I got the last 35 minutes.... this was my introduction to Gov. Johnson. I honestly don't know much about the man.
He's a big proponent of the FairTax. Which is great! Cause so am I.
He spoke about immigration. Make it easy to get a work visa, speed up immigration, deportations would be a waste of money. Again these are all good ideas. Keep the criminals out (He spoke of background checks, I'm not sure how you do a background check on someone who lived in a one donkey town without running water - but I'll give the benefit of the doubt.) I mostly agree with his stand here.
Gun control.
He wouldn't say he'd be against law abiding citizens owning RPG's. While I personally would love a Tank to park next to my wife's Grand Caravan, I'm not sure how I would feel about the idiot across the street having bunker busters. That said, there is an eccentric local wealthy man who owns a Mig. I love him.
I LOVED his stand on Federally Guaranteed Student Loans! He said because the schools know they will get paid whatever they ask - due to these federal loans - that tuition will continue to skyrocket. I cannot agree more.... let the free market eat!
I was surprised by his response on Gay Marriage - that the 14th amendment protects Gay Marriage. He says it would be difficult (read expensive)to remove language about marriage from all the existing laws. But that we must establish equality. I can agree with the premise, but still largely disagree that marriage is anything other than the joining of a man and a woman. I would love to see government out of the marriage business altogether, but that would be quite difficult to rewrite all the laws. Do all libertarians accept new definitions of terms like this? When in the past 6000 years has marriage meant what they say it means? From my perspective the left takes liberties with definitions of terms like Marriage. If we accept the "new" definitions we lose. There are other examples of this as well. The Fairtax would go a long way to eliminating this argument.
On Libya, he said we should "Give Obama a break." Give him the chance to find out what really happened and then make a judgement. In theory I agree with this. However, in this case, Obama and his contemporaries blamed an uprising brought on by free speech. I cannot see giving Obama a break while he's trying to rewrite history. For half a century he would have been able to get away with this because a supportive media would have spoonfed us the story until we believed it. Thank God for Rush Limbaugh, Neal Boortz, Glenn Beck, (yes) Fox News, Matt Drudge.
Anyway. The governer agrees with me on many points. There is a large portion of the GOP that agrees with much of this. The Tea Party movement is largely libertarian in nature. There are (of course) some of the more controversial things that we'd have trouble reconciling (leagalized drugs, prostitution, abortion, etc.) But I see the GOP moving more in this direction rather than running towards Marxism. Interesting perspectives. I don't see a third party necessary as much as I see a need for a great communicator of this message within the GOP. It's not Mr. Johnson. He's fine, but can't rip the GOP's heart in a new direction. Neither can Ron Paul. Somewhere there is another Thomas Jefferson.
"pray like everything depends on God and prepare like everything depends on you." -shinnosuke
"It does not take a majority to prevail... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men."- Sam Adams
"Thanks to God that he gave me stubborness when I know I am right." - John Adams