Some of you may remember my last forum post: https://www.warzone.com/Forum/417747-amash2020 where I posted my support of then presidential candidate Justin Amash, a Libertarian from Michigan. I recently registered to vote as a Libertarian, and thought that I should plug the official Libertarian candidate for President (Amash dropped out before the nominating convention):

https://joj2020.com/issues-jo-jorgensen/
Read the platform and tell me you still support Biden/Trump for policy reasons.

For those who criticized me, being from an important swing state and voting third party, I ask: where can I see Biden/Trump's platform? Better yet, where can I find a candidate who is:

Anti-Deficit Spending
Pro-Peace/Neutrality
Pro-Deregulation
Anti-Social Security
Pro-Free Trade
Pro-Open Borders
Anti-Qualified Immunity/Civil Asset Forfeiture
Pro-Criminal Justice Reform
Will abolish Department of Education (don't say Trump, he already promised to do that)
Will reduce taxes

Who am I a spoiler for if I vote for Jo Jorgensen in November? I believe that most Americans hold a majority of the positions above. Why should we settle for two 75 year-olds with rape accusations? Jo Jorgensen isn't exactly the young leader that many people expect, but at least she hasn't been involved in politics since 1972.

Edited 7/2/2020 14:20:33

I'd say most Americans don't support those policies, mainly because most Americans (and people in general) are authoritarians.

To any Canadians who clicked on this post, consider supporting the People's Party in the next election, whenever that may be: https://www.peoplespartyofcanada.ca/platform
1.6% of the vote after just over a year of the party's existence is a great start.

Before you should cast a vote, you should first force a change in the political voting system. First past the post is so 19th century, a time when people were still moving with horses to travel! Even thou you are a Liberal, every one who is against the stupid dualism there is a friend of mine! I wish you good luck! :D

@Kretoma I agree, the problem is that the major parties don't want to change the voting system because they have the most to lose from it. Also, liberal isn't the same thing as libertarian (at least in the modern context). Liberal tends to refer to social liberalism, while libertarian would be closer to classical liberalism.

Electoral reform is a prerequisite to a viable third party run. As we saw with Ross Perot- who's done far better than any other third party candidate in this political era- the path to winning even a single electoral vote is blocked by political mechanics.

As an electorate, we should also de-nationalize and de-polarize our politics. If you like the policies of Jo or any other candidate other than Trump or Biden, please consider also getting really involved in your local, city, county, and state politics: the path to concrete improvements becomes much less of an uphill climb as you get increasingly local. If you're dismayed by the lack of ideological representation in the federal government (it's just Dems and Reps, Dems and Reps everywhere), check out your local offices and committees and you just might be surprised how much broader their political spectrum gets. The national government doesn't account for all or most of the impact politics have on your day-to-day life, so if you- like me- don't like the way things work today, take the time right now to understand what's going on locally in your city, county, or community politics. Taking action there can often have the biggest impact on your quality of life.

Your candidate will never have the support to be elected. If they are will not be allowed to be elected due to some bullshit. And if that doesn't happen he will not be able to change anything in office

your best bet is to bomb buildings and kill politicians ........ in minecraft

Thanks knyte! I completely agree. I will be volunteering in my area (and at college in the fall) for her campaign.

Andrew Yang sort of brought ranked choice voting to light, I think the best method is Single-Transferable-Vote shown below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XOZJkozfI

Edited 7/2/2020 20:54:33

The United States has never had open borders.

An open border is a border that enables free movement of people (and often of goods) between jurisdictions with few or no restrictions on movement, that is lacking substantive border control.

The Schengen Area ( /ˈʃɛŋən/) is an area comprising 26 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. The area mostly functions as a single jurisdiction for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy. The area is named after the 1985 Schengen Agreement signed in Schengen, Luxembourg.

I'm arguing for the top one (although I'd be willing to argue for Schengen-style no borders system with Mexico/Canada)

Edited 7/2/2020 22:16:21

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Conservative_Party_of_Canada_leadership_election Here's why ranked ballots are a horrible idea. Bernier won the first 12 rounds of voting, but then Scheer won the last round by under 1%. Even though the numbers seem to suggest most people got their desired result, someone's 1st-12th choice should count more than their 13th choice.

why would someone support open borders between mexico and the usa? sounds like a bad idea

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Conservative_Party_of_Canada_leadership_election Here's why ranked ballots are a horrible idea. Bernier won the first 12 rounds of voting, but then Scheer won the last round by under 1%. Even though the numbers seem to suggest most people got their desired result, someone's 1st-12th choice should count more than their 13th choice.

They do count more than their 13th choice. Also every single person whose vote counts for Scheer voted for Scheer over Bernier, stating that they prefer him no matter what round. Any democratic system is very close and very tough with 51-49 margins, but surely you shouldn't call it a "horrible" idea because the guy who I'm guessing you don't like won.

why would someone support open borders between mexico and the usa? sounds like a bad idea

Well a sort of prerequisite to an open or semi-open border between the US and Mexico is ending the war on drugs. Jo explains it in her platform that I linked in OP. It's a human rights issue as well as an economic one.

Edited 7/3/2020 00:16:08

@Benjamin My point was that 7% of first round votes should be worth more than 1% of 13th round votes. Libertarians shouldn't be fans of democracy anyway. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

That whole election process was horrible. The Conservative establishment didn't want Bernier because he'd make the party more libertarian. Scheer was the status quo candidate. From the article:

In addition, the result of the leadership race and party handling was questioned by some supporters of such as runner-up Maxime Bernier and fifth place candidate Kellie Leitch due to discrepancies in the final ballot count, specifically a gap between the number of ballots cast and the announced result - a 7,466 vote discrepancy, which is greater than Andrew Scheer's 7,049 votes margin of victory in the final round. There was criticism over the exact role of the accounting firm Deloitte during the voting process - a deal revealed that Deloitte was not specifically tasked with auditing the vote but "observe" the counting process.[11][12] It was also reported that some of Brad Trost's supporters contravened the Elections Act and party membership rules by offering incentives to vote. Dimitri Soudas, a former Stephen Harper aide, pointed out that it violated election rules and it benefited Scheer's campaign but the ballots have been destroyed so the results stood.[13]

Knyte is speaking common sense, something that is being lost as we speak.