I had the opportunity to see Gary Johnson speak at the International Students for Liberty Conference in February of 2011. He was great and really motivated the audience to continue their fight for a free society. His record as governor of New Mexico is near flawless. I still wont vote for him in November and here is why.
First, his foreign policy is not indicative of a non-interventionist. I don’t even think he has a foreign policy to be honest (emphasis added):
He says he supports U.S. military intervention in Uganda to root out the Lords Resistance Army and kill its leader, Joseph Kony. He thinks the drone war in Pakistan and Yemen creates more enemies than it eliminates, but doesn’t want to take drone strikes off the proverbial “table.” He wants to “completely withdraw our military presence” from Afghanistan, but wants to keep our military bases there. In fact, U.S. military bases should be maintained throughout the Middle East, he says, even though America faces “no military threats.” He supports “humanitarian intervention.” He wants to cut military and defense budgets by 43 percent, but only reduce national security spending to 2003 levels, “and just wring out the excess.”
His reluctance to rule out our drone campaign around the world is enough for me to reject him flat out. I guess you can call me a single issue voter in that respect. If a candidate thinks drone strikes are appropriate even in the face of collateral damage then they do not have my support for any bid for that power as such.
Also through interviews it appears he has a flimsy grasp at best on libertarian philosophy. At this stage in the libertarian movement we can’t put our support behind someone who can’t even coherently argue what we stand for. He doesn’t even understand the basics of the Austrian theory. I was shocked to hear that he hasn’t even read Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson. In interviews he mumbles around and has trouble articulating what he actually believes. I just don’t see him as the right person to carry the libertarian (big L or little l) banner into battle.
I wont be voting for Gary Johnson in November. Right now I’m not even sure if I’ll vote for Ron Paul. The anarchist in me is just kind of fed up with all of it.
