Conor Friedersdorf is disappointed Gary Johnson isn’t getting much press as a Republican candidate:
But the press treats celebrity billionaires like viable candidates, all evidence to the contrary, acting as if the American public hasn’t repeatedly expressed this aversion in past races. Look at Donald Trump. Yes, he’s a national joke, but he’s been given a lot more attention as a contender for the presidency than a lot of folks who’ve served multiple terms in the Senate or a statehouse.
And the American people would never elect him!
I’ve noted before that I wish Gary Johnson, a successful former governor from New Mexico, would garner more press attention. It seems to me that he’d be a far better standard bearer for the Tea Party than a lot of other contenders vying for that role, and personally I’d welcome it if one of his signature issues – pushing for an end to the ruinous war on drugs – received more attention. Sometimes I’ll even ask other political journalists, “Why don’t you cover guys like him more?”
This reminds me a bit of Jesse Walker‘s writing about the “radical center,” even though Walker was talking largely about violence. Trump has embraced pure lunacy with his birtherism, but it’s a lunacy shared by enough people that few on the right are actually brave enough to come out and say he’s full of it. It’s even catapulted him to the top of some national polls and garnered him a great deal of media attention. The point is it’s fine to believe in something objectively stupid as long as enough other people agree with you. Ending the drug war is considerably less insane than believing the president was born in Kenya, but it’s not an idea that has been absorbed into mainstream politics yet.
