' Libertarian Party will tell me the name of the candidate I'll be voting for for president of the country. This is not because I'm a member of that party or someone who believes the two major parties are incapable of proffering a candidate for whom I could vote.
Recent history notwithstanding.
In any event, I've frequently pointed out there is only one circumstance in which I will vote for Donald Trump, the Republican incumbent. Sometime before 1985, someone cloned Adolf Hitler and he is now old enough to run and win the nomination in opposition to President Trump. Since that is all but impossible, it seems clear that I will not vote for the president. Nor will I vote for former Vice-President Joe Biden, the probable Democratic nominee. I think he is almost certain to make a poor choice for his running mate and since he's north of 75 already that poor choice may become president. Sure, it may happen anyway, but I don't want to take any part in it. And should Mr. Biden finish his term in full and hale health he will have undoubtedly tried to enact policies with which I can't agree, which is also a barrier to voting for him.
So I will vote for the Libertarian candidate, whoever it is. In 2016, it was the barely average former governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson. The party will select its candidate in late May and the favorite to win the nomination right now seems to be United States Representative Justin Amash of Michigan. Rep. Amash has recently left the GOP after having been elected to office several times as a member of that party.
If the Libertarians nominate Rep. Amash, then I'll vote for him. Even if it seems like the more he talks, the more he reminds me of Eddie Haskell.
3 comments:
I met Michael Badnarik when he was running in 2004 in the basement of a pizza parlor in, what, Creve Couer? West suburb of St. Louis. I also had the candidate for the U.S. Senate at my 30th birthday party in 2002. So I have some Libertarian Party cred.
Still tend to vote Republican on the top line, though, as the entirety of the country and its apparatus seems eager to keep the Republicans from acting out their caricature.
I registered as a Democrat when I turned 18 and stayed one until the Obamacare debacle, although I more and more frequently voted Republican as the years went on. In 2010 I switched to a no party registration and went Gary Johnson in 2016 when the Libertarians finally got enough signatures to be on a statewide ballot.
I'm sure that, policy-wise, I will be significantly happier with four more years of Trump-nominated originalist judges and the like, but the character issue matters to me. I'll freely admit I have the luxury of making this call because OK voters have not supported a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson and aren't likely to now, which gives me cover for my transgression.
I've been known to vote for the kids in the back of the class in the past, but the population of the cities here in Missouri have grown relative the the more sensible rural areas to make the state closer to a toss-up than I'd like.
We elected a dead Democrat to Senate in recent memory, you know.
So I'd rather not vote for conscience. The character issue doesn't tend to come up much with other people I hire, either.
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