The “What is Aleppo” Meme

Editor Publius February 19, 2022 no Comments

Meet Uncle Gary

Back in 2016, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson was the Libertarian party’s presidential candidate. To this day, political junkies still remember Gary Johnson for his meme-worthy presidential campaign that year.

Before we talk about Johnson’s infamous “Aleppo” moment, let’s look into Gary Johnson’s background.

For context, Gary Johnson served as the governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003 as a Republican.

Johnson became well-known for his fiscally conservative and socially liberal views as a politician. He’s definitely a Libertarian if you couldn’t tell by his support of marijuana legalization, abortion, and gay marriage as well as his desire to abolish the Federal Income Tax and the IRS.

Prior to his 2016 presidential run, Gary attempted to run for President in 2012. However, he switched from the GOP to the Libertarian party and ran as the Libertarian party’s presidential candidates in 2012. In the end, Johnson picked up only 1% of the vote in the 2012 presidential election. Not a stellar performance.

2016 presented a golden opportunity for Gary Johnson. The 2016 presidential election gave rise to the least liked Presidential candidates ever: Donald Trump (Republican) and Hillary Clinton (Democrat). Without a doubt, many Americans were looking for an alternative presidential candidate.

In the Fall of 2016, Gary Johnson was seen as a viable alternative to the two major party candidates. In fact, Johnson was polling around 10% nationally just a few months before the 2016 US Presidential election.

Gary Johnson had the chance to be one of the most successful 3rd-party candidates in recent American history–unseen since Ross Perot’s 3rd-party run in 1992. Unsurprisingly, Gary’s presidential ambitions did not materialize in 2016

On election night, Gary didn’t perform as well as anticipated. Not only did he fail to receive a single electoral vote, he ended up garnering only 3% of the total vote in the 2016 Presidential election–which amounted to nearly 4.5 million votes.

So, what happened? Why did Gary Johnson underperform on election night?

Unfortunately for Libertarians, Gary’s campaign began to falter in the remaining months before the 2016 US Presidential election. In September and October 2016, a series of media gaffes and his inability to get on the debate stage with Trump and Hillary (he didn’t reach the 15% polling level necessary for a debate stage spot) prevented Johnson from becoming a serious presidential contender.

One of those gaffes was the infamous “What is Aleppo moment?”.

Let’s now dig into the birth of this epic political meme.

The Birth of a Meme

In early September 2016, Gary Johnson made an appearance on an MSNBC “news” program. Little did Gary know what would happen next would cement his status as a living meme.

On the MSNBC show, political commentator Mike Barnicle asked Gary Johnson what he thought about the crisis in Aleppo.

For background, the Syrian civil war was out-of-control back in 2016. Aleppo was a Syrian city at the center of fighting between militant rebels and Syrian government forces. The consequence of the Syrian Civil War: Aleppo essentially became rubble after years of fighting, and millions of Syrian refugees fled the country.

So basically, Gary Johnson was asked what he would do about a relevant foreign policy issue. Simple enough. Numerous MSNBC viewers waited in anticipation for Gary’s response.

Here’s what transpired on MSNBC:

-Mike Barnicle: “What would you do if you were elected: about Aleppo?”

-Gary Johnson: “About?”

-Barnicle: “Aleppo”

-Johnson: “And what is Aleppo?”

-Barnicle: “You’re kidding?

-Johnson: “No”

-Barnicle: “Aleppo is in Syria. It’s the epicenter of the Refugee Crisis …”

-Johnson: “Got it.”

Dang. What a hilarious, unguarded moment. Gotta love it.

Here is a video of this moment:

Ouch. That didn’t go over well.

While Gary Johnson didn’t show a deep understanding of foreign policy, he nevertheless cemented himself as one of the most meme-worthy Presidential candidates in US history,

Of course, this gaffe went viral. Over a million people have viewed this MSNBC clip on YouTube. However, the “What is Aleppo” moment sure didn’t sure help Johnson’s public image/polling averages.

Gary Johnson did not go onto become President in 2016 (thankfully, Trump did instead),

What’s the point of this post?

Here’s the moral of this post: Libertarianism is not cool. America-First Conservatism is cool.

I hope this post reminded you just how cringe Libertarianism generally is (not all, but many Libertarians).

Best of Gary Johnson

-A few weeks later after the “What is Aleppo” meme, MSNBC host Chris Matthews asked Gary Johnson a simple question during a live townhall event. Johnson couldn’t think of an answer, so he told Matthews that he was “having an Aleppo moment”. He just couldn’t help himself.