LIBERTARIANS & MARIJUANA: Gary Johnson Interview with Hannity (video

FactReal ^ | 5/8/2010 | FactReal

[FactReal]

Gary Johnson as candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination? What has he in common with you?
video link: http://factreal.wordpress.com/2010/05/08/libertarians-marijuana-gary-johnson-interview-with-hannity-video/
Gary Johnson supports abortion rights, gay unions and legalized pot. And he's probably running for president." Salon.com
LEFTISTS LOVE LIBERTARIANS Leftists like Salon.com love libertarian Gary Johnson so much that they titled their interview with him: The most interesting Republican you've never heard of. Here is a summary of that interview: Johnson Favors Prostitution Gary Johnson, a former governor of New Mexico and a likely candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, is talking about hookers. "It's never been a consideration that I would enlist the services of a prostitute, myself personally," he says. "But if I were to do that, where would I want to enlist that service? Well, it would probably be in Nevada, where it's legal, because it would be safe." Johnson Favors Legalization of Marijuana. Supports Abortion. Opposes the Wars. God? What God? But Johnson doesn't even blink. It's not like this is the only topic on which he risks offending the GOP's base. He also favors legalizing pot, supports abortion rights, and opposes the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Oh, and he doesn't go to church. "I don't think you'll ever hear me invoking God in anything I do," he tells me. Johnson Fell for Obama Ask Johnson what he thinks of Barack Obama, for instance, and rather than the stream of vitriol that might issue semi-automatically from the lips of some party colleagues, he answers: "You can't help but like him." Obama, he says, "touched" him with his rhetoric during the 2008 campaign, though he adds that the president has proven disappointing and disingenuous since then. Johnson Doesn't listen to Beck and Rush. Agrees with Tea Partiers in fiscal matters, but sees a lot of fringe? Johnson seems ill at ease with the belligerent icons of modern-day conservatism. What does he think of the idol of the Tea Partiers, Glenn Beck? "I have not watched Glenn Beck. I don't watch him." Does he listen to Rush Limbaugh? "I don't. Not that I haven't [ever]. But I don't tune in to Rush." [snip] He went to a Tea Party event in South Carolina a couple of weeks ago, he says, and was impressed when one attendee gave him a handout that claimed to identify the movement's top 10 priorities. "Basically, one through 10, it had to do with the economy and spending and taxes. And I thought, 'This is who I am! This is what I care about!'" Then he adds: "There was a lot of fringe there." [emphasis added] Johnson Against Arizona Immigration Law (SB1070) On other issues, Johnson doesn't bother to hide his disdain for his party's hard-liners. Take the incendiary new immigration law passed in Arizona, for instance: "I just don't think it's going to work," he says. "I think it' s going to lead to racial profiling. I don't how you determine one individual from another -- is it color of skin? -- as to whether one is an American citizen or the other is an illegal immigrant." Johnson favors an expansive guest worker program and is uncomfortable with the idea of mass deportations. What about the idea of increasing security by means of a border wall? "I have never been supportive of the wall," he replied. "A 10-foot wall [just] requires an 11-foot ladder." Johnson Has Little in Common with Republicans All of this raises an obvious question: What is Johnson doing in the Republican Party? He argues that the GOP is a broader coalition than is commonly portrayed. On the marijuana issue, he contends that there are "as many very conservative Republicans" in favor of legalization as there are "what you might call left-wing Democrats" opposed. "I haven' t found the Republican Party to be exclusive as much as inclusive," he adds. Still, he concedes that the libertarian strain of Republicanism he embodies is somewhat marginalized in today's GOP. "On the other hand," he is quick to claim, "the rising wing, the heartbeat, really, of the Republican Party right now is this rising libertarian element -- the campaign for liberty." By this, he means the movement centered around Ron Paul. Like libertarian Ron Paul, Johnson blames America first On foreign policy, Johnson' s views are straight out of Paul' s rhetorical armory. He asserts that "our security is not being threatened" in either Iraq or Afghanistan. In fact, he argues, America's "actions have actually had a reverse impact on our security. We have made enemies out of tens of millions of individuals that maybe we wouldn' t have made otherwise." Johnson Sounds Conservative Only in Fiscal Matters It is the drain on the nation' s finances caused by the two wars that seems to horrify him more than anything else. His fierce fiscal conservatism represents the main -- or perhaps only -- sliver of common ground Johnson shares with the mainstream of his party. He laments that the nation is "bankrupt" and adds that the current level of national borrowing is "catastrophic." He blames both parties for this sorry state of affairs. Johnson' s prescription is plain: "slashing spending," especially with regard to "the Big Four: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and Defense." [snip] As governor of New Mexico, Johnson vetoed some 750 bills, a total that he has said surpasses the aggregate vetoes of all the nation' s other governors during that period. He became known as "Governor No," a label he seems to wear with some pride. Ron Paul is, of course, known in some quarters as "Dr No." Leftists Can't Wait for the Implosion of the Republican Party Salon.com ends the interview with Johnson, with this happy note from their leftist perspective: ...one thing is guaranteed: If Gary Johnson runs for president, he' s sure to freshen up the national conversation. And those debates with Mitt Romney should be fun to watch.
NOTES TO PONDER - What differs Gary Johnson from liberals? - Isn't he more of a Democrat Blue Dog (liberal in all policies except fiscal matters)? - If Gary Johnson and Ron Paul want to legalize Marijuana because "we have lost the war on drugs," should we then stop our fight against crime, pedophilia, kidnappings, poverty, the common cold, cancer, Socialism, etc.?

