In many ways, this has been a disappointing presidential campaign, so I know what you’re thinking: I could never vote for Donald Trump. But I’m not that excited about Hillary Clinton, either. So, as a protest vote, I’ll vote for Gary Johnson.
Don’t! Please, don’t even think about it. By voting for Gary Johnson, you’re wasting a vote. You’re voting for one of the most dangerous sets of policies ever. And you’re just helping elect Donald Trump.
That’s particularly important to understand for those, like me, who supported Bernie Sanders in the primary. Attention, millennials! If you really believe in Bernie, don’t even consider voting for Gary Johnson, because he’s against everything Bernie’s for. Voting for him would be stabbing Bernie in the back.
Young people, especially, find Johnson appealing because he supports legalizing the recreational use of marijuana, which, in my honest opinion, is a noble cause. Citizens of Colorado, Oregon, Alaska, Washington and the District of Columbia have already approved the same. Nevada, California, Arizona and Maine are likely to join the ranks of legal pot states this year – with Connecticut, Michigan and Rhode Island not far behind.
So, on cannabis, Johnson may be on the right side of history. There are only two problems. First, the fact that his passion for recreational pot stems in part from his lucrative position as CEO of the commercial marijuana grower Cannabis Sativa, which he resigned only to run for president. Second, all the other garbage Johnson brings along with him on the pot train.
Indeed, as a libertarian, Johnson’s stand on marijuana is not so much pro-pot as it is anti-government: against almost every government regulation of any kind. That makes him more extreme than Donald Trump.
It’s a lot more serious than his “Aleppo” moments: not knowing what Aleppo was and not being able to name even one foreign leader, including North Korea’s Kim Jung Un. Check out his website. Gary Johnson is the anti-Bernie Sanders. Bernie opposes fracking; Johnson supports it. Bernie opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership; Johnson’s all for it. Bernie championed raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour; Johnson doesn’t think there should be any minimum wage at all.
And that’s just for starters. Consider Bernie’s three signature issues: campaign spending, climate change and tuition-free college. Johnson is the polar opposite. In every speech during the primary, Sanders railed against the obscene amount of money in politics and called for overturning the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision. Johnson is all for Citizens United. He believes there should be no limits on individual or corporate campaign contributions.
In the primary, nobody warned more about the dangers of climate change than Sen. Sanders. “I believe that climate change is the great global crisis that we face,” he told crowds of his supporters. Not Gary Johnson. He claims there’s no need to worry about climate change, since the sun’s going to burn up the earth, anyway. The solution, he argues, is for all of us to move to another planet. “Look,” he said on ABC’s “This Week,” “what it points to also is the fact that we have to inhabit other planets.”
Again on tuition-free college, which both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton now support, Johnson takes the opposing position. He would not only abolish the federal Department of Education, he’d cancel any assistance to students because the federal government should not be “in the student loan business.”
It’s because of his passion on those progressive issues that Sen. Sanders has devoted the entire month of October to stumping for Secretary Clinton, mainly on college campuses, with a clear message: If you believe in me, if you’re committed to the progressive agenda, got out and vote for Hillary Clinton. Don’t blow it away by voting for Gary Johnson.
At one level, it’s unfortunate that Johnson’s such a doofus. We need more choices in politics. Most Americans, I believe, would welcome a viable third party led by a serious, credible candidate. Michael Bloomberg may have fit the bill, but not Gary Johnson.
Even his running mate seems to acknowledge that. In an interview with NBC’s Chuck Todd this week, former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld admitted his concern about inadvertently helping elect Donald Trump. He then admitted: “I’m not sure anybody’s more qualified than Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States.”
Take it from William Weld. Donald Trump’s too dangerous. Gary Johnson’s not qualified to be president. Hillary Clinton is. Don’t waste your vote.
