“A vote for Johnson is a vote for Hillary.”
“A vote for Johnson is a vote for Trump.”
“A vote for Stein is a vote for Trump.”
These simple, shallow, statements have been constantly repeated throughout this election season. At family dinners, in the media, just about everywhere. Many people genuinely believe that a vote for a third party candidate, is somehow also a vote for __________.
At first, it was simply within conservative circles. When telling people about Gov. Johnson, they would say, “He is probably better than Trump but, a vote for Johnson is a vote for Hillary.” This idea perplexed me. Polling has indicated that Johnson actually takes evenly from across the board. Shouldn’t it be that a vote for Johnson, is a vote for Johnson? Wouldn’t it make sense that the only way to vote for Hillary, would be to vote for Hillary? It seems like common sense.
Despite the poor use of semantics, the concept nonetheless is clear. That Gary Johnson will simply take votes away from the Republican nominee. Which again, polling suggests is simply not true. Especially of late, Johnson has been making a great push to bring in disenfranchised Bernie Sanders supporters, as Johnson is much closer to Sanders on civil liberties issues than Clinton. Nonetheless, the same statement continues to be repeated.
When talking to friends of mine who are Bernie turned Hillary supporters, I raised the question of why they could choose Hillary Clinton over Gary Johnson? The response? “A vote for Johnson is a vote for Trump.” I was flabbergasted, literally the same terminology was used by disenfranchised Bernie Sanders supporters, as disenfranchised Republicans were using.
When hearing ultimately the same statement come from both sides, isn’t it clear that A vote for Johnson, must be a vote for Johnson? Or maybe a vote for Johnson could be a vote against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.
It is clear that millennials are looking for other options. If it were up to millennials, there is a three-way race. One recent poll found that for voters between the ages of 18 to 24, Clinton nearly edges out Trump, 29% to 28%. Interestingly though, this does not tell the whole story. As the former New Mexico governor actually comes in third with 24% of the vote.
Millennials are looking for a candidate who at last represents what they believe. They are frustrated with having to choose between a candidate who opposes the war on drugs but wants to increase everybody’s taxes and a candidate who opposes gay marriage but advocates fiscal responsibility. A majority of millennials say they would support a fiscally conservative and social liberal candidate. And this is the whole premise of the Gary Johnson campaign.
In the end, Gary Johnson is nowhere near an ideal candidate. I still do not know who I support for president, however it must be made clear, a vote for Johnson is a vote for Johnson only.
