Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson isn’t just relying on widespread Republican disenchantment with Donald Trump for votes; he’s playing both sides of the aisle by making a pitch to supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders on the left as well.
According to Johnson, who took the popular online “ISideWith” survey, he and Sanders align on 73 percent of issues. He names social and foreign policy as their overlapping territory, noting that the two “come to a T in the road” on economics.
The overlap
Most of Sanders’ policies are consistently leftist to a greater degree than most Democrats. And some of Johnson’s are, too.
On the social issues front, Sanders and Johnson are supportive of abortion rights, laws that protect LGBT individuals from discrimination, reforming the criminal justice system to end the “War on Drugs,” and eliminating mandatory sentencing.
Overlap: Light up and leave me alone
Johnson actually goes further left than Sanders concerning drugs – he thinks recreational marijuana should be legalized. While his campaign website states that the Johnson/Weld ticket does not support legalizing other drugs, Johnson has spoken for this recently.
It appears that the ticket’s official position is to decriminalize the use of other drugs – placing users in rehabilitation programs and making harm-reduction methods, like clean needle exchanges, available to people who are addicted to heroin, for example.
Overlap: Globetrotting
Both Sanders and Johnson have anti-interventionist approaches to foreign policy, something that separates them from Clinton’s record as a Senator and as Secretary of State.
Throughout the primaries, Sanders was critical of Clinton’s “yes” vote in the Senate for the war in Iraq, which Sanders, a member of the House of Representatives at the time, opposed. He also spoke out against what he called Clinton’s support of “regime change” in Libya and Syria, advocating a less interventionist policy in the region.
Johnson’s all about avoiding military operations in other countries unless they attack the United States. Like Sanders, he does not support regime change efforts.
About that “T in the road”…
So, it’s not unfeasible to imagine feelers of the Bern to also feel the Johnson – up to a point. But the “T” concerning economics is a big, bold, capital “T.” Basically, Johnson and the Libs are for small government across the board, and that includes the economy. Sanders, meanwhile, believes that it’s the government’s responsibility to enact policies that reduce income inequality.
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Income inequality was kind of Sanders’ jam, and presumably a lot of supporters got behind him for his economic policies. Johnson is pretty much opposite Sanders on these issues.
Take, for example, the minimum wage. Raising the federal minimum to $15 was one of Sanders’ main proposals. Johnson doesn’t think there should be a minimum wage at all. He thinks the government has no business determining employee value and requiring businesses to pay it.
“T in the road”: Healthcare
Another one of Sanders’ big proposals was to have a single-payer, Medicare-for-all healthcare system run by the government. That’s the last thing Johnson wants. He thinks the government should have its hands off health care, and private companies should be allowed to compete among people needing care.
Johnson’s particularly displeased with Obamacare’s individual mandate, which penalizes people if they don’t buy health insurance. Sanders, for his part, sees Obamacare as a step in the right direction.
Some of Sanders’ proposals were to be funded by tax increases on the wealthy, and by the closing of tax loopholes that he believes are taken advantage of by wealthy people and corporations. But Johnson thinks everyone, including the wealthy and corporations, should be taxed less. He wants to get rid of the IRS altogether, and replace all taxes with a consumption tax – a tax on goods and services individuals purchase.
“T in the road”: Climate change
There’s also a glaring disparity between the two platforms on how to address climate change. Sanders was all about instituting a carbon tax to incentivize businesses to go green, but Johnson thinks government should lay off taxing corporations into submission.
He would rather rely on the free market to direct clean energy innovation, and allow consumers to support that innovation by choosing products and services from environmentally conscious businesses.
“T in the road”: TPP
Finally, Sanders is a vocal opponent of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), as well as other big trade agreements like NAFTA, which he believes enabled corporations to ship jobs overseas. Johnson, for his part, wants more and freer international trade, and is supportive of the TPP.
What the polls are saying
A CNN/ORC poll from late July found that, among people who supported Sanders in the primaries, 69 percent plan to vote for Clinton, 13 percent for Green Party nominee Jill Stein and 10 percent for Johnson.
Clearly, some Sanders supporters were less committed to his economic policies than his social and foreign policies, and perhaps his anti-establishment bent as well. But, given the disparities between Sanders’ and Johnsons’ platforms, it’s no surprise that Sanders backers aren’t exactly flocking to the Libertarian candidate.
Johnson can be expected to continue his efforts to appeal to disenchanted voters on both sides of the aisle, making use of an election season in which a whole lot of voters aren’t too thrilled with their major-party options.
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