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A civil, honest alternative

To the editor:

At this point it fortunately does not look like Donald Trump is at all likely to become our next president. Unfortunately the odds are excellent that Hillary Clinton will become our next president, and if that happens I think the second presidential debate gives us a pretty good preview of what Washington politics are going to look like for the next four years. It will be the ugly irrational hyperbolic polarization of the past 24 years, on steroids.

However, we do have a civil and honest alternative in Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson. By now most people who follow the news would be aware that Johnson is far from perfect, but in my opinion the “talking heads” have been much too quick to dismiss him.

Consider his past. He started a construction company from scratch that eventually grew to employ over 1000 people and made him a millionaire. His first entry into politics was to run for governor of New Mexico, where he won as a Republican in a very Democrat-heavy state. He was successful enough that he won a second term with a healthy 55 percent of the vote.

Speaking of healthy, this guy thinks nothing of riding a bicycle for hundreds of miles, has competed in ironman triathlons and has climbed the highest mountain on every continent.

In his current campaign Johnson has won endorsements from several major newspapers, including the Detroit News and the Chicago Tribune. A poll by the Military Times revealed Johnson tied with Trump for 1st place across the whole military, and beating both Trump and Hillary by over 10 percentage points each among officers in particular.

Even before Trump started to seriously implode, polls indicated Gary Johnson had a chance of winning the state of New Mexico, where they know him best.

Johnson’s running mate William Weld is also an outstanding individual. Formerly a federal prosecutor and head of the Department of Justice Criminal Division, Weld successfully ran as a Republican for governor of Democrat-laden Massachusetts. He also won a second term under those circumstances, with 71 percent of the vote – the widest margin of victory in the state’s history.

Gov. Johnson and Gov. Weld both have proven records of success as executive leaders in government. They are fiscally conservative yet socially progressive. They support both Second Amendment rights and LGBT rights. They support an invincible military defense but oppose counterproductive military adventures.

John Loosemore

Hancock

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