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McDonald: Now is Johnson's chance to grab spotlight

Gary Johnson’s 15 minutes of fame has finally arrived.

The former New Mexico governor and current Libertarian Party candidate for president is getting some attention by the national media as an alternative to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

Polls are showing, and have been for some time now, that the majority of Americans don’t like Clinton or Trump, and Johnson’s subtle but important rise in the polls suggests that he, more so than Green Party candidate Jill Stein, is a legitimate third choice.

Tom McDonald

Of course, whether he can turn his 15 minutes into a winnable race remains to be seen, but this much is certain — a lot of voters would love to vote for someone other than Clinton or Trump.

That is Johnson’s opening.

I think Johnson represents what a lot of Americans believe. He’s a fiscal conservative and a social progressive, which a lot of people are these days. And during this time in which “establishment” candidates are frowned upon, his views are about as against-the-grain as they come:

• Johnson is advocating a consumption tax to replace most of the current tax code. He wants regulations that give businesses and entrepreneurs incentives, not hassles, for growing their enterprises and creating jobs.

• He advocates for congressional term limits and wants the all-out abolishment of the federal Department of Education.

• On foreign policy, he wants to bring more of our troops home and focus on better security in the U.S. And on immigration, he wants to “incentivize assimilation” with ways to encourage legal entries across our borders.

• As for civil liberties, he’s all about keeping government out of our private lives, and is pretty consistent in his views. He’s for same-sex marriage and is pro-choice. He’s for our right to arm ourselves, as long as we don’t hurt other people. And he advocates common-sense reforms to the criminal justice system, in part by putting an end to the war on drugs — with a particular emphasis on legalizing medicinal and recreational marijuana.

Johnson is also an unabashed pot smoker.

In June he said he’d last smoked marijuana five weeks earlier, and when asked if he’d smoked it for medicinal reasons, he said nope, he’d done it recreationally.

Love or hate ’em, you gotta respect his honesty.

Some would say that such honesty will be his undoing in this presidential election race, but it’s refreshing nonetheless to see a candidate with such candor.

I can see the editorial cartoons now, depicting a stoner in the White House. The media will have a lot of fun with it, and I guess I’m already guilty of that myself; I just brought up “stoner” — and yet I like Johnson.

Not that I’ve decided to vote for him; I haven’t made up my mind yet (except for my steadfast antipathy for Trump).

But I’ll certainly be writing more about him in the weeks ahead. I think he’s offering an alternative that’s worth serious consideration.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

[email protected]