Politics

Another Prominent Libertarian Ditches Gary Johnson for Mitt Romney

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Former Libertarian Party chest-thumper Wayne Allyn Root made waves last month when he announced he was ditching Gary Johnson and the Libertarian Party and hitching his wagon to Mitt Romney and the GOP. "Gary Johnson is a good man," Root told Garrett Quinn. "But he's not going to win this election."

That thinking seems to be contagious. Today, Glenn Beck's The Blaze published an op-ed by Chris Barron, founder of the conservative GLBT group GOProud and one of Johnson's Electoral College electors, titled "A Libertarian for Mitt Romney."

Barron's case looks a lot like Root's:

There is a time for idealism and a time for realism, and for me, the time for realism is now. I endorsed former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson back in December of 2011, when he was still seeking the Republican nomination for President. I continued to support him even after he left the Republican Party and became the Libertarian Party's nominee for President. Indeed, I am a DC elector for Gary Johnson. On Tuesday November 6th, however, I will not be casting my vote for Gary Johnson – instead I will be casting it for Mitt Romney.

I still believe strongly that Gary Johnson would make the best President of the three candidates running, however, it is time to recognize he will not be President. The next President will either be Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, and without hesitation I can say that Mitt Romney will be a vastly better President than Barack Obama.

"Vastly better" only on the economy, concedes Barron. "When it comes to other issues of importance to libertarians – like civil liberties, ending nation-building, and the failed war on drugs – there isn't an ounce of difference between the two candidates."

While I don't begrudge Barron his vote, his public abandonment of Johnson–in the same publication where Root first endorsed Romney–seems a little fishy considering that Barron lives in D.C., which is 75 percent Democratic, and where every non-Democratic ballot is essentially a protest vote.