Drew Carey Hosted a Fundraiser For Gary Johnson

Drew Carey has been a long time vocal Libertarian but when he hosted a fundraiser at his home in support of Gary Johnson, he took a big leap forward in his involvement. Carey spoke out against Trump, "I don’t know what America he’s living in but he’s crazy.” When Johnson addressed the crowd later, he echoed Carey’s sentiments by asking, “What country is he talking about?”

Johnson said that Carey is one of the several celebrities who have expressed their support for him, even if many are not yet willing to do so publicly. Johnson had just arrived on the West Coast from Cleveland, where he said he spent the week giving over 70 interviews and had upwards of 500 people come up to him to pledge their support, including some delegates who were decked out in Trump gear. He is still holding out for the type of game-changing endorsement that could launch him beyond the 15 percent threshold in polls and put him on the general election debate stage.

Carey was initially approached by the Johnson campaign to host a fundraiser at a bar or restaurant in Los Angeles. But instead, he offered to do it at his home in the Hollywood Hills. “I throw a good party,” he said. The comedian spent the evening strolling the grounds, mingling with guests and pulling out his signature black-framed glasses only for selfies.

As for why Carey supports Johnson, he said, “I don’t need a national daddy or mommy.” Like Johnson, Carey would not say which of the two major candidates he believes would be worse for the country. Asked who the “lesser of two evils” is between Clinton and Trump, he replied, simply, “Gary Johnson.”

“I don’t give a fuck,” Carey says, bluntly. “If your person doesn’t get enough votes, you lose. I don’t want to hear it. There are more than two choices and you are allowed to vote for whoever you want. This is America. If you can’t get the votes to win, tough shit.”

I'm glad to have you on our team Drew!

Libertarian Town Hall Key Points and Takeaways

Despite a few knocks from Weld, they stuck to the issues and didn't stoop to name calling and personal attacks. 

Johnson abstained when given the chance to personally knock Trump and Clinton.
"I don't think either of us is going to engage in any sort of name-calling," Johnson said. "We're going to keep this to the issues, and the issues are plenty." (Indeed, Johnson was critical of Trump's immigration plan and other issues.)

When asked about President Barack Obama, Johnson called him "a good guy." He said Clinton was "a wonderful public servant." And Trump? "I'm sure there's something good to say about Donald somewhere."
Not so much for Weld, who called Trump a "huckster" and repeated a comparison he had made previously between Trump's immigration plan and Nazi Germany.
"I think the Republican presumptive nominee has succeeded in tapping into the very worst political traditions and in other countries," Weld said, adding that Trump's deportation plan was "directly analogous" to "Anne Frank hiding in the attic hoping no noise will alert the Nazis below."

Their stance on gun control became more clear.

Johnson has been a staunch advocate of Second Amendment rights but said he was open to a "discussion" around solutions to incidences of gun violence.

Johnson told Jeanette McCoy, a survivor of the Orlando shooting: "We're not looking to roll back anything" on existing gun regulations, adding that he would look into law enforcement solutions.

"The FBI came in contact with this guy (the Orlando shooter) three times. What transpired? Why wasn't this guy deprived of his guns?" Johnson asked.

Weld called for "a thousand-person FBI task force treating ISIS as a gigantic organized crime family."

They also cleared up any questions we might have had about their views on abortion. 

Johnson and Weld also both affirmed their abortion rights positions. Johnson said Republicans "alienate a lot of people" when they attack Planned Parenthood, a women's health organization that provides abortion procedures.
"We're not looking to change the law of the land in any way," Johnson said.

Above and beyond that Bill Weld stated that he believed the federal government should be protecting a woman's constitutional right to make that decision (about abortion) herself. He stated "That's not bad government. That's good government." Making it clear to me that while they both want a smaller centralized federal government they WILL go to bat to protect the rights of American citizens against the states if necessary.

They both agreed Trump's stance on immigration is ludicrous. 

They both had harsh words for Trump on immigration, leveling some of their strongest language against the Republican presumptive nominee.

