On Tuesday, Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld exhorted Americans to stop Donald Trump at all cost.
The Donald, he asserted, is dangerous because too touchy, too childish in his egoism, to withstand the pressures of the presidency of these United States. “In the statement, Weld made no mention of Clinton,” writes the AP. He focused on Trump and the GOP, instead.
Both progressive and conservative outlets interpreted this as a de facto endorsement of voting for Democrat Hillary Clinton — an uncomfortable conclusion, considering that Weld is Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gov. Gary Johnson’s VP running mate.
Looking at the statement itself, it is apparent that Gov. Weld prefers The Devil We Know to The Devil He Fears.
Which is where he loses me.
One need not like Trump to understand his appeal. Trump is a smoking sack of Who Knows What placed upon the doorstep of the Establishment, the insider classes running the federal government and the Fourth Estate. By taking offense at Trump but not Clinton, Weld sides with the insiders. My longtime respect for Weld aside, how can one plausibly do that?
We know what the Establishment wants most: perpetual war, permanent debt, and secure power.
Meanwhile, the ostensible Republican has been awfully vague on policy. Voting for Trump is buying a pig in a poke.*
The Democratic poke is fairly well known. But Hillary, the war-monger who accuses Trump of being Putin’s “puppet” and repeatedly plays chicken with the world’s other great nuclear power, puts her own policies in a poke by proclaiming her personal prerogative of telling the voters one thing and her insider crowd another.
Neither sack of … uh, please.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* Old idiom: synonym for swine in a sack.
Questions Answered:
Who is Gov. William Weld most fearful of this election year?
How plausible is a preference of Hillary over The Donald?
What can we make of Hillary’s and Donald’s foreign policies?
The Next Question:
If pigs could fly, which one would you vote for?
9 replies on “Pigs in Pokes”
Perhaps the issue is that Weld, and to a slightly lesser degree Johnson, are the most “establishment” libertarian candidates ever nominated. They both believe in the “goodness” of government and its the need to shepherd the flock of ordinary citizens, who simply cannot be trusted to be responsible themselves.
All politicians believe they are superior. Neither Johnson nor Weld recognise the government for what it really is, a necessary evil, to be minimized and absolutely limited to its core functions only (the enumerated powers actually and directly granted in the US COnstitution would be satisfactory).
It is therefore not surprising that Weld would tend toward Clinton, as she is of the same mindset as he, only differing on the amount of pressure she prefers to apply to the choke chain collar they both would place on every citizen.
Trump is too undefined and anti-establishment. Trump is the face of a revolution, and therefore extremely disconcerting to Weld.
All politicians see themselves and all other politicians as good hearted, if sometimes mistaken benevolent despots. Non-politicians are unknowns, and therefore too dangerous..
Nice analysis, Paul. Weld to me has always had the look of NWO insurance if Hitlery doesn’t win. http://brianrwright.com/CoffeeCoasterBlog/?p=8483.
I think the reality is the middle class says they’re not gonna take it anymore. Trump in a landslide. Then guide him toward full liberty.
http://brianrwright.com/CoffeeCoasterBlog/?p=8483.
Perhaps. Or maybe you hopefully, are wrong about Weld. He always does a balancing and question asking intro in his speeches which if not listened to carefully can lead one down the wrong path. Too nuanced for most reporters. Later he made a stronger and more direct statement that he ia all in for Johnson. I am equally against both Clinton and Trump.
So Weld is all in for Johnson?
I would hope so, given that they are running on the same ticket! What, exactly, did that prove?
Believe it or not, Clintons’ people are nervous about the libertarians pulling votes. They have spent some serious money toward this effort to discredit the LP ticket.so one has to pay attention.
I just hope that this entire Johnson/ Weld mess serves as a glowing example in the future of how the “moderates” in the LP are entirely wrong when they decided that it was more important to chuck principle in order to gain votes. Now we have half or more of the country that didn’t know anything about Libertarians that think that we are hard core left wing Sanders supporters. I worked for 13 years towards giving the LP an identity of seriousness, courage and principal and thanks to Johnson, Weld and that idiot who couldn’t keep his clothes on at the convention it’s been ruined.
I’m happy that in the not to distant future I’m leaving this country for good.
I share your frustrations and also feel exhausted from the all too frequent instances where many of our candidates did a great job and still the interviewer made sarcastic remarks or twisted simple statements. Conversely we have received some very good news coverage and libertarian ideas were articulated well by Johnson and other candidates. He does NOT do well in sarcastic interviews but does great and stays on point in both off the cuff and read speeches. I am talking to about 20 people a day and they are young, energetic, well read, and well on their way to a good understanding of all the benefits of libertarianism so I take a deep breath and realize that overall it is a positive. We are attracting the smart “kids” and the other two are imploding under their own hubris. Be of good cheer. Us OldTimers (not meant as an insult as I am certain I am older than you are) can be proud of the legacy and point to it with pride.
Lynn, I don’t know how long or how active you have been in the LP but I was around for quite a while. I fought the battles to get ballot access, was a county chairman, (Allen County Indiana) got an award from the Indiana State Party and was the speechwriter for Jo Jorgensen back in 1992. What I’m seeing is the “moderates” trying to take over the LP so that they can turn it into the Republican Party lite. I left the party several years ago not because I didn’t believe in it but because of an idiot that was working in the central committee sabotaged my plans to implement a game changing plan to pick up what would have been the Tea Party voters before the Tea Party even existed. I’m tired of fighting the battle and as soon as my mother passes away who I am taking full time care of, I’m heading for Paraguay, a country that is somewhat like what America used to be back in the 1950’s.