Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Why I'm Voting for Gary Johnson.

As you know I'm no fan of Barack Obama or Mitt Romney nor am I a fan of Paul Ryan or Joe Biden. Romney says things in stark contrast of Obama but his record tells a story similar to Obama.  The only person out of the four who's any different is Paul Ryan who talks the talk of free markets and tries to submit budgets which largely are a step in the right direction, he knows they won't pass and still promotes things like TARP and Economic Stimulus. 

For me, it matters very little if Obama or Romney win the election alone because I don't think they will do much differently except for 2 important aspects that cancel each other out.

If Obama gets elected, Republicans will still take Congress and Senate seats. If this is done, there will be gridlock and we'll see the same situation we saw in the 90's with Clinton and the Republicans. Clinton and the Republicans had no choice but to work with each other and the legislative process was throttled. Which is a good thing.

If Romney wins we'll have a situation like we had in the 00's where the Congress and the Senate will pass bills like crazy and the White House will rubber stamp everything. However, the plus side is Romney may play the same cards Obama plays, but his rhetoric will end the Great Depression style 'regime uncertainty' Obama is so good at. That is to say, Romney's rhetoric will be less volatile and hostile to entrepreneurs who are fearful of new regulations, taxes, and monetary policy that might make their investments in new capital and labor more risky.

Now if I had to chose, I'd go for the Obama/Republican option because it's probably best overall, but neither is significant enough for me to give a shit. For those who make the erroneous claim "Well the Republicans in Clinton's day are different than today's Tea Party Republicans." OK, but then you'd also have to ignore in the 8 year long process of trying to get Clinton impeached from Whitewater to Lewinsky.

In my state of Nevada, we're in a swing state. A few votes can toss the electoral votes either way so my vote technically matters but I don't care. I'm going to play strategically because unless Barack Obama comes out with a video of him killing babies or something, he's probably going to with with or without Nevada so I'm voting for Gary Johnson.

Now do I think Gary Johnson has a shot? Not really, not even one fit for hell. However this vote will make an important message to the Republicans if Romney loses by a small margin. If Johnson's vote can be seen to tip the scales as a spoiler the Republican party will have to come to terms with the fact that if it wants to win elections, they can't be a hardline religious right tent anymore. They'd need to appeal to social liberals, libertarians and the log cabin. I've been vocal in my non-support for Ron Paul because of his questionable actions with the paleo-conservative strategy with Lew Rockwell and Murray Rothbard (i.e. his racist newsletters), but I agree with Ron more than not and what happened to him in the Convention and in states like Maine were totally uncalled for and totally underhanded. The fervor of the religious right and the moral majorists is withering away with the new generation of young conservatives who tent to be more fiscally conservative and more socially liberal.

If your idea of having another Barry Goldwater era of the Republican party, it's time to register Republican and vote Johnson. In the end, Republicans will have to accept that the age of Falwell is nearing it's conclusion and, like evolution, it's time to adapt or go extinct.

...or you can be a pussy and vote for the lesser of two evils and pretend it mattered. 

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