Reason Magazine: Nick Gillespie & Meredith Bragg- Gary Johnson: On Donald Trump, Presidential Election & Life as a Pot Company CEO

Source: Reason Magazine- Former Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico.

Source:The New Democrat

"Is this country of 300 million people only capable of being governed by two families?," asks Gary Johnson, the former two-term Republican governor from New Mexico, who also ran for president in 2012 on the Libertarian Party (LP) line. "The biggest factor in politics is name familiarity," says Johnson, referring to Clinton and Bush, "and that’s the phenomenon that exists right now.

Johnson began the 2012 campaign as a Republican, and then switched to the LP. He ended up pulling 1.2 million votes in the general election, or one percent of the total ballots cast, beating every previous candidate put forward by the party in a raw tally. But Johnson says he's in no rush to jump back into the fray. "I just think there are more downsides than upsides to announcing at this point, and, look, I don’t have any delusions about the process," he says. "In retrospect, 90 percent of the time I spent [trying to become president] ended up to be wasted time."

Johson recently found his "dream job" as CEO of Cannabis Sativa, a publicly traded company that markets weed products. "We want to be the Dom Perignon [of marijuana]," he explains.  Johnson is also the chairman of the nonprofit Our America Initiative, which advocates for balanced budgets, defense cuts, drug policy reform, and improved ballot and debate access for third-party candidates.

Reason's Nick Gillespie sat down with Johnson at FreedomFest, an annual gathering of libertarians and conservatives that took place between July 8-11 in Las Vegas.

Approximately 18 minutes.

Edited by Meredith Bragg."

From Reason Magazine

Gary Johnson, should run for president, because there’s a reasonable chance he would actually be in the general presidential debates next year. Because there’s a movement to expand the presidential debates and allow for third-party candidates. But even if he weren’t able to get into the general debates, we could see presidential debates next year made up of the third-party candidates taking on each other. And we could see at least one broadcast network picking them up. These are things that the Democratic-Republican Presidential Debate Commission, I mean the Federal Presidential Debate Commission, are considering right now.

As far as Gary Johnson for president, I said this four years ago. But I believe he would make a great Liberal Democratic presidential candidate. And people told me he was a Republican and yes it gets cold in the North Pole. But stating the obvious doesn’t accomplish anything here and that’s not my point anyway. As he said in the interview with Nick Gillespie and he put it that most Americans tend to be rabidly liberal on social issues and fiscally conservative. The way I would phrase it, is that Americans tend not to want big government in either their wallets, or their personal lives. We don’t want government to direct how we live our own individual lives. Just regulate how we interact with each other. Prevent us from hurting innocent people and catch and punish us when we do. Something the Far-Right and Far-Left in America, will probably never understand.

What that means is that Americans want presidential candidates who know who they are for one. Gary Johnson, obviously knows that with a twenty year record of supporting both economic and personal freedom in America. And two, Americans want presidential candidates who speak for them and to them. They’re looking for a presidential candidate who doesn’t tell them what they want to hear and then governs in a different way. But someone who knows who they are says what they believe that brings a lot of Americans behind them. And won’t try to take their personal, or economic freedom from them. If anything, would expand both personal and economic freedom. And instead stop people who hurt innocent people.

Most Americans, probably think of Liberal Democrats as people who campaign to get the Washington Redskins to change their nickname. Or campaign to get talk radio show host and other commentators that don’t like, from being able to say their piece. Who campaign for censorship against the opposition. Or try to outlaw products that are unhealthy for us. Who want women to not be treated equally as men, but better. Who think Americans, tend to be stupid and need a big government to protect us from ourselves and run our lives for us. Who want speech that offends them to be censored if not outlawed. But the Democratic Party, has a growing movement of actual Liberals, who don’t believe in any of those things. Who don’t identify as libertarian, but don’t want big government in our economic, or personal affairs, or in our mouths try to shut us up when we say something offensive.

Gary Johnson, doesn’t want to end the safety net, or legalize all current illegal drugs in America. He just wants to get America’s national debt under control and be able to balance the budget at some point. And to allow for Americans to live freely and is someone who could speak to this growing movement of Americans who believe in similar things. And this movement includes Liberal Democrats such as myself. I don’t have any illusions here. If Gary were to run for president, the Far-Left would beat him up. And I’m not sure he would have the adequate resources to be able to defend himself. At least not early on, but he’s someone who speaks for a lot of Americans. Including young Democrats who manage, or run business’s now. Who love personal freedom, but doesn’t want big government running their business for them either. Which is why he would make a great presidential candidate.