Thursday, April 14, 2011

Gary Johnson’s Bid For the Presidency: Will He Make One?

New Mexico’s ex governor just may be getting ready to run for president in 2012. There have been plenty of rumors due to the launch of his recent 501(c)(3) organization called Our America Initiative and his new book titled, “7 Principles of Good Government”. However he has mentioned that he can not make an official statement due to the development of non-profit which restricts his ability to make statements on political campaigns. Johnson, as of recent, has been doing a lot of traveling around America and engaging in speaking events which has led many people to believe he might indeed run this election cycle.
While recently Johnson has been avoiding the questions of a 2012 presidential run, he have been giving speeches across country about his non-profit campaign. So far he has been to over thirty different states including key primary states such as Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. It is estimated he has spoken with over 450 different groups at many American Universities
Some argue Johnson’s appearance on the Colbert Report back in May helped boost his popularity, what Colbert himself would call the “Colbert bump”, and thus further helping a 2012 campaign run. The support group, Johnson for America, has recently sprung up in an attempt to persuade the governor to run.
Johnson is coming out strong on issues and spreading his message at colleges and organizations across the country. A major issue of his is our lackluster approach to fix our national debt. He believes that we should roll back funds from our budget to the entitlement programs that support medicare, medicaid and social security. Moreover, he would like to see an end to funding foreign operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. When the Russians occupied Afghanistan it was a financial disaster for them, and Johnson sees this as the same.
Johnson says we can improve America’s economic status by focusing on three major components. Initially, he says, we need to stop spending so much money. He proposes that we make major cuts to programs of entitlement that have to do with medicaid, social security and medicare. The second thing we can do is create a flat tax on income and eliminate the investment & savings tax. The last component is to stop funding major corporations with tax dollars and take away the federal reserve’s grip on the economy.
Marked by controversy, Johnson’s belief that marijuana should be legally taxed and regulated by the United States government has proven to make some conservatives question his seriousness as a political candidate. However, Johnson argues his point well by declaring marijuana is no more harmful than alcohol. He admits both are negative substances and shouldn’t be encouraged, but that doesn’t mean marijuana should be excluded from legalization. Putting people in jail for marijuana crimes is a burden on tax payers dollars and if users are not harming others by risky behavior, such as driving under the influence, then there should be no criminal penalty. His stance on more dangerous drugs, for example heroin, is that it should be decriminalized (not legalized) in a manner where people are able to fix the problem of their addiction in treatment centers, rather than being placed in jail.

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