Posted on 05/06/2012 7:15:09 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson officially became the Libertarian Party's nominee for President on Saturday with 70 percent of the vote, and one of his first acts as an official candidate was to issue a strong indictment of the Republicans for the situation surrounding Mitt Romney's gay former foreign policy spokesman.
"I believe the majority of americans are fiscally responsible and socially tolerant," Johnson told BuzzFeed in a phone interview. "I believe the majority of Americans could care less about whether or not there is a gay individual working in the Romney campaign." Romney's newly hired foreign policy spokesman Richard Grenell was openly gay, a fact that raised the ire of social conservatives, whose reaction resulted in Grenell's leaving the campaign.
"It speaks volumes to the intolerance that continues to be present in the Republican Party," Johnson said. He said he doesn't attach that intolerance to the majority of Republicans but to "the activists driving that agenda."
"That intolerance is why the world vilifies Republicans," Johnson continued. "It’s why I have never worn a Republican t-shirt in my life. There is a certain Republican dogma I just cannot defend. Homophobia is one of those issues."
The Romney campaign tried to persuade Grenell to stay after criticism both of his intemperate tweets and his sexuality, and Romney's aides -- who knew Grenell was gay when they hired him -- heatedly deny conservative attacks marginalized him internally.
Johnson said the only reason he's never been a registered Libertarian is because "I have a notion of governing and winning," and "I have a lot of Republican friends who have just had it with the Republican Party."
Johnson described his plans for the kickoff of his general election campaign, saying he's planning a New York trip to "take advantage of the fact that there's a lot of media there."
He also said he thinks that Ron Paul's staying in the Republican race will benefit him, saying "I think a buzz within the Ron Paul support movement is there’s an alternative." Johnson assessed his chances at getting on the debate stage as "not an expectation that you can say categorically is not going to happen."
The Liberterians were not always associated with fringe causes. I’m not sure how/why they evolved that way. But Americans have ignored 3rd parties for so long that they get dominated by fringe causes when the more normal supporters give up and revert to the “2 parties” that are promoted by the MSM. Where’s the Reform Party today as an example? They gave up. Perot even tried to use the TV to reach people, with his own money, but he tried to talk sensibly to them instead of entertaining.
The consequences of which all result in calls for more statism and socialism, thus defeating the whole libertarian “I’m a social liberal but a fiscal conservative” type of argument.
As far as 3rd parties, I’m far closer to the Constitution Party than to the Libertarian partiers(oops!) party.
So how about a policy of “the government shall have nothing to do with gays, pro or con?” Government is not the HOA of our souls.
They’ll never go along with that. They’ve already been seduced by the power of using an enlarged government to punish anyone who disagrees with them. It’ll be very interesting if and when the Islamists take over and they turn around and use big government’s power against them.
Gary, if you’re trying to out-gay Willy Mitt, you’ve got a tough task ahead of you.
Excelent analysis. I actually voted for Ed Clark in 1980 when it looked like the LP might have a future as a mainstream party - at least to me.
The problem with 3rd parties is that they tend to be dominated by the most doctrinaire, with purity tests becoming more and more rigid with each election cycle since, with no real prospect for electoral success, ideological purity is really all they have to argue about. The left has experienced this forever - look at how many Socialist parties there are, each of whom passionately despise each other over issues of doctrine so obscure you need an electron microscope to find them.
The LP has gone from being mostly a bunch of devotees of Milton Friedman to mostly a gaggle of eccentrics who think you’re a hopeless statist if you don’t believe the military can and should be privatized.
Sad, really. I find most libertarians I encounter to be intelligent and interesting - and on most matters I generally agree with them. The LIbertarian Party, though, has pretty much achieved its apparent goal of total irrelevance.
Hank
Thanks, we seem to have a similar view of it. I believe I voted with you then, since I used to support the LP too. I voted for Perot also. So some will blame me for Clinton I suppose.
I’m not satisfied with either party and haven’t been for a long time. The US has not evolved to the current welfare state overnight, it’s been going on a long time and both parties are culpable. Ultimately it is a distracted, disinterested citizenry’s fault also.
Maybe the TEA party approach to convert the Republicans back rightward will work, as it is now there is not much opposition from them at the top level. That would only be the same process you described, that has turned the Dems into raving Communists. Issa’s attempt to make Holder accountable is an oppostition action I like.
Obama himself is the culmination of Affirmative Action, which is why his records are missing and it appears he went through the witness protection program.
IOW he is a washington dc style politician who does not see conservative as conservative but rather as various social balkans to manipulate.
Now the Romney RINO cheerleaders & the left are making this up. I haven’t seen a single conservative complain about the fact that the guy was gay - it was that National Review reported that he had an “unhinged devotion” to the left-wing gay social agenda AND sent rude tweets attacking social conservatives. Nothing more, nothing less.
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