No Johnson/Weld are not Hillary or Trump -- but really folks, has anyone done a shred of research on these two? They are FOR OPEN BORDERS, FOR ABORTION, AGAINST EXPANDING MILITARY. FAVOR SAME SEX MARRIAGE ... so how exactly is the Libertarian party offering candidates that are any better? The only solid positive (at least that I can tell) is that they are PRO GUN.
Secondly, would they appoint conservative or liberal justices to SCOTUS?
http://www.ontheissues.org/Gary_Johnson.htm
I'll repeat my comments above into one. The LP position can't be viewed through the glasses of how the traditional parties frame the issues.
Let's correct a few things.
--
open borders Elimination of welfare programs that attract illegal aliens here to leech the system. That's the biggest draw for the criminal class. Easier legal immigration resulting in reducing crime associated with illegal immigration. Result, those coming here won't be coming illegally to leech the system but legally for mutual financial benefit.
--
abortion on demand Returning the issue to the States. Not the best position, but fighting it on the federal level has failed for 30 years.
--
same sex marriage Actual platform is to take government out of the marriage business entirely.
--
reduce military spending 43% That doesn't necessarily mean weaker. This can be accomplished though wiser spending, reducing waste, and improving technology. No more $500 hammers.
I think a lot of people look at LP issues from the surface and through the glasses of the two major parties definitions of what they mean and the result. The LP isn't perfect in the least, but what they offer is a pendulum swing towards limited government and maximizing individual liberty- even if some of the issues associated with that draw the ire of the alt-Right Conservatives. The latter are seeing just the individual issue but are glad to have government grow and grow and grow to become their own hammer. When it gets down to it, at this point the Republicans and Democrats both want to grow the government for their own purposes and are both leading down a path of centralized authoritarian control.
Immigration is the perfect example. On the left, you have open borders and open welfare. On the right, you have a police state. The Libertarian approach is to cut off the welfare magnet that attracts the leeches and criminal class and make legal immigration easier. This means you would have fewer if any coming in for criminal reasons- immigration would return to a mutually beneficial arrangement where we would get people willing to work, not leech the system, for businesses who need them. There wouldn't be this underground, almost slave economy of illegals.
To use the old water leak analogy.
Democrats would open the faucet and let more water in.
Republicans would duct tape the water leak then bail the water. This doesn't actually fix the problem of a broken pipe, it just adds a temporary patch, but what is drawing them is still in place and will continue until the next pipe breaks.
Libertarians would cut off the water main (what supplies the water in the first place) and replace the pipe with one that works.