Every four years, it’s sure to be a libertarian, and a Libertarian, year. It may sometimes be the former, but it has never been the latter.
Hope rises yet again, this time in the candidacy of former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, now seeking the LP 2012 nomination. If recent polls are right, he has a chance for an historic LP showing in November.
If Johnson won even three-percent of the national vote, it would be historic for the Libertarian Party (where 1% of the presidential vote is a good showing).
This year, though, three-percent would be more than a large haul – it would be a result likely influential between the major parties.
That’s wouldn’t merely concern Messrs. Obama and Romney – it would be of concern to Charles and David Koch, former libertarians who through Americans have showcased any Republican (no matter how anti-libertarian) in the name of defeating Pres. Obama.
So here we are, with Koch-flush AFP about to get behind Mitt Romney (not as conservative as the Kochs might like but not libertarian, either) to defeat the incumbent Democrat.
(Johnson is a former Republican, who is now more manifestly libertarian than anyone running for president, including Ron Paul, and certain more than the Kochs have been in years.)
What if, despite Charles and David’s willingness to abandon sound libertarianism for a win against Obama, it’s a libertarian third-party candidate who sinks their hopes?
That wouldn’t be merely an irony, but a delicious one.
Posted originally at Daily Adams on 4.23.12.