Dispatch from the Razor's Edge, the Blog of Michael Stephen Fuchs
Gary Johnson For President
“Americans want to be able to choose a president who is capable of reason, of learning from failures, and of telling them the truth. Most of all, they want to choose a president who will adhere to the Constitution and will make government live within its means. I’m offering that choice.”
- Governor Gary Johnson,
Libertarian candidate for president

Governor Gary Johnson (New Mexico) and Governor Bill Weld (Massachusetts) are running for President and Vice President in 2016. Get introduced to them here in two minutes:

Johnson & Weld are on the ballot in all 50 states. They are currently polling in first place among young people, independents and active-duty military personnel, and at 13% nationally – much higher in some states. This is despite the stranglehold on the political system, and fundraising, long held by the two major parties. And the outcome of the two-party system in 2016 is a manifest disaster. So what's our alternative? Watch this! (Seriously!)

Only 9% of Americans voted for Clinton and Trump to make them our anointed candidates. These two major-party candidates have the highest negative ratings of any in history. Most Americans are profoundly displeased that we have elevated a racist, nativist, authoritarian, know-nothing, conspiracy-mongering, foul-mannered, fascist nutjob; and the latest member of a corrupt and self-interested political dynasty (whose political machine evidently steamrolled the primary campaign of a good and honest man), and who has put us in horrifying existential peril of a Trump presidency by insisting on running as the most divisive and disliked politician of her generation – because winning a Senate seat as a carpet-bagger, being crowned Secretary of State, and eight years of Clintons in the White House just weren't enough.

Johnson & Weld are in favour of a balanced budget, term limits, an end to military adventurism, a simplified tax system, free trade, continued immigration to strengthen our immigrant nation, and strong protections for civil liberties including marriage equality. In other words, they believe in what most Americans do: fiscal responsibility, and social tolerance. So, wait – tell me again why they can't win?



Put another way – why do we have to vote for Trump or Clinton? Because the powers that be in the two-party system tell us so? Because you mustn't vote for someone decent, because they can't win, because no one will vote for them – because they can't win? That's the logic? And are you going to let the two major parties – who have given us TRUMP and CLINTON??!! – tell you you're not allowed to vote for the better candidate?

Moreover, there actually is a path to victory for Johnson & Weld. First of all, when they get in the debates, everything changes. So far, the Republican and Democratic-party sock puppets of the Commission on Presidential Debates have barred them, despite that 62% of Americans want them in and more than a million have signed a petition saying so – but are obliged to let them in when they poll 15% nationally. I say that when most of America sees them for the first time, the momentum shifts their way. And if their numbers keep climbing, they could steal the handful of states required to deny either Clinton or Trump the 270 electoral votes needed for outright victory. Then the election is thrown into the House of Representatives. That House is Republican-controlled, but perhaps not insane, so they just might pick Johnson & Weld.

And, worst case, at least you haven't wasted your vote – by voting for a candidate you don't believe in. Remember: when you vote for the lesser of two evils, you're still voting for evil. With the elevation of Clinton & Trump, the two-party system has manifestly failed. Why are you sticking with it? You hold the key to release yourself from these chains. Believe in better:

Worried about handing the election to Trump by stealing votes from Clinton? No problem. If you live in one of the 37 states (at least) whose result is a forgone conclusion, vote for whom you like and believe in, guilt-free. But, if you're in a competitive state (and it really only matters if you live in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Texas), find an anti-Trump friend in a safe state, and swap your vote – you vote for Clinton (on their behalf), and they vote for Johnson (on yours). (The #NEVERTRUMP app will even find them for you.) The one good candidate in the race gets a vote, while Trump is denied one and his major opponent also gets one. Perfect.

Intrigued – and got 8 minutes to spare? Check out Governor Johnson on Bill Maher.

Got 20 minutes? Great interview with Governors Johnson & Weld here. You will be amazed how smart, reasonable, and recognisably human these guys are – everything Trump and Clinton are not.

And if you're going big, I defy you to watch these guys for 54 minutes in their CNN Town Hall and still claim Clintrump is the best we can do. In fact, they're the antidote to our current two-party disaster: smart, humble, compassionate, well-informed, experienced, principled, progressive, inclusive, trustworthy, and untainted by scandal.

So, America – you in?


  feel the johnson     freedom     politics     america     hope  
about
close photo of Michael Stephen Fuchs

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very  long  walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .

THE MANUSCRIPT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
PANDORA'S SISTERS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
DON'T SHOOT ME IN THE ASS, AND OTHER STORIES by Michael Stephen Fuchs
D-BOYS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
COUNTER-ASSAULT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book One - Fortress Britain, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Two - Mogadishu of the Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Genesis, by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Three - Three Parts Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Four - Maximum Violence, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Five - EXODUS, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Six - The Horizon, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Seven - Death of Empires, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eight - Empire of the Dead by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : NEMESIS by Michael Stephen Fuchs

ARISEN, Book Nine - Cataclysm by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Ten - The Flood by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eleven - Deathmatch by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Twelve - Carnage by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Thirteen - The Siege by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Fourteen - Endgame by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Fickisms
ARISEN : Odyssey
ARISEN : Last Stand
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 1 - The Collapse
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 2 - Tribes
Black Squadron
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 3 - Dead Men Walking
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 4 - Duty
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 5 - The Last Raid
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