From Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson in the Washington Post on September 7:
“With the Republicans and the Democrats having nominated their most polarizing presidential candidates in more than a generation, now is the moment for a third way.
“My running mate, Bill Weld, and I were both two-term Republican governors in heavily Democratic states. Both of us won reelection overwhelmingly. We did this by governing as fiscal conservatives and social liberals. That’s where most Americans want their government to be.
“Political parties aren’t necessarily evil — unless they lead to the level of dysfunction that we have today. Elected officials in Washington cannot even agree on a real budget — and haven’t for years. That’s their most straightforward responsibility.
“These partisans place loyalty to their team over loyalty to the nation’s needs. It’s eerie to see Republicans under Donald Trump denounce free trade and limited government. It’s unsettling to see how comfortable Democrats have gotten with Hillary Clinton’s approach to Middle East regime change as secretary of state.”
“In the Federalist Papers, James Madison warned about the dangers of factionalism. His proposed solution was to divide power within the government. That can be frustrating to some because it makes the federal government inefficient by design. It keeps one person, or one party, from accumulating absolute power.
“Yet the two larger political parties have worked hard to try to create their own tyrannical majorities. The majorities alternate, but the basic premise doesn’t change.
“So consider a system in which a president from a bona fide third party enters the mix.
“With a chief executive free of any obligation to either party, the focus will be on the business of the nation, not on propping up a crumbling party apparatus.”
“The fact that the founders anticipated our two-party morass and warned against it ought to be enough incentive to look beyond it. The two major parties have failed to meet the needs of the nation. It’s time to try something different.”
