>> 2012 libertarian nominee gary johnson joined booktv at

freedomfest in las vegas. he talked about his new book, "seven principles of good government." this is about 15 minutes. >> on your screen is the cover of a new book coming out august 2012, "seven principles of good government," liberty people in politics and is written by former new max are grew governor gary johnson and he is also the libertarian party nominee for president in 2012. governor johnson, when and why did you leave the republican party and become a libertarian? >> will you know i have probably been a libertarian my entire life so this is kind of coming out of the closet and i don't think i am unlike most americans. i think there are a lot more americans in this country that declare themselves libertarian as opposed to voting libertarian. so you know the pitch that i'm trying to make right now is vote libertarian with me just this one time. give me a shot at changing

things and if it doesn't work out you can always return to tyranny. i'm going to argue that is what we have right now. >> what are the seven principles of good government that you write about? >> one is being reality-based. just find out what decisions and actions are on that and make sure everybody that should know what you are doing and knows what what you are doing so communicate. don't hesitate to deliver bad news. there is always time to think of things. if you don't have a job you love enough to do what needs to get your job done then quit and do what you do love. acknowledge mistakes made it way. there is always time to fix things. i know there are a couple of more and there but very common sense and i continue to live my life by these principles. >> are these principles that you had and used when you were governor of new mexico?

>> always, always and i actually delivered one of my state of the state addresses using the seven principles. look, here's how we need to conduct ourselves and anyway, just very commonsensical. >> so, if you would, your philosophy would and libertarian philosophy on the right side of government? >> well, libertarian philosophy if you were just too with a broadbrush stroke, the notion that most of us in this country are socially accepting and that we are fiscally responsible. that is a broadbrush stroke. a broad brushstrokes is wearing a pin, a lapel pin that says i am pro-choice regarding everything. well, pro-choice regarding everything means that actually, if your choices involve putting other people in harm's way or

your choices and up defrauding or harming another human being, then that is when the government, that is where the government does have a role, to protect us against individuals, groups and corp rations that would do us harm. >> as governor, did you shrink the size of state government? you used your veto pen quite a bit, but were you able to shrink the size of government? >> when it came $2 i was able to cut the rate of growth than half and that was the historical rate of growth. i always point at state government employees over an eight-year period. there were 1200 fewer state employees starting with 12,008 with 10,800. it was a 10% reduction in big government employees which i always pointed out unquestionably said that hey we were doing things more efficiently because we were

doing things with fewer state employees and we were doing more things. i would like to point out that the real driver of state budget face-to-face as medicaid and that of course is federal entitlement and really it's open-ended. and that is what has us in the predicament that we have, are the entitlements, medicare, medicaid, social security to a lesser degree but we have to address the entitlement. we have to address entitlement. see what is libertarian position on that? >> i'm promising to submit a balanced budget to congress in the year 2013. that is not promising a balanced budget. that is promising to submit a balanced budget to congress in the year 2013 believing that if we don't reduce government expenditures by $1.4 trillion that we are going going to find ourselves in the midst of a monetary collapse in the monetary collapse very simply is when the dollars we have aren't

worth anything and that is going to be the consequence of us continuing to borrow and print money to the tune of 43 cents out of every dollar. >> governor gary johnson is the author of this book, "seven principles of good government." he is also the libertarian candidate for president. what other issues do you write about? >> this being kind of the background on my history, i've been an entrepreneur my entire life. i started a a one-man handyman business and onlooker in 1974 and grew that business to employ over 1000 people. using those same principles, you know, showing up on time. just doing what you will say you will do for people. it's amazing. it talks about -- i've been completely outside of politics my entire life. the only two other political

offices that i've run for, governor of new mexico and re-election as governor of mexico and i may have made a name for myself. i did make a name for myself. arguably vetoing more legislation than the other 49 governors in the country combined. i think it was 750 bills. i took line-item veto. >> go to a new art form. thousands of line item vetoes. i said no to thousands of dollars in government spending and i said no to legislation that i think would have just added time and money for us to have to comply with these laws that would make it you any safer and wasn't going to improve our lives in any way and it was going to add money that we would have us to spend on it in time to be able to comply with a. >> you also funded your own campaign essentially. >> my first campaign i funded out of a 550,000-dollar primary. 510 of that was mine and 30 of

