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I'm inclined to support Gary Johnson, but I have one reservation. He thinks government should get out of the marriage business. This is a way of trying to please both sides by giving gay men and lesbians equality while not avoiding having the government call it "marriage". I don't think this will work, and I don't think that it is all that realistic.
People who want to protect traditional marriage will not be interested in abolishing state recognition of marriage. Indeed we are likely to have more Americans protest at having themselves no longer being considered married, than would ever protest in order to prevent gays from doing so.
Gays and lesbians are unlikely to be satisfied either. All this time governments have had no trouble marrying "straight" people, but now that we consider it unfair to do this while denying the same benefit to them, we are going to have to call marriage something different. This doesn't sound like we are treating them equally at all.
Then we also need to consider that the least radical change that this would entail would require us to consider all of the arrangements that we currently consider marriages to be civil unions and have civil unions have all of the features that marriages currently have. This seems like an empty change that we are trying to put into the law in order for us to avoid calling a spade a spade.
Even if I thought this was a good idea, which I don't, it is difficult to see how the federal government has the power to enact such a change in the law. Marriage is under control of the states.
That having been said, I do agree with many of his political positions and certainly wish him luck at securing the Republican nomination for president and beating Barack Obama. Unfortunately I don't think his chances look good. That shouldn't prevent Republicans from supporting him. He would probably do about as well or better against Obama as any of the other candidates.
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