Kiriakou and third parties

Kiriakou and third parties captures John Kiriakou’s belief that the U.S. “very strongly” needs viable third parties, and his 2016 experience touring 12 western states introducing Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, who won a record 2.8% nationally — identifying himself as a libertarian in the process.^[1][2] He recounts the party’s disorganization with affection and exasperation: its Christmas party held in late January in Alexandria, Virginia — where the Virginia party chairman asked Kiriakou to run for governor and he flatly declined — a Winnebago bought with the $40,000 from its lone major donor (the “canned tomato king of California”), and a former vice-presidential nominee who ignored an airport page because he “figured it’s probably NSA tracking my movements” — “that is why this party will never turn into anything.”^{[3][4][5][6][7]} Kiriakou separately put the ticket’s Utah result at 18% (elsewhere recalled as 16%), and says Johnson himself waved off any talk of a breakthrough, attributing the campaign’s relative success to a fluke: “unlike the Democrats and the Republicans, we don’t have a patron. We don’t have a billionaire.”^[8] His practical critique: 70% of American races run unopposed, so a serious party would run for every water board and school board, not just the presidency.^[9] The relationship with Johnson predated the tour: while Kiriakou was in prison, Johnson wrote him a supportive letter and separately wrote to the Attorney General urging his release; on Kiriakou’s release, Johnson was the first non-friend, non-relative to call, inviting him onto the Libertarian Party’s board of directors, and the two went on to campaign together in roughly 20 states in the month before the 2016 election.^[10]

See also

• Overcriminalization
• John Kiriakou