{"id":13929,"date":"2016-10-08T14:14:43","date_gmt":"2016-10-08T14:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/?p=13929"},"modified":"2016-10-08T14:17:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-08T14:17:47","slug":"the-case-for-gary-johnson-gets-stronger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.megalextoria.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2016\/10\/08\/the-case-for-gary-johnson-gets-stronger\/","title":{"rendered":"The case for Gary Johnson gets stronger"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Shortly before Monday night\u2019s presidential debate, Jill Stein \u2014 the Green Party candidate \u2014 was escorted<\/a> from the grounds of Hofstra University, where the event was being held. The incident perfectly illustrated the shortcomings of a campaign in which independent thought \u2014 and sometimes thought of any kind at all \u2014 has been largely absent.<\/p>\n

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Also missing from Monday night\u2019s event was Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate, who should have been on stage with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Unlike the Republican and the Democrat, Johnson has stuck to issues and ideas rather than character attacks and personal sniping. He would have added considerable depth and a badly needed alternative voice to the proceedings. Johnson\u2019s egregious gaffe about Aleppo in early September was embarrassing, and deservedly so. But it was nothing compared to the colossal ignorance, incoherence and boorishness Donald Trump displayed Monday night. At times the Republican \u2014 we use that word loosely \u2014 seemed to be doing an imitation of Monty Python\u2019s \u201cArgument Clinic\u201d skit, shouting \u201cNot!\u201d and \u201cWrong!\u201d as if that constituted a substantive rebuttal rather than a childish outburst.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The one point Trump scored concerned the 33,000 emails Clinton deleted because, she claimed, none of them was work-related. That statement, like so many others that issue from the Democrat, was patently false<\/a>: At least 2,800 of the emails were work-related. FBI Director James Comey has lambasted Clinton\u2019s \u201cextremely careless\u201d behavior that exposed her communications to \u201chostile actors.\u201d The nation might never know the full extent of the damage to national security caused by such carelessness.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As we explained at length in our endorsement<\/a>, Johnson is well-qualified for the Oval Office (his two terms as governor of New Mexico make him more experienced than, say, Barack Obama was in 2008). He comes with none of the integrity issues that undermine Clinton. His support for limited government is consistent: He supports free enterprise and social tolerance in equal measure. Unlike Trump and Clinton, he favors free trade. He brooks none of Trump\u2019s bigoted nonsense on immigration \u2014 and in contrast to Clinton, for whom the answer to every question under the sun is \u201cmore activist government,\u201d he has a healthy skepticism about the use of military force.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Johnson would balance the federal budget by cutting spending. Critics on both the left and the right recoil in horror at such a prospect, but fail to note that even in its most drastic incarnation, a Johnson budget would restore spending to where it stood in 2003. If memory serves, the poor were hardly dying in the streets that year, and the U.S. military was not raiding auto junkyards for spare parts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Clinton and Trump share a boundless enthusiasm for more and bigger government; they differ only on how to wield its enormous power. Johnson is the only candidate to suggest Washington should do less, not more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It is not too late for the Commission on Presidential Debates to invite Johnson \u2014 who has reached its arbitrary 15-percent threshold requirement in Colorado<\/a> and Virginia<\/a> \u2014 to the remaining two debates. Johnson also is doing exceptionally well among young people \u2014 he\u2019s a close second<\/a> behind Clinton among those 18-34, and among active-duty military personnel he ties for first<\/a> place with Trump.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: Editorial: The case for Gary Johnson gets stronger<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n