Gary Johnson Outraged By 'Marriage Vow' Pledge

That "Family Leader" pledge may have won the enthusiastic endorsement of Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum, but former New Mexico Governor and long-shot presidential hopeful Gary Johnson is having an equally enthusiastic reaction in the opposite direction. On the Johnson campaign's "Truth For Change" blog, Johnson calls the pledge "offensive and unrepublican," an "[attempt] to prevent and eliminate personal freedom," and finally, the "type of rhetoric" that "gives Republicans a bad name":

Government should not be involved in the bedrooms of consenting adults. I have always been a strong advocate of liberty and freedom from unnecessary government intervention into our lives. The freedoms that our forefathers fought for in this country are sacred and must be preserved. The Republican Party cannot be sidetracked into discussing these morally judgmental issues -- such a discussion is simply wrongheaded. We need to maintain our position as the party of efficient government management and the watchdogs of the "public's pocket book."

This "pledge" is nothing short of a promise to discriminate against everyone who makes a personal choice that doesn't fit into a particular definition of "virtue."

Johnson goes even further, making a web video with a piano, gently weeping about how "un-American" the pledge is:

It's stuff like this that sometimes makes me wonder if anyone will ever make clear the distinction between "Tea Partiers" and "libertarians."

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