Johnson, a former border governor, called Trump's calls for the deportation of all undocumented immigrants and the erection of a border wall "incendiary," and bordering on "insanity."

"The Republican presumptive nominee has succeeded in tapping into the very worst political traditions of the United States and other countries," Weld said.
He added that images of the Holocaust, including "Anne Frank hiding in the attic" was "directly analogous" to Trump's deportation policy.

Johnson went on to state that the deportation of 11 million people would probably include door knocking and in border states that would mean taking people out of every other house. 

Stupid personal questions make for difficult answers. 

Maureen Morella, an undecided voter, brought up the struggle her family had with her son's heroin overdose and took issue with Johnson's laissez faire approach to drug policy. Johnson pushed back on her concerns, saying government regulations had harmed drug addicts more than his policies would.

"Prohibition really is what your son succumbed to," Johnson said in a somewhat awkward response to her personal question.

He advocated a series of harm prevention programs, including needle exchanges and safe-injection zones. In response, Morella said: "You're keeping people addicted."

"We have the best policies in this country to kill heroin addicts," Johnson said, pushing for another way forward on drugs.

If I had been the one answering that question I would have asked Morella if she thought her son should also be in jail after the harm drugs had done to him. Since that's what we're really talking about here, is jailing people for crimes that have already hurt them and their families. It is my opinion that the war on drugs has done nothing but fill jail cells and cost the taxpayers money that could be better spent on rehabilitation and treatment. 

There's a bit of descent between Weld and Johnson on Tax Reform. 

Johnson, who has often repeated the Libertarian refrain that "taxation is theft," advocated for radical reform of the U.S. tax code.

"Count on me to sign on tax policy that would reduce or simplify taxes in this country," Johnson said. "But If I could wave a magic wand, I would eliminate income tax, I would eliminate corporate tax, I would abolish the IRS and I would replace it all with one federal consumption tax."

The presidential candidate advocated a conservative plan known as Fair Tax, but pressed for specifics, said he would support any such reform so long as it was "revenue neutral."

Adding to his anti-Washington message, he said a total simplification of the U.S. tax code would mean that "80% of Washington lobbyists would go away. Because that's why they're there, to garner special tax favor."

Weld said: "I don't think you have to go so far as abolishing the IRS," as long as they could give people the sense that tax rates would go down.

In defense of them both, neither of them ever raised taxes during their time as Governor. Weld especially completely turned around Massachusetts financial crisis by lowering taxes across the board.

Let's keep the ball rolling!

When asked what the greatest hurtle facing them in their candidacy was, they both answered publicity. Johnson ran as a Libertarian in 2012 and failed to gain much traction. This time around, he's running with Weld, which may help add credibility, attention and fundraising prowess to a perennial long-shot White House effort.

Already, Johnson has shown his candidacy could have potency given voter disappointment in Trump and Clinton. A CNN/ORC poll released Tuesday showed Johnson earning 9% support nationwide and likely Green Party nominee Jill Stein pulling 7% support among registered voters. Among those voters who say they are not settled on a candidate in the two-way race, more than one-third choose Johnson (23%) or Stein (12%) when asked the four-way match up.

Ahead of the town hall event, the Libertarian duo got a boost from former Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. The Libertarian icon told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that although he hadn't decided who he would vote for, it wouldn't be Trump or Clinton.

"I think people who say they want significant change, they want to protect individual liberty, are concerned about the Constitution, they should think seriously about voting for a Libertarian principle," Paul said.

So, let's get them to 15%

At 15% in the polls they have to be included in the debates. If you want to see Trump, Clinton, and Johnson head to head on the issues then share news articles. Tweet about #JohnsonWeld2016. Do what you can to help them gain traction. 

Voting Third Party Matters

The biggest objection I come across to voting for a Third Party is the “wasted vote” argument — the idea that if you vote for someone who will not win, then the vote does not count.

Voting is not Football, the objective is not to back the winning team.

