Voices
port capital punishment, having
come to the shocking realization
that government makes mistakes
— lots of them. On top of all that,
I came into the campaign having long advocated an end to the
failed prohibition of marijuana.
On immigration, I foolishly refused to engage in the rhetorical
contest of “who will build the biggest fence” and put the most guns
on the border.
On foreign affairs, I even had
the audacity to say that we
shouldn’t be fighting wars we
can neither afford nor justify,
and that national defense should
actually be defense, not offense.
We shouldn’t be attacking unless
we are attacked. I was the skunk
at the picnic.
After being excluded from the
all-important Republican debates
— and even the polls used to determine who was invited to those
debates — it became obvious
that the nomination picnic didn’t
have room for such a skunk. With
eyes wide open about the challenges of mounting a “third party”
campaign, I decided to cease my
campaign for the Republican nomination and run instead as a Libertarian. Why? I felt strongly, and
still feel strongly, that a sizable
GARY
JOHNSON
HUFFINGTON
12.02.12
chunk of the American electorate
shares my fiscally conservative,
socially accepting view of truly
smaller government. And I wanted
to do everything possible to give
voice to that view, knowing that
neither the Democrat nor the Republican nominee would do so.
Fast forward to today. The
Elections should
offer some semblance
of a fresh start and the
optimism of having either
endorsed or changed the
direction of the country.
When that doesn’t happen,
it is time for all of us
to take a good look
at what we are doing.”
morning after the election,
America awakened to realize we
had reelected a status quo that
virtually no one can say is satisfactory. Knowing that things
aren’t good, the Democrats are
wisely avoiding reckless claims
of a mandate. Yet, the election
really gave them no reason to
change what they are doing.
As for the Republicans, we are
reading and hearing widespread