“Libertarians are no friends of Republicans....”
Unfortunately, these days Republicans are no friends of Libertarians.
In ‘92, a lot of us thought that a guy who was pro-abort, wanted to raise the gasoline tax 50 cents per gallon, and was not exactly interested in decrerasing the scope of government would drain more votes from Clinton than George the Elder.
How wrong we were. SO MUCH of how many voters, especially independents, has to do with the projection of persona and demeanour. Ross Perot, with that General Store voice and military crew cut projected conservatism, even thugh he wasn’t conservative.
As a New Mexican, I actually know Gary Johnson. As in, I’ve met him personally on a number of occassions.
Now, I don’t think I’d ever vote for the man, but I do think it is not quite right to say he is pro-abortion in a federal sort of way.
He opines the classic libertarian position that abortion is a state issue and should be returned to the States — i.e., that Roe v. Wade was wrong, which would be a huge win at the federal level.
Now, when pushed as to what he thinks states should do, he thinks states should legalize abortion, which is obviously bad, but irrelevant when it comes to someone running for federal office who holds libertarians ideas.
Anyway, NOT for Johnson. Just correcting the record a tad.
I do know I won’t vote for Romney, even against Obama. Probably vote Constitution Party.
I lived in New Mexico during both of Gary Johnson’s terms as governor of that state, and I think he did a great job. He left the state with a surplus of I don’t know how many millions of dollars, which the next governor (DEMOCRAT Bill Richardson) promptly pissed away.
His nickname was Governor Veto, since he did a lot of that (the NM statehouse is infested with Democrats, so most of the bills they sent him were irresponsible).
If Republicans would govern towards smaller government, less debt, less spending, and fewer regulations on personal activity, they wouldnt be losing votes to libertarians.