Join any third party and simply suggest that another person consider voting for a third party candidate and you will hear, ad nauseum, “I don’t want to waste my vote.”

A Third Party Vote is NOT a "Wasted Vote"

An unprincipled vote is the only wasted vote.

Why do we vote? It’s a chance to tell the country — and perhaps even the world — about your vision of government and society.

But how do most of us vote? Do those who believe Gary Johnson or Bernie Sanders is the best candidate, most in tune with our own feelings, actually vote for them? No. The majority do not. Instead, most of us vote the “lesser of two evils” — a defensive vote, rather than an offensive one.

The lesser of two evils is still evil.

So what happens after you cast the defensive vote? Well, then you have sold out your personal beliefs. You have become a political prostitute. You aren’t standing up for what you believe in by voting “the lesser of two evils.”

I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of being a political hooker. If you think the Republican or the Democrat really does best mirror your beliefs, by all means, vote for that candidate. But if you don’t, and you still vote for them, you’re helping to preserve the status quo you probably despise.

Remember, You Never Decide the Winner

On statewide races (larger than city council races), there is a single important point to remember: You as an individual will never cast the deciding ballot! Therefore, there is no reason to vote for the lesser evil.

I hear the wasted vote argument most in precisely the races where it applies least. For instance, the Presidency of the United States.

A Presidential race will never be decided by one vote. And if by some mathematical chance it got that close, it would be decided politically by Congress. (I know, a dirty word in the presidential races these days.)

So What’s the Point of Voting?

We as individuals don’t vote to select the winner.

As a practical matter, we vote to tell everyone else which choice best represents the direction which we want the country to go. When you vote, you gain a certain power that a non-voter doesn’t have; the power to change America.

Hence voting lesser evil sends the wrong message; it’s sending a message of compromise. In effect, a defensive vote says “I will settle for a less evil America, not the best America possible.”

I urge you not to settle.

Remember, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten. In other words, if you want things to change, then create change.

The history of third parties in America is that they serve as the vanguard for new ideas. It is these ideas that make the world go round. If a Third Party begins to draw votes, one or both of the two big parties steal their ideas.

Socialists Can Teach Us Something

The most successful third party in the 20th Century was the Socialist Party. While never winning any significant elections, their small but growing vote totals were a threat to the Democrats. Thus the Democrats, and then later the Republicans, adopted piecemeal every major tenet of the 1916 Socialist Party platform.

Libertarians are the opposite of the Socialists, but they find their success instructive. The radical ideas about liberty that began in 1971 are now being seriously debated or, in some cases, implemented by the other parties. An increasing number of Libertarian votes is indeed noted by the politicians as well as the media.

So rather than waste your vote on Democrats or Republicans, cast a meaningful ballot that clearly says what you believe.

Libertarians Are the Future

Despite the fact that the Libertarian Party continues to run more candidates in better-funded campaigns each election cycle, it is common to hear: “I really like Libertarian candidates, but I don't want to waste my vote.”

After watching both Democrats and Republicans make promises that frequently become lies, two conclusions should become evident: (1) The lesser of two evils is still evil, and (2) the only way to waste your vote is not to use it for a candidate that sends the message you want to send to America. In all honesty, It doesn't matter which evil you vote for if evil still wins.

In the year 2000, the Libertarian Party ran over 1,500 candidates for public office. 247 of those candidates were running for seats in the US House of Representatives. If each Libertarian US House candidate won, Libertarians could technically have taken control of the house with a majority.

Today, in 2016, there are 145 Libertarians holding elected offices nationwide: 41 partisan offices, and 104 nonpartisan offices. Gary Johnson is currently polling 9-11% depending on which poll you're following. At 15% he has to be allowed into the debates.

If you have principles, then vote for your local Libertarian candidate.

Vote JohnsonWeld in 2016's presidential race. You won't regret it. Even if they don't win, you'll be helping make history. You will be helping open the door for future third party candidates. You will be helping make America a better place to live.