by Alex Fidel
Gary Johnson on TV. photo credit: unknown
Gary Johnson is the honorary chairman of Our America Initiative, on the boards of directors of both Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Students for Liberty, and was the former two-term Republican governor of New Mexico.
Now, I know what you think. ‘Republican? Ew!’ I understand your feelings, I ‘ew’ at a lot of Republicans myself. But, Gary Johnson has some surprising stances. For instance, he supports fully and unequivocally the legalization of marijuana, he would have vetoed the infamous AZ immigration bill if he had been governor, he has never been for the Iraq War, and thinks the Afghan War no longer serves the purpose we originally went in for. Johnson was pretty much the only governor to support Ron Paul for president in 2008.
Johnson even admits fully to smoking (and inhaling) marijuana several times a week. He no longer smokes pot, and he abstains from drinking as well. He is an accomplished athlete and entrepreneur, climbing Mt. Everest with a broken leg, and starting a one-man handyman business that eventually had 1,000 employees when he sold it.
His race for governorship was quite entrepreneurial. He was a complete outsider. The Republican Party told him his ideas were nice, but that he just couldn’t win. Well, he won. Then he got re-elected. In a state that is 2 to 1 Democrat.
As governor, Johnson vetoed over 750 bills, not including all the line item vetoes. He did this, because everything was to be done in a cost-benefit analysis; best product/service, lowest cost. He was an advocate of school choice and voucher systems. He also supported a woman’s right to choose up to the point of viability (he is pro-choice), while still gaining praise from pro-life groups for policies such as parental consent for minors, etc. He advocated for the legalization of marijuana while governor, which caused his approval rating to drop sharply, but it eventually rose as he explained his views openly and honestly to the people.
They respected him for putting issues and principles first, politics last.
The people of New Mexico, being 2 to 1 Democrat, recognized not only good stewardship of tax dollars, but honesty in government. Gary Johnson as a person is very humble and down-to-earth, and has a great deal of integrity. People respected a politician that didn’t talk down to them, talk in circles, or pander to votes. Johnson says pretty much the same thing to any audience. For example, he recently spoke at the FreedomWorks 9/12 rally on Washington. He did mention his views of the War on Drugs, only to be met with 70% boos, 30% cheers. However, when he talked about putting an end to nation-building wars, he got nothing but cheers, so there is progress being made.
We can learn a lot from Gary Johnson, not just with government but as people. If you think about it, we as people should change first. It is only if we change that our government will change. Bottom-up is the only way things ever change. Top-down force never works, because we get the government we deserve. But if we have integrity, and set high standards for others’ integrity, not only will government end up with more integrity, but in our personal lives will be much better, because we will look for integrity in other people as well. That’s why the Our America Initiative logo has the ‘u’ and ‘me’ (as bolded previously) in a different color, to show that it has to start with you and me.
Johnson is supposedly coming out with a book, called the Seven Principles of Good Government. I’ll go over them one by one (they’re not the unabridged versions; they are the shortened versions from the Our America site). They are more like life lessons than they are political.:
1- Seek reality and base all decisions and actions upon it.
Rational thought and decision making. Can you say common sense? Unfortunately, politicians don’t make decisions based on reality. They ignore the facts, and there for embrace things like Keynesian economics and the War on Drugs. That’s why there’s a huge disconnect between the people and politicians on things like the War on Drugs.
2- Be honest to all people all of the time.
Wouldn’t it be nice if more people were like this? Wouldn’t it be especially nice if more politicians were like this? I try to live my life this way, with the exception of things that involve privacy, but I never decieve. When you spend a minute listening to Gary Johnson speak, you know he says what he means and means what he says.
3- Acknowledge your critics, but do what’s right.
Going back to how Gary Johnson says what he means and means what he says, he sticks to his convictions, but is open to the facts. For example, at an Our America event during a Q&A section, a small amount of the questions people would ask him would be responded by ‘I’m not going to pretend to know the answer to that.’ If he doesn’t know all the facts for a specific thing, he’s not going to lie or deceive. He’ll take their advice, and look into the issue himself, coming to a conclusion of what he believes is right. That’s how he got his position on the drug war. He wanted to look at the drug problem and consider legalization as a possible alternative.
4- Determine your goal, develop a plan and then execute it.
He fought against the odds to become governor and he fought against the odds to climb Mt. Everest with a broken leg. He obviously has great strategy that we can all learn from. Hopefully this is laid out further in his book, and can inspire a lot of people.
5- Communicate.
He isn’t touring around the country for nothing. He believes what he is saying needs to be said, and that other people should hear it. We aren’t going to ‘right the fiscal ship’-as Gary often says-without communication.
6- Anything that could be revealed eventually, should be revealed immediately.
Transparency would be nice… try telling that to Washington.
7- Find a job you love and make a difference.
Gary Johnson made a difference, both in his company Big J Enterprises (the name Big J is rumored to come from the slang for a fatty joint hahah) and in his governorship.
Now, Gary Johnson is not perfect. No one is. But, you can get pretty damn close, especially with all that integrity.
Gary Johnson is a rumored 2012 Republican presidential contender. He can’t announce it officially, because Our America is a 501c4 non-profit advocacy committee. But people are keeping their eyes out, because Fred Thompson did the same thing for the ‘08 election. Don’t underestimate him either. Just because he is relatively unknown, does not mean he has no chance. That’s what they said in New Mexico before he served two terms as their governor.
Go to OurAmericaInitiative.com to find out more. Regardless how you feel about the issues, at least respect the man’s character. New Mexico did, and they were 2 to 1 Democrat.
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Gary Johnson joins KSUN Radio’s Freethought Radio (hosted by yours truly) on Tuesday, October 19th at 8PM Pacific Time, only at ksunradio.com