[svcw]

I heard someone use the term losertarians. I think it fits.

[Responsibility2nd]

Who is Gary Johnson?

Another liberal with a liberal track record.

I see no questions on his stand on porn. As a good Liberaltarian, we must assume he is for all the free porn he can get to go along with all that legal dope.

Sheesh!

I can’t beleive these people!

[mnehring]

He pretty much sounds like a lib democrat.

[cripplecreek]

My problem is the fact that drug legalization is the only thing that seems to matter to them.

[mnehring]

NM Kokesh Pal ping.

[cherry]

the men that want legalized prostitution had better be prepared to offer their young SONS up to the gay prostitution circuit....

lets have male prostitution loud and proud advertized just as widely..even if only by "mouth....

lets just let it all go....

maybe the male sex clubs could visit the high schools to look for prospects......

heck, lets provide them for our military....

civilization can not remain if there are no rules, no morals, no values, which means no families....

[mnehring]

All kinds of people today call themselves “libertarians,” especially something calling itself the New Right, which consists of hippies, except that they’re anarchists instead of collectivists. But of course, anarchists are collectivists. Capitalism is the one system that requires absolute objective law, yet they want to combine capitalism and anarchism. That is worse than anything the New Left has proposed. It’s a mockery of philosophy and ideology. They sling slogans and try to ride on two bandwagons. They want to be hippies, but don’t want to preach collectivism, because those jobs are already taken. But anarchism is a logical outgrowth of the anti-intellectual side of collectivism. I could deal with a Marxist with a greater chance of reaching some kind of understanding, and with much greater respect. The anarchist is the scum of the intellectual world of the left, which has given them up. So the right picks up another leftist discard. That’s the Libertarian movement. - Ayn Rand

[svcw]

It is the first thing they talk about, then sorta add the other items mainly “blame America first”.

[egannacht]

Classical liberals and modern liberals are the not the same animals. Classical liberals favored limited government and laissez faire capitalism. Modern liberals favor omnipresent government within a marxist economy.

Modern liberals bait people with libertinism and switch once in power (Marxism started out in France, Germany, and later Russia as libertine lifestyles within the restrictions of giving up the collective soul to the government). As was seen, the USSR, China, Albania, et al switched to a reactionary highly restrictive form of letting people live life once they all reached optimal power.

Seems to me this guy is a modern liberal that latched onto the title of libertarian because he believes it’s chic.

But I could be wrong.

[mnehring]

Seems to me this guy is a modern liberal that latched onto the title of libertarian because he believes it’s chic.

I think you hit the nail on the head. The proverbial fashionable non-conformist.

[mnehring]

I’ve moved to calling them DecptiCons.

[Jayster]

I watched him on Hannity.

Am I going to be the only one that says he had some good points?

I am very conservative but I do believe that Pot should be legalized. That does not mean that it is legal as in Alcohol.

[Clinging Bitterly]

I dunno. A lot of Republicans are not so much abandoning, but recognizing the so-con message as a philosophy that has always been rightly personal. We have learned that force of government, in almost every aspect, never makes people's lives better.

The War on Some Drugs is an avenue for power and control, and just like other leftist causes, conveniently unwinnable. It has never been a true conservative limited government principle.

There is nothing un-republican about recognizing that truth.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Is he the one who said, if all Congress did was sat around watching porn, we'd be better off?

I don't know if that's really a "position" on porn but the one thing undeniable is that it is absolutely true.

[Freds2nd]

You are right, criminalizing pot has been and will always be a complete failure. Making pot illegal has only created the problem of the illicit drug trade and has solved no other problems related to pot smoking.

Time to get real.

Legalize prostitution too. Has it caused any problems in Nevada?

[Free America52]

Marijuana should be legal, no two ways about it. Much less dangerous than alcohol, the US spends $1billion plus each year in enforcement that could be cut from the budget.

[Clinging Bitterly]

Not only that, it is a huge amount of commerce (the largest cash crop in many states) that would be taxed (and by that I mean income, not another illegitimate sin tax) in an open market.

[Paddy Irish]

I think you should be very careful when you read anything from Radley Balko. He is not a libertarian, he is a liberal in sheeps clothing. I think he has done much good work with police oversite, but he is an avid fan of the folks over at The Atlantic, and his writing is so similar to Andrew Sullivan it’s creepy. He’s entitled to his opinion, but he’s not a libertarian.