the remaining actually came which was a few days ago in the primary because it'd appeared as though i might actually win. i would like to point out that new mexico is a state that is 2:1 democrats of getting a liked it, vowing to be a penny pinch her and spending my first time proving that i was a penny pinch are beyond reproach and then getting reelected by a bigger margin the second time than the first time i think, i think that speaks to the fact that people really appreciate good stewardship of tax dollars. >> the libertarian party is often associated with changing laws and you have abdicated for that as well. changing the drug laws. >> drug laws, yes. in 1999 99 a abdicated legalizing marijuana, comptroller, regulated and taxed it. i think we are at a tipping point with regard to marijuana and legalizing it.

i think that colorado is going to do that. it's on the ballot in colorado this november. regulate marijuana like alcohol. i think it's going to pass. when it passes, and if it doesn't pass in colorado it's going to pass. 50% of americans say they support the notion. it's a growing number, it's a growing number because people are talking about the issue more than they ever have before, recognizing 90% of the job problem is prohibition related, nonuse related. that is not to discount the problem with use and abuse but that should be the focus. i think when we legalize marijuana i think we are going to take giant steps forward regarding all other drugs and that is going to be starting with looking at the drug issue first and the health issue rather than a criminal justice issue. let's get the police out on the

streets in real-time and lets free let's free up the courts and let them imprison the 2.3 million people that we have in them the majority of those being drug-related and of course we are not going to get to release anybody from jail that has committed another crime in louisville drug crimes but those that are in jail, victimless, non-violent drug crimes, there needs to be, there needs to be computation -- commutation of those sentences and pardons for 30 million americans that fought for drug laws and have served out their sentences but for drug laws that would have thereby -- otherwise be taxed pain law-abiding citizens. >> governor johnson would he see the intersection between republican policies and libertarian policies? >> on the right when you talk about a balanced budget and you talk about a balanced budget and we need to balance the budget immediately. we need to cut federal spending.

strong u.s. dollar, monetary policy. that is the intersection. if i could jump at the intersection when it comes to democrats is civil liberties. let's repeal the patriot act. would have never signed the national defense authorization act allowing for you and i to be arrested and detained without being charged by the u.s. government. let's bring around marriage equality and get out of afghanistan tomorrow, bring the troops home. lets in the drug wars. these are democratic issues, historically democratic issues but they aren't going anywhere today. just like republicans historically, their shoes have been about dollars and cents. neither one of the parties do well in the areas that they are supposed to do well. they are horrible in the areas that they don't do well then, meaning romney is horrible on civil liberties and obama is horrible when it comes to dollars and cents. >> as a libertarian is it a little tougher to get media

attention away from the two-party system especially as the campaign goes on this far? >> for myself personally actually there's probably been a 30% pick up in attention given, making the switch so no, i think just the opposite. i am believing that when people come to recognize that there are going to be three candidates on the ballot in all three states come in me being one of those three that is going to go a long way toward garnering just a little bit of who is that person along with ron paul's campaign coming to an end. by his own admission he says it's coming to an end. i think that ron paul supporters would not be compromising their vote with a vote for the libertarian. judge jim gray. >> who we also talked with here

on booktv. here is the covenant -- cover of governor johnson's book, "seven principles of good government" liberty, people in politics. out in august of 2012. vermont became a state in 1791 and became the largest producer of maple syrup in the united states and one of the largest granite producers in the country. the areas also rich in history and literary culture.

over the course of our recent visit with the help of our cable partner comcast booktv brings you many interviews of local authors and tours is significant locations. you can watch a few of them now. >> the book is titled "freedom and unity" and the authors are me, michael sherman and steve jeffrey hob lashed. we worked on it together. we thought of it as a conference of history of vermont, comprehensive making a going more than one volume and it starts with the formation of the mountains and it goes -- right before he published in 2004, so it has got a lot of information jammed into it about people, but politics and social movements and intellectual movements, some

literature, some of the arts. we try to touch on many of the topics that we thought vermonters might want to know about and what people might want to know about. there has not been a single history of vermont written since the 1920s when the big 4-volume history came out and there have been a few other shorter pieces in coffee-table editions but no single volume conference of history. as i was leaving to vermont's historical society the opportunity came up to pick up this budget that has been kind of abandoned because it was 15 and 20 years old and nothing had happened. the trustees asked me if i would work on a new history of vermont, and i agreed to do it with the cooperation of my two colleagues, because it seemed like it was too big of a project for one person to take on.

