Why Are There Any Liberals Supporting Gary Johnson?

[Madam45for2923]

He supports TPP.
He supports fracking.
He opposes any federal policies that would make college more affordable or reduce student debt. In fact, he wants to abolish student loans entirely.
He thinks Citizens United is great.
He doesn't want to raise the minimum wage. At all.
He favors a balanced-budget amendment and has previously suggested that he would slash federal spending 43 percent in order to balance the budget. This would require massive cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and social welfare programs of all kinds.
He opposes net neutrality.
He wants to increase the Social Security retirement age to 75 and he's open to privatization.
He opposes any kind of national health care and wants to repeal Obamacare.
He opposes practically all forms of gun control.
He opposes any kind of paid maternity or medical leave.
He supported the Keystone XL pipeline.
He opposes any government action to address climate change.
He wants to cut the corporate tax rate to zero.
He appears to believe that we should reduce financial regulation. All we need to do is allow big banks to fail and everything will be OK.
He wants to remove the Fed's mandate to maximize employment and has spoken favorably of returning to the gold standard.
He wants to block-grant Medicare and turn it over to the states.
He wants to repeal the 16th Amendment and eliminate the income tax, the payroll tax, and the estate tax. He would replace it with a 28 percent FairTax that exempts the poor. This is equivalent to a 39 percent sales tax, and it would almost certainly represent a large tax cut for the rich.

. . . more: [link:http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2016/09/why-are-there-any-liberals-supporting-gary-johnson|

[mucifer]

1. Some people only care about legalized marijuana yet

they still want to identify themselves as liberal. They only care about themselves the way the other libertarians do.

[bmstee01]

26. This is true.

A lot of people like that he smokes and wants to legalize pot.

[Politicub]

2. A sucker is born every minute

Libertarians court those suckers of all political stripes.

[BobbyDrake]

3. Some ignorant people can't think beyond "legalize it!"

Some other ignorant people have gobbled up every lie and right-wing (and left-wing) smear against Clinton and are voting for Johnson to show everyone just how ignorant they can be.

[Demsrule86]

4. No, if you support Gary Johnson you are not liberal.

There may be some who support legalization but you can't consider them liberal.

[pnwmom]

5. Because he's positioning himself as an "independent," and there are lots of independents these days.

They don't realize that he isn't really an independent, he's a (mostly) rightwing libertarian.

[TwilightZone]

23. Agreed.

Many of them believe that "independent" is a monolithic bloc of people who all believe most of the things that they believe. There were a significant number of them on DU during the primaries.

[geek tragedy]

6. They're poseurs and naifs, not liberals nt

[Gothmog]

7. A vote for stein or Johnson is a vote for trump

[Hortensis]

8. The far left is not "sorta like liberals but just more so."

The far left is like the far right in most characteristics, with a few significant differences. They are one, however, in despising liberals and the Democratic Party. Of course many on the far left, wanting SOMEONE to vote for, chose third-party candidates, to spit on the Democrats if nothing else.

Btw, the notion that libertarians are "liberal" on social issues is not correct. True libertarians elevate the principle of INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM above all others, making the pursuit of selfishness a virtue. The stronger the libertarian, the higher it is elevated and less importance is given to any other principle.

Both conservatives and liberals believe in individual freedom but with limits to protect others. Libertarian ideology is almost devoid, to devoid of altruism, in which they differ strongly from both liberal and conservatives ideologies.

By and large, there are very few liberals supporting Johnson, only people mistakenly given that label, and no doubt a handful of confused idiots.

[sarae]

9. He has a penis.

[Agschmid]

10. Yup.

[athena]

15. Exactly.

To some people, that tiny body part matters more than anything else about a person.

[skylucy]

27. Yep. You nailed it.

[MineralMan]

35. So, Johnson's johnson is the reason?

I get it now...

[vi5]

11. Maybe the believed it when they were told...

..that Hillary didn't need their votes anyway?

[athena]

14. In other words, they can't think for themselves.

As a matter of fact, Hillary does not need their votes to win the election. We, her supporters, will make sure she wins this through the votes of her supporters alone.

However, these people's choice to vote for someone who doesn't even know what Aleppo is speaks volumes about exactly who they are, how politically unaware they are, and how little they care about what happens to those in this country who are less privileged than they are.

[vi5]

17. Then what do you care?

If she doesn't need their votes, if they're so ignorant and privileged, why are so many people on here worrying so much about what they do and who they vote for?

You told them you don't need their votes. You told them you didn't care what they did. You called them naive and petulant and children and whatever else. They heard you loud and clear and now they are acting accordingly.

It can't be both ways. You can't say you don't care and they don't matter but then spend so much time worrying about what they are doing and getting mad at them when they act according to how you responded to and treated them.

Move on, and bask in the inevitable win of the candidate that you supported.

[Madam45for2923]

21. Even if you dont care it's still good to know! To know where people are REALLY coming from!

Next time they tell us that some things/issues are very very important to them, we know to take it with a grain of salt! Aha!

