If I were to sum up my personal politics, I hew most closely to the Libertarian platform. The problem is, they can’t put forth a candidate worthy (or likely) to be elected dog catcher.
Gary Johnson is this year’s nominee for President, same as 2012. Failing to secure the Republican nomination, he went to the Libertarian ticket as a consolation prize. Johnson isn’t bad; he’s just uninspiring. Still, he has more mainstream name recognition than anyone else in the party, so they might as well nominate him in 2016.
The big problem is his pick for Vice President. William Weld was governor of Massachusetts for two terms in the 1990’s. During his tenure, he supported very strict gun-control measures and government seizure of private property under eminent domain. Both of those positions run absolutely counter to Libertarian ideology.
Weld claims to have dialed back on some of those positions, but when pressed on his support for gun control, he gave Jake Tapper a response I find far less than convincing. Continued...