Yesterday, on the Ides of March, was the Libertarian Party convention for the state of Tennessee, held in Murfreesboro.  Former New Mexico Governor and 2012 Libertarian Party presidential nominee, Gary Johnson, was the keynote speaker.  

Several years ago, Gary Johnson started a one-man business as a handy man for hire, then grew it into a construction business employing over 1,000 people.  He’s also an athlete who has climbed to the highest mountain peak on 6 of the 7 world continents, and plans to go to Antarctica to climb the highest peak on that 7th continent this November.  In his two terms as NM Governor, Johnson actually shrunk the size of government and brought the state’s budget back into balance.  Johnson stands firmly against the drug war, American military adventurism abroad, and the failed inflationary monetary policies of the Federal Reserve.  

I was pleasantly surprised when Johnson opened the floor to questions from the gathering and I took the opportunity to ask something.  I introduced myself, pointed out that Governor Johnson’s dog and mine have both created more shovel-ready jobs than B. Hussein Obama, told him that I might be glad to see him run for president again on a ticket with Judge Andrew Napolitano, and asked him to give his take on NSA spying and Edward Snowden.  Johnson called Snowden a “hero” in response, and expressed that he might run for president again.  

Other republicans should take note of what former republican Gary Johnson has done, and realize that liberty is the way of the future.  For those of us who consider freedom to be the most important issue in the realm of politics, (and if a political/voting solution to many of our problems is still even possible in this climate of growing tyranny), Gary Johnson may be a more ‘freedom-friendly’ choice for president in the future – or at least someone who can advocate for human freedom using the political process as a platform to do so; offering a voting alternative to all the tired old statist authoritarian corporatist politicians we get from the Republican & Democrat parties.  I’m still not endorsing anyone for president in 2016 just yet, but these are just some thoughts about what might be a possible way for some of us who may mainly seek to reduce the size, scope, power, authority, and budget of the state to participate in the political process in a way that might be effective to those ends.  In the end, no politician is going to give us our freedom; it’s up to us to live free.  

Although I may or may not vote much in the future and don’t know that it’s even a good way to effect positive change in the interests of human freedom, I will not forget that total tyranny is never more than one generation away – to which I choose to exercise my freedom of speech at the tops of my lungs as to Ceaser, “Sic Semper Tyrannis!”

 A.G. “Brick” House is an Afghanistan war veteran and former licensed minister (UPCI), who has become an outspoken skeptic, peace advocate, and involved himself in many other issues which he believes affect the individual freedoms of the people whose constitutional rights he took an oath to defend.  He currently resides in the heart of Tennessee with his companion dog ‘Liberty,’ where he is recovering from PTSD, enjoys the therapeutic hobbies of gardening, creative writing https://chaossection.com/, playing drums in the metal band Outlaw Serenade  http://www.outlawserenade.com/, and other forms of artistic expression   \m/

 

 

 

 

* From The Tennesseean:

Audience member Adam House of Murfreesboro asked Johnson about the actions of Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor facing espionage and theft charges for informing journalists about how NSA has tracked phone calls and emails of citizens and other people around the world.

“I think Edward Snowden is a hero,” Johnson said, and many people at the event applauded.

Johnson also complained about the national government “spying on us.”

“We need to repeal the Patriot Act,” Johnson said. “We have a growing police state in this country.”

To House, Johnson spoke about major issues that are being ignored.

“I thought it was poignant,” said House, a retired Army veteran who served in the war in Afghanistan and plans to attend college through a G.I. scholarship.

read more…… http://www.tennessean.com/article/D4/20140315/NEWS05/303150019

 

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