{"id":1485,"date":"2016-04-21T21:37:46","date_gmt":"2016-04-22T01:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=1485"},"modified":"2016-04-21T21:37:46","modified_gmt":"2016-04-22T01:37:46","slug":"gary-johnson-a-free-trade-bernie-sanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/04\/gary-johnson-a-free-trade-bernie-sanders.html","title":{"rendered":"Gary Johnson: A Free Trade Bernie Sanders?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Another insightful essay by guest blogger, Myron Pauli:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve never limited myself to Republican and Democratic nominees since I cast my first Presidential vote writing in Barry Goldwater in 1972. No regrets on rejecting the decent but too-leftist George Mc Govern or reelecting \u201cThe President!\u201d that imposed Wage and Price Controls, killed the Gold Standard, increased domestic spending, installed OSHA and the DEA, expanded the war in Indochina, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Trump, Cruz, Sanders, and Clinton all have their bad points to me but the first 3 occasionally say things I agree with. Trump has the best understanding of national identity, Cruz had the most detailed domestic spending cuts, and Sanders may be best on foreign\/military restraint (as for Hillary! \u2013 like the old Supreme Court definition of pornography, I find her \u201cutterly without redeeming social value\u201d). I am not \u201cin the tank\u201d for anyone \u2026 so I listened with interest to the person I supported in 2012, Gary Johnson, at the Libertarian Party Debate on the Fox Business Network (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QQPWiCgAjDo\">https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QQPWiCgAjDo<\/a>). Keeping in mind that the Libertarian Party\u2019s own website says \u201cThe Party of Principle: Minimum Government Maximum Freedom\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>So imagine my consternation when I heard Gary Johnson say about the welfare state: \u201cI want to support those truly in need\u201d. Now, I have met Libertarians who wanted to cold turkey everything immediately \u2013 stop Social Security checks to 85 year olds tomorrow! \u2026 &#8211; OK, maybe too drastic to people who paid into the system. Others would phase stuff out the Nanny State over 50 years. But I never heard an answer in favor of the Welfare State from a \u201cLibertarian\u201d until now. And I heard Governor Johnson talk about states running Medicare\/Medicaid as if he were Governor Kasich advocating a \u201cmore efficient\u201d Welfare State. Where\u2019s the \u201cPrinciple\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>Then came the old \u201cforce people to bake Lesbian-Nazi wedding cakes\u201d issue. Certainly, one could distinguish between the Park Service, Amtrak, the utility company, or even an internationally held corporation like Starwood Hotels having less \u201cfreedom of association\u201d than an individual \u2013 but Gary Johnson did not. He would apparently call up the Army, Navy, Marines, Coast Guard, Air Force, FBI, CIA, DEA, INS, and TSA to make sure you made that floral arrangement! OK \u2013 not the most cosmologically important issue but where is the \u201cMinimum Government Maximum Freedom\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>When John Stossel quoted Milton Friedman that open borders were not compatible with a Welfare State, all that Johnson had were platitudes about Mexico\u2019s best coming here to do jobs that \u201cAmericans won\u2019t do\u201d. Dear Gary \u2013 if we really had no Welfare State \u2013 e.g. \u201cLive Free of Die\u201d, is there not a wage whereby Americans would \u201cdo\u201d? I was almost tempted to ask whether one has to actually cross the border to be a citizen since Libertarians are net-savvy, can\u2019t we have Chinese, Pakistanis, Congolese, etc. just apply \u201con-line\u201d to be a citizen and vote in our elections? If Trump goes overboard on \u201cdrug dealing rapists\u201d or \u201cterrorists\u201d, Gary Johnson seems to think the rest of the world are all angels completely compatible with \u201cAmerican citizenship\u201d. ZERO admission criteria other than \u201cno criminal record\u201d into a Welfare State Democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Not only must the Bears admit Goldilocks but also house her, feed her, and bake her Nazi-Lesbo wedding cake! In fact, Gary Johnson said that the candidate he was closest to was Bernie Sanders and was pressing to get the disaffected Bernie voters when Hillary wins the Democratic nomination. That may be fine \u2013 but are these angry Bernie voters \u201clibertarians\u201d or just a bunch of social-leftists protesting crony capitalism? From Gary Johnson\u2019s website, there is nearly nothing on programs to cut compared with Cruz and virtually zero for \u201csocially conservative libertarians\u201d. Johnson emphasizes more a \u201cdope smoking abortion-lovers for Free Trade\u201d than a more consistent Ron Paul type libertarianism.<\/p>\n<p>All in all, I still have my personal dilemma \u2013 who to vote for on November 8<sup>th<\/sup>? I have a choice of rather flawed candidates and, if I do vote Libertarian, is that to be interpreted as a disgruntled Sanders-independent opposition to Madame Defarge? Do I go with the demagogic braggart Donald \u201cBelieve Me\u201d Trump or Carpetbombing Cruz? Muddled Gary? Do I write-in Jim Webb or Ron Paul? Do I just oversleep and forget to vote?<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another insightful essay by guest blogger, Myron Pauli: I\u2019ve never limited myself to Republican and Democratic nominees since I cast my first Presidential vote writing in Barry Goldwater in 1972. No regrets on rejecting the decent but too-leftist George Mc Govern or reelecting \u201cThe President!\u201d that imposed Wage and Price Controls, killed the Gold Standard,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Gary Johnson: A Free Trade Bernie Sanders?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/04\/gary-johnson-a-free-trade-bernie-sanders.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gary Johnson: A Free Trade Bernie Sanders?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another insightful essay by guest blogger, Myron Pauli: I\u2019ve never limited myself to Republican and Democratic nominees since I cast my first Presidential vote writing in Barry Goldwater in 1972. No regrets on rejecting the decent but too-leftist George Mc Govern or reelecting \u201cThe President!\u201d that imposed Wage and Price Controls, killed the Gold Standard,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/04\/gary-johnson-a-free-trade-bernie-sanders.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"At the Intersection of Faith and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-04-22T01:37:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Kerwick\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Gary Johnson: A Free Trade Bernie Sanders?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2016\/04\/gary-johnson-a-free-trade-bernie-sanders.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Gary Johnson: A Free Trade Bernie Sanders?","og_description":"Another insightful essay by guest blogger, Myron Pauli: I\u2019ve never limited myself to Republican and Democratic nominees since I cast my first Presidential vote writing in Barry Goldwater in 1972. 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I teach philosophy at several colleges in the New Jersey and Pennsylvania areas.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jackkerwick.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/author\/jkerwick"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/399"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1485"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1486,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1485\/revisions\/1486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}