Is the Libertarian party’s vice-presidential nominee all in for Hillary Clinton?
A word of warning to disgruntled Republicans and conservatives who are considering voting Libertarian next month. After reading this piece, you may want to seriously reconsider your decision.
In the midst of (yet another) crazy political week, there was an intriguing October 4 interview in the Boston Globe involving Libertarian vice-presidential candidate William Weld. While that’s not surprising on the surface, since the former two-term Massachusetts GOP governor remains popular in his home state, what he said was.
According to the Globe’s Michael Levenson and Frank Phillips, while Weld continues to support his Libertarian running mate, Gary Johnson, “He is now interested primarily in blocking Trump from winning the presidency and then potentially working with longtime Republican leaders such as Mitt Romney and Haley Barbour to create a new path for the party after the election.”
Weld was quoted as saying, “I think Mr. Trump’s proposals in the foreign policy area, including nuclear proliferation, tariffs, and free trade, would be so hurtful, domestically and in the world, that he has my full attention.” But don’t worry, faithful party supporters: The man who declared he would be a Libertarian forevermore also said, “I’m certainly not going to drop them this year.”
The man is a peach, I tell you.
In all seriousness, this has to be one of the strangest decisions ever taken by a candidate on an American political ticket.
For one thing, the vice-presidential candidate’s main job has always been to work side-by-side with the presidential candidate until the bitter end. In this presidential election, the Libertarians have been doing rather well: According to RealClearPolitics, Johnson-Weld has been drawing an average of 6.5 percent of the popular vote on (for the period between September 28–October 6), and the ticket has won the endorsement of six daily newspapers, including the Chicago Tribune and Detroit News. With a record-breaking result for this minor political party in the works, Weld should be focusing on further increasing Libertarian support instead of worrying about his Republican opponent.
Meanwhile, I don’t believe Weld’s strategy is to defeat Trump. Rather, it seems like he’s campaigning (sort of) for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
The argument has always been that Libertarians have more in common with right-leaning Republicans. On some issues, that’s certainly true. However, various polls conducted this summer, from Fox News to Quinnipiac, showed that Johnson claws into Democratic support with young voters, Left-leaning independents, and others. The party’s social liberal stance on drugs (including legalized marijuana), combined with its anti-interventionist position on foreign-policy matters, has helped in this regard.
This should give Republicans who were considering voting for Johnson-Weld some pause.
Weld’s decision to spend more time and energy on defeating Trump could, therefore, shift some of this newfound Libertarian support within these demographics back into Clinton’s camp. In a close election (and the jury’s still out on the final result), it could make all the difference.
This should give Republicans who were considering voting for Johnson-Weld some pause. Why would they want to support a political ticket that isn’t going to give its all (in one case, anyway) for the next four weeks?
It should also be acknowledged that a vote for any party other than the Republicans can be interpreted as a vote for Clinton. In the Libertarian case, there was at least the allusion that it would be a vote of conscience. If it’s going to indirectly aid the Democrats anyway, this group should simply grit its teeth and vote for Trump to prevent Clinton from getting into the White House.
Then again, this strategy has become much more difficult to defend.
The whole brouhaha surrounding the 2005 video of Trump making lewd, disgusting comments about women was the straw that broke the conservative camel’s back. Indeed, what he said was akin to locker-room talk. Yet when you combine this tape with the 16 months of near-insanity that have proceeded this episode, it’s a wonder that spontaneous human combustion isn’t on the rise in the American conservative movement.
Many honest, intelligent, and decent Republicans will have a difficult choice to make on November 8. If they don’t vote for Trump, and won’t vote for Clinton, who will they vote for?
Weld’s decision to indirectly work for the enemy has just made it even harder.