Political Roundtable: News, Opinion and Commentary

There is currently a movement to draft Gary Johnson to run for the Republican nomination for President in 2012. Whether he takes the idea seriously or is already developing plans to run remain to be seen

In case anyone wants to hear more, here is some information on him:

He has developed what he calls the “Seven Principles of Good

1. Become reality driven. Don’t kid yourself or others.  Find out what’s what and base your decisions and actions  on that.

2. Always be honest and tell the truth. It’s extremely difficult to do any damage to anybody when you are willing to tell the truth–regardless of the consequences.

3. Always do what’s right and fair. Remember, the more you actually accomplish, the louder your critics become.  You’ve got to learn to ignore your critics. You’ve got to continue to do what you think is right. You’ve got to maintain your integrity.

4. Determine your goal, develop a plan to reach that goal, and then act. Don’t procrastinate.

5. Make sure everybody who ought to know what you’re doing knows what you’re doing. Communicate.

6. Don’t hesitate to deliver bad news. There is always time to salvage things. There is always time to fix things. Henry Kissinger said that anything that can be revealed eventually should be revealed immediately.

7. Last, be willing to do whatever it takes to get your job done. If you’ve got a job that you don’t love enough to do what it takes to get your job done, then quit and get one that you do love, and then make a difference.

Here is his Wikipedia page, and a sample:

Gary Earl Johnson (born January 1, 1953) was the Republican governor of the U.S. state of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003.

Johnson was elected as a Republican during a time when New Mexico’s party registration was 2-1 Democrat. He ran both his initial campaign and his re-election campaign as “100% positive,” never mentioning his opponent once. Under Johnson’s administration, New Mexico experienced the longest period without a tax-increase in the state’s entire history (8 years)[1].

He cut the rate of government growth in half, left the New Mexico state government with a budget surplus and 1000 fewer employees (without firing anyone), privatized half of the prisons in the state, brought a state-wide school voucher system to New Mexico, shot down campaign finance reform in his state, and vetoed 750 bills (more than all the vetoes of the other 49 Governors in the country at that time, combined) with only 2 overrides, earning him the nickname Gary Veto Johnson. He opposes the War on Drugs, he opposed the Iraq War from the start, and was the only Republican Governor in 2000 to not endorse George W. Bush for President. He is also a triathlete, having scaled Mount Everest[2].

Here are some YouTube videos of his speech at Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republican a few months ago:

It looks like the possibility of a Liberal–New Democrat coalition government has terrified Stephen Harper to such a degree that he has actually, for once, backed down from a parliamentary standoff. The Canadian Press is now reporting that Monday’s confidence vote on the economic update will only include tax measures, and not the controversial elimination of the subsidy for political parties (h/t The Vanity Press). Brinksmanship can only take one so far, I suppose.

So what now for the opposition? If they play the Conservatives’ game, Stéphane Dion and Jack Layton will play nice and vote with the government in support of the economic update, allowing Harper and Finance Minister Jim Flaherty to stay afloat for now.

But will they? None of the three opposition parties publicly based their opposition to the economic statement on the subsidy issue, and instead focused on the elimination of pay equity programs, suspension of federal employees’ right to strike, proposed sale of $10 billion in government property, and complete lack of stimulus for the troubled economy. So if none of the other salient issues have changed and the Conservatives are likely to put the screws to the opposition again as soon as the opportunity arises, why let the government continue on its brazenly ideological path at the expense of the wellbeing of Canadians?

The Liberals, NDP and Bloc should not take the bait. Liberal and New Democratic officials should continue their talks, make every effort to hammer out a coalition deal and end Stephen Harper’s disasterous second term as soon as possible. For the good of Canadians, and for the future of the Liberal Party and the NDP, the government must fall.

I have been amazed for years at how I’m considered liberal by my conservative friends and conservative by my liberal friends.  I am truly betwixt and between.  What it feels like to me is political homelessness.  I have nowhere to live, occupying it seems the no-man’s land of American politics.     

To give you an example of how my views are considered heretical to most Republicans, I am going to link today to my posting yesterday on RebuildtheParty.com, the new Republican web site.  The post yesterday was entitled The Importance of the Centrist Voter to the Future of the GOP.  It is substantively identical to my post yesterday here entitled Rebuilding the Republican Party.   Take a look at the comments that have been posted.  Weigh in there if you’re so inclined.  Reading these I can only conclude that I am indeed not going to feel comfortable any time soon in the Republican Party.  A consolation is that, at least so far, Obama’s administration isn’t looking half bad (more on that in a subsequent post).

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