and we worked on it. i worked on it three years in each of them worked on it for four years. we produced this month, 700 page book which i think surprised everybody. vermont, 700 pages. you've got to be kidding. what does it say about vermont? and a couple of the reviews actually said that. why such a big book? but, if you set the first aside it has been a very successful book and very satisfying. when we brought it out, and we were surprised by the size of it. we thought well, this will be a door stop or people will use it to exercise in the morning. but in fact, people have read it. not necessarily -- dipping into places where they have a particular interest and we in we

hear from people. they write letters to the authors saying i just will got this book and i really like it and that is always very nice to hear. eventually we started way back in the beginning billions of years ago because the mounds were so important as part of the, not just the geography and topography of the place which is obvious but also because of the effects on the history of the state from the very beginning. wind up doing geology and started with the formation of the mountains and how they got here. and then continued working on. we had pretty much decided on chronological breaking points and not being strict about it but saying okay we will take the mountains up to the time that the french arrived. and then from the french through statehood and figured out what

were the big important breaking points or chronic logical lumps that we can work on. that became our chapter. the state motto presented for us -- what freedom and unity in meant and what you mean to people who adopted the motto in 1778? what does it mean in 2012 and we really tried to address that rushed rushton about individual freedom and individual freedom and our state. it's always been part of our leadership but also the obligations and responsibilities and benefits of the association with the town, with the state government and with the nation. so we are one state in the nation. vermonters came here not as part of the colonial settlement very much. i mean the first permanent white settlers came after the french and indian war so after 1773.

the french have been here before but they left or they were chased out essentially. but from 76 -- 1763 and 21810, 1812, there was an enormous influx of people from other parts of new england into vermont. vermont was not one of the original colonies. is created out of new new new yk and new hampshire and they fought over it and actually the state making part of vermont had and reflection in the u.s. constitution. the articles in the closet talks about how the states will be made in the constitution was merely a result of the conflict that new york had with new hampshire and vermont about who was going to own it and how was vermont going to be a separate state. even the constitution making of our country. so the cover image is a detail

of paintings, and the dorset marble works in a teen 75 by frank childs. the recently put it on the cover, if you look at the whole that you will see it has everything about vermont that you need to know. it's got mountains, it's got fields, it's got towns. it's got a railroad. it has got industry going there. it has got little houses, a church in a meetinghouse. and a sense is a microcosmic view of what the state is about and the tension between those. the mountains have been not only a geographic figure but marble comes out of it. is his been an economic resource. it's an agricultural state. we have had industry here from early on, not as big as elsewhere but everything going on in the state somehow getting captured in this painting. so it came a perfect image for what we were trying to accomplish in the book by

showing the variety. vermont is not just one thing, not just cows or sheep, and people don't think we have had an industrial history that we have had industrial history. people think of the row road which connected to the east and connected us to the west and played an important part in the development so all of those things that anyway characterized vermont but my surprise people about vermont are captured in this one marvelous painting. >> montpellier vermont is the nation's smallest a capital city with a population of about 8000. it was named the capitol of vermont in 1805 ports relatively central location in the state. booktv recently visited the city with the help of our local cable partner, comcast to explore the histories history -- the history and literary culture. >> we are at the historic

vermont college of fine arts. i'm the founder and i'm a novelist. i have always been a storyteller and i have always loved to read. i was reading, can't remember exactly the book and i went back to school and i took a creative writing class and decided i was a natural artist and i never turned back. there is nothing more satisfying than working on a novel particularly when you have a job running a college. it's almost like, although my literary life is an important part of what i do, you know in some ways i am still a tanker at night in the garage. i am just crafting a 280 page knowledge that people will hopefully read and enjoy a year from now part of. >> the building behind us was erected in 1868 and for years this was a women's undergraduate

