Columnist Jack Davies writes about the first televised Libertarian Party presidential debate.
As you might know, the Libertarian Party hosted its first televised presidential debate last week.
I know what you're thinking: It was probably a bunch of overgrown college students tying to "out edge" each other. Wrong — there was only one overgrown college student, who was significantly edgier than thou. There were also the Byronic hero-esque John McAfee, who has a shady past and more money than Scrooge McDuck, and Gary Johnson, the former Republican governor of New Mexico.
Despite my jabs, those were (by and large) people to be taken seriously and a welcomed breath of fresh air from the usual arguments between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the most universally loathed presidential candidates in a very, very long time.
Before we move on to policy, let us talk about the backgrounds of each candidate. Johnson has been active in electoral politics for a while now, having been the Libertarian nominee during the last cycle. He’s a pot smoking (even sitting as the CEO of a medical marijuana company), mountain climbing, 63-year-old professional politician with a formidable executive record, having vetoed more legislation than any of the other governors in the union combined. During his tenure as governor, his state experienced substantial economic growth.
Next up was software entrepreneur John McAfee, a charismatic early adopter of computer technology and the founder of one of the largest anti-virus software companies in the world. McAfee is probably one of the most colorful men to ever have run for the office of president. For a while he was wanted by Belizean authorities in connection with the death of Gregory Viant Faull.
Having been raided by the police beforehand and believing he would not receive fair treatment in Belize, he fled to Guatemala. Once in Guatemala the magazine Vice accidentally leaked his location, and he was detained by Guatemalan authorities for illegal immigration. Before they could deport him to Belize he faked a heart attack and was deported to the United States, where he was later found guilty of a DUI and drunken possession of a firearm. Despite that, he comes across as reasonable and erudite, giving nuanced answers to all of the posed questions and receiving a kiss from party favorite Johnson.
The last candidate is Austin Petersen, founder of trashy clickbait warehouse the Libertarian Republic. Petersen presents as the least prepared, and frankly the least intelligent, of the people on the stage. Quite frankly he comes across as an overgrown college edge lord, presumably formed from an illicit encounter between Ayn Rand and an answering machine, who communicates entirely in stuttered, half-formed bumper stickers.
On the issues, all three candidates come across as better than any of the Republican or Democratic alternatives. All are against the death penalty, mass incarceration and the War on Drugs. All three allegedly are against foreign wars, though Petersen’s commitment to non-interventionism is shaky given he used to berate anti-war Libertarians on his website. McAfee is in favor of continuing welfare and foreign aid, viewing those policies as promises made to the American people and the international community that cannot be easily abandoned. Johnson and Petersen disagree.
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I must say I like McAfee: He gave the most interesting, the most nuanced and the most principled answers of anyone on stage that night. He seems to me to be the most charismatic person there, and despite his drug use, allegations of drug manufacture and the whole Belize thing, I probably would vote for the man in an ideal universe. Perhaps that’s just me. I’ve always been the kind of person who preferred Byron, Lermontov and Coleridge to Socrates and Goethe.
The idea of the ultimately benevolent but flawed outsider taking the presidency could offer real change, but alas it is not an ideal universe (and never can be). In that case, faced with McAfee’s general sketchiness and Petersen’s amateur hour performance, I would have to declare Johnson the winner of the first round of the Libertarian debate. He has the most executive experience, moderate policies that could draw in both liberals and conservatives, and an adventurous if a little unassuming demeanor, making him the most electable. Whatever your politics, be sure to check out round two of the debate. We need third parties around here.
Round two of the Libertarian Party presidential debate airs Friday at 9 p.m. on Fox Business.
Jack Davies is a sophomore studying philosophy and the Honors Tutorial College senator in Student Senate. Did you watch the Libertarian Party debate? Email him at jd814213@ohio.edu.
