As a guest Tuesday on the CNBC show Futures Now, Ron Paul predicted that American voters, “as we get closer to the election,” will be motivated by “who they hate the most” to make a choice between the Republican and Democratic presidential nominees instead of choosing the Libertarian Party alternative. Paul, who notes that he has been through this process himself as the 1988 Libertarian nominee, also says that this year’s Libertarian presidential ticket is presenting itself with “mostly Republican viewpoints” instead of a message that would really appeal to people contemplating voting third party.
Watch the complete Futures Now episode, dealing largely with Brexit and the European Union (EU), here:
Earlier this month on the Ron Paul Institute’s audio show Five Minutes Five Issues, I commented on this likelihood of a an underwhelming Libertarian presidential vote total in the 2016 election. I said:
Here comes the speculation about the Libertarian Party’s newly nominated Gary Johnson and Bill Weld presidential ticket potentially “spoiling” the election for the Republicans or Democrats. At least Albert R. Hunt, in his Tuesday Bloomberg editorial, admits “it’s not clear whether the casualty would be Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.”
Indeed, the Libertarian ticket may not affect the outcome of the race.
Hunt suggests that the claim that “never have the two presumptive major party nominees been so unpopular” is an argument for the Libertarian ticket potentially winning more votes in 2016 than in 2012. Johnson was the 2012 presidential nominee as well. However, many people’s votes are motivated by a desire to prevent somebody bad from winning. Might the unpopularity of the Republican and Democratic candidates encourage voters to choose between those candidates instead of choosing a third-party option? Might this especially be the case if the third-party alternative does not boldly present a coherent alternative philosophy that excites potential voters and convinces them that the third-party vote is meaningful instead of wasted?
