Meet Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson
Reading Time: 2 minutesGary Johnson, former governor of New Mexico and Libertarian presidential candidate, wants to make America sane again. The major obstacle to overcome in his quest to do so is that nobody seems to know who he is. So, without further ado, meet Gary Johnson.
Johnson is the founder and former CEO of Big J Enterprises, one of the largest construction companies in New Mexico, which he started as a door-to-door handyman business to pay his way through college. He also served as the CEO of Cannabis Sativa Inc., a company that develops marijuana products for both medical and recreational use.
In 1994, Johnson ousted incumbent Democratic Governor Bruce King to become the Governor of New Mexico, despite running as a Republican in a heavily Democratic state. Johnson governed under the Libertarian ideal of limited government, and he vetoed 47 percent of the legislation that he was presented.
When he left office in 2002, Johnson had cut taxes 14 times, revitalized New Mexico’s infrastructure, vetoed 750 bills – more than the other 49 governors combined – and left the state with a billion-dollar surplus, living up to the Libertarian belief of being fiscally conservative.
Johnson’s beliefs in fiscal conservatism have helped shape his views on foreign policy. He views the War on Terror, as we are currently fighting it, as unsustainable. He wants to end the imperialistic interventionism, drone bombing campaigns, and impossible nation building that have been the hallmarks of U.S. foreign policy over the past few decades. Not only have these policies made the world unstable, they have increased both hostility towards the U.S. and our national debt.
He also embraces the Libertarian ideal of being socially liberal and is an open advocate for supporting and preserving our civil liberties, including same-sex marriage and the support of the LGBTQ community. He wants to keep the government out of our bedrooms, emails, and cellphones. He firmly believes that people should be free to live their lives how they want, as long as they don’t harm anyone else in the process.
Johnson is a vocal advocate for marijuana legalization and wants to remove cannabis from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, which currently prohibits research and testing from being conducted on the substance. He is also an open critic of the War on Drugs, comparing it to the failed policies of Prohibition, and wants to treat it as a health issue rather than a criminal one.