Gary Johnson: Nazi Sympathizer and Misogynist, or Economic Illiterate?

In the recent Libertarian debate on Fox Business, Gary Johnson triumphed that yes, in a free society, the government should step in to force Jewish bakery owners to bake a cake…with a swastika frosted in the center of it. Not only is this notion legally erroneous, but morally reprehensible.

Forget for a second that this country was founded on the ideas of property rights and the freedom to interact (and not interact) with whomever you choose. Forget for a second that the specific performance of forcing someone to bake a cake would not be something that could be enforced and the only legal recourse would be for the National Socialist to seek either actual or liquidated damages in court. Forget for a second that this man is running for President and doesn’t understand the very legal system in which he will be responsible at the highest level of enforcing. Forget for a second, that using the violence of government to stamp out bigotry only leads to more bigotry and hatred, as Libertarian contender Austin Petersen reminded the former Governor. For a second, let’s focus on what matters.

According to Federal law, there are officially 12 protected classes which are sheltered by anti-discrimination statutes. The last time I checked, “White Supremacist”, “Nazi”, or “Hitler enthusiast” were not on the list. The maxim Mr. Johnson is perpetuating must then be that he believes either the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 1968, or the Pregnancy Discrimination Act need to be supplemented to include these “protected” groups. Either Mr. Johnson sympathizes with the Nazi cause or, like candidate Petersen went on to say, Mr. Johnson lacks “a fundamental understanding of the free market”.

Let’s move forward to the issue of women in the Libertarian Party. Gary Johnson’s main opponent in the 2016 race has recently been condemned as misogynist for comments he made while on Christopher Cantwell’s podcast, Radical Agenda. Mr. Petersen came onto the show to combat Cantwell’s leaking of a disgraceful lecherous nude photograph of Mr. Petersen’s female friend. The two exchanged words of discontent and at one point Mr. Cantwell bellowed his sexual superiority to Mr. Petersen. Mr. Petersen jokingly silenced his opponent with a leveling comeback, stating that he swam in a “pyramid pile of pussy,” to which Cantwell had no real reply.

For those of you who are familiar with Chris Cantwell’s work, you know that he is a bully, a fear monger, and a Trump supporter. Cantwell has been cited championing slogans such as “Fuck Martin Luther King”, “Atheist, Anarchist, Asshole”, “All Lives Don’t Matter”, and “Black Males Should Be Disarmed”. Cantwell is also famous for being kicked out of the peaceful “Free State Project” in New Hampshire and is affectionately known by his followers for referring to his dissidents as “niggers” “cucks”, and “faggots”.

Yes, this is the type of madcap Austin Petersen was fighting on that show and was employing an old tactic used by Sun Tzu himself, “If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him”. Furthermore, Libertarians are not known for their political correctness, and if there is anything this election cycle shows. it is that American voters do not care about brash sound bites, and that they do not want spineless bureaucrats. Petersen stood up to a bully for his friend during her harshest hour, and has a record of advocating pro-female stances throughout his journalistic and political livelihood.

In contrast, let’s look at Gary Johnson for a second. Johnson was the only one during the Fox Business debate to not fully oppose equal pay for equal work. He was the only one who saw a legitimate role of government in determining an employee’s wages. Johnson is also in favor of federally funding Planned Parenthood, and believes women are legally entitled to government funded abortions. Johnson also sounded very similar to John Kasich by failing to admit that Medicaid was a complete and utter failure.

Understanding the paradigm of equal pay for equal work is fundamental to individual rights and personal liberty. Its nexus stands at the forefront of social libertarian ideology.

Simply put, equal pay for equal work laws, which Johnson endorses fully, were a main source of Apartheid. Apartheid materialized in South Africa directly because of the insistence by the trade unions that each person should be compensated equally, no matter who they were or what job they did. Equal pay for equal work is not only a grossly anti-feminist policy, both in implementation and result, but it eats away at the core of the American spirit.

The only bargaining chip men and women have in fields in which the other sex is better suited is to offer to work for a lower wage. If you deny this opportunity to a sex, you are single handedly guaranteeing that the job will be inhabited by the more productive sex. 8th grade level American history has taught us that a great number of minority workers were able to climb the socioeconomic ladder by generating dexterity, capital, or knowledge in order to improve their lives from the bottom, and rising as they operated.

Most of our parents and grandparents have climbed this ladder, not because of legislation, but because of the opportunity to work in fields in which other people were better suited, but scoffed at the wages. Propelling people to the top of the ladder through decree is a great economic and governmental myth, which should be ardently opposed by libertarians of all varieties. Maybe Mr. Johnson wants to increase female unemployment, decrease female attendance in certain parts of the workforce, or propel bigotry in American labor. Or maybe as Mr. Petersen put it, Mr. Johnson lacks “a fundamental understanding of the free market”.

Either way, Mr. Johnson fundamentally disagrees with libertarians for these reasons and for many others. It is time for the Libertarian Party to pass the torch onto the next generation of economic literates and ferocious warriors who won’t back down from a bully, whether it be Christopher Cantwell or Donald Trump. It’s time for the spirit of 1776 and 1799 to reign again, echoing the rights of business owners and disadvantaged workers. It is time to take back our country from a government who cares little and aggresses much. It’s time for the Libertarian Party to deliver a Mike Tyson hook to the two party system. It may not be Austin Petersen or John McAfee who do it, but it certainly cannot be Gary Johnson.