Articles by Gary Johnson

In 2016, Donald Trump ignited the imaginations of a vocal and politically-potent-in-Republican-primaries minority of American voters with a promise to build a big beautiful Wall across our border with Mexico. Publicly and privately, current and former border state officials — like me — scoffed at the idea and dismissed it as a simplistic political ploy. And that part about making Mexico pay for it? Well…that was met with a great deal of amused head-scratching. Why the scoffing, dismissing, and...

The holidays are over and it’s back to reality. Of course, part of that reality — for better or worse — if that the politicians have made their way back to Washington, DC. To be clear, I am not suggesting that the politicians’ reality is the same as ours. That’s a big part of the problem. First, it should be noted that most of the significant items on the agenda for Congress as they return to “work” are items that they failed to deal with LAST year. You will recall that, after knowing for mon...

I am really, really glad I wasn’t an Alabama voter last Tuesday. The choices: A Democratic candidate who, though apparently a decent fellow, can be expected to largely vote the big government, big spending party line, or….Roy Moore — homophobe, theocrat, and apparently, at best, a creepy pursuer of very young women. There was, of course, the “write-in” option, which would have been conscience-saving choice, but unlikely to have a great impact. Why only two choices? I’ve asked before, and I’...

Property rights are fundamental in America – or at least they are supposed to be. Yet each year, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies seize hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of cars, homes, cash and other property, with no due process to determine guilt or innocence, or even without even filing charges against the property owner. It’s called asset seizure or civil forfeiture, and it’s just wrong. By claiming that you or your property are related to criminal activity, the government j...

It’s just wrong. Go to the websites of major polling organizations and look at their measurements of “party identification.” You’ll find something interesting: Sometimes the graphs will show two lines: one for Democrats and one for Republicans. But sometimes, they show three lines. Democrats, Republicans, and independents. A funny thing happens when they include that third line. More often than not, those who don’t identify as either Democrat or Republican almost always equal or exceed those w...

It is tragic that it has taken a mass murder of historic proportion to remind us that the vast, vast majority of people are fundamentally good. In the aftermath of the Las Vegas shooting, we have witnessed and learned of countless acts of heroism, courage, kindness and generosity. Strangers helping strangers, even at the risk of their own lives. Thousands standing in line for hours to give blood. Funds for the victims and their families being established and receiving millions in donations virt...

Focusing on whether a football player takes a knee or the president chooses to tweet about it misses a point. Our country is absorbed in partisan controversy, and the media plays right along. Kneel to fight for social justice? That's freedom of speech. Stand to recognize the people who have given their lives to keep us safe? That's freedom of speech. But what about free speech during the most important political dialogue between candidates and the American people ... the presidential debates...

Don’t blink or you might miss it. While much of our attention, and that of Congress, is appropriately focused on hurricane recovery, the United States Senate this week is quietly taking up the National Defense Authorization Act that will set the Pentagon’s budget and programs for next year. There are some major issues in play, and those of us who are concerned about spending, foreign military interventions, surveillance, and transgender rights need to be paying attention. Waging Wars without...

Congress, you’re up. As expected, President Trump has ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program put in place by Barack Obama through executive action. No surprise there; Trump promised to end DACA during the campaign, even though he had teased the so-called Dreamers with assurances that they need not worry. His exact words: “I love these kids.” Under DACA, undocumented immigrants under the age of 31 as of June 15, 2012, who came to the U.S. before they were 16 years old a...