For Americans who can’t stand Barack Obama but don’t want to vote for Mitt Romney, November’s presidential elections look bleak. There are other candidates, however, none more obvious than Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico and the Libertarian party nominee. A greying triathlete who once climbed Mount Everest, he may not have a realistic chance of reaching the White House. But he is a politician to be reckoned with, especially since so many Americans are grumbling about the Washington status quo.
As a Libertarian, Johnson favours essentially open immigration. He also wants lower taxes and less state spending than even the vast majority of Republicans. He tells me that the ‘fiscal blueprint’ set out by Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, which Republicans say will address the nation’s debt crisis and Democrats insist will eviscerate the social safety net, is ‘much ado about nothing’.
The Libertarian party has been labouring in obscurity since 1971, when it was founded by disgruntled Republicans, effusive Ayn Rand disciples and individualists of all stripes. Libertarians have won a handful of state legislative seats but never more than 1.1 per cent of the presidential vote. That was in 1980, when the party sold its platform as ‘low-tax liberalism’. Most Americans preferred the low-tax conservatism of Ronald Reagan.
But the American political landscape is shifting. Johnson is adamant that his freedom-first philosophy is a bracing alternative to the staid major party values. ‘I’m the only candidate who doesn’t want to bomb Iran,’ he says. ‘Or who would get out of Afghanistan tomorrow. Or who would end the war on drugs. Or who supports gay marriage as a federal constitutional principle. A lot of Democrats aren’t fiscally responsible.
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