What You Need to Know About the 2020 Libertarian Party Presidential Nominee

Jo Jorgensen 

Jo Jorgensen won the Libertarian Party's 2020 presidential nomination on Saturday during the party's nominating convention.

The convention was held online and included 12 hours of debate and four rounds of balloting.

I am not too excited about the Libertarian Party this year because I doubt the party will be able to garner much coverage given the dynamics of the Donald Trump-Joe Biden(?) race. You would need a very special kind of talent to get significant news coverage and Jorgensen isn't that person.

Many of those who might vote libertarian will probably vote for Trump thinking Biden might be too destructive (or at least his controls would be).

That said, Jorgensen appears to be a solid libertarian. However, her issues page presents issues as though she thinks she has a chance at winning the presidency rather than using her platform to educate about libertarianism.

She just doesn't come out in favor of abolishing much of anything, she just calls for shrinking government.

A few examples from her issues page.

Republican and Democratic policies over the past fifty years are the reason health care has become so expensive. Their latest proposals to ‘fix’ health care will further micromanage your doctors and restrict your access to care while failing to solve the underlying problem. They differ only on whether this should be done by private insurance companies or government bureaucrats. This is the exact opposite of what needs to be done. We can reduce the cost of health care 75% by allowing real price competition, and by substantially reducing government and insurance company paperwork. This will make health care affordable for most Americans, while also reducing the cost of legacy programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA.
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Taxes are never voluntary – they are always paid under threat of punishment. If you fail to pay what government says you owe, you can be fined, have your wages garnished, assets seized, even go to prison. Voting for more government spending inevitably leads to higher taxes to pay for it – now, or in the future. As President, I will work tirelessly to slash federal spending, make government much, much smaller, and let you keep what you earn.

Now, you can see where she is going with this: to really shrink government's role, and these would be awesome positions from a Republican candidate. But Jorgensen didn't get the Republican nomination she got the Libertarian nomination, so there is no reason for her dilute true libertarian views.

She is not going to get elected president. She should just let it really rip and take hardcore libertarian positions, such as abolish all taxes and end government involvement in healthcare, for starters. She has an opportunity to catch the ear of a few and let them know how radical libertarianism really is but , apparently, she is not going to do this.

She is going to hide libertarian radicalness and sound like a very conservative, smaller government Republican. How is anyone going to learn about libertarian radicalness with this positioning?

I hasten to add, I would be arguing differently if she actually had a choice at winning the election. Then it would make sense to slip a libertarian into office who didn't hedge on principles but carefully dressed them to get over the top in the election. This is not now the case.

Jorgensen has less of a chance of getting elected this November then Jeffrey Epstein.

-RW