Why didn't we get behind Gary Johnson?

[RandRevolution]

I don't vote for the lesser evil just to demonstrate that I have no standards and am willing to vote for anyone with an "L" by their name. The liberty movement did not stagnate; it achieved a variety of victories, and people are busy readying for more. You seem to be speaking much more for yourself than any group as a whole. I'm not sure why it's so awful for you to conceive of people actually disagreeing with Johnson on some pretty large things, and not being interested in voting FOR (yes we still cast ballots FOR people, and not AGAINST others) Gary Johnson.

If you want to vote FOR Gary Johnson, and you agree with him enough of the time, or you find it a grand and wonderful step towards getting a third party president someday, cool. Just bear in mind precisely who the "successful" third party candidates have been in our nation's history. It's a mixed bag. Voting just because someone is third party is akin to voting straight R or D; it ignores the person in favor of a "statement."

But why do you consider Johnson a lesser of three evils (which I saw a lot of people call him) given everything he supports I mentioned in the OP? Isn't he a lesser of two goods compared to Ron Paul?

 

[CPUd]

Can't believe the Gary cheerleaders are still going on about this.

Me, neither. The sockpuppetry is strong in this thread.

 

[RandRevolution]

Me, neither. The sockpuppetry is strong in this thread.

Do you not consider someone who travels around the country even when not campaigning, when he has no need to other than genuinely caring about these things given that he's rich, to speak about the ideas of our movement: Fiscal conservatism, civil liberties, the benefits of free markets including free market health care and education, 2nd amendment rights, anti-war, drug policy reform and transparency a hero? Does he not agree with you on the vast majority of issues and is he not better than every other politician in America not named Ron or Rand Paul by far?

And the election was ages ago, had I signed up then and asked this question I would be accused of being a Johnson shill so I didn't. But what would the purpose of this thread be now if I'm a sockpuppet for him, to get people to support him 4 years from now if he runs in 2016? I would prefer Rand over him in the primary but hell yes I would support him a third party again.

If you support Rand you should support Gary, I mean Gary's views are more in line with the liberty movement than Rand's are and I fucking love Rand and am aware he doesn't genuinely believe some of the things he stands for like drug policy but is doing it to get elected.

 

[CPUd]

 

[nasaal]

Something about purity and such I imagine. I like Gary Johnson. He's not a perfect Libertarian or anything, but he seems an awesome dude who has been very successful in life and sticks up for most free market ideals. He champions small government for the most part as well. This group didn't get behind him for a number of reasons I'm sure. Not pure enough, simply not Ron Paul. Libertarian party doesn't deserve support and all that.

 

[QuickZ06]

How relevant has Johnson been since the election? Now Paul, yeah about that Gray Johnson......

 

[satchelmcqueen]

i voted for gary. i to wish we could have got behind him.

 

[erowe1]

I think people who are disappointed with GJ's performance are asking too much. He doubled, tripled, or quadrupled the number of votes that almost every other LP candidate has ever gotten. I can't imagine that he did that without the help of a lot of Ron Paul supporters. Seems like looking a gift horse in the mouth to say that wasn't enough.

 

[MelissaWV]

Something about purity and such I imagine. I like Gary Johnson. He's not a perfect Libertarian or anything, but he seems an awesome dude who has been very successful in life and sticks up for most free market ideals. He champions small government for the most part as well. This group didn't get behind him for a number of reasons I'm sure. Not pure enough, simply not Ron Paul. Libertarian party doesn't deserve support and all that.

There were no fewer than a dozen threads where I bothered to pull Gary Johnson's own points from his own website and point out how I disagreed with them. They were not just social issues. It has become incredibly irrelevant to repost the same thing; obviously the same people making the same sort of thread over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again do not care.

I predict this is not the last "BUT WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY" thread we will see on the forums. Not even close.

 

[parocks]

This thread is 14 pages long.
I didn't read all of them, but I can see that the worst enemy of liberty movement is liberty movement itself. I agree that arguing over voting/not voting for GJ is moot now that election is in the books, but reading this junior high BS about how I can't for for Gary because he's got cooties really makes me understand how much growing up we have to do. I don't want to belong to a group of fanbois. And this is what this thread wreaks of, Ron Paul fanbois, not actual Liberty followers.

I voted RP in primaries.
When those were over and it was Obama/Mitt/GJ, I voted Libertarian.

I am not GJ fanboi. I'm sure there are bones to pick with him. But he was an actual third voice (really second) in this conversation. If a different party made it to the Whitehouse, or, at least, to Congress, things would be better simply by changing the course of the rhetoric alone.

But I don't see too many people understanding this. They're too concerned about some bullshit manufactured issue like abortion or gay marriage or some such to see the big picture. We can change a political landscape if we actually roll collectively into one big fist. Who here would honestly argue that Mitt or Obama 2.0 is a better option then, yes, imperfect, yes, sometimes maybe even controversial, Gary Johnson? How many of you are big enough (wo)men to understand what Liberty is about.

It's about being left alone and doing your own thing. Not about bickering over trite hot button topics that some Washington think tank manufactured specifically knowing we would be too immature and too self-opinionated to just bounce it off. Like a bullet off Superman's chest.

All of you who wrote in RP, knowing full well that this does nothing and who couldn't vote for Gary Johnson for some superficial reasons are not in a Liberty camp. You're just fanbois and, honestly, I'd rather you write in Justin Bieber or one of the Kardashians, because at least there is no pretense that you're supposedly politically involved.

YOU are the reason Ron Paul lost, and Libertarian Party achieved nothing.
YOU are the reason why Liberty movement stagnated and dissipated as soon as it was all over for Ron Paul.
NOT some sinister conspiracy against us.

