The US 2016 election's top five presidential candidates in a nutshell, with voting advice.
We deal with each candidate separately. This helps avoid mixing up the issues: The "Democratic Socialist", the "Green Socialist", the "Corporate Plutarchist", the "Libertarian Oligopolist", and the "National Vulgarist".
The Libertarian Oligopolist
Mr Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party)
Even though Gary Johnson's name is very likely to be on your voting ballot's list of electable candidates, mainstream media have completely failed to mention him in their reporting.
Libertarian
Libertarian is a fancy word for freedom, while libertarian freedom is really quite specific.
Over history, the term "Libertarian" can be associated with socialism, anarchism and capitalism. In the US, and in the US Libertarian Party, it's the capitalist version. It is called "liberal capitalism", which in proper English translates to "freedom to profit", or in Libertarian Party lingo "Maximum Freedom".
Other fancy terms for the US type of libertarianism are "economic liberalism" and "neoliberalism".
Oligopolist
Libertarianism in the US is strongly linked to the power and influence of a small number of large corporations and very rich individuals (like the Koch brothers). In economic terms, a market where a few "big ones" are dictating the terms is not a free market but an "oligopoly" (pronounced similar to monopoly).
Lets Be Really Clear
"A 2014 Pew Poll found that 23% of Americans who identify as libertarians have no idea what the word means." (Wikipedia) That does not bode well, for they might not know what they've gotten themselves into.
US Libertarians staunchly oppose the principles of social services and social justice. Their "freedom" is capitalist corporate freedom where your individual freedom serves the capitalist corporate sector. They stand firmly on the right side of the political spectrum.
US Libertarians' liberal capitalism, economic liberalism and neoliberalism must under no circumstances be confused with social liberalism (balancing individual freedom with social services) or social democracy (social justice within a capitalist economy). US Libertarians directly oppose these concepts in spoken word, written word and factual deed.
The Libertarian Oligopolist is not the one to go to in search for a better health care system, social security, higher minimum wage, social justice, or improving public education.
Characteristics
In a nutshell, US Libertarians don't like taxes, don't like social services, don't like wars, don't like the military, don't like regulations, don't like government, and even more dislike federal government. They strive for complete freedom to make profit through private business, large or small. Everything else is a costly interference that must be eliminated.
Domestic security is the Libertarian's single most important government function. This is mainly because the business sector requires a stable and secure operating environment.
Civil liberties must be protected, immigration must be properly organized, not stifled, discrimination must be eradicated, there should be equal opportunity for all, as needed by the business sector. Freedom of religion must be protected, women and families are free to choose about abortion, and owning weapons is an individual right. But don't even try to demonstrate or unionize, state security will be upon you in no time.
Schooling, the unemployed, sick, elderly and imprisoned are not the responsibility of the public sector. They should take care of themselves, or be taken care of by charity or private business. Here, among others, the church becomes an important factor. While Libertarians dislike subsidies of any kind, they are willing to part-subsidize the church and private business to perform these services.
The Libertarian (and Republican) catchwords of, for example, "school choice" and "voucher system" sound nice, but intend to replace the public schooling system and education standards. What would remain is schooling either for profit, or for religion, in my own opinion resulting in poorly educated kids and religious zealots. Vocational and university graduates remain in quasi servitude during their quest to pay off schooling debts.
The Libertarian Oligopolist wants to protect the environment almost as much as he wants to provide security. He (apparently somewhat grudgingly) accepts that climate change is probably happening and probably caused by human activity. But government should not get involved. Market forces and the private business sector will surely find the appropriate solutions. Well, Good Luck with that.
So, if you lose your job, get sick, or get old, you have a problem. Consider your freedom to wither away, enjoy the freedom of poverty, seek charity, unless you're amply rich; or utilize your freedom to choose long servitude while paying off loans taken for education or paying hospital bills, unless you're amply rich. Climate change action and the environment go to the Philistines.
On the plus side, your tax bill will be lowered, you keep your arsenal, and you have maximum freedom to choose between brand A and brand B. But there won't be any label of "ingredients" or "nutritional information".
My apologies for this dire summary, and you may have guessed that I'm not recommending this, but essentially that's it. A US Libertarian will not dispute these facts.
While some Libertarian platform solutions sound good, you'll probably still be at the mercy of the strongest: do as you like and be done onto as all others like, the large corporations and the financial system operating without regulations, the rich, the powerful, and the church; with individual freedom as far as practical as long as you serve the business sector, capitalism and profit making without boundary, almost no taxes as social and public services are eliminated, and government is reduced to providing security only.
You may be OK with that, and even if you are not, its probably worth while to read up on the Libertarians.
Voting Advice
Do not vote for this candidate, unless you have a strong Republican or Religious background and are looking for an alternative to the Republican Party's National Vulgarist, who appears to be strange.
Vote for the "Green Socialist" if you wish to break the stranglehold that runaway capitalism and the financial system have on the democratic, republican and libertarian parties.
https://www.johnsonweld.com http://www.lp.org
Permalink: http://www.janroe.com/us-election-2016-the-libertarian-anarchist
Update 4 August 2016: Renamed the Libertarian from "Libertarian Anarchist" to "Libertarian Oligopolist". This to clarify that there is nothing really "revolutionary" or "hippie anarchist" about the US Libertarian Party, the opposite is true.
Other sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarianism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopoly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_liberalism << liberal capitalism http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=376 << right neoliberalism from left point of view