Now it's former President Donald Trump versus Vice President Kamala Harris.
But there will be another choice on your ballot: Chase Oliver.
Both Trump and former Democrat-turned-independent Robert F. Kennedy Jr. addressed the Libertarian Party convention, asking for their nomination, but Oliver won their votes.
He's a 38-year-old political activist and businessman. Rolling Stone called him "the most influential libertarian" because he forced a runoff in Georgia's last U.S. Senate race.
Oliver has interesting ideas that we don't hear from the major-party candidates. He also explains them better than they usually do.
As I moderated RFK Jr.'s alternative debate a few weeks ago, I kept wishing that Trump, President Joe Biden, and Kennedy spoke as clearly. And intelligently.
Oliver says, "Your body is your body, your business your business, your property your property."
That lays out libertarian philosophy pretty well.
Oliver supports gun rights.
"As a gay man," he says, "I can better protect myself from being bashed if I'm armed….I have great appreciation for our right to defend ourselves."
Oliver also wants to privatize government programs. "Why take tax money out of somebody's pocket to fund a program through government? Just about every program could be better done through the private marketplace."
Right. The U.S. Post Office couldn't deliver mail overnight. UPS and FedEx made it happen. Private companies try harder because they have to compete.
Oliver believes even welfare would be better off in private hands.
"Take money out of the government coffers, put it back in our pockets, and we can better allocate helping our neighbors and our communities ourselves without government programs."
By contrast, government poverty programs perpetuate poverty. They encourage people to be dependent.
The poverty bureaucrats want to help people. But they also want to keep their jobs in the poverty bureaucracy.
So government just grows.
Oliver pledges, "I'll be challenging Congress to get to a neutral budget so we're not adding to the debt and deficit."
I push back. "They'll say, 'Sure, we'll balance it. We'll raise taxes.'"
"That won't happen under me," replies Oliver, saying he'd veto any tax increase.
"Cutting spending is what's important," he says "We're not going to tax our way out of this problem. We could tax everybody to 100 percent—all the millionaires and billionaires that are 'not paying their fair share'—and that would fund the government for just a few weeks. The problem is spending, not taxing."
True.
Trump promised to cut government and "drain the swamp." He didn't. He hired more people and spent more money.
Oliver says: "I would like to drain the swamp by actually removing the size and the scope of the federal work force by finding programs and departments that are inefficient and redundant….Remove departments wholeheartedly."
Like the Department of Education.
"I would eliminate it," he says. "Education should be at the most local level possible. It should be up to parents to determine the school their kids go to."
He'd also "get government out of the business of higher education."
If students borrowed from private lenders, banks would assign tuition loans "on the basis of how valuable that degree is. They'll be much more apt to loan an engineer than someone who's getting a degree that won't make as much money. This will encourage colleges to actually lower the cost of these programs in accordance with what the marketplace is, as opposed to getting all this government free money."
Free government money wrecks a lot of things.
I wish Republicans and Democrats were as sensible as the Libertarian candidate.
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