Gary Johnson SuperPAC Tries to Sell 'the Alternative That You Can be Proud to Vote For'
As Trump and Clinton hit each others suitability as candidates and human beings, AlternativePAC hopes that the ideas of true liberty and true community can appeal.
AlternativePAC is the Gary Johnson-supporting SuperPAC behind the virally successful "dead Abe Lincoln" video that promotes their "Balanced Rebellion" campaign. (That's an attempt to link via the web might-have-voted-for-Clinton voters with might-have-voted-for-Trump voters so they can both vote for Johnson without worrying they are even in a tiny way helping their more-hated major party choice win. The PAC says it has been shared over 700,000 times.)
Today the PAC announced a third quarter draw of over $800,000 from more than 1,300 donors, for an election total take of $1.4 million. "Social media has allowed our campaign to reach millions without spending billions," PAC chief Matt Kibbe said in a press release announcing the take. "It's leveled the playing field and allowed us to reach a greater number of voters tired of Washington insiders telling them who to listen to and vote for."
Kibbe spoke further in an email interview today about how he thinks Johnson supporters can and should deal with the absurdist dumpster fire of leaked emails and sexual assault accusations the "real" campaign has become.
"We saw a huge spike in views and voter matches at Balanced Rebellion the day after the debate, and our sense is that voters are now tuning in, and are horrified, at the behavior and lack of any discussion of issues that will matter in the next four years," Kibbe says.
In response to this situation, "We are going to test this with a new ad that is about the values and issues that should matter in this election. 'Should,' but you won't hear about them on the stage set by the two party cartel because they know that their only chance of winning is to tear down the other. Hillary and her apparatchiks have released a well timed data dump, but Trump is more than willing to go there, doubling down on dirt and innuendo."
Kibbe hopes the video will hit home the message that Libertarian Johnson is "the alternative that you can be proud to vote for, no regrets, no feeling dirty the morning after the election."
Below is that latest AlternativePAC video, emphasizing the wild range of choices and powers that the modern digital age gives us, offering "a set of ideas" that are not just anti-establishment but pro-liberty and pro-opportunity.
"Liberty is real transpartisanship," it declares. Abuse of power is the key to the problems that beset us, the video says, and liberty is for true togetherness and justice. "Let's unite liberty with community."
It's a little touchy-feely, not for all audiences, but an interesting way to sell a liberty message outside the existing confines of a self-consciously libertarian community, and help build a constituency that might outlast November 2016.