Justin Amash for President?

Justin Amash

With his website going live yesterday, Justin Amash has announced his presidential bid under the Libertarian Party. If this announcement came six months ago, I would have run down my street yelling his name at the top of my lungs. But it's not November of 2019. It's nearly May of 2020.

When he departed the GOP on July 4, 2019, he could easily have come to the Libertarian Party where his ideologies lay, but instead chose to be an independent. Having been libertarian for years before registering with the Libertarian Party, I somewhat understand. But I also was not a sitting member of Congress. First Libertarian US Congressman? Big deal. He switched well after it was fairly clear his seat was in danger and likely gone. What is that, some kind of victory?

To be clear, I like Justin Amash. I mean, I really like him. He is one of the top two Congressman in DC right now and third place, whoever that is, isn't even in view with a telescope.

Then again, I also like Jacob Hornberger a lot, who actually has been in the race for a while now, whose libertarian credentials and understanding of philosophy are unimpeachable.

Then again, Justin Amash has seemed to receive more press in the past twenty four hours than Hornberger the entire race to date.

Then again, I am so goddamned sick of Republicans crashing the party. We finally got rid of Lincoln Chafee and started getting the rancid taste of Bill Weld out of my mouth.

Then again, Justin Amash is a pretty good libertarian himself though his philosophy is not quite as sound as Hornberger, and his implementation may actually be on par or better. It's not fair to compare him to Chafee or Weld.

It seems like the formula here is (bona fides) x (reach). Hornberger wines the bona fides, hands down. Amash wins the reach, hands down. In an MSNBC interview, the one good question (about the Coronavirus stimulus) out of a sea of idiotic ones, was not answered well by Amash. It wasn't Democrat or Republican bad, but Hornberger would have knocked it out of the park. But would Hornberger have even gotten the chance in the first place? Maybe. Maybe not.

Why. WHY? Why, Justin, did you not switch to the Libertarian Party ten months ago? Why didn't you announce your presidency six months ago? You say you have to earn the respect of Libertarian members. You plan to do this in 1-2 months, when distaste for outsiders is at an all time high? Do you not see how this screams of opportunism?

I think at this time, I'm going to have to give my delegate vote to Hornberger still, but Amash is one of the few candidates that can make this a tough decision.

If Amash doesn't get the nomination this time around, I hope he sticks around and runs again in the future with the Libertarian Party.