by Michael Krieger
Liberrty Blitzkrieg
Unlike during the 2012 election, when I supported Gary Johnson’s Presidential bid, I have not backed him at all during his 2016 run. There are several reasons for my lack of enthusiasm, but the driving concern has been his apparent support for the sovereignty-destroying, corporatist coup masquerading as a free trade deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Until recently, I assumed he must have a thought out reason for supporting the calamitous pact, but following his recent foreign policy gaffes, I’ve come to the conclusion that he’s probably just clueless.
This cluelessness seems to extend to his judgment in picking a running-mate, as his VP choice, William Weld, is now publicly embarrassing Johnson by stating he will focus his efforts on defeating Trump as opposed to pushing his own ticket to the voters.
As reported by the Boston Globe:
The Libertarian vice presidential candidate, William F. Weld, said Tuesday that he plans to focus exclusively on blasting Donald Trump over the next five weeks, a strategic pivot aimed at denying Trump the White House and giving himself a key role in helping to rebuild the GOP.
Weld’s comments in a Globe interview mark a major shift in his mission since he pledged at the Libertarian convention in May that he would remain a Libertarian for life and would do all he could to help elect his running mate, Gary Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico.
While Weld insisted he still supports Johnson, he said he is now interested primarily in blocking Trump from winning the presidency and then potentially working with longtime Republican leaders such as Mitt Romney and Haley Barbour to create a new path for the party after the election.
Weld, a former Republican governor of Massachusetts, said he is focusing on Trump because, while he disagrees with Hillary Clinton on fiscal and military issues, Trump’s agenda is so objectionable it’s “in a class by itself.”
He insisted he was not abandoning Johnson, although he signaled that bolting from the Libertarian Party might be a possibility in the future.
“I’m certainly not going to drop them this year,” Weld said.
The guy never has been a libertarian, and isn’t a libertarian now.
Weld’s comments seemed sure to reignite suspicions among Libertarians who have questioned his loyalty to the party and have accused him of using the ticket for his own political aims. But Weld’s decision to chart his own course appears to reflect the feeling among his aides, who have privately expressed dismay at Johnson’s flubs on national television, such as when Johnson could not come up with the name of a favorite foreign leader and when he said “What is Aleppo?” when asked about the besieged Syrian city.
Weld insisted he and Johnson remain “happy warriors” and said Johnson is fully supportive of his anti-Trump campaign.
Weld has been much more critical of Trump than of Clinton, whom he has known since the 1970s, when they were young lawyers working for the House committee that investigated President Richard Nixon.
Just last week, for example, Weld irked Johnson supporters when he said on MSNBC that he’s “not sure anybody is more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States.” Weld’s new plan calls for him to focus his fire on Trump in a handful of red states — as well as in at least one swing state, New Hampshire — where the Libertarians are running strong. Nationally, the ticket is drawing about 7 percent support.
This isn’t just about trashing Trump, he is openly advocating for neocon criminal Hillary Clinton. What an epic embarrassment he is.
Polls show that Johnson and Weld — who were initially thought to appeal mostly to anti-Trump Republicans — may be doing more damage to Clinton by siphoning away young voters.
So his solution? Try to help Clinton. I really wish I was making this up.
“That’s obviously a concern,” said Mark Robinson, Weld’s friend, former chief of staff, and colleague at the Boston law firm Mintz Levin. “He certainly doesn’t want to be in that position where Trump could win and people would be blaming him.”
The Libertarian ticket has been a gigantic status quo fraud this entire election, and we now have proof. They were content to run aggressively as long as they thought they were hurting Trump. The moment it became clear that they were “taking” the youth vote from Clinton, Weld sabotaged the whole thing. So here’s the bottom line.
Weld’s comments essentially end Gary Johnson’s run for the Presidency. The only question now is to who do his disgusted supporters turn? My guess is that it will not be Hillary Clinton. Some will go Trump, some will go Stein and many will stay at home.
If you are looking for a real protest vote this November, there’s only one choice left: Jill Stein of the Green Party. She’s the only one going after both Trump and Clinton, and the only one not playing the lesser of two evils game.
If neither Trump or Clinton appear to you, that’s the ticket.
For related articles, see:
Jill Stein of the Green Party – Clinton Helped Create Trump
Donations to Jill Stein’s Campaign Jump 1000% Following the Bernie Betrayal
New Gallup Poll Shows 57% of Americans Want a Major 3rd Party
In Liberty,
Michael Krieger