Gary Johnson, former Republican governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003, has an exemplary record during his time in office.

No scandal, no taint, or no rational criticism of his time as governor exists. He’s fit, he’s intelligent, he has executive experience, but as a Republican candidate for presidency, he could not even get on the TV debates, despite having more executive experience in office than every other candidate for the Republican nomination except Rick Perry. Mitt Romney served only one term as governor. Ron Paul, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich all served in Congress, but that’s not executive experience or decision-making.

Gov. Rick Perry has executive experience but his record is the polar opposite of Johnson’s. Perry has put over 1,000 people who contributed to his campaigns in various offices of the government, selling Texas governance to the highest bidders, literally. Perry is corrupt to the core. As far as I read, I have never seen even the suggestion that Gary Johnson made one corrupt decision, ever, in all eight years.

But Johnson wants to legalize marijuana, cut federal spending 43%, and end the Drug War, among other rational positions.

So the Republican establishment squeezed him out, allowing a one-percenter like Jon Huntsman in the debates instead. Huntsman represents the 1% because they are his supporters in Iowa and nationally as well. Also, his daddy is colossally rich and is the almost-exclusive financier of Jon-Boy’s campaign.

So Johnson has astutely launched a run as the Libertarian candidate this November. Johnson decided that if Ron Paul doesn’t get the Republican nomination, then there will be someone on the ballot in all 50 states who advocates ending marijuana prohibition, ending the wars, cutting federal government spending by 43%, and introducing a flat tax. The Libertarian Party has ballot-status or will in all 50 states. Johnson can probably count on funding by independents, Paul people and Democrat agent provocateurs.

Unless Ron Paul wins the Republican nomination, the Republicans can’t win. Most Paul supporters will vote for Johnson in November if they are faced with a Romney/Gingrich/Bachmann/Santorum robot as the Republican candidate.

The Republicans are now panicking. The left-wing media (such as it is, say the New York Times), and especially the rabid right-wing media (CNN and Fox News), along with the Republican establishment, is realizing that the only person who can win next November is Paul as the Republican nominee! Most conservatives will still vote for Paul, as will many independents and disillusioned Democrats.

If Paul gets the Republican nomination, Johnson will do the right thing, support Paul, and withdraw. Johnson would make the perfect vice-presidential running mate to Paul, which is the ideal Republican ticket to me. Ron Paul and Mitt Romney are tied in polls for the candidate best able to beat Barack Obama.

But if the Republican candidate isn’t Paul, the Republicans simply cannot win. And that is driving the media and the Republican establishment bat-shit crazy.

Paul will win the IOWA caucus. He’ll be a strong second in New Hampshire. This Republican nomination will be contested right through to California on June 5th, and I’m sure it will be a see-saw battle between Romney and Paul for the most part.

Paul will pardon all non-violent drug offenders in federal prisons. He will pardon the millions of Americans who have drug offenses on their federal criminal records. He does not need Congressional approval to do this. As Commander in Chief, he will begin the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Germany, Korea, Japan, and all the outposts around the world. He will get out of Afghanistan. He will greatly change the CIA and NSA. He will abolish the DEA whenever possible. He will stop giving tax money to Mexico and Colombia to wage their murderous drug wars. He will repeal the Patriot Act. He will veto any Congressional bill that he deems unconstitutional. He will end the Transportation Safety Authority (TSA). He will cut one trillion dollars from the U.S. federal budget, eliminating five departments. He will immediately permit all states with medical marijuana laws to enact them without obstruction from the federal government.

Make 2012 the year Ron Paul changed America after 50 years of terrible mismanagement. I beg you to get involved with the Paul campaign in your state. If Paul becomes president, every marijuana prisoner in U.S. federal prisons, myself included, will be freed and pardoned, allowed to start our lives once again, in a world without prohibition. For once Paul ends federal prohibition in the U.S., it will fall in Mexico, Canada, and Europe shortly afterward.

The fate of the Free World really does rest on our culture’s decision to get actively involved with the Ron Paul campaign. Wherever you are, you can pitch in and help.

As of today I have 924 days left in my sentence in federal prison. If Ron Paul becomes president, it will be half that exactly: by March 2013 I would receive a pardon that he would issue to all marijuana offenders in federal prisons. I am one of tens of thousands whose lives would be impacted, and millions of Americans would have their criminal convictions for drug offenses expunged.

If you consider yourself an activist for the cannabis culture, any indifference or failure to act at this crucial time in America’s history is tantamount to betrayal. I do not choose that word lightly.

Ron Paul in 2012. To end the prohibition around the world. This year. Register Republican to vote for Paul in the primary in your state. Join his campaign RIGHT NOW. Give money to his campaign. Actively talk him up.

The Mayan calendar suggests that great change will come by December 2012. The greatest thing we could do for mankind is reduce drastically the chances of war by reducing the American Imperial Empire, and to end prohibition worldwide. That can happen by what we, as a culture, in concert with the rest of America, do in the next 11 months.

Marc Emery is the founder of the B.C. Marijuana Party and former publisher of Cannabis Culture. He is currently serving a 5-year prison term in a U.S. federal penitentiary for selling marijuana seeds and using the money to fund cannabis activism in Canada, the U.S., and around the world.