Frank Daniels III

fdanielsiii@tennessean.com

“If you always do what you’ve always done, what makes you think that you are going to get something different from what you’ve always gotten.”

The 2016 presidential election is the ultimate posing of this rhetorical question.

Libertarian Party presidential nominee Gary Johnson is the choice for Americans who want to make our government work for us, and not for the political class. He is the best choice to get something different from what we’ve been getting, and give America’s government back to the people.

Johnson’s rhetoric is far more measured than the other two candidates who appear on every presidential ballot in the United States, Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, and has consequently gotten little national media interest.

Experience

But Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico, is the epitome of a man who lets his actions speak, not his boasts.

“Fixing America is not an insurmountable task. It's actually about putting people first rather than politics. I wouldn't be involved in this if I didn't think that we can make a difference, and that it is easy, it's really easy to be principled and put the issues first and politics last.”

Unlike Clinton or Trump, Johnson has run the executive branch of government, and did it well enough to win re-election by a substantial margin. He did it as a Republican governor in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans by more than a 2-1 margin.

He was elected on a campaign of “a common sense business approach” to government, with promises to cut the growth of government spending, reduce taxes, increase jobs, and, of course, law and order.

Once he was elected, Johnson executed his promises by using his veto power – he vetoed 47 percent of the bills that reached his desk, and exercised line-item veto power on almost every bill he signed.

“I may have vetoed more legislation than the other forty-nine governors in the country combined,” Johnson said in 2011. “And it wasn't just saying, "no," it was really looking at what we were spending our money on and what we were getting for the money we were spending.

“I really do believe in smaller government, I really believe that there are consequences of legislation that gets passed and maybe it isn't in our best interest to pass all the legislation that we pass, that it layers bureaucracy on transactions that aren't made any safer...”

Building a business

While he was student at the University of New Mexico, he worked as a self-employed handyman, going door-to-door looking for jobs. He graduated with a degree in political science in 1975, and launched his construction company, Big J Enterprises. He was the sole employee.

It did not remain a one-man operation, eventually employing as many as 1,000 workers. He sold it in 1999.

Personal toughness

Watching Johnson give an interview, or talking with him on the phone, you are likely struck by how unassuming he is. He looks goofy, and does not attempt to dominate a room with bluster, haughty demeanor, or bullying postures.

But do not mistake his modest behavior for a lack of toughness.

No candidate in this race, perhaps in any previous races, can match his physical and mental toughness.

On Dec. 16, 2014, when he was 61, Johnson became just the 396th person to climb the “Seven Summits:” Mount Everest, Mount Elbrus, Denali, Mount Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua, Mount Vinson, and Carstensz Pyramid—the tallest peaks in Asia, Europe, North America, Africa, South America, Antarctica, and Oceania respectively.

He was invited three times to compete in the World Ironman Championship in Hawaii, one of the most grueling competitions in sport.

Fiscal conservative, social liberal

If Johnson and his running mate Bill Weld, former governor of Massachusetts, were elected, they have said that their first task would be to present a balanced budget to Congress.

“My entire life I watched government spend more money than what it takes in and I just always thought that there would be a day of reckoning with regard to that spending…

“Listen,” Johnson said in a September telephone interview, “we are heading to a fiscal cliff, and we have to address it.”

The balanced budget plan would address spending on social security, Medicare and Medicaid, as well as military spending, with an emphasis on the costs of the current strategy of “regime change” in areas around the world.

He said that the best way to address Medicaid spending challenges would be to make block grants to the states.

Johnson thinks one of our greatest governmental failures is the “war on drugs,” and favors legalizing marijuana.

He supports a woman’s right to choose.

But he also fully supports the Second Amendment of the constitution.

He is opposed to the policy of American military interventionism that, he says, makes America less safe.

He is in favor of free trade, and immigration that is focused on bringing people into the country who want to work and participate in the American economic dream.

In short, Johnson is not what we’ve always done.

He is a man of experience, toughness, character, and humility.

Washington, and all of America, would benefit from the kind of change he would bring.

Reach Frank Daniels III:fdanielsiii@tennessean.com, 615-881-7039, or on Twitter @fdanielsiii

Editor's note: This column is part of a series of articles commissioned by The Tennessean making thoughtful cases for 2016 presidential candidates: