Former governor of New Mexico and best of all possible candi­dates for the Republican nomi­nation for president Gary Johnson was so thor­oughly and system­at­i­cally excluded from the nomi­nation process that he dropped out of it. This is disap­pointing on a number of fronts, one being Johnson’s decision to instead seek the Libertarian nomi­nation. This decision in particular has caused a great deal of conster­nation among those of us who supported Johnson enthu­si­as­ti­cally as a Republican and who also recognize the substantial cultural threat the Libertarian Party poses to the cause of liberty in America. Consternation to the point of choosing sides and denouncing as traitors those friends who chose differently.

There’s a right answer to the question of whether to continue to support Johnson as a Libertarian Party candidate. But I have ten months’ worth of data yet to collect. I will make a decision before I vote, but not much before. I’ll be happy to defend my decision at that time. But for now, I intend to wait and learn more about the probable conse­quences, including to my long-​​term happiness and my short-​​term survival, my vote will have.

Deciding for myself how I will vote is more important to me right now than deciding whether people who disagree with my decision are people I care to keep as friends. I’d like to think most people have friends that provide numerous and diverse values to them. If I’m going to lose half of my friends each election cycle, I’m seriously going to stop talking about politics.

And people ask why I left advocacy for good.