Paul Krugman laid it right out in yesterday’s New York Times:
"Nobody
cares” if you vote for Johnson or Stein on November 8 because you want to raise the middle digit to "the system."
Krugman’s key point: Clinton or Trump will be the next president of the
United
States, so “don’t vote for a minor-party candidate [just] to make a statement. Nobody cares.”
States, so “don’t vote for a minor-party candidate [just] to make a statement. Nobody cares.”
Rightly enough, he says that if you really think Johnson or Stein, and
the platforms of the Libertarian Party
or the Green Party, are right for America and they should have the power of the
presidency, then by all means vote for one of them.
But. Seriously.
Krugman bets that many Johnson/Stein supporters are mostly
anti-Trump/anti-Clinton kinds of people, who haven’t read those party platforms
and really haven’t thought through the consequences of Johnson or Stein getting
to redecorate the Oval Office.
Here’s Krugman summarizing the Libertarian platform:
“…it calls for abolition of the income tax and the privatization of
almost everything the government does, including education. What really struck
me, however, was what the platform says about the environment.
It opposes any kind of regulation; instead, it argues that we can rely
on the courts. Is a giant corporation poisoning the air you breathe or the
water you drink? Just sue: ‘Where damages can be proven and quantified in a
court of law, restitution to the injured parties must be required.’ Ordinary
citizens against teams of high-priced corporate lawyers — what could go wrong?”
Here’s my simple summary of the Green platform:
It's chock full of really good, really
feel-good, and mostly unrealistic ideas that have nothing in particular to do
with world trade or job creation or infrastructure investment or effective
regulation of the financial markets or health care reform or bipartisan government or…..
Neither Johnson nor Stein is going to win the election.
If you strongly endorse elements of either or both of these platforms,
image what will happen if Trump wins the presidency?
Krugman again: “Your vote matters, and you should act accordingly—which
means thinking seriously about what you want to see happen to America.”
photo from pixabay.com
Copyright © Richard Carl Subber 2016
All rights reserved.
