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A Better Choice for 2016The Libertarian Party is selecting a
nominee too.
John Stossel | March 30, 2016
A recent poll shows that if the election were held today, 11
percent of Americans would vote for a
Libertarian, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. That's
surprising, since last election
Johnson got just 1 percent of the vote.
This year, he's doing better, probably because Donald Trump and
Hillary Clinton hold the highest
percentage of "unfavorable" reactions from voters in more than
30 years. I assume the Libertarian
total will go higher, since most poll respondents
hadno opinion about Johnson. They probably don'tknow who he
is.
They can learn more by watching my Fox Business Network show
April 1 and April 8. On those days,
I'll air a debate among the three leading Libertarian
candidates. They are Johnson, software
businessman John McAfee and The Libertarian Republic founder
Austin Petersen. The Party will
choose its nominee at the Libertarian convention in Orlando,
Florida, over Memorial Day weekend.
What a relief to hear libertarian views after months of hearing
Clinton and Trump talk about reducing
Americans' liberties.
Clinton wants to raise taxes, curtail gun rights, force us all
to pay for inefficient "green energy,"
impose new regulations on just about everything, etc.
Trump wants to increase spying on American citizens, put a giant
wall between the U.S. and Mexico,
start a ruinous trade war, etc.
Libertarians wantlimited government, one that doesn't mess
around in your personal life or try to run
the economy.
Gary Johnson suggests immigrants to the U.S. just first undergo
a background check to make sure
they aren't criminals or terrorists, and then prove they have
employment and can pay their taxes.
He'd get rid of the complicated quotas the U.S. has on who can
come here from which countries and
in which professions—a bureaucracy that takes the best and
brightest immigrants years to navigate.
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Johnson has a track record. The governor cut red tape and the
number of government workers in
New Mexico. He vetoed 750 bills and used a line-item veto to cut
thousands of other items. He
lowered New Mexico's taxes and balanced the budget while
remaining popular with voters. Running
as a Republican, he was elected to a second term in that
Democratic state.
Now, as a Libertarian presidential candidate, he warns "the idea
that we can somehow balance the
federal budget without cutting military spending and reforming
entitlements is fantasy."
John McAfee calls government "corrupt" and "technologically
illiterate." He says he'll push a policy of
"privacy, freedom and technology."
McAfee says, "Individuals should be free to make choices for
themselves and accept responsibility
for the consequences of the choices they make." He's had a few
brushes with the law himself,
including an arrest for driving under the influence, so he knows
what it's like to be in the
government's crosshairs.
Like economist Milton Friedman, he says that we can't have open
borders and a big welfare state—
so McAfee says get rid of the welfare state and open the
borders, so long as immigrants submit to
being documented.
He wants to reduce government's domestic role to policing
disputes and otherwise let people engage
in trade, including drug sales. He says our military role
overseas should be reduced so that we
interfere less in the affairs of other nations.
Austin Petersen, like many libertarians, describes himself as
"fiscally conservative and socially
tolerant." He proposes a 1 percent spending reduction in all
government programs and a simple flat
tax, and he would let young people opt out of Social
Security.
Like Johnson and McAfee, he wants to reduce immigration
bureaucracy, the drug war and military
interventions. Unlike some Libertarians, Petersen says he is
pro-life.
You might be surprised to hear that there is division among
Libertarians on issues like abortion. ThisFriday and next you can
watch how these candidates handle the differences.
On Facebook and Twitter, viewers told me they want to know how
Libertarians would reduce the
welfare state, defeat terrorism and help workers cope with
changes caused by global trade.
I'm sure the Libertarians' answers will make more sense than
those we hear from Trump and Clinton.
