{"id":4484,"date":"2012-11-04T20:40:35","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T01:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/?p=4484"},"modified":"2012-11-04T20:40:35","modified_gmt":"2012-11-05T01:40:35","slug":"gary-johnson-the-libertarian-alternative-by-vance-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/gary-johnson-the-libertarian-alternative-by-vance-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"“Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Alternative” by Vance Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gary Johnson, <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

the Libertarian Alternative<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

by Vance Justice – from The Local Voice #167
\nDownload the PDF here<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Before we examine whether you should consider voting for Gary Johnson<\/strong> and why, let\u2019s do a little house-keeping. If you are a die-hard Democrat or Republican who votes for your party\u2019s candidate no matter what, or you are happy with the direction the two major parties are taking our country, or you are absolutely enthralled with either Barack Obama<\/strong> or Mitt Romney<\/strong>, please stop reading this and go do something productive. Nothing I can say is likely to change your mind, and our economy needs every little bit of help you can provide. Otherwise, please read on.<\/p>\n

\"Gary<\/a>
Gary Johnson is running as the Libertarian Party’s Presidential Candidate in the 2012 Federal Election. The Libertarian Party is the nation’s third largest political party and Johnson will be on the ballot in nearly every state.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Now that we\u2019ve taken care of that, we can move on to the reasons why you should consider voting for Gary Johnson.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s tackle the easy ones first. Are you a libertarian? Do you believe that you own yourself, and that you have inherent rights which the state may not violate? Are you in favor of protecting and promoting free minds and free markets? If you can answer \u2018yes\u2019 to any of those, then Gary Johnson is the obvious choice. He is the only candidate who promises not to interfere with your rights to live your life and dispose of your property as you see fit, as long as you respect the rights of others. All of the other candidates promise to violate your rights in one way or another.<\/p>\n

Are you a Democrat, Republican, or independent who feels that the major parties\u2019 policies and candidates don\u2019t reflect the principles they have promised to uphold? Perhaps you are an anti-war Democrat betrayed by President Obama\u2019s continuation of Bush\u2019s wars and his initiation of new wars in Libya, Yemen, and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Maybe you are free-market Republican who isn\u2019t sure Mitt Romney is serious about reducing government interference in the economy. Alternatively you may be an independent concerned about the accelerating erosion of our civil liberties by bipartisan laws such as the Patriot Act and the NDAA. You might also be a member or sympathizer of the Occupy movement who wants to end crony capitalism.<\/p>\n

If you find yourself in such circumstances, please consider voting for Gary Johnson. He will end the wars, get the government out of boardrooms and bedrooms, restore our civil liberties, and stop government from granting economic favors to individuals, businesses, and industries. Gary Johnson has proven that he has the personal and political courage and determination to do such things, having cast a record-setting 175 vetoes as New Mexico\u2019s governor. He even climbed Mount Everest. Yes, he IS badass.<\/p>\n

\"Danny
Danny Bedwell is running as the Libertarian Party’s Congressional Candidate in District 1 of Mississippi (this includes Lafayette and Yalobusha counties).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At this point, you may be thinking, \u201cI like Gary Johnson, but he isn\u2019t going to win. Why should I vote for him?\u201d or \u201cI\u2019m not very happy with my party\u2019s policies or candidate, but I\u2019m afraid (insert whichever candidate scares you the most) will win if I don\u2019t vote against him!\u201d For the first situation, voting one\u2019s conscience, even when your preferred candidate doesn\u2019t have much chance of winning, sends a message to the parties you didn\u2019t vote for. It tells them that they must earn your vote by making changes in their policies or selecting candidates you can support. For the second situation, let\u2019s do a little reality check.<\/p>\n

If you are reading this publication, chances are that you will be voting in Mississippi or one of the neighboring states. Assuming that\u2019s true, Mitt Romney is going to carry your state by a comfortable margin, and there is nothing you can do to change that. (It doesn\u2019t take a Nostradamus to make that prediction.) You are free to express your dissatisfaction without fear of casting the deciding vote. If you\u2019re worried about what your friends might think, they don\u2019t have to know. That\u2019s the second best thing about ballot secrecy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d also like to take this opportunity to ask you to check out the Libertarian Party candidates in the down-ballot races, especially Danny Bedwell<\/strong>, the candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in the First District. Actually, Danny says that he\u2019s running \u2018against\u2019 Congress. I can personally vouch for Danny; he\u2019s a true patriot in the best sense of the word, and a fine libertarian (and Libertarian, for those of you who know the difference).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Vance Justice’s article <\/strong><\/a><\/center>
“Gary Johnson,<\/strong><\/a><\/center>
the Libertarian Alternative”<\/strong><\/a><\/center>
was published in<\/strong><\/a><\/center>
The Local Voice #167.
\n<\/strong><\/a><\/center>
<\/center>
Download the
\nFull Color PDF here<\/strong><\/a><\/center><\/td>\n
\"The<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Alternative by Vance Justice – from The Local Voice #167 Download the PDF here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"tags":[1044,1013,203,1042,1012,202,263,1043,1041],"class_list":["post-4484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-elections","tag-2012-federal-elections","tag-barack-obama","tag-danny-bedwell","tag-democrat-party","tag-gary-johnson","tag-libertarian-party","tag-mitt-romney","tag-republican-party","tag-vance-justice"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}