The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

For nine years in the 1980s and ‘90s I lived and worked in Albuquerque, N.M. It’s a big sprawling city with a large Air Force base and a large university.

Traveling north from Albuquerque will take you into some of the most beautiful country in America: an area that includes Santa Fe, Taos and Los Alamos.

In 1994, two years before I moved to Dayton, a guy named Gary Johnson ran for governor of New Mexico as a Republican. I voted for him and he won, though those two facts must surely be unconnected. Right?

Johnson had never run for elected office before; he was just a really rich guy who ran his own construction business. He beat the incumbent Democrat Bruce King, who had been a political institution in the state for many years, by 10 points. Johnson was re-elected in 1998, serving a total of eight years as governor – the maximum allowed by term limits there.

His campaign slogan was “People Before Politics,” and he ran on a platform of limited government.

Johnson started out doing handyman jobs while attending the University of New Mexico – the large university I mentioned before. He built “Big J Enterprises” into a behemoth, winning contracts to build Intel microprocessor plants just outside Albuquerque.

Johnson has climbed Mt. Everest, and he has competed in three Iron Man Triathlons. During his first run for governor, he rode his bicycle around the state while campaigning.

Now he’s running for President on the Libertarian Party ticket. Though he’s trailing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump badly (he’s gotten in the high single digits in most recent polls), Johnson and the Libertarians might be worth thinking about.

The Libertarian Party’s motto is “Minimum Government, Maximum Freedom.” It has an interesting set of positions, many of which I find appealing.

Here are some examples from the party’s platform:

Libertarians would free property owners from government restrictions on their rights to control and enjoy their property, as long as their choices do not harm or infringe on the rights of others.

We oppose all laws at any level of government restricting, registering, or monitoring the ownership, manufacture, or transfer of firearms or ammunition.

Competitive free markets and property rights stimulate the technological innovations and behavioral changes required to protect our environment and ecosystems. Private landowners and conservation groups have a vested interest in maintaining natural resources. Governments are unaccountable for damage done to our environment and have a terrible track record when it comes to environmental protection.

We oppose all government control of energy pricing, allocation, and production.

We favor a free-market health care system. We recognize the freedom of individuals to determine the level of health insurance they want (if any), the level of health care they want, the care providers they want, the medicines and treatments they will use and all other aspects of their medical care, including end-of-life decisions.

Libertarians advocate individual privacy and government transparency. We are committed to ending government’s practice of spying on everyone.

All persons are entitled to keep the fruits of their labor. We call for the repeal of the income tax, the abolishment of the Internal Revenue Service and all federal programs and services not required under the U.S. Constitution.

(Lest you think the party favors government insolvency, Johnson has proposed a consumption tax to replace the income tax.)

Here are some more Libertarian platform positions:

We support the removal of governmental impediments to free trade. Political freedom and escape from tyranny demand that individuals not be unreasonably constrained by government in the crossing of political boundaries. Economic freedom demands the unrestricted movement of human as well as financial capital across national borders. However, we support control over the entry into our country of foreign nationals who pose a credible threat to security, health or property.

Our foreign policy should emphasize defense against attack from abroad and enhance the likelihood of peace by avoiding foreign entanglements. We would end the current U.S. government policy of foreign intervention, including military and economic aid. 

Recognizing that abortion is a sensitive issue and that people can hold good-faith views on all sides, we believe that government should be kept out of the matter, leaving the question to each person for their conscientious consideration.

We oppose the administration of the death penalty by the state.

Sexual orientation, preference, gender, or gender identity should have no impact on the government’s treatment of individuals, such as in current marriage, child custody, adoption, immigration or military service laws. Government does not have the authority to define, license or restrict personal relationships. Consenting adults should be free to choose their own sexual practices and personal relationships.

Criminal laws should be limited in their application to violations of the rights of others through force or fraud, or to deliberate actions that place others involuntarily at significant risk of harm. Therefore, we favor the repeal of all laws creating “crimes” without victims, such as the use of drugs for medicinal or recreational purposes.

Some Libertarians take the concept of “limited government” to the extreme. For instance, Johnson has been criticized by some members of his party for saying he thinks it’s okay for states to issue driver’s licenses.

The role of government in people’s lives will always be a source of debate and disagreement. Libertarians advocate limited interference by government into all people’s lives, including those who wish to live much differently than most of us do.

In the accompanying column about Gary Johnson on these pages, he says he thinks he has a realistic chance of winning this year’s presidential election. Let’s be honest; his chances are as realistic as my chance of playing in this year’s World Series.

However, for those readers who, like me, are less than enthusiastic about the two major party nominees in this year’s presidential race, Libertarian Gary Johnson might be worth a look.