The Nashville Scene has produced a handy flowchart to help you decide which third party presidential candidate to support this election. I think its decision questions could use a little re-engineering, but it’s not without value.
And it does help make my own decision clearer.
Continuing the “oh, look, there are other people on the ballot” series, let’s look at the pair of candidates second to the bottom of the list.
Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson may be the most familiar of the minor party and Independent candidates on the Tennessee ballot. He was, after all, a contestant in the Republican primary, and appeared in a couple of televised debates.
Johnson and Texas Congressman Ron Paul sounded plenty alike when they both were running as small-l libertarians in the GOP race. Johnson then upgraded to the capitalized version, and in May of this year accepted the Libertarian Party’s nomination. Since then he has sought to strike a marked contrast with the two major party candidates on both foreign and domestic policy issues.
Johnson is for an immediate end to the war in Afghanistan, an end to the War on Drugs, and an end to the Internal Revenue Service. He promotes the Fair Tax®, a balanced federal budget, and individuals’ rights to marry another regardless of sexual orientation or gender (but religious institutions’ rights to protect their beliefs).
Libertarians are often described in political terms as naïve or idealistic. As president, Johnson would have virtually no ideological counterparts in Congress (save the aforementioned Paul and his son, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky). But that’s broadly speaking. On individual issues, a Libertarian finds himself agreeing with fiscally conservative Republicans much of the time, and with civil libertarians on the progressive side of the Democratic Party much of the time. They just don’t all agree at the same time.
An interesting thought experiment is to try and work out what types of coalitions a Libertarian president could cobble together to implement some part of an agenda.
Johnson’s running mate, former California Judge Jim Gray, represents the small contingent of current and former prosecutors, judges, and law enforcement officers who say that the nation’s drug policies are devised and implemented exactly backwards, and that they have a disproportionate impact on minorities.
If ending wars, drastically cutting taxes and spending, reviving individual liberties, legalizing marijuana, and decentralizing power are your thing, then Johnson-Gray is your ticket.
If you have taken the time to look at the ballot for the November 6 election (or if you have perhaps voted early), you will have noticed that—gasp—there are more than two sets of candidates running to be President and Vice-President of the United States.
I thought we’d start at the bottom of the list and work our way up in a brief series of posts on the lesser-known candidates, since (one would hope) everyone knows who the Republican and Democratic nominees are.
Rounding out the Tennessee ballot’s list of seven presidential candidates is one that I had never heard before seeing it on the Secretary of State’s website: Merlin Miller. The first thing to know about Miller is that he is associated with a political party, even though in Tennessee his party does not have ballot access and therefore he is listed as “Independent.”
As you know, “Independent” can mean a lot of things. This is why it’s a good idea to identify the political party with which a candidate affiliates.
The American Third Position Party (or “A3P” for short) has been described as promoting white supremacy. When I looked up Miller’s website I noted that, like many a candidate, he was hawking a book he had written. There was another (new to me) name on that book as the foreword author. Ah, I thought. Better look up that guy. Who’s promoting this candidacy?
So I encountered some writings by A.H. Krieg. I will not do him the service of linking or quoting, but suffice it to say that he does not look kindly on the Jewish people. I read a bit about some other A3P leaders and found their positions on immigration, race, and nationalism equally off-putting.
My next bit of research was on Virginia Abernethy, who is Miller’s running mate. Lo and behold, she is a “professor (emerita) of psychiatry and anthropology at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.” So there is a Tennessee connection, although candidates can get on the ballot here far easier if they’re willing to go “Independent” than if they were to try and gain party ballot access.
Readers, I sometimes stridently break from the mythical “pure objectivity” that journalism types adore (we often forget it’s unattainable). This blog is both “straight news” and “editorial page.” In 2008, I openly endorsed now-President Barack Obama. I haven’t yet decided whether I will endorse a candidate in this election.
But I wanted to make sure that voters know what Miller’s “Independent” label means in case they were looking to cast a vote along the lines of “I don’t care for either of the major candidates, so I’m going to vote Independent.” If you are an angry white right-wing populist, an anti-Semite, a vociferous anti-immigration activist, then this is your ticket. (Honest assessment: I can think of several people who self-identify as “Tea Party” that hold similar views to those espoused by the American Third Position Party. Hmmm.)
Otherwise, this information likely will steer you away from Miller-Abernethy as a choice.
Either way, you have been informed.
Snips from ABC News:
Former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson and three other non-major-party presidential candidates will debate on Tuesday, a day after Obama and Romney square off, with former CNN host Larry King moderating their debate of alternatives at the Hilton Chicago.
The debate will feature the Libertarian Party nominee Johnson, Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode, and Justice Party candidate Rocky Anderson.
And here is where to find it:
No major networks will carry it–at least no major American networks. It will stream online at three outlets: ORA.tv, where King now hosts a show; Russian English-language network Russia Today; and the Free and Equal Elections Foundation website.
All four of these candidates are on the Tennessee ballot, though only Goode and Stein bear their parties’ labels. Mark your calendars.
With all the media attention on the Republican and Democratic national conventions, it may be easy to forget that there are other tickets vying for voters’ attention. A few of those will get a bit of sought-after TV time next month, thanks to everyone’s favorite mustachioed curmudgeon, John Stossel, who has a weekly show on FOX Business.
From Ballot Access News:
The John Stossel TV show on September 13 will have four presidential candidates: Stewart Alexander of the Socialist Party, Virgil Goode of the Constitution Party, Gary Johnson of the Libertarian Party, and Jill Stein of the Green Party. The show will be re-broadcast on September 15.
Goode, Johnson, and Stein will be on the ballot in Tennessee. Johnson will be listed as Independent, since the Libertarian Party has not been granted ballot access under its own name.
Merlin Miller, of the new-to-me American Third Position Party, also will be listed as Independent.
There are quite a few more political parties running candidates for President, along with a veritable plethora of Independent candidates. You can check out all of them at Politics1.com.
Just remember that only a subset will appear on your Tennessee ballot. Those will be clearly listed and linked on this site in the coming days.