I have also always thought that our country needed a viable third party to awaken the two major parties from their somnambulist ways of business in order to put country before party instead of their current actions of the reverse order.
So I have never pulled the lever or scratched the computer screen for anyone outside of the two main parties.Which makes me feel like a hypocrite.
I,being a political junkie,watch tons of this stuff,so I consider myself pretty informed on the candidates and more than just the main candidates.
If C-SPAN shows a minor party,odds are that I have seen their candidate at one time or the other doing a stump speech,but I never seriously consider voting their way,no matter how impressed that I would be with that person.
I have been pretty unhappy with both candidates for similar reasons.
Barack Obama had a chance to do something special for the country and dropped the ball with health care.
I'm not an anti-health care person ( I actually think Obama's plan doesn't go far enough),but I think this bill is a sellout to the insurance industry and I am not a fan of deception.
I am not in favor of the mandate and in the 2008 Democratic primary,Hillary Clinton told the truth and said she is for the mandate,while Obama said he was against it,which means,of course, when it was closing time,he did just that.
That alone makes me not a fan of the President.
Willard Mitt Romney seems to be the slimy car salesman type that will tell you everything you want to hear and then reverse everything he said to you to the next guy to order to sell himself.
I hate those types of candidates as you just don't know what you are electing.
I would not say that Mitt Romney flip flops,that would be too kind to Mitt Romney to say he just has two sides,as there are many Romney positions and Romney's out there.
I am simply not comfortable voting for a guy that would say anything to get elected.
I would go as far to say that Mitt Romney makes me wonder more than any other Presidential candidate,not to say he's worse than some,just that he is so sleazy....
Considering that,where does that leave me?
I have always been passionate about politics since early childhood (check my recent post on George McGovern for more on that) and I could never understand how someone could be so ambivalent to not care enough to vote.
This year,I understand and despite all of that-I'll be there on Tuesday.
I was sitting at the PC and with an uninteresting Monday Night Football game on,I was bored and checking Facebook and saw a post by Steve Harris,who plays in several of my fantasy sports leagues about a third party debate.
Normally,I'm all over these things,but I missed this one,so I sat down and watched to pass the time.
In about 45 minutes,the Libertarian candidate had put himself in the running.
Gary Johnson seemed reasonable to me and made me think.
Oh,I think some of his platform is out in space a bit and I really think that if he had even the proverbial snowball's chance,some of his ideas would be modified insanely quickly.
An example would be his ideas for competing currency,which would be a huge mess),but some of his thoughts are very reasonable.
My main reasons for considering a Gary Johnson vote?
Well,mainly to be part of the five percent.
A five percent vote for any third party erases so many of the problems that third party candidates have-ballot access and will receive partial public funding for their campaign for both this election and the next one as well.
That would be the best way to hear more views and make things easier for a third party (Libertarian in this case) to get their candidate to seen and heard from.
Is Gary Johnson my ideal candidate? No,but he makes enough sense to make me think about him in a year that I have major issues with both mainstream candidates and I do believe that a shakeup is needed with the two party system,
The question now becomes do I actually show some courage and vote for Gary Johnson?
Tune in Tuesday to find out.
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