Newsletter: Opinion: Libertarians, save us from Donald Trump

Good morning. I'm Paul Thornton, The Times' letters editor, and it is Saturday, May 21, 2016. It isn't exactly the ideal day for a beach escape weather-wise, but now you have the option of taking the train.

Here's a look back at the week in Opinion.

R.I.P. #NeverTrump, mumble dismayed establishment Republicans. Long live #NeverTrump! retort optimistic libertarians. Reason magazine editor Matt Welch fills us in on the third party that can save us from a Donald Trump (or Hillary Clinton) presidency.

He writes:

“For the majority of non-Beltway Americans who prudently maintain unfavorable opinions of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the Libertarian candidate is certain to advocate several welcome policies that neither major-party nominee will touch with a 10-foot pole. In a political year that has broken one precedent after another, the Libertarian Party may well shatter its previous record of 1.1% of the vote.

“Fiscal conservatives anxious about the country’s $19-trillion debt will be happy to hear that all three leading Libertarian contenders — former New Mexico Republican Gov. Gary Johnson (who was the party’s 2012 nominee, pulling 1.0%), antivirus software designer John McAfee and 35-year-old libertarian media entrepreneur Austin Petersen — want to eliminate large swaths of the federal government. Those alarmed by Trump’s cavalier approach to the Constitution will notice Petersen waving around a pocket-sized copy, while Johnson talks up repeal of the 17th Amendment.

“Progressives who dig Sen. Bernie Sanders’ opposition to drug prohibition and military interventionism — issues on which Clinton has been awful for decades — can rest assured that the Libertarian Party embraced these positions decades ago. Johnson as governor in 1999 became the first major American politician to come out for ending the drug war; McAfee’s core message is that ‘our bodies and minds belong to ourselves,’ and Petersen dreams of a world in which ‘gay married couples can defend their marijuana fields with fully automatic machine guns.’”

As that last quote attests, the Libertarian message can sound jarring to those accustomed to the political status quo, not least because of the, shall we say, colorful track record of the messengers. McAfee, who seems to have taken Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man in the World” ad campaign as a personal dare, is an international fugitive wanted for questioning in Belize in connection with the killing of his neighbor, is married to a former sex slave that he rescued (according to his account, anyway; he delights in pulling reporters’ chains) and is frequently accused by the tech media of making extravagant — some might say fraudulent — claims to publicize his companies.

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Here are a few more #NeverTrumpers: Us. The Times’ editorial board doesn’t let the fact that Donald Trump is the only Republican in his party’s race get in the way of picking another candidate — any candidate. Really: “We obviously cannot endorse Trump in his primary; we can only urge California Republicans to cast a protest vote for some other candidate.” L.A. Times

Bernie Sanders supporters don’t like superdelegates, but they’re the candidate’s only chance at winning the nomination. Tom Gallagher, a Sanders delegate from California, says his comrades will argue at the Democratic convention in Philadelphia that the country needs a revolution, and Bernie is the better candidate to do that (and beat Trump, by the way). L.A. Times

Jerry Brown for V.P. Times editorial writer Mariel Garza makes the case for California’s governor as Clinton’s No. 2, his age (78) being a plus factor: “So many young Democrats seem to relish having a cranky septuagenarian lecture them about the correct way to think.” In the L.A. Daily News, Democratic strategist Dave Jacobson endorses Rep. Xavier Becerra from Los Angeles as Clinton’s pick.

The Expo Line averages about 15 mph; this “train” may do 700. The “hyperloop” could whisk passengers between L.A. and San Francisco in about half an hour. At a preview in Nevada, however, architecture and design specialist Allison Arieff detects a whiff of hubris among hyperloop boosters. New York Times

Speaking of the Expo Line, here’s what Metro can learn from its decades-long effort to build light rail (nearly) to the beach, according to The Times’ editorial board: Speed up the trip by building grade-separated tracks, include more vehicle parking at stations and plan for development along the line. L.A. Times

Also in transportation news, it’s Bike Month in L.A. As a cyclist, I’m less than enthusiastic about it, mostly because of a comically dangerous stretch of bike lane pavement in northeast L.A. that, for at least two years, the city has known about but done nothing to fix. L.A. Times

If you’re a renter, there’s a reason you have no sway over your landlord. And no, the fact that you’re paying way too much for your cozy studio has nothing to do with the luxury towers going up or already looming over L.A.’s trendy neighborhoods. In reality, Los Angeles’ vacancy rate hovers near 3%, the lowest among major cities and very likely the reason why housing remains largely unaffordable. L.A. Times

Send me feedback: paul.thornton@latimes.com.