It would be very difficult for me to not support Johnson if he were to run for President in 2012. As of right now, In my view he is the best positioned candidate to carry forward the message of liberty within the Republican Party. He may not be perfect on specific issues here or there, but Ron Paulians would be hard pressed to find another Republican candidate with his record and political viability. He served as a Governor for eight years. He didn’t raise taxes as Governor once. He promoted private business and free markets over government corporatism and regulation. Finally, and perhaps most pertinent, he enthusiastically endorsed Ron Paul for President.

There has been very minimal evidence for a Johnson 2012 bid until now. Jason Pye at UnitedLiberty.org reports that Johnson has formed a PAC and is set to release a book in December entitled “Seven Principles For Good Government”.

A few web sites have been set up by supporters in an effort to coax Johnson into running for President such as JohnsonForAmerica.com.

With this latest news it appears that Johnson is warming up to jump in the fray. I can see it now at the first GOP primary debate sometime in 2011:

Fox News Debate Moderator: Governor Johnson, you’ve been an outspoken critic of the drug war and support the decriminalization of marijuana. These positions don’t seem like Republican positions. This raises questions about your electability. Do you have any sir?

Gary Johnson: Who am I, Ron Paul?

Let us hope so, but this time, let us hope he wins.

The real problem with the GOP is the lack of activist and faithful followers. When everyone is trying to be a leader, who is left to do the following? The GOP is a city where every building is a comedy club holding an open mic night all on the same evening. The only people in the audience are Democrats laughing out of pity. Well, they are bleeding hearts after all.

The Republican Party doesn’t need new leadership. It needs old-style leadership, very old-style leadership. Newt Gingrich with a makeover is still neo-con Newt. A kinder gentler Rush Limbaugh? I thought the GOP was against drugs? And please don’t let me go down the lipstick on a pig avenue again regarding Sarah Palin. What a giant heaping pile of leadership!

The GOP needs brand new blood with Old Right roots. They need a person who has the political integrity and consistency of Ron Paul in someone who is not Ron Paul. My fellow Ron Paul faithful may get angry at me for saying this, but sometimes the truth hurts. Ron Paul has the answer, but he is not the answer. His message is the Republican Party’s message prior to the neo-conservative infiltration. It is the Old Right message of severely limited government, severely constrained spending, minimizing regulation, maximizing freedom, and of course a non-protectionist, non-interventionist foreign policy.

There is a difference between spreading democracy at the point of a gun, and spreading it through commerce and example. If the gun were so effective at spreading democracy why is the entire world on the path to socialism? I don’t make a habit of answering my own rhetorical questions, but perhaps the old axiom “might makes right” should really be “might makes left”. Maybe the recipe for widespread socialism/fascism is our attempts to spread democracy by force? The success of unintended negative consequences bites us again.

If not Ron Paul, then who is the right person for the old school GOP message? As stated it can’t be a Gingrich with makeup, so that eliminates most of those being talked about in the media today. It has to be someone with historically consistent Old Right (even libertarian) views. My list consists of three names:

1. Most Unlikely: Rand Paul – Ron Paul’s son, more charismatic with the right message. Don’t laugh, he’s set to announce a run for the Senate in Kentucky. He is perfect if he can shed some of the baggage he may have due to being Ron Paul’s son. That baggage is only negative if you are one of the transitioning neo-cons. If you are already a Ron Paul supporter he is the perfect candidate. By 2012 he could be the next hot up-and-coming lawmaker.
2. Less Unlikely: Gary Johnson – Former New Mexico Governor. He has the history and the story, but does he have the desire?
3. Most Likely: Mark Sanford – He’s the establishment guy and the one most likely out of this group. There are some questions about his integrity when it comes to Old Right principles, especially with foreign policy.

If I were putting together a small group of people to influence the direction of the GOP I’d choose the above three and have Ron Paul available for freelance consulting work as required.

It shouldn’t be too difficult. we already have the best government rule book ever devised. Our Constitution should be the 2009 version of the Contract with America. This time around Gingrich, Limbaugh, and the other neo-con cronies should step aside and let the true conservatives restore the GOP to its Old Right roots.

