Pragmatism Versus Purity
Reason.TV’s Nick Gillespie interviews Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for US President, who promises, if elected, to submit a balanced budget for the year 2013, rolling back federal spending to the 2003 levels. Johnson also calls for Medicaid and Medicare reforms, arguing that genuine savings can be achieved — with minimal pain — if the Feds wise up and drop sundry “strings and mandates” that artificially escalate the price of healthcare.
Johnson appeals for support by declaring, “There are a lot more people in this country that describe themselves as libertarian than vote libertarian. You are a libertarian. How about voting just this way one time?”
Nick Gillespie
That’s a tempting proposition. Stormy is more in sync with Johnson than with the Republicans and Democrats. But as much as I agree with Johnson and admire his candidacy, I’ll be candid, rather than coy, and let you in on a not-so-veiled secret. Stormy will be pulling the GOP lever come November.
Some election cycles, it makes perfect sense to cast a third-party vote to emphasize a philosophical point or to suggest a new, improved course for the country. This isn’t one of those years. The Republican standard-bearers haven’t been as forthright as Johnson in pledging to uphold civil liberties, end pork-barrel politics and avoid reckless foreign interventionism. But at the minimum, they’re prepared to do what’s needed to get unemployed Americans working again, and that really trumps all of the side issues. We have to get back to business as usual before we can entertain any notions about radically improving upon that.
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