us election thread

[Ben]

the real problem here as far as i am concerned is the two-party element of this- the idea that because one guy is awful, you now have to vote for the other guy (who may be just as awful or worse?)

alternatively, if there is a legitimate third party candidate (or more than one) then this problem dissolves. think about how fringe and weird trump seemed and now he has legions of folk behind him. it's weird, right?

I will have to do some reading on this 'jerry johnson' you speak of, because I am not familiar with that name at all to be completely honest.

if you want a very human and modest discussion of gary, his time as governor, and (his) libertarianism then you should go listen to this interview he did on penn jillette's podcast

i like gary, personally, because he seems like a cool dude. i like obama for the same reason. trump seems like a miserable narcissist and i have a suspicion that hillary will literally disintegrate after reaching the oval office because thats the mission the aliens sent her to this planet to complete

the libertarian position has always been scary to me because it seems predicated upon weird economic ideas like arachno-capitalism, free markets, the invisible hand, collectivism, etc and not only do i know nothing about these things, what i do know is not positive. even government policies like liquidating entirely all government programs and destroying all the cabinets and etc. and also wacky libertarian ideas like legalizing all drugs, which is fine by me but too radical to be accepted by the mainstream i think

HOWEVER gary is a cool dude. he's just a conservative person in the abstract sense rather than political. when approaching an issue he wants to see if it can be achieved with more freedom instead of less, and he wants to see if its a problem that will solve itself if people stop pushing it in certain directions. there was a libertarian debate between him, the crazyman john mcafee, and a younger guy who actually has those purist libertarian mentalities. gary got asked if he would have signed the 1964 civil rights act and he said yes and people booed him. they arent racists, they are just insane. i like that about him

anyway, im sorry if i sound like a shill but i guess i am. i really have 0 hope or expectation of him actually becoming president, but i DO want him to hit that 15% and break down this stupid assumption that we can only have a sideshow of two parties and that we are stuck in this cycle

GRUE EDIT: Post moved here where it matters, from a thread that was locked.