Adele M. Stan AlterNet

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian Party presidential candidate, is currently having a moment with younger voters. Presumably this is because he has emphasized his pro-marijuana stance and stayed away from touting his views on nearly everything else, which, as AlterNet has reported, are very right-wing. Yet look behind the curtain, and you’ll find that Johnson’s candidacy is fueled by money provided by funders who are driving forces behind things most young voters abhor, like the privatization of public education and the “right” to pollute the environment.

A recent NBC News/Quinnipiac poll reveals that more than a quarter of young voters—many who had supported the presidential bid of Sen. Bernie Sanders—plan to cast their presidential ballots for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson. Democrats are increasingly nervous that Johnson’s candidacy could pull more voters from Hillary Clinton than from her Republican rival, Donald Trump, especially in key states like Colorado and Wisconsin. While Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein draws mostly progressive voters, Johnson’s support hails from the breadth of the political spectrum, making it more difficult to suss out. However, because he is on the ballot in all 50 states (Stein is not), most pollsters consider his campaign to be a greater threat to Clinton’s chances in some swing states. And because the U.S. uses the electoral college system to determine the outcome of presidential elections, that could matter on November 8, no matter Clinton's overall support among the general population.

As word spread of Hillary Clinton's characterization of half of Donald Trump's supporters in her in a September 9 speech, the right-wing outrage machine went into overdrive. Half of the Repubican standard-bearer's followers, Clinton said, were "a basket of deplorables," while the rest were simply people who felt let down by the government and were desperate for change. With the help of mainstream media, focus turned to the "deplorables" part of her comments. The Trump campaign texted supporters a link to a video ad that mischaracterized Clinton's remarks. In response to the right's fury, Clinton gamely stated that maybe she shouldn’t have said “half."

Since Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump went public with his embrace of the so-called "alternative right”—which happened when he hired alt-right promoter Stephen K. Bannon as his campaign chief—the self-styled renegade offshoot of cultural conservatism is getting a whole lot of attention.

Donald J. Trump, known for his hate-filled rhetoric and high self-regard, is apparently feeling a bit less confident these days about his chances of winning the presidency for the Republican Party.