I like Gary Johnson.We had lunch about a couple months ago, a meeting arranged by his press team after I poked fun at him on Twitter. They were grateful for the attention - he wasn't yet the Libertarian Party's nominee - and we talked a lot about his gluten allergy and the pot lozenges produced by a company he used to run. The lozenges give you a very pleasant high, he assured me. Unprompted, he said he knew this because he's tried them himself.
This should be a big year for the Libertarians, America's third-largest political party. Johnson, who was the Party's nominee in 2012 after his go-nowhere attempt at the GOP nod, was the Republican governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003. His running mate, Bill Weld, was the Republican governor of Massachusetts for six years in the '90s.
That's a lot of executive experience for any ticket, let alone a third-party one, and they'll probably get close to being on the ballot in all 50 states. Their opponents will be the two least-liked major party nominees in modern times, so no wonder a Fox News poll last month found them pulling 10 percent against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
So why is it still so hard to take the Libertarians seriously?
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The real problem with the Libertarians isn't Johnson; the problem is libertarianism. It's a philosophy with a deeply limited appeal, which libertarians themselves refuse to believe. Libertarian writers like my friend Nick Gillespie are fond of arguing that America is becoming more libertarian, not less, and that "politics is a lagging indicator" of its popularity. He has a point, particularly when it comes to social issues. But from an economic standpoint, there's not a lot to suggest that Americans are in the mood for small government and laissez faire capitalism.
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Poster's Comment: You should stop trying to take libertarians seriously because they are a funny bunch. They are not the funny bunch of clowns you will find in the center ring ... they are the side show in the political circus. They are freaks standing right alongside the "bearded lady."
