Let's vote for sanity

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As a libertarian, I’m pretty excited about libertarian ideas being talked about more than ever this election season. Unfortunately, it turns out that it’s because the two main candidates for president this year, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are the two most disliked choices in US presidential election history.

For those of you not familiar with the Libertarian Party, it’s the third largest political party in the US and the only other party besides Democrat and Republican that will be on the ballot in all 50 states this election. This past weekend was the Libertarian National Convention which chose their official presidential nominee, Governor Gary Johnson. Compared to Trump and Hillary, Gary Johnson is someone we can be proud of electing. When asked what his campaign slogan would be in a Libertarian Party debate last week, he jokingly answered, “Make America sane again.” Which I think really defines what we’re all starting to feel about this election and explains why Johnson is already getting so much media interest as a viable candidate.

Johnson’s opinion is that most people are “more libertarian than they realize”. If you look at the issues, more people are for legalizing gay marriage, legalizing marijuana, opening up the borders for immigrants, ending government wars overseas and stopping crony capitalism. And people don’t like what the NSA is doing and feel that there is generally too much government spending. The Libertarian Party and Johnson’s campaign agrees with all those issues. And having been governor for two terms, he has direct experience and solutions for many of them. As he puts it, just Google him and you’ll find out for yourself. He also recommends a website that lets you figure out which candidate is right for you by taking a survey on your views of the issues: iSideWith.com.

It turns out that libertarian ideas are very much for everyone. Whether you consider yourself Democrat or Republican.

Now, if you’re thinking that voting for him won’t be enough to get him elected, take a look at recent polls which show that 40% of voters don’t want either Hillary or Trump. That’s certainly enough to elect a third option. And if you’re worried that voting for him would take away votes from Trump or Clinton, it turns out that because Johnson’s stances on issues fall into both traditional Democrat and Republican views, recent polls have also shown that he’s actually taking support from both candidates equally.

But most importantly, voting for Johnson means you don’t have to vote for the lesser of two evils. You don’t have to vote for hate. You can vote for someone you believe in. And we can all make America sane again.

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