Posted on 04/02/2016 8:07:38 AM PDT by snarkpup
Part One of Libertarian Debate on Stossel on April 1st, 2016.
Part Two is April 8th, 2016.
(Excerpt) Read more at youtube.com ...
Gary Johnson - The most pragmatic of the three. May be doctrinally impure enough to "rub [Big-L] Libertarians the wrong way," but the most likely to be acceptable to the general public.
John McAfee - "Strange."
Austin Petersen - Very doctrinaire. "Talks in bumper stickers." Probably the most acceptable to Big-L Libertarians, but the least acceptable to the general voting public.
I could see myself voting for Gary Johnson in the general election if 1) Donald Trump is not the Republican nominee and 2) it becomes clear that the Republican nominee has no chance of winning.
I don't think open borders came up in this debate (stay tuned for Part 2); and this is probably Gary Johnson's weakest point (from the point of view of most of us here). But in a contest with a Democrat and an Establishment Republican, this would not be a distinguishing feature.
Gary Johnson is more of a constitutionalist than Trump (or the rest of the Republican field); but unlike Trump, Johnson is probably not the kind of "strong man" it might take to get things turned around.
I knew Gary Johnson before he was New Mexico’s governor. He was a great guy. He has since gone a bit far to the Left, but he is the most level headed of the Libertarians.
FYI, I was on Stossel’s TV show about rock music and communism last week.
Damn! I watched that and thought it was an April Fool’s joke.
The problem with the Libertarians is that they will not be on the ballot in many states so a lot of people who cannot stomach the human refuse remaining standing in both the Democrat and Republican parties will not have the choice to vote for a Libertarian candidate whether big L or little l or strange L. (and all this time I thought Big L and little l referred to females who thought they were males.)
Have the Libertarian candidates been tearing each other apart?
It's not too bad, from what I can tell. As is mentioned in the commentary after the debate (which is actually worth watching), the disagreements within the Libertarian Party tend to be doctrinal purity vs. pragmatism.
The LP ticket will probably be on all 50 state ballots this year. They have already secured Oklahoma, which is the hardest one to get.
They were on 48 state ballots in 2012 and 45 states in 2008.
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