I must admit, I have enjoyed telling people I know that "I voted for Jo" - only to see the looks on their faces as they ponder how I could have voted for Joe Biden. When I tell them "Jo Jorgensen" I get the "who the heck is that?" look.
On Tuesday I joined 1.6 million other Americans - 1.1% of the people who voted - by selecting someone who had no chance to win. Libertarians always vote for people who have no chance to win.
We do not care.
We vote for Libertarian candidates because we do not believe the modern Republican or Democratic parties stand up for our uncompromised values.
Donald Trump opposed the free movement of human beings (immigration) and the free movement of products (international trade with no tariffs). He did nothing to slow down government spending and used eminent domain unashamedly to build his border wall. We hated all of that since we believe that people should have the right to move from point A to point B if they think point B is a better choice; believe that no government should tell businesses which nations they can sell to, and in what quantities; believe government spending should fit within Article One, Section Eight, Clause One of the U.S. Constitution (the Madison view, not the Hamilton view) and abhor the use of eminent domain for any reason.
We were happy that Trump cut personal and corporate income taxes (although no income tax would be better). We loved his reduction in government regulations which lowered production costs and fueled greater supplies of a myriad of goods and services and appointed many justices who had a more strict constructionist view of the Constitution. Those judges will be here long after his last U-Haul leaves the White House so that is worth something.
Libertarians are braced for Joe Biden and his likely Bernie Sanders/Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez - inspired agenda that will shove new rules and regulations - along with new taxes and new welfare-state/wasteful infrastructure spending - into our economy. He will likely regulate energy markets in a way that will not ban fracking or fossil fuels but will make extracting and selling them more expensive and thus make the cost of living for all of us - especially the poor - increase.
He will try to raise taxes on people who make more money than the rest of us only to find out what all Democrats find out. Money and people are mobile and rich people do not get to be rich by being stupid. He will not get the revenue he hopes he will, economic growth will slow and rich people will still be rich while the rest of us see less job creation and opportunities.
He will try to expand government spending to solve his Covid-19 anti-economic growth, safety at all cost belief system, which will only increase the debt (just like Trump) and saddle future generations with large tax increases long after he has left us.
He will spend our money on idiotic Keynesian schemes to build up our infrastructure. This was the same nonsense that did nothing for growth when Obama was the President and did nothing for our economy during the Great Depression. Taking one dollar from me to shuffle over to the construction of a windmill means I am poorer by one dollar and the government is richer by one dollar. If my plans with that dollar were better than the dollar for the windmill it would have been more efficient to let me keep my dollar. That is a fact that has not changed and Biden will not suddenly alter that fact.
However, there is some potential good news from a Biden presidency.
First, he will likely try to pick up where Mr. Obama left off and rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership. He will probably be more inclined to pursue expanded free trade and end the moronic trade war Trump started with China. This will boost the demand for American goods and lower prices we pay for foreign goods.
He will more likely end the cruel and xenophobic immigration policies of Donald Trump. This will increase the supply of labor in areas that currently face critical shortages while at the same time restoring America as a nation that welcomes human beings who want to simply have a better life.
It is also likely that he will seek to restore our relationships with our allies. Libertarians differ on the degree to which we need "entangling alliances" but it is certainly arguable that it is better to have a president who seems presidential, intelligent, polite, dignified, humble and receptive to the views of others than the guy we have had in office for the last four years.
If Biden can just hold off the socialists that are going to try to run him over and act like his own man he just might be a more centrist president and we will, as usual, be o.k. for the next four years.
