Chicago Tribune endorses Gary Johnson

Timshel

New member
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...ent-endorsement-edit-1002-20160930-story.html

With that demand for a principled president paramount, we turn to the candidate we can recommend. One party has two moderate Republicans — veteran governors who successfully led Democratic states — atop its ticket. Libertarians Gary Johnson of New Mexico and running mate William Weld of Massachusetts are agile, practical and, unlike the major-party candidates, experienced at managing governments. They offer an agenda that appeals not only to the Tribune's principles but to those of the many Americans who say they are socially tolerant but fiscally responsible. "Most people are Libertarian," Johnson told the Tribune Editorial Board when he and Weld met with us in July. "It's just that they don't know it."

Theirs is small-L libertarianism, built on individual freedom and convinced that, at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, official Washington is clumsy, expensive and demonstrably unable to solve this nation's problems. They speak of reunifying an America now balkanized into identity and economic groups — and of avoiding their opponents' bullying behavior and sanctimonious lectures. Johnson and Weld are even-keeled — provided they aren't discussing the injustice of trapping young black children in this nation's worst-performing schools. On that and other galling injustices, they're animated.


We reject the cliche that a citizen who chooses a principled third-party candidate is squandering his or her vote. Look at the number of fed-up Americans telling pollsters they clamor for alternatives to Trump and Clinton. What we're recommending will appeal less to people who think tactically than to conscientious Americans so infuriated that they want to send a message about the failings of the major parties and their candidates. Put short:


We offer this endorsement to encourage voters who want to feel comfortable with their choice. Who want to vote for someone they can admire.
 
Stephanopoulos: You’ve said you’re for free markets. You’re against government regulation. And this week a comment is circulating, you made in 2011, where you said we have to think about climate change as a long-term issue, and here’s what you said.

Johnson [taped]: I think that we should, and the long-term view is that in billions of years, the sun is going to actually grow and encompass the Earth, right? So global warming is in our future.

Stephanopoulos: So that’s you, does that mean we don’t do anything about it now?

Johnson [live]: No, George, come on. Can’t we have a little humor once in a while? And that is long term. I mean, plate tectonics. At one point Africa and South America separated. And I am talking now about the Earth, and the fact that we have existed for billions of years, and will going forward. Look, what it points to also is the fact that we do have to inhabit other planets. The future of the human race is space exploration.
 
Stephanopoulos: You’ve said you’re for free markets. You’re against government regulation. And this week a comment is circulating, you made in 2011, where you said we have to think about climate change as a long-term issue, and here’s what you said.

Johnson [taped]: I think that we should, and the long-term view is that in billions of years, the sun is going to actually grow and encompass the Earth, right? So global warming is in our future.

Stephanopoulos: So that’s you, does that mean we don’t do anything about it now?

Johnson [live]: No, George, come on. Can’t we have a little humor once in a while? And that is long term. I mean, plate tectonics. At one point Africa and South America separated. And I am talking now about the Earth, and the fact that we have existed for billions of years, and will going forward. Look, what it points to also is the fact that we do have to inhabit other planets. The future of the human race is space exploration.

This is the same thing Stephen Hawking has said and in reference to this topic. What's the problem?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...ster-on-planet-Earth-is-a-near-certainty.html
 
ouch......that's going to cut into Trump's power base in the state he was born in, in a city that always votes Republican.......oh, never mind......
 
I'm disappointed in Johnson.
At hasty, brief glance, a fiscal conservative? Excellent.
Perhaps we might even forgive him not knowing about Aleppo. I didn't, a year or two ago.
But not being able to name one foreign leader?

NOT ONE ?!

In Texas it's called "all hat, and no cattle".
I'm a card-carrying member of the Libertarian party. I've voted for Libertarians numerous times in previous elections. I even attended a Libertarian convention. But I can't support Johnson. My responsibilities as a U.S. citizen and as a human take precedence over my LP obligations.
 
I'm disappointed in Johnson.
At hasty, brief glance, a fiscal conservative? Excellent.
Perhaps we might even forgive him not knowing about Aleppo. I didn't, a year or two ago.
But not being able to name one foreign leader?

NOT ONE ?!

In Texas it's called "all hat, and no cattle".
I'm a card-carrying member of the Libertarian party. I've voted for Libertarians numerous times in previous elections. I even attended a Libertarian convention. But I can't support Johnson. My responsibilities as a U.S. citizen and as a human take precedence over my LP obligations.


Ok, but...

No, he was unable to name a leader he respects or admires.

The Aleppo thing was worse than that. It's important he be informed on that issue since it's one the next President will have to deal with. But, whether he can name his favorite leader or Jonas Brother... who cares.
 
"No, he was unable to name a leader he respects or admires." #9
You mean to suggest he could name a foreign leader, but couldn't name one he admires?