college. in 2006, the campus was in danger of closing. there were established msa programs here and so i led an effort with the faculty and the staff of the college making the institution independent forming it into a fine arts college which it is today and became the first independent college in vermont in a generation. what has happened since then has grown into a much larger vision of creating a national center of the arts in montpellier on this campus. we offer an mfa in writing and writing for children and young adults both of which are considered among the top in the country. he is still to this day coming to a dorm to finish his novels and because the place he associates with great creativity but what happens here, to student come every six months and we have what we think of as a great gathering of writers, two or 300 riders writers

commented time and they stay here on campus. they lived in montpellier. they do workshops and lectures and when they are not working one-on-one with a faculty advisor on a novel or cluster of short stories or poetry -- this program is really about individual artists and it's about writers, musicians, designers, filmmakers and visual artist. is about the idea that you know there are people all around this world who are working individually in their fields and we bring them together into a community. when they are here they work together and they lived together. they probably party too much together. they are together all day long but at the end of it, the thing about a writer and artist is it the consolidation of the work but -- is also important. that's what happens in montpellier. when i first moved here someone had to be careful driving around

on the back roads because you might see a novelist. they are all on the pros here so there are numbers of writers all around here. at one point there is a literary match in montpellier that shows where people live. howard frank mosher is someone who comes to mind who is in many ways the quintessential vermont novelist who writes about vermont and has maple syrup and his name. he is a terrific writer. he lives locally here and howard frank patterson who is best known for her work which is remarkable, young adult novel which is remarkable in a way. i think there is a real core anchor. it's one of those odd literary cultures and places where people gather that you know in the northeast part of the country. you would have to go to brooklyn new york ticket as close.

particularly for writers, unlike a lot of places we are a front porch culture, not a backyard culture so you get to know your neighbors and you rely on your neighbors. you learn how to work together and depend on each other and from that comes the heart of what makes the story because you know people so you know what happens in their lives. there are not many communities in america like that anymore sadly i think. they have the scale, scope and size and the kind of big sense of community and they are all in this together. we are unique town and that we have independent bookstores which are disappearing all across the country. we have an independent college. we have in 1905 independent art sinema house and we have a magnificent library in town here. you you have a 6-year-old daughter. the library is the hub of their lives. we have readers from the time they are little until they are bigger.

we have all the cultural things you could have been a big city in a town that really only has 8000 people. so that is extraordinary and very unique. people matter, stories matter. institutions matter. the only reason to start a college is because you can do things -- though it takes other people to do things you can do by yourself so you know, i think what we what we are doing rightw here in this campus is entirely unique. i think you'd have to go back to the 19 30s and 1940s to find a place, small place on a hillside that has such centrality. we are bringing the top writers, designers, visual artist and a year or from now will we will star with start with filmmakers and apple branson -- branch into dance. this has become an essential gateway for the larger culture. this is very exciting and what gets me up everyday makes me

want to come to this old will be hoping my third-floor office. >> for more information on this and other cities visited by c-span's local content vehicles visit c-span.org/local content. >> up next, jeff biggers presents a political history verizon and remarks on the current political fissures that exists in this day. heat examines s.b. 1070 in the latino population challenging the legislation. this is just under an hour. [applause] >> i believe that books matter and i think you do too and i believe that authors and writers had the unique way in which they can help us envision a different world. if books matters authors can affect change in our communities and places like changing hands

to meet our sacred places for the community for the common good, places where we come together to exchange ideas so it give a big anti-changing hands at all then depended bookstores in the community that are really ground zero for the great ideas we have in our country. [applause] and it is banned book week so if you're from tucson and is something you feel deeply, because we have so many options to choose from. and i will tell you something about this story. they are not just entertainment. they are all we have, you see, all we have despite the illness and death. when i was your age in high school and i read those words, one of the most beautiful novels i have ever read in my life by the world war ii veteran coming back back to laguna pueblo and here i am immersed in this amazing world in the southwest that made me come to grips with it, i couldn't believe that those words somehow what the