Like rotten fruit suspended in Jell-O, we’ve congealed inside a failing two party system. The two likely nominees for president have the combined likability of a hemorrhoid playing Mariachi music.
Sure, many still yearn for a decade at Bernie’s 350-million-man kibbutz. Others now get their crackers…wafers…at The Church of Trumpology. Some endorse Donald Trump, hoping he can bring the apocalypse, er, Trumpocalypse we need to reunite our divided nation. The rest have resigned to a sobering reality: A calculating, corrupt relic from the 90’s will spend the next four years saying anything to defend our joyless status quo.
There is a better way.
What if we could get the revolution Bernie wants AND disrupt status quo WITHOUT handing launch codes to a thin-skinned, orange huckster who’d sue his own mother if she gave his “university” 3 stars on Yelp.
How will we do it?
There’s only one party – The Libertarian party – fielding two, two-term governors for President and Vice President – Gary Johnson of New Mexico and Bill Weld of Massachusetts. (Weld was re-elected by the widest margin in the state’s history.)
(Want more? Watch this in-depth interview with Gary Johnson by Joe Rogan.)
The Libertarian Party – or as Gary calls it, “classical liberals” – favor limited government, minimal foreign intervention, social freedoms (such as pot legalization, right to choose, marriage equality), ending the drug war, and prison reform. Even if a fraction of those sound appealing, shouldn’t the American public have the right to hear those ideas debated? Or, other ideas not officially sanctioned by media monopolies.
Today, candidates must poll at 15% nationally to appear in televised presidential debates. It’s a bullshit rule made up by networks to preserve status quo. More specifically, to protect a multi-billion dollar revenue stream. You see, media companies are the sole beneficiaries of our corrupt political fundraising system (chart below). They sure as hell don’t want Bernie or some third party poopers defiling their Denalis. That explains their not-so-subtle support for Hillary. And every dirty clickga$m they get when The Donald glides those tiny, Vienna sausage fingers across his Twitter app.
So what should we do?
Lie.
Not to mom or to God, but to pollsters. Even if you plan to vote for Trump or Hillary, tell pollsters you’re voting for Gary Johnson. Let’s get a real diversity of ideas on that stage. Whether Gary Johnson sways you or not is irrelevant. He should get the chance to try. He’s already polling at 10% – in the few polls that bother including third parties.
Let’s do this every four years until we have multiple, viable national parties. This year, Libertarians seem to have their shit together most. In four years, let’s hope we can say the same about the Green Party, the Whigs, or the Toga Party.
Baby steps. Let’s start here. Now.
All you have to do is share this message.
And lie.
#15percent
PS – If your other strategy is to keep Trump out of office, a good way to do it is to have a former Republican governor take some of his votes. Just sayin’.
Recommended reading:
- My original post from 2012: 6 Reasons Why I’m voting for Governor Gary Johnson
- The Third Way – Newsweek
- Strongly recommended: iSideWith.com will match you with the best candidate for you to vote for – or take on a romantic getaway in the Bahamas.
- Fire. Them. All. – my missive on the importance of campaign finance reform
- How Americans Lost This Election…And 7 Ways To Start Winning Again – a more detailed plan