My thoughts veered once again to Gary Johnson, New Mexico’s former libertarian-in-Republican-clothing Governor. I wondered if he’s still considering a 2012 run, then I read a beautiful article by Bill Kauffman yesterday exploring the potential for a Johnson run by comparing him to Mark Sanford.

From American Conservative:

Yes, as a congressman Sanford opposed the U.S. intervention in Kosovo under a Democratic president; Gary Johnson opposed a Republican president’s war upon Iraq. Sanford reluctantly endorsed McCain in 2008; Johnson emphatically endorsed Ron Paul. Sanford has potential on civil liberties; Johnson, like Paul, has the guts to call for the legalization of marijuana and an end to the drug war.

As this issue went to press, Governor Johnson told me that he was keeping his options open for 2012. Keep an eye out for him, will you?

Ron Paul started something. Or, rather, he revealed something: liberty has a constituency. I was heartened mightily by the crowd in Minneapolis, which was overwhelmingly young. What a rousing sight: bright and enthusiastic kids afire with the spirit of liberty, of resistance to regimentation and the tyranny of standardization. Homeschoolers, homebrewers, punk rockers, evangelical Christians, radical Kansans, and reactionary New Englanders. These were American girls and boys, beautifully stained in the American grain, hip to Republican lies and numbing Democratic statism. Hell no, they won’t go. They’ll not be cannon fodder for the wars of Bush-Cheney or Obama-Biden. They demand honesty and liberty and respect for all things small and smaller; they have nothing but scorn for the liars and whores who run the empire.

Kauffman is fun to read no matter the subject matter, but when he goes on like this for liberty it makes my brain smile. For more check out his book, “Ain’t My America: The Long, Noble History of Antiwar Conservatism and Middle-American Anti-Imperialism“.

I’d love for Gary Johnson to start getting his name out there as a potential candidate like Sanford is doing. I like Johnson more than Sanford at this point, but both are arguably more marketable than Ron Paul would be in 2012 mainly due to his age, certainly not his ideas.

I have worries and concerns for both potential candidates though. Ron Paul is unique and no candidate not named Ron Paul can claim 38 years of consistency fighting for free market and limited government principles. It appears more and more likely that the fight for the Ron Paul Republican voting block in 2012 will come down to Mark Sanford, Gary Johnson, or both.

Last week, Campaign for Liberty press guy and Ron Paul grandson-in-law Jesse Benton was driving to a constituent event with his boss and the subject of 2012 came up.

“He hasn’t closed out the idea of another run,” said Benton today. “We have some time to decide whether he runs again, or whether he gets behind somebody else. But we don’t have tons of time. By the middle of 2009, the decision needs to be made.”

Interesting. The article also shows Benton’s opinion on a potential Gary Johnson 2012 bid. His argument uses Bob Barr as an example.

I asked about the rumor that former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson might jump into the race (unclear in which party yet). “If he were to decide that he wanted to do that, he’d be a great guy to take the reins. But I don’t think that what Dr. Paul captured was 100 percent transferable to anyone else. I think the Bob Barr campaign assumed that and it didn’t pan out.”

So it looks like we may know within the next six months or so if Ron Paul will be running in 2012.

I met with Gary for a couple hours at his new mansion in Taos, New Mexico, and got confirmation of his interest in running for the 2012 presidency. Like Dr. Paul, the former Governor is a big believer in vetoing unconstitutional laws, and doing everything to allow individuals to pursue their happiness in most any way. Progressives should like his tolerance for alternative lifestyles, and conservatives should like his high standards for govt efficiency and support for local innovative govt solutions.

I suppose it is a bit early to start planning the first Johnson Money Bomb, but this is great news for us Ron Paul liberty lovers looking for a candidate in 2012. There is a lot of time between now and 2012, but this certainly provides hope for the future. In the meantime there is much work to be done with the upcoming 2010 election year. As Wendell Phillips reminds us, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty”.

Until then, why not show your support for Johnson by joining the Gary Johnson 2012 Facebook group. As of this writing the group is up to 88 members. You can read more about my assessment of Gary Johnson here.