Gary Johnson’s fondness for savaging Republicans gives way to a strange delicacy when Democrats are up for discussion. In a word-association exercise at a CNN town hall, Johnson labeled Clinton a “great public servant” and declined to elaborate.
Sure, Johnson’s libertarianism puts him at loggerheads with orthodox conservatives on social and foreign policy. But it should also bring biting reproach of liberals and socialists, who reject constraints on government (like the Constitution) when these stand in the way of a desired result. Johnson, to win the Right, should be an equal-opportunity critic of social control.
Johnson’s campaign strategy makes it seem like he is running against only one candidate. His recent Politico article titled “The GOP Is a Dying Party. That’s Why I’m Running against Trump,” mentioned the Democrats a number of times: zero. Yes, it was an effective piece of criticism, and he introduced himself and his philosophy quite neatly. And yes, as the Republican party slides into jingoistic authoritarianism, it deserves to be lambasted. But this is a Democratic party sporting a nominee who launched a clumsy intervention in Libya, who shows little hesitation about using federal power to move society where she thinks it should go, and is running on a platform of a minimum-wage increase that would devastate low-skilled workers in poorer states. Libertarians tend to define themselves against the Republican party, almost embarrassed by it. Johnson continues this trend. Yet Johnson, in style and substance, contrasts with Hillary as much as he does with Donald.
Johnson and Weld, both former Republicans, appear to believe that they will be the default choice of scores of disaffected conservatives (and perhaps reap scores of thousands of their dollars in fundraising). They believe this because the American brand of libertarianism overlaps with conservatism more than it does with liberalism or socialism.