[LanternWaste]

25. I suppose carrying the "inevitable" meme so long after its best-used-by date can be monotonous

I find it odd that you intentionally conflate "care" and knowledge" to better continue your narrative. I suppose carrying the "inevitable" meme so long after its best-used-by date can be monotonous, and additional creativity is required to maintain passion...

[NCTraveler]

22. That aspect has been covered in numerous replies already.

They are simply fools.

I will expand on that. People using that as a reason are also self-centered with no sense of community. They are people we don't want to have any voice at all in the party.

[bettyellen]

24. So it's out of spite as well as lack of principles? Sounds like you empathize with them. I can't.

[vi5]

30. I don't agree with them but I do empathize with them.

I wasn't a fan of either of our choices this year, but it is what it is and I'm voting for Hillary.

But I watched the behavior and tone of a lot of Hillary supporters who said all the things I quoted above. And now that people actually listened to them they are still obsessing over it.

All the 3rd party threads on DU now by the same people that said what they said during the primary are just like the people I know who claim to be over their exes but yet still fixate on and obsess over them and won't shut the fuck about them. Nobody is buying it.

The point is now that we are where we are, fixating on a third party candidate whose voters are probably evenly split (if that) between usually Republican voters and usually liberal voters is idiotic. If the candidate you supported is so great and will have no problem winning as you claimed in months prior....then why are you fixating on supposedly liberal 3rd party voters?

But yeah, keep fixating and insulting. I'm sure that will definitely win over a lot of voters.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

32. yes, i am sure someone else is responsible for their actions.

after all why should we expect adults to own their own behaviors?

[vi5]

33. Trust me, I don't....

...otherwise all these people wouldn't be spending all of their time posting shit about third party voters and would be focusing more on backing up their own words and working as hard at getting their candidate elected as they are worrying about inconsequential third party voters.

If I thought people were responsible for their own behaviors, I'd be seeing a lot more mea culpas and maybe some slight admissions that we actually do need every vote and that insulting people and telling them they aren't needed isn't exactly a winning strategy.

[TheCowsCameHome]

12. They can't stand either Clinton or Trump.

[saltpoint]

13. When Johnson's name is mentioned on the news,

what he says or does seems more ornery than thoughtful.

I'm surprised Bill Weld ever got on that bus.

[Wednesdays]

16. There are liberals supporting Johnson?

If so, they're a subset of a subset of a subset of that MONSTROUS seven percent he's polling!

[jcgoldie]

18. Because Hillary Clinton doesn't have a penis nt

[Wounded Bear]

19. I'm convinced that the whole Johnson pulls from Clinton is a myth...

there may be some random people on the street telling this to interviewers, but I don't buy it.

And I don't buy that many Bernie backers are voting for Johnson, either. I could see voting Stein, because she is at least a pseudo-leftist. Neither has many policy agreements with Bernie, so if someone backed Bernie on issues, I could see them staying home before voting 3rd party, especially with the options available.

IMNSHO, this is one of the biggest non-story stories in this election cycle.

[vi5]

31. Exactly...this is all pre-emptive scapegoating.

A lot of people kept shouting about how Hillary was going to mop the floor with Trump and destroy him and win in a landslide, or whatever else they were going on about (not all, but some).

Now that they were proven wrong they are looking for people to blame and since it can never be them, and it can never be their preferred candidate, it must be the mythical third party voters.

The fact is that even if half of the Johnson voters are liberal (and I highly doubt this) that means the other half are not and would have been Republican voters who aren't voting for Trump. Which means it's a wash. And the fact is if we put up a candidate who can't beat someone like Trump by more than a few percentage points then maybe that points to bigger problems we have as a Democratic brand.

[uponit7771]

36. Two different polls I've seen have shown 18 - 34 yr olds pulled to Johns in a big way.. beating

... tRump and Johnson coming in second to HRC.

That's were the pull is

[Brother Buzz]

20. One could make the argument they are the same PUMA 'Liberals' that supported McCain

Low information voters that bought into the white-wing echo machine's relentless attacks on the Clintons for the last thirty years.

[Freddie]

28. A Libertarian

Is a Republican who likes to get high.
Young people also like their no-foreign-intervention stance. They can't see past those 2 things to see how wrong the rest of their platform is.

[Snake Plissken]

29. because he gets the best weed

[MineralMan]

34. There aren't any liberals supporting Johnson.

Anyone supporting Johnson is, by definition, not a liberal or a progressive.

Pretty simple, really. People are as they act, not as they say.

[democrattotheend]

38. One of my friends is

She is definitely a liberal, supported Bernie in the primary, but is casting a protest vote for Johnson. She doesn't really support him as much as seeing it as the least of all evils.

But she promised me she would vote for Hillary if her red-leaning state is polling within 5 points.

[davidn3600]

37. They hate the two party system more than anything else on your list.

[Iggo]

39. He smokes pot.