by Brian Irving

LPNC Chair

The side-by-side op-eds by the Democratic and Republican party chairs the News & Observer printed Sunday offer a clear view of why the two-party system is dying. The main point in both articles was fear – fear of the other. Neither offered any positive or hopeful message.

“The future of our state and our country is in your hands. The stakes couldn’t be higher” warned Democrat chair Patsy Keever. If the Republicans win they “will continue to undermine the foundation of the state’s economic success” and our state and nation will be “divided by fear, bigotry, and hatred”

“Everything is at stake for this election – perhaps, the republic itself,” admonished Republican chair Robin Hayes. Another President Clinton will appoint judges with an “extremist agenda to legislate from the bench and ... ensure our Constitutionally granted first liberty to live and work in accordance to our peacefully held beliefs will continue its dangerous trajectory toward death.”

Libertarians offer something different. We ask you to vote your hopes, and not your fears.

I've heard the mantra “this is the most important election in our history” every four years all my adult life (I'm 67). It did not take me long to realize it was a merely a desperate tactic used by the Democrats and Republicans to whip their partisans into a frenzy. The louder and shriller the voices of fear, the less difference there was between the candidates. With nothing positive to offer voters, all the Democrats and Republicans can do is demonize the other party.

In 2016, it's becoming increasing clear to most Americans, especially young voters, that they no longer must choose between the lesser of two evils. In fact, they cannot choose a lesser evil. Neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton is fit for the office of President of the Untied States.

Americans are frustrated and angry. As they should be. They're ready to end “business-as-usual” in government.

Despite being largely ignored by the old mainstream media, and shut out of the debates, these younger voters see Libertarian Gary Johnson as a viable alternative to voting for evil. He and his running mate Bill Weld, a two-term Massachusetts governor, have more experience governing than Trump and Clinton combined.

Gary Johnson was elected governor as a Republican twice in a state controlled by Democrats. He vetoed wasteful spending 250 times, cut taxes 14 times, reduced the size of government without firing anyone, and left the state with new highways, bridges, schools, hospitals and a billion dollar spending without raising taxes.

The establishment parties are calcified, cancerous husks, as Teddy Roosevelt described them, “with no real soul within either, divided on artificial lines, boss-ridden and privilege-controlled, each a jumble of incongruous elements, and neither daring to speak out wisely and fearlessly on what should be said on the vital issues of the day.”

In Washington and in Raleigh, a small group of political operatives and leaders in both parties have colluded in the systematic dismantling of the freedoms guaranteed under our Constitution. They've kept our nation in a perpetual state of war and increasing unsustainable debt. They are the ones we should be fighting, not each other. We the people will never agree on all of the small things, but let's agree on the big thing: our leaders have failed us. Worse, they have betrayed us.

If we want a different America we have to start with new leadership. Let's put our parties and differences aside while we solve our problems together. Together we can stop out of control spending and end the wars. Together we can restore our industrial might. Together we'll rebuild our own roads, bridges, schools, and hospitals, instead of building them for countries half a world away.

Be libertarian with us on Nov. 8 and let's try something different. And in four years, if we the people decide we don't like peace, prosperity, and freedom, we can always vote tyranny back into office again.

For more information about Gary Johnson, go to JohnsonWeld.com. For info on Libertarian candidates in North Carolina, go to LPNC.org/2016_candidates.