Will Libertarian Gary Johnson Break 5 Percent? Nick Gillespie, Matt Welch Talk Election Day
How the Clinton/Trump race to the bottom prove the thesis of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong With America.
The newest Reason podcast features Nick Gillespie talking with Reason Editor at Large Matt Welch about the last days of the Gary Johnson campaign, the surprising popularity in Utah of Evan McMullin, the perfidy of Bill Weld, and how the 2016 election proves the central thesis of Gillespie and Welch's tome, The Declaration of Indepedendents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America, which argued that the same forces of personalization and proliferating choice would eventually undermine popular support for the nation's political duopoly.
Gillespie and Welch make their final bets on who wins the big prize and wager whether the Libertarian ticket punches through the 5 percent barrier.
It's a rollicking, raucous conversation. Listen below right now now and scroll down to subscribe at iTunes and elsewhere.
Produced by Ian Keyser.
And come back to Reason all day and all night for updates and live reports from Albuquerque, New Mexico and Gary Johnson's HQ.
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Photo of Gillespie and Welch by Judd Weiss.
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No. He won't.
OMG ZOOM OUT, DAMNIT ZOOM OUT!!
I've heard of a haircut, but this is ridiculous!
Welch is literally phoning this in??? And I don't care for the seductive photo of these two looking at me as I listen to this podcast.
They're watching you not masturbate while showering.
Perverts.
Nope
Screw Johnson. Vote Trump.
no matter what else we win on two fronts.
1) Hillary isn't in office.
2) Endless entertainment as prog heads explode.
Trump is going to lose, bud. Sorry.
The boys are back in town!
Ta-da-da-da-DUHHH-da
Ta-da-da-da-DUHHH-da
Ta-da-da-da-DAAAA-da
Ta-da-da-da da da da da da da
I doubt it.
I'd really like to help the libertarian party break that threshold, but Johnson is just barely on the other side of the acceptable-to-vote-for line.
No.
But... do you like Congressional Hearings? I hope so. You're in for a treat.
Now I want to go back and find out what he called the last one.
Yeah, stop that please.
Only about ? of states require voters to disclose their party affiliation when they register, so the % breakout of Dem/Rep/Ind is a bit squishy but generally estimated by pollsters to be around 1/3 Dem, 1/4 Rep and the rest (42%) Independent. One of Matt's final poll breakdowns showed Johnson supporters to be 10% Dem, 25% Rep, and 65% Ind. If the LP can keep those percentages in the future but change it from 'Johnson supporters' to 'likely voters', the LP candidate would be at 37%. 37% in a 3-way race might be enough to win. So there's that.
Not bloody likely, with Hillary's bff Bill Weld chained to him.
Happy erection day, gentlemen.
I suggest for the next podcast you settle the discussion with jello wrestling. I think Nick can take Matt.
Go Team Yellow! It's not Teams Red or Blue, so it doesn't count as mindless party worship!