Alright, so before you start the lynching, let me explain. I’m not suggesting a shift to the Democrats or a party change by any means, and certainly would never advocate for you to donate to her charities or waste your hard earned cash on her Mayoral run (in which I hope she crashes and bombs as well)
So, I’m scrolling through some meme pages and enjoying my morning cup of Joe when I feel the twinge of an idea slowly creep into my mind. And as it goes with many epiphanies that dawn on someone, it is often sudden, and for a moment I was left staring down at my morning cup of Joe thinking, “Why haven’t I thought of it like this before?” I mean it is certainly not jaw dropping or groundbreaking, but admitting to it and acknowledging it can be rather painful. So yes, Hillary Clinton deserves a bit of praise from the libertarian ranks and here is why.
For a month now, libertarians as a whole have been rather receptive to the results of November 9th.
We have approached the outcome as a foreseen loss for our own party, and although most of us probably didn’t see it unfolding the way that it did, we have shown surprising optimism towards the idea of a Trump presidency. Even if you fit into this particular category and even if you preferred Trump over Clinton, he is not the one we should thank for having the turnout that we did. Even with the crazy wild ride that the insane hotel tycoon took America (or rather the media) on, he somehow withheld from acknowledging the Libertarian Party and likely pushing our numbers even higher. He somehow stayed focused on Clinton and fed into what his followers wanted; “her in jail,” “wall 10 feet higher,” “I’m a Republican,” hahaha. Clinton however, being the old, raggedy, typically-out-of-touch candidate that she was, played into Trumps hands. She had to address the 3rd party votes and even launch campaign ads against them, some even naming Johnson and libertarians. For people that were looking for something else but had somehow been left in the dark on other options they finally got one from her. It doesn’t require in depth analysis to understand with numbers that were so far in either the unfavorable or outright hated category for both of these candidates, once these people on the fence saw another way out they took this chance to vote without fear of feeling like a dirty used condom after. To pick someone that is not Trump but is still somehow also hated by Clinton. A candidate who wasn’t streamlined, and yet as unorthodox as Trump himself.
It’s quite comical at the complete system meltdown we have witnessed from all of this. As Trump continues to make headlines, the left continues to verify the reasons that they lost in the first place, and libertarians are just sitting back laughing our asses off like Gary Johnson tripping balls off some brownies he just rode 100 miles on his unicycle to buy from his personal “baker.” With the distaste, fury, and hatred both major groups had with each other, the dissolving of voters’ personal party lines were mostly self-inflicted. We should never lose sight of our accomplishments as a party (we grew 400% in voter turnout while both major parties brought in a lower turnout than they have in decades). However, we still have to give credit where credit is due. So, thanks, Hillary. Thank you for being so unimaginably bad that you lost to your hand picked opponent. Thank you for giving libertarians free air time on our already slim budget, and giving thousands a way out. Thank you for shining light in a dim corner of the spectrum. And finally thank you for losing so fantastically. It has been fun watching the tears pour down like rain onto roof tops.
* Jonathan Pope is your average 30 year old white guy. He was brought up believing in conservative values but during his time traveling the world in the Navy, he began to see things through a libertarian perspective, and have since been growing in his distaste for overbearing government.
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