If you love Bernie Sanders, you'll like Gary Johnson

I noticed an interesting trend in political news the other day. Whenever you see a publication or report about Bernie Sanders, it's always up against Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Then, whenever you see something about Gary Johnson, it's up against Trump and Clinton. Very rarely do you ever see anything that includes both Johnson and Sanders.

I find this rather ironic considering both underdogs complain about the unfairness of media coverage, yet nether of them see it all relevant that they should at very least acknowledge each other.

I think it's even more interesting that they're own supporters refuse to acknowledge both candidates at the same time, especially considering both Bernie and Gary have so much in common ideologically. In fact, they agree on over half of the issues currently plaguing American minds.

Let's look at the big stuff they agree on:
> Abortion: It's a woman's right to choose
> Same Sex Marriage Equality: Yes
> Pro Second Amendment: Yes
> Equal Opportunities for Education: Yes
> Equal Opportunities for Financial Success: Yes
> Equal Career Opportunities for Everyone: Yes
> Foreign Entanglements: No
> Protect the Environment: Yes
> Legalize Marijuana: Yes
> End Racism: Yes
> Protect Our Country from Foreign Terrorism: Yes
> Invading Personal Privacy: No
> Affordable and Accessible Healthcare: Yes
> Stop Frivolous Spending: Yes!
> Equal Pay for Women in the Workplace: Yes
> Reform the Immigration System: Yes
> Pathway to Citizenship for Illegal Immigrants: Yes
> Get Corruption Out of Congress: Yes
> End the 2 Party Monopoly: Yes
> Reform Campaign Finance Rules: Yes
> Support the Elderly: Yes
> Support the Poor and Under Privileged: Yes
> Welfare Reform: Yes
> End Crony Capitalism: Yes
> Tax Reform: Yes
> Actually Audit the Fed: Yes
> End the Fed: No
> Decreasing the Defence Budget: Yes

That's a lot of things to agree on! Though it's not really surprising, considering that libertarianism is a balance of social and conservative beliefs, especially minarchy, the particular brand of libertarianism Johnson most closely follows.

That being said, there are obviously a great number of ways on which these two believe are the way in which to accomplish what they believe needs to be changed or created. Though we'll save those differences for another post.

For now, let's look at the few things they disagree on almost completely:

Foreign Wars and Interventionism
Bernie: For
Gary: Against

Mandatory Vaccines/Parents Rights/Government Control Over Your Body:
Gary: Against
Bernie: For

Individual and Business Tax Equality
Gary: For
Bernie: Against

Equal Access to Quality Schools (children)
Bernie: Against
Gary: For

States Rights
Bernie: Against
Gary: For

Tax Funded Healthcare
Bernie: For
Gary: Against

Increasing Big Government
Bernie: For
Gary: Against

Tax Funded College
Gary: Against
Bernie: For

Lowering Taxes
Bernie: Against
Gary: For

Increasing Minimum Wage
Bernie: For
Gary: Against

Term Limits for Career Politics
Gary: For
Bernie: Against

Being that Bernie fans and Gary supporters also agree on more then half of the hottest issues, I find it absolutely crazy that most people hear about each other's candidate and almost immediately get ready to go toe to toe over the name and stigma of their candidates ideology. If you line up each candidate side by side, they are not as different as one would think at first glance. Even the ideologies of libertarianism, and specifically minarchy, and democratic socialism are not so different. Really, the only stark difference is that the demsoc wants to control people using the strong arms of the government, where's the libers want people to control themselves.

So, what the point of this post?

2 things:
1. If you're voting for Johnson, don't be a total dick to Bernie supporters. Many of them actually want what you want, they just either disagree about how to get it, or they're still too conditioned by the establishment to let go of the false fear that they are capable and deserving of the right to rule themselves. Also, I've met plenty of Bernie supporters who heavily considered going LP, but they ran into to many aggressive LP dickheads and it turned them towards Bernie. Remember, you can share your views without being rude, and in doing so, you'll create more allies then enemies. This is important considering that if the democrats tie their own noose and give Hilary the vote, former Bernie voters will swing the vote in large numbers. If we can foster an allyship with them, they'll swing the to Gary Johnson at best, or get Gary into the live National Presidential Debates at worst. We're at 11%, it only takes 15% to get on stage with the big boys and be heard.

2. Starting out with the same advice to you Bernie supporters > don't be a dick. There are many social libertarian voters who are heavily considering supporting Bernie just to ensure neither Hillary or Trump get voted in. The more outside voters you can get, the better for your candidate, yes? Well, if you keep treating LP voters like lepers and extremist, it's not going to give them any incentive to support you or any candidate likely to treat them like you do. So seriously, don't be a dick. That's gonna be my new political slogan for everyone, lol.

Also, Bernie fans, consider this: even Bernie doesn't want to support Hilary if he loses. He's trying not to be as big of a dick as he'd like to be, we can all tell, so he's pretending he'd conditionally give his support to her, but he really doesn't want to and he secretly hopes you won't either. That being said, you can bet your sweet ass he doesn't want his loyal fans to go fit trump either. So, what's your other option? Gary!

Yes, I know it's scary to entertain the idea, but if you seriously do some ideological soul search, a little Google searching and use some common sense, it'll all become clear and much more comforting.

Plus, we can all agree on one more thing at very least: Having either Hillary or Trump will ruin us. Having Bernie is more of a coin toss at this point, especially if you look at his voting record, though with the other two it's not even like picking the lesser evil. It's like picking between getting an lubricant free anal probe with the lights on or off. Either way it's gonna hurt.