Gary Johnson announced today that he would seek the GOP presidential nomination – an announcement that came as no surprise to those of us who have been following Johnson the past year and a half or so. Alex Massie has a brilliant endorsement of the former New Mexico governor:
If President Johnson were to end the Drug War* and that were his sole achievement in office he’d have done more good than any President in 40 years. Not since Milton Friedman helped end the draft has there been a better cause. That alone demands one welcome Johnson’s decision, announced at some point today, to enter the race for the Republican party’s 2012 presidential nomination.
Massie writes that Johnson’s candidacy will be the real test of the Tea Party and “their so-called seriousness” noting that Johnson has a proven small-government track record that Tea Partiers should love.
The problem, of course, is Johnson’s stance on the war on drugs and his position on foreign policy – both of which are excellent.
Now, I’ve grown more and more disenchanted with many libertarian efforts to shrink government. Too often the process of deregulation is captured by special interests in the exact way that many libertarians will happen if we implement regulations in the first place. But one area where we absolutely need to slash spending is our war on drugs and the massive imprisonment system we have erected.
Massie goes on:
Of course, Gary Johnson won’t be the Republican nominee but he’ll probably be a better candidate than whichever doofus grasps that bauble and would be, yeah, a better president than them too. Them’s the breaks and a man with his sensible views stands no chance. Better, obviously, to leave the field to Palin, Romney, Huckabee, Gingrich, Bachmann and, bloody hell, Trump. Evidently and in that company, the man who has a proven record and suggests ending a wicked and disastrous policy is the wacky extremist…
Johnson is a much more palatable candidate than Ron Paul for exactly the reasons Massie lists.
Unfortunately, the Tea Party is not actually that serious about limiting government. Johnson has broad appeal to libertarians, pot-smokers, and a number of independent voters, but there’s no way a pro-choice, pro-legalization candidate will make it past the social conservatives at the core of the Tea Party movement and GOP base. Which is too bad, because I can honestly say that even while I disagree with Johnson on a number of issues, I really do think he’d make a good president. He has management experience and he’s honest about policies that won’t win him any popularity within his own party. And like Ron Paul, he’s not a hawk.
These are important features in a president. Unfortunately, as Massie notes, they also make him a wacky extremist…compared to Donald Trump and Michelle Bachman and Newt Gingrich…