And if anyone tells me to go to Hell over this, you've just made my point for me.

I went with write in Ron Paul. My state was a state where the writeins were counted. The dominant voices here on RPF were "write in Ron Paul" not Gary Johnson. The best result would've been for everyone to get behind GJ. But that didn't happen at all. And once it became clear that we were split, it became "which do you prefer", and Ron Paul was who I preferred, so I went that way.

I don't know why Ron Paul supporters didn't decide to back the candidate who was actually on the ballot, except that many "liberty supporters" don't really care too much about winning. Here, winning wasn't really even something that was likely to happen. "Liberty supporters" aren't great voters, but do other things well, like protesting, contributing money, etc. It's a problem.

 

[HigherVision]

Maybe some did. But it didn't make any difference in anything.

Sure it did. We could have had maybe two or three times more votes for a liberty candidate and have really made a splash. But instead Ron Paul supporters remained loyalists to the party that hates our guts.

Oh well, at least we'll maybe have Rand in 2016. Then we can finally get this war with Iran going.

 

[sailingaway]

Sure it did. We could have had maybe two or three times more votes for a liberty candidate and have really made a splash. But instead Ron Paul supporters remained loyalists to the party that hates our guts.

If we had, Romney would have won. Not voting for Gary Johnson is not the same as voting for Romney

 

[MelissaWV]

Sure it did. We could have had maybe two or three times more votes for a liberty candidate and have really made a splash. But instead Ron Paul supporters remained loyalists to the party that hates our guts.

It is now February. Thankfully, people are working hard on getting folks elected, and supporting those that did, instead of getting bogged down in debating why someone got 1% instead of 2%. That would be just silly.

 

[acptulsa]

Oh well, at least we'll maybe have Rand in 2016. Then we can finally get this war with Iran going.

I don't know exactly what it is you're smoking, but I can certainly see where your screen name comes from.

Good $#!+ you found. Glad you're enjoying it.

 

[gerryb1]

Better question:
Why haven't we taken over every GOP unit in the country?

Don't give bullcrap about them not liking you. Show up. Win. They don't need to like you, but you will probably find it is not as hostile as you think.

 

[HigherVision]

I don't know exactly what it is you're smoking, but I can certainly see where your screen name comes from.

Good $#!+ you found. Glad you're enjoying it.

"When I pressed Sen. Paul about the potential scenario that U.S. military intervention could be the only thing that could stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, he responded that he would take nothing off the table when it comes to preventing a nuclear Iran." - http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/...campaign=Feed:+BreitbartFeed+(Breitbart+Feed)

BTW if I were smoking what you're referring to Rand, unlike Gary Johnson, would have me put in jail.

 

[HigherVision]

It is now February. Thankfully, people are working hard on getting folks elected, and supporting those that did, instead of getting bogged down in debating why someone got 1% instead of 2%. That would be just silly.

I don't think it's that silly when you consider that in order to win with the LP we'd only need around 34% of the vote to win. Most conservatives will never vote for a libertarian, in or outside their party. Go talk to a few of them and see.

If we had, Romney would have won. Not voting for Gary Johnson is not the same as voting for Romney

But why are so many Ron Paul supporters stuck on staying with the republican party now that the 2012 election is over and Ron isn't even in the party any more? It seems like a lot of Ron Paul supporters are more loyal to the GOP than Ron himself was. He did a good job of using it as a vehicle to get the message out, but now that that's over why stick around? The LP got more votes than it ever has in the last election. Why not build it up and let the dinosaur GOP die a slow painful death? Americans are going to thoroughly hate both major parties by the end of 2016 most likely. I think we have a real opportunity now to build the liberty movement up rather than let certain people water it down.

 

[sailingaway]

But why are so many Ron Paul supporters stuck on staying with the republican party now that the 2012 election is over and Ron isn't even in the party any more? It seems like a lot of Ron Paul supporters are more loyal to the GOP than Ron himself was. He did a good job of using it as a vehicle to get the message out, but now that that's over why stick around? The LP got more votes than it ever has in the last election. Why not build it up and let the dinosaur GOP die a slow painful death? Americans are going to thoroughly hate both major parties by the end of 2016 most likely. I think we have a real opportunity now to build the liberty movement up rather than let certain people water it down.

Because we have a foothold and some candidates, and leadership positions in states. I don't think it should be the only string in our bow, the GOP is expert at cheating, as we discovered.

GOP wants us gone from the party. Gone we can't trouble them. But I have doubts about that being the winning path, given the corruption, even though I support /donate/work for it. I just think we need several paths.

Besides, Gary Johnson isn't enticing. That is just the truth. THe LP has had some really good candidates, but not in the last two cycles. There is nothing to draw us anywhere else.

At least that is how I see it.

 

[MelissaWV]

I don't think it's that silly when you consider that in order to win with the LP we'd only need around 34% of the vote to win. Most conservatives will never vote for a libertarian, in or outside their party. Go talk to a few of them and see.
...

So you got 1%, and with absolutely everyone else voting for Ron or wishing they had, you still would have not broken double digits. You "only" need 34% of the vote to win.

And the plan to get that huge percentage of the vote is... to whine about not having gotten it months ago.

Sounds legit.

Meanwhile you are so oblivious to the elections that were won, or are on the verge of being won, that you have to embarrass yourself by asking what's been accomplished.

* * *

ETA:

I guess the much shorter question is: what are you doing to get your local Libertarians ballot access and help them win elections?

 

[idiom]

Why didn't we get behind Gary Johnson?

Because when push comes to shove he can't budget his way out of a paper bag.