Wednesday, June 15, 2016

Gheorghe Endorses

I've long held that a third-party candidate with a legitimate platform of social tolerance and fiscal competence would have a chance at winning national office in this country. I've held that, in full knowledge that the political machines of our major parties make such a thing impossible. But I'm an aggressively optimistic and/or naive motherfucker. And, as Muhammad Ali told us, "impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it."

But, nah, it's impossible.

That won't stop us, though. Quixotic quests and contrarian dipshittery are our stock in trade.

At this point, our political analysis bona fides are well established. We won't belabor it. But seriously, people are waiting anxiously for our endorsement. It'll move markets.

Let's dispense with the obvious right away. There's no chance in this world or the next that this blog would ever support the most dangerously inept and unqualified major party candidate in the history of our republic. The Republican Party, such as it is at this point, has committed malpractice bordering on treason. We're solidly #NeverTrump.

Which leaves us no choice, I guess. A reluctant Clinton endorsement, then.

Unless...is that...it's...that's Gary Johnson's music.

Only twice, in 1980 and 2012, has the Libertarian Party garnered more than 1% of the popular vote in a Presidential election. Despite that daunting math, the party has developed an infrastructure that enables it to get on the ballot in all 50 states, and is a credibly organized political movement. This year, in what is by any measure, the most unusual national political climate in our lifetimes, the party's gone one better in nominating two well-known, generally well-regarded professional politicians as its standard-bearers.

"I'm high, probably." "Cool, I'm mostly drunk!"
As Governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson gained some measure of notoriety from his support for marijuana legalization. Bill Weld, the former Governor of Massachusetts, was elected as a Republican in Massachusetts, only slightly less unusual than a gold-shitting unicorn. The Johnson/Weld Libertarian ticket is unarguably better qualified to run the country than the GOP slate, and capable of going toe to resume toe with the Democrats.

More importantly, from the perspective of our editorial endorsement committee, Johnson/Weld espouse many of the very same ideas we hold in the first paragraph of this piece as attractive to broad swaths of the American populace. As Johnson told Stephen Colbert last week, he supports, “A woman’s right to choose, marriage equality, legalizing marijuana. Come on—let people make choices in their own lives that only people should be making.”

If that's the party platform, we don't really need to hear anything more. There are certainly elements of libertarianism that strike us as unrealistic, and lacking grounding in acknowledgement of real-world governing requirements. But there's no perfect in this election, and Johnson and Weld temper that historical criticism with actual governing experience. Even as we might be temperamentally inclined to support Mrs. Clinton from a policy perspective, we have a nearly-visceral disdain for the notion of 24 years in 32 of Clinton/Bush oligarchy.

And so for us*, after much debate, the choice is clear: Johnson/Weld '16, and a bong in every pot.

(Note that throughout this post, 'us' should be construed as the specific and unwavering opinion of every member of Team G:TB, all of our family members, and most sentient humans. We asked a lot of people about this issue.)

19 comments:

Whitney said...

Our friend, fratre, and former fraternity president (not to mention state delegate) Monty Mason won the special primary election for state Senate last night and has the nomination to run in November. Nice.

rob said...

does monty take over john miller's senate seat in the interim? so he'd be running as the incumbent in november?

zman said...

I realize that rob's post is tongue-in-cheek, but a third party candidate who could take a not insignificant share of the vote is a significant problem for our republic this year.

Dave said...

i always vote green party, and neither of you will convince me otherwise. i will put a less-informed put a counter endorsement on sentence of dave tomorrow. that should really gum up the works in our republic.

rob said...

z, care to elaborate on your point? not sure i understand.

zman said...

It's a Ralph Nader thing. If the Libertarians take too many votes from Hillary and/or not enough from Trump, then we wind up with President Trump and that's bad.

rob said...

ah, got it. in this case, most observers think that the libertarians will take overwhelmingly from that portion of the gop that hasn't lost its fucking mind. which would be good.

Donna said...

I think Mason doesn't take the place in interim. It's held open/vacant. He remains in his state delegate role in interim. About 85% sure of this.
Who wins NBA game tonight?? Also,have y'all been watching UEFA Euro...I'm unemployed at the moment, so I'm watching a lot...the Portugal/Iceland match was entertaining!

zman said...

That new Beck song though! Wow!

rob said...

wow! it is

Shlara said...

Jamie Foxx wearing a Team Swish hat tonight at the Q
#TeamSwish
#InLBJWeTrust

T.J. said...

Les Miles was just sporting an untucked tux shirt

TR said...

That Cavs' dominance was fun while it lasted.

TR said...

Poor job by the scheduling gods to have concurrent halftimes for USMNT and the NBA Finals.

TR said...

Ecuador is severely outplaying the US. Will be a shocker if we hold our 1-goal lead.

TR said...

Lotta heart on this Cleveland team. And a lotta white wine in my belly. Looking like a "work from home Friday" for this guy.

TR said...

US soccer BARELY beat Ecuador. Folks will be excited they advanced, but getting mauled by the Galapagos in the second half was troubling. And USMNT will lose three of their starters due to yellows and reds when they play Team Messi. No bueno.

Shlara said...

Check out Ayesha Curry's tweet...

Dave said...

i watched five soccer games today: 3 euro cup, 1 copa america and my son's play-off game. and i went to a wake. that's one more than the movie.