America. We all benefit from hearing new ideals, becoming smarter and more imaginative about our future.
Gary Johnson is suing the presidential debate commission to gain access to the national debate. What is the party establishment afraid of? Americans deserve more choices, and in fact are sick of the establishment and demand something different to improve our country.
Trump and Clinton are polling as the most unfavorable candidates in 30 years, causing people to seek refuge elsewhere. The American people are clamoring for something different, anything but the two establishment candidates.
My favorite quote of the debate from Austin Petersen:
“…they can be trusted with freedom and that that freedom should be as expansive as possible. The role of government is to protect our Liberty, not our security, that’s what the Second Amendment is for.”
Petersen was the only candidate to mention the Second Amendment, however briefly. Petersen came off as rehearsed and memorized, akin to Marco Rubio. I don’t like to say that because Petersen is intelligent and solid in his knowledge of the Constitution and Libertarian principles as evidenced in his spontaneous replies. One question that set him apart from McAfee and Johnson.
“The president has no authority to enact laws on abortion the congress writes the law, but we should be morally pro-life. All humans deserve the same right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness and we should find every opportunity we can to save lives.”
Gary Johnson faltered when he agreed that he believes a Jewish baker should be required to bake a cake for a Nazi wedding. In a free market economy, consumers can choose which businesses they support and businesses can choose or exclude customers as they see fit. John McAfee was strong on this point:
“If you’re the only baker in town it may be a problem, but no one is forcing you to buy anything, or to choose one place or another, so why, should I be forced to do anything? If I’m not harming you, am I harming you by not selling you something? No, it’s my choice to sell your choice to buy.”
Austin Petersen weighed in against Johnson saying:
“This betrays a fundamental lack of understanding of the free market, you have to allow the marketplace to work. The government cannot stamp out bigotry, The government is not supposed to make us into better people, that’s not what the United States was founded on, the United States was founded so we can be whatever we wanted.”
Gary Johnson’s strongest point is his experience as former governor of New Mexico. It came across multiple times in the debate where his knowledge of the workings of government and legislation were clear. He has the experience to get things done and to go about them in the correct way.
John McAfee was a bit eccentric, often questioning what the terms being debated meant. By doing this he makes people think more deeply about the issues.
This was a civilized debate with everyone sticking to their time limit and taking turns talking. At one point the debate moderator, John Stossel, waved a United States pocket Constitution on camera, definitely a cool moment. He didn’t launch any attacks on the candidates, but was respectful and asked tough, but fair questions.
This debate was interesting and did not feature the mudslinging and ambiguous campaign slogans that are present in the Democratic and Republican debates.
Part one of the Libertarian debate aired on April 1st, 2016 on cable television, you can view the entire part one debate here. The reason for this split is that the Stossel Show is one hour in length. Part two of this debate will air on April 8, 2016 @9pm on Fox Business Channel. Let us know what you thought of the debate in the comments below!