So you, like me, voted for Senator Bernie Sanders for President. Now maybe you’re considering switching allegiances to the Libertarian presidential candidate, Governor Gary Johnson?
I respect your decision to shop around and do thoughtful research. Here’s something to inform your decision.
(Source for Sanders positions here. Source for Johnson positions here. Source for estimate of Sanders spending increase total here.)
Yes, Governor Johnson would do some very smart and important things, such as scale back the war on drugs and be careful about entering military quagmires. But most of the centerpiece policies championed by Senator Sanders are vehemently opposed by Governor Johnson.
Thank you for this very handy checklist, Mr. Loveland. You’ve almost inspired me to do a similar one comparing Bernie and Donald, but I suspect most of the boxes would be either blank or filled with a “?” because the Republican nominee has taken several conflicting positions on policies such as the minimum wage.
And, I submit to you (and your readers), the Bernie->Donald voter is more myth than reality. Can anyone point to an actual example of such a creature in the wild?
Pew finds that 85% of Sanders voters already say they’re supporting Hillary, while only 9% are going to Trump. So, there are not many in the wilds, but it blows me away that it’s not much lower than that.
Incidentally, at this point in the 2008 cycle, 20% of Hillary voters were telling pollsters they were voting for the Republican (McCain), compared to just 9% defecting to the Republicans now. So Dem wounds are already healing faster than in 2008, and hopefully the convention will accelarate that trend.
To solidify Sanders voters and win some third party flirters, Hillary needs to emphasize her plans to reform Washington and Wall Street, because most (46%) of Sanders backers say Clinton is not able to combat special interests better than Trump (23% say neither). This is why I’d consider Warren or Sherod Brown if I were her, and pick some fights with special interest groups.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/07/08/bernie-sanders-voters-will-support-hillary-clinton-en-masse-while-holding-their-noses/
I have to admit, I think a Clinton/Warren ticket could be formidable. It might make governing tough – there’s some considerable policy differences between them – but that may not matter because the attitude of Congressional Republicans will be “we blocked (pretty much) everything for eight years, we can do four more easy.” If that’s the case, it doesn’t matter if the administration puts up big changes or little ones in regulating the financial sector, minimum wage or anything else.
Hell, by that point we could be down to a five-person Supreme Court.