Think Twice Before Voting For Gary Johnson As A Trump Protest Vote
By Kyle Sammin - Posted at The Federalist:
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson’s stance on government forcing people to participate in gay weddings is decidedly coercive.
With the impending nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for president, many disenchanted conservatives have been casting about for an alternative. Some have landed on Gary Johnson, a former Republican governor of New Mexico and current candidate for the Libertarian nomination for president.
Johnson, who was also the Libertarian nominee in 2012, has much to recommend him—much more than a typical third-party candidate—but he is far from a perfect alternative. Conservatives should take a hard look before rallying to his standard, especially given his announcement today of Bill Weld as a running mate.
On questions of religious liberty, Johnson’s instinct is often to take a position more like that of a secular Democrat than a Republican. Asked whether government should ban Muslim women from wearing burqas, Johnson initially supported the ban before reversing himself the next day. More recently, on the question of whether bakers should be compelled to bake wedding cakes for gay couples, Johnson (unusually for a Libertarian) again came down on the side of government coercion. More troubling was that, in his answer, Johnson also combined two questions that have very different legal implications.
Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson’s stance on government forcing people to participate in gay weddings is decidedly coercive.
With the impending nomination of Donald Trump as the Republican candidate for president, many disenchanted conservatives have been casting about for an alternative. Some have landed on Gary Johnson, a former Republican governor of New Mexico and current candidate for the Libertarian nomination for president.
Johnson, who was also the Libertarian nominee in 2012, has much to recommend him—much more than a typical third-party candidate—but he is far from a perfect alternative. Conservatives should take a hard look before rallying to his standard, especially given his announcement today of Bill Weld as a running mate.
On questions of religious liberty, Johnson’s instinct is often to take a position more like that of a secular Democrat than a Republican. Asked whether government should ban Muslim women from wearing burqas, Johnson initially supported the ban before reversing himself the next day. More recently, on the question of whether bakers should be compelled to bake wedding cakes for gay couples, Johnson (unusually for a Libertarian) again came down on the side of government coercion. More troubling was that, in his answer, Johnson also combined two questions that have very different legal implications.
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