Gary Johnson is Not Running Away from the Libertarian Party; Despite What Others Might Say

Bruce Cohen over at The Libertarian Republic  has suggested that Gary Johnson is running away from the Libertarian Party by not having the word Libertarian in any of his campaign literature.

Check the Johnson/Weld marketing. Do you see the word Libertarian? How about the new ad that’s spreading like fire on the internet? Nope, not there…

I first heard the idea of the strict importance of Libertarians (especially) listing their party on campaign signs (and all other advertising) from David Nolan.

While this is a pretty subpar charge against the Johnson campaign, we felt it necessary to defend the campaign.  Here is an official logo from the Gary Johnson campaign that shatters this allegation from Mr. Cohen:

Screen Shot 2016-07-01 at 8.45.23 AM

This quoted statement is also from the front page of the Johnson/Weld website that was recently revamped:

Be Libertarian with us…
Join us in trying something different.
Let’s put parties and differences aside while we solve our problems.
Together we’ll stop the spending and end the wars.
Together we’ll restore our industrial might.
Together, we’ll rebuild our own roads, bridges, schools and hospitals instead of building them for countries half a world away.
And if, in four years, we as a people decide we didn’t like peace, prosperity and freedom, we can always vote tyranny back into office again.

This argument that Johnson is running away from the Libertarian Party is just fabricated nonsense being used to undermine the campaign of the Libertarian nominee.  There are still some hardcore Libertarians bitter about Johnson winning the nomination, but at the end of the day we are all in this together and need to really start treating this as a unique moment for the party and country.  This type of gotcha journalism does nothing but stir the pot of internet trolls.

9 thoughts on “Gary Johnson is Not Running Away from the Libertarian Party; Despite What Others Might Say

  1. Bruce Cohen July 1, 2016 / 9:25 am

    Good point.
    Except his latest TV ad mentions nothing about the LP.
    Not one word.

    And that was his MO in 2012. As it appears to be today.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Robert J. Bentley July 1, 2016 / 9:31 am

      But when you look at every video he has done besides this new one he mentions the Libertarian Party every time.

      Like

    • lorddickus July 1, 2016 / 9:33 am

      Hi Brucey!

      This article is total weak sauce

      Like

  2. Eliyahu Neiman July 1, 2016 / 10:29 am

    It’s smart campaigning to not emphasize “Libertarian,” which many people have false preconceptions about, and draw people in with actual substance. As far as I can tell, he hasn’t changed one iota on issues.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Eric Blitz July 1, 2016 / 12:23 pm

    Perennial argument raised about countless LP candidates. When someone does name recognition work (which should not have anything else but the candidate’s name), someone objects that it doesn’t say Libertarian or Libertarian Party. One of their media doesn’t include Libertarian, another person with an axe to grind uses it as their chance to criticize the candidate. It isn’t just Gary, it is done at the state level and in every previous presidential campaign that I’ve watched. Some complain about issues instead. So, the campaign will do an anti-drug war spot that mentions marijuana and someone says ‘you should have mentioned the legalization of all drugs, it’s in our platform’. You can’t win with some people. They know the ‘perfect’ campaign and aren’t afraid to tell you. I wish they’d run themselves and prove their point rather than be a back bencher. Every time a libertarian tells me “X should be doing…” my retort is, ‘show me, don’t tell me’. Don’t assert what can or should be done, do it yourself. Odd’s are you’ll find your silver bullet still misses the mark.

    Like

    • Bruce Cohen July 1, 2016 / 6:36 pm

      First of all, Gary promised to help build the LP.
      He even apologized for doing a bad job last time.
      (‘This time we’ll be more organized’)

      Next, it doesn’t cost your name recognition efforts
      to name your party, it helps your name recognition.

      And with the ‘Discovery Conundrum’, we learn
      Candidates who mask or omit their Party affiliation
      when campaigning lose most of their polling numbers
      inside the voting booth.

      This is counterproductive for Gary and the LP.
      And it breaks his promise(s).

      I will hold his feet to the fire on this until he keeps
      his word and does the right thing.

      As far as your ‘show me’ request, I have walked
      the walk for my entire adult life, working in Koch,
      Brown, Marrou, Bergland, Nolan, Badnarik and
      other Presidential Campaigns, as well as many
      others down ticket.

      I’ve also run myself, and gotten a ton of media
      for the LP.

      Like

      • Ryan Haase July 3, 2016 / 5:49 pm

        First of all, Bruce, get over yourself and your ability to hold Gary’s feet to the fire. Any Libertarian who does anything to undermine the Johnson/Weld ticket due to hurt feelings over them not being strong enough Libertarian pitch men is putting party exposure over the main goal: Making sure neither Clinton or Trump become POTUS. Refocus on getting Johnson 15% in the 4 counted national polls so he can be in the debates, please. You seem like you could be an intelligent asset.

        Like

      • Bruce Cohen July 3, 2016 / 7:31 pm

        I WANT Gary to do better. Very much.
        I oppose both Clinton and Trump, just like you.

        Johnson will do better in polls when uses the word “Libertarian: in his marketing.

        As far as me ‘getting over myself’, I’m not sure how Ad Hominems improve this discussion.

        What I want is for Gary and the LP to both come out ahead.
        Which would happen if Gary remembered what Party he’s now in.

        Like

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out / Change )

Twitter picture

You are commenting using your Twitter account. Log Out / Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out / Change )

Google+ photo

You are commenting using your Google+ account. Log Out / Change )

Connecting to %s