Jorgenson
This week the Libertarian Party introduced their candidate for President of the United States on social media, sixty-three year old Dr. Jo Jorgenson. Dr. Jorgenson is a PhD in Psychology who runs a business-consulting firm in Greenville, South Carolina. She has no government experience at all, but based on Libertarian principles, that’s probably a good thing.
The Libertarian Party has run candidates for President since 1980, and has been the most visible “third” party since former Republican Congressman Ron Paul became their flag bearer for the 1988 campaign. Other better-known Presidential candidates were former Congressman Bob Barr and former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. Johnson was the candidate in both 2012 and 2016, when he got greater visibility in 2016 as an “alternative” to Clinton or Trump.
Platform
The Libertarian Party platform is based on government reform. They believe about that “big government” caused our current national problems.
“Big government mandates and programs created these problems. To solve them, we need to make government smaller – much, much smaller”(Jorgenson).
They want to reduce the government, dissolve the Department of Education, and, as they put it, make the United States “…into one Giant Switzerland, armed and neutral.” And the Libertarian Party advocates free market capitalism. They want to reduce regulations in health care and other industries, except for energy production, where they take a progressive environmental stand.
But they are socially liberal. They support LGBTQ civil rights, and are in favor of legalization of marijuana and the reduction of imprisonment for non-violent crimes.
It seems that the Libertarian Party would be the “perfect” place for the “free market” Republicans, the old “Rockefeller Republicans” of the 1960’s: socially liberal, but small government conservatives. The only issue holding them back is what the international role of the United States should be.
It’s also a perfect place for many Millennials, attracted to a platform of less regulation, more independence, and marijuana legalization. It fits.
Access
The Libertarian Party, like all alternate political parties in the United States, struggles to gain ballot access. The traditional two-party system has made it difficult for other groups to get on the ballot, though in 2016 Ohio, the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, and Richard Duncan, an Ohio independent, were listed along with Trump and Clinton. However, the Libertarian Party was able to get on the ballot in all fifty states for the 2016 election, and gained close to 4.5 million votes nationwide.
So it’s not ballot access that holds the Libertarian (and the Green Party) back. Both feel ignored by the “mainstream media” unable to access the “bully pulpit” to reach out and expand their views. Just a simple Google search for the Libertarian Presidential announcement shows coverage by NPR and Fox, but no other major media company.
Their argument is that media coverage is a self-fulfilling prophecy. The mainstream media doesn’t think that a Libertarian or a Green Party candidate can’t get elected, so they don’t cover them. Since those candidates don’t get coverage, they don’t get exposure to the American people. Americans don’t know about them, so they don’t vote for them. So they can’t get elected.
In 2016 though, media coverage wasn’t necessarily helpful. Gary Johnson was “stymied” by a question from MSNBC commentator Chris Matthews in 2016, unable to name any living foreign leader he admired. That didn’t help his candidacy, nor did it encourage voters to take him or his Party seriously.
Fear
There are those who fear that Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein cost Hillary Clinton the Presidential election in 2016. In the key states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by less than one percent. In each of those states, Gary Johnson received three percent of the vote or more, and Stein earned a percent as well.
But all of that assumes that every Stein voter would have voted for Clinton if Stein wasn’t on the ballot, or that the Johnson voters would have split in Clinton’s favor. Neither of those assumptions is necessarily true.
The Green Party is certainly “to the left” of the Democratic Party, but they also are disdainful of Democrats. Green Party voters aren’t “either Green or Democrat”; they are, at least without Bernie Sanders on the ticket, “Green or nothing”.
And Libertarian Party followers are economic Republicans. We can see that with the prior Libertarian candidates for President: Johnson, Barr, and Paul, were all former (and some future) Republican candidates for office. It’s why Justin Amash, the former Republican now Independent Congressman from Michigan, considered a Libertarian Presidential run. Without a Libertarian choice, those voters are more likely to be Republicans than Democrats.
Choice
It’s my knee jerk reaction to respond to Libertarian posts on social media and say:
“Are you nuts!!!! You’re playing into Trump’s hands. There can be NO CHOICE in the 2020 election. You MUST vote for Biden, not because you support HIM, but because we must get rid of TRUMP!!!!!!” MAYBE THAT SHOULD BE IN ALL CAPS, MAKING SURE I’M ONLINE YELLING MY ENTIRE MESSAGE!!!!!!!!!!!
But the reality is that Dr. Jorgenson is more likely to take votes from Trump than Biden. And while my personal view is that the 2020 Trump candidacy is so catastrophic for the nation, that the only viable voting choice is Biden, I do get it. Jorgenson offers an alternate view, one that allows voters to “wash their hands” of the current system.
I am not a Libertarian. I don’t agree that the United States should be some giant “Switzerland”, and I do think our government has a huge role in making life in America better. Capitalism has proven to be cruel and cold for many. The government has the task of making life better for all, not just the successful few.
But if it’s what you’ve got to do – vote for Jorgenson. It’s sure better than a vote for Trump. Just one caveat: I believe that this election is an existential choice about Trump. If you believe that too, then Jorgenson is not the answer.
