Gary Johnson: The other, other Presidential candidate.

Callahan Jones Blocked Unblock Follow Following Jul 4, 2016

The man himself.

Chances are, if you’re following this year’s American election, you’ve heard about Gary Johnson, the nominee of the Libertarian Party for the office of President of the United States and self branded “credible alternative to ClinTrump.”. Or maybe you haven’t heard about him. Johnson is polling around 10% nationwide according to the latest Wall Street Journal poll, much higher than any other third party candidate in recent history. He ran as the Libertarian nominee for President in the 2012 election as well, pulling in the largest turnout in the history of the Libertarian party. He served two terms as the governor of the heavily Democratic state of New Mexico, being reelected in a landslide. While governor, he vetoed “wasteful spending” over 700 times, and left the state with 1 billion dollar surplus while also having increased the budget for education and road construction. After the end of his second term, he chose not to re-run, following the idea that limited time in office allows a politician to focus on the issues at hand and the people they serve, instead of reelection alone.

“Here’s how crazy it is, I [Johnson] might be the next president of the United States.”

But how viable is a Johnson win? According to the Johnson campaign, the first step is breaking into the nationally televised debates beside Clinton and Trump. According to the Commission on Presidential Debate’s rules, a candidate must both be on enough ballots to statistically win the electoral college (Johnson and his running mate Bill Weld are on all 50) and be polling at least 15% in several “major” polls. Since the relative finalization of Clinton and Trump as nominees for their parties, Johnson has been slowly rising in polls far in wide. Therefore, it’s logical to assume that he could be at the required 15% by the time that the debates exist, especially with the recent attention he’s been getting from media. He has gotten the chance to appear on a CNN “town hall,” The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and has been interviewed 0n air by several news stations. Johnson claims that getting in front of the American population on such a big stage as the debates could be his ticket into the White House. He also wants the chance to knock heads with “the two most measurably polarizing figures running for president ever.”

A Reason-Rupe poll found that 48 percent of Americans say they’d be willing to vote for a candidate who described him or herself as “conservative on economic issues” and also “liberal on social issues,” which is how Gary Johnson self-describes.

As far as policies go, Johnson and Co. are split right down the party line, falling mostly to the Democratic side socially and to the Republican side economically, something the campaign claims right in line with the average American. The biggest push of his campaign is keeping the government out of the people’s business. Examples of this desire are his stance on abortion (right to choose), his stance on internet freedom (the internet should not be regulated by the government whatsoever), and his stance on legalization of drugs (the government shouldn’t tell adults what to put in their bodies). Another pillar of the campaign is strict financial responsibility, through the elimination of wasteful spending and the shrinking and streamlining of government services. It’s not everyday where you see a candidate proudly proclaiming his want for lower taxes, equal marriage rights, internet freedom, legalized marijuana, and term limits on congress members. However, for many it seems to be a breath of fresh air to see somebody crossing lines that are normally divided so sharply.

It is yet to be seen how this election season will turn out. Perchance the Hillary camp will pull it off. It could be that the Trump campaign will be successful. Or maybe, just maybe, Gary Johnson and Co. could be in the White House come next January.

Written by Callahan Jones