LogFAQs > #946873384

BADoglick posted...

The difference between Johnson and Jo was that Johnson was very moderate and pulled voters from both parties (me being one of them, I voted Biden this year). Jo peddled anti mask rhetoric and seemed to prioritize property rights over civil rights, alienating social liberals such as myself, and really only appealing to diet conservatives who hated Trump's character. Which is why she got 25% of the vote that Johnson did, but I also do believe that her votes did in fact steal from Trump. Gary Johnson votes were the ultimate Schrodinger's vote... a vote for Gary, a vote for Trump, a vote for Hillary, and a wasted vote all at once, depending upon who you asked.

Didn't pay much attention to her, b/c this year I was so fucking pissed off that even though I'm not in a swing state, I wanted to repudiate the clown in chief w/ sheer numbers of votes for his rival.
If that's true, I wonder how much she cut into his margins, though historically Libertarians have been pretty evenly split and probably a bit more Dem-leaning. also note there's Green and other 3rd parties taking liberal votes, too.
I think besides from Johnson's own credentials (successful and well-liked 2-term Republican governor of a blue/purple state) and being the best candidate running that year, you also have to figure in how godawful the two main choices were in comparison. At least this year, we had Biden....he's not great, but decent enough.
Also, people didn't actually think Trump would win in 2016. This year it legit felt like our very lives were at stake. I don't think ANY 3rd party candidate could've made much ground in this election.