http://amconmag.com/article/2009/apr/20/00035/
According to a recent American Conservative Magazine article, Fmr. NM Gov. Gary Johnson mentions attacking the Federal Reserve System will be one of his four major issues, if he runs in 2012.
We may have a new torch bearer. :)
"Anticapitalist theories share in common an inability to take human nature as it is. Rather than analyzing man as a complex creature, anticapitalist theories tend to focus on what the theorist wishes man to be." - Isaac Morehouse
Gary Johnson is pretty good on ideas, but he's a lousy orator based on what I saw at the Rally for the Republic.
I still think Mark Sanford is the better choice to push because Sanford has a home in the GOP and he can outflank Romney, Palin and Huckabee on social conservatism credentials.
If you find something evil that wobbles, push it. - Gary North
liberty student: Gary Johnson is pretty good on ideas, but he's a lousy orator based on what I saw at the Rally for the Republic. I still think Mark Sanford is the better choice to push because Sanford has a home in the GOP and he can outflank Romney, Palin and Huckabee on social conservatism credentials.
Gary Johnson has room to improve on the public speaking front, I'll grant you that, but, with all due respect, Ron Paul is a horrible orator. The point is, it was the ideas that turned the gears of the Ron Paul Revolution, not his speaking ability or stage presence.
As for Mark Sanford, I do have a soft spot for him, but I just don't know if people will be able to overlook this. Also, there's the fact that Mark Sanford has the misfortune of presiding over a really bad time in South Carolina's economy. Of course, the fact that unemployment is so high in SC is a good thing, because it means he's allowing unsustainable lines to fail and malinvestment to be liquidated, but I'm not sure how many average voters will understand that.
I haven't seen much from Mark Sanford except his move to incorporate Ron P. supporters. He's doing what every other conservative (that wants to keep the definition of conservative alive rather than die off yet). I think he panders by making small actions such as rejecting the, I believe it was, 5% or less of the stimulus package. Then saying he's against the Federal Reserve. I mean he is high profile and who talked about these things other than Ron P. 8 or 4 years ago, nobody other than Kucinich who seems to have fallen off the face of the earth somewhere in not only his voting but stance. So Sanford has that going for him, but now you've got the Texas governor standing up looking for votes while he talks about the principle of succession. Texas governor was looking real bad in the polls before that. Which actually all this goes to show how much of a voice an underlying crowd is present and all a politician has to do is speak some of these issues at times and gets people all emotional. But I think the Federal Reserve abolition talk and other issues are gaining ground and can't be ignored. So it's a touchy situation. It can't be ignored, but can action actually take place. And that latter part seems so far off and near impossible - but I didn't say impossible, just near. If we're going to start to talk about who's going to pick up the torch of Ron P., then we need to find somebody a lot more clear-cut in their distinctions than Mark Sanford is being - way, way, way, more. I watched the video somebody posted here in the forum, can't remember the thread, of Ron P. in 1983. The only difference I saw was he was asking somebody a few questions, meaning, he wasn't as knowledgeable about some of these deep details as he is now. Heck now somebody asks him an off the cuff question about such and such Constitutional Amendment and he'll rattle it off from memory and give an answer. But that 1983 discussion on a TV show was about Anti-Trust, deregulation, and monopolies and Ron P. knew a lot still, he only asked some questions about some very fine details with the scholar that was on the show too. I don't see Mark Sanford anywhere near as knowledgeable and curious. Does he even know why the Federal Reserve ought to be abolished? I don't know and he's not showing his insight on these issues very well for I don't see his opinion out there much.
Of course Rand P. is knowledgeable about quite a bit of these issues, but politically he's got some time to go yet I think.
for what it's worth....
"I used to see a mountain as a mountain.. Thereafter.. when I saw a mountain; lo! it was not a mountain.. yet now of final tranquillity: I see a mountain just as a mountain as I used to.." - Master Yuan; molon labe
Looks like there's going to be some news coming from the Johnson camp this coming week.
My prediction: he forms a PAC and/or releases some political issues book in preparation for a 2012 run.
He was a startlingly libertarian governor during his two terms, but apparently he's become quite the student of Austrian economics since being out of office and is going to make abolishing the Fed one of his central planks. I'd vote for him.
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