Yours is a clever defense. But it doesn't pass the smell test. Johnson was clearly stymied by the question. If he doesn't know the current pope's name is Francis, he could simply have used the title ("the pope"). If Johnson can't think of anything to admire Pope Francis for (I'm not Catholic but I LOVE that Pope Francis!!), why not the funny hat collection. Popes wear hats I'd be embarrassed to wear on Halloween!
 
You mean to suggest he could name a foreign leader, but couldn't name one he admires?

Yours is a clever defense. But it doesn't pass the smell test. Johnson was clearly stymied by the question. If he doesn't know the current pope's name is Francis, he could simply have used the title ("the pope"). If Johnson can't think of anything to admire Pope Francis for (I'm not Catholic but I LOVE that Pope Francis!!), why not the funny hat collection. Popes wear hats I'd be embarrassed to wear on Halloween!


Clever? It's reality.

The question was "Who's your favorite foreign leader?" ... "Name one foreign leader that you look up to."

After Weld offered Peres the douchebag shouted his demand for a living foreign leader. He probably would have demanded current if Gary had been a little quicker to recall Fox's name because the only point of the question was to see if he could trip him up.

The Pope is a lousy answer from a libertarian perspective, but I am pretty sure that is not what Matthews was after and I don't think he would have been amused by your funny hat bit.
 
"Clever? It's reality." #11
I don't have the soundbite handy. So my refusal to challenge your assertion is not agreement on my part. I'm simply not in a position to confirm or refute.
"The question was "Who's your favorite foreign leader?" ... "Name one foreign leader that you look up to." "
Again. I neither confirm nor refute. I accept your assertion as basis for logical reasoning.

That hardly matters.
In the immediate aftermath of the Aleppo gaffe, a s a v v y politician could have faked it. After all, I think Vlad Putin is a very dangerous man. But if my political fortunes were at stake, I could say I admire the way Putin's shoes occasionally match his belt.

You're suggesting the reason Johnson didn't say a name was because he could think of all sorts of foreign leaders, along with their names

BUT !!

he couldn't think of anything he admired them for.

I don't think that's the explanation. I think Johnson simply couldn't think of the name of any currently serving foreign leader (he could have said Genghis Khan I suppose, but news of Khan's demise has been widely circulated).

Name the two worst humans ever born.
Now, name your favorite.

See?
It's not that tough.

AND!!

It's a marvelous springboard from which to say:
- S/He might be my favorite, BUT I don't care for them all that much, & here's why ...

and then launch into an analysis intended to inspire confidence in Johnson among voters.

He didn't.
He blanked.
"The Pope is a lousy answer from a libertarian perspective"
Why?
I thought the Vatican was an internationally recognized State.
Most States, including the United States of America collect taxes at gunpoint. Some think that's hyperbole. It is absolutely not. Those guns may not be immediately present or evident. BUT !! Ignore the tersely worded letters from government about past due taxes, and eventually the government thugs will show up and throw you in the dungeon.

BUT !!

The revenue the Vatican collects is volunteered. They're not called "taxes". They're called "donations".
Imagine if the IRS ran that way!
The following excerpted from U.S. Presidential candidate Libertarian Andre Marrou's
1992 stump speech.

"Repeal the personal income tax, and abolish the IRS, sell the IRS buildings, release
the tax protesters from prison, burn all the tax records, and declare a national holiday
on April 15."
 
I don't have the soundbite handy. So my refusal to challenge your assertion is not agreement on my part. I'm simply not in a position to confirm or refute.

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1608/03/se.01.html

Again. I neither confirm nor refute. I accept your assertion as basis for logical reasoning.

You claimed I was being clever and that it did not pass the smell test. So, yes you were weakly trying to challenge my assertion, weren't you troll?

That hardly matters.
In the immediate aftermath of the Aleppo gaffe, a s a v v y politician could have faked it. After all, I think Vlad Putin is a very dangerous man. But if my political fortunes were at stake, I could say I admire the way Putin's shoes occasionally match his belt.

Okay, troll. Matthews was not going to have any of that nonsense. He was quite hostile.


Blah blah blah stupid trolly nonsense blah blah blah

I thought the Vatican was an internationally recognized State.
Most States, including the United States of America collect taxes at gunpoint. Some think that's hyperbole. It is absolutely not. Those guns may not be immediately present or evident. BUT !! Ignore the tersely worded letters from government about past due taxes, and eventually the government thugs will show up and throw you in the dungeon.

BUT !!


The revenue the Vatican collects is volunteered. They're not called "taxes". They're called "donations".
Imagine if the IRS ran that way!

Again, I doubt Chris was having that nonsense. The Popes have been hostile towards capitalism for some time and, again, he supports many other intrusive policies.

If you were willing to accept some silly answer about hats and matching shoes/belt then you obviously think the question/answer is trivial. I seriously doubt you are choosing who to vote based on it. You are trolling.
 
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