Gary Johnson on Paul Ryan: "He is anything but a libertarian"

Austin – Gary Johnson is not happy that some in the media call Republican vice presidential candidate and Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan a libertarian.

"He voted for the Patriot Act, he voted for the National Defense Appropriation Act, he voted to ban online poker, he's proposing a budget that gets balanced in thirty years. He is anything but a libertarian, anything but," said Johnson after a packed campaign dinner at Hill's Café.

Johnson, the Libertarian Party nominee for president, noted that Ryan was a strict social conservative who voted to restrict abortion rights and against marriage equality.

"Paul Ryan submitted personhood legislation that is anything but libertarian," he said. Johnson's eyes widened and his volume increased as he went into detail about Ryan's support for a national version of Virginia's controversial transvaginal ultrasound law.

Johnson suggested that all the talk of Ryan as a libertarian and follower of Ayn Rand may help him because people will see pretty quickly that former New Mexico governor is the only real libertarian running.

Many libertarians credit Rand's novels with changing their worldview but Johnson said he did not read her novels until the mid-1990s when he was governor of New Mexico.

"I came away from Atlas Shrugged and able to verbalize that the best thing I can do is be the best that I can be, something that I held to before I ever read it," he said.

"Atlas Shrugged for me was a validation of my own thoughts. There was no conversion," he said.

Johnson suggested that his wife read Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead so she could get a better understanding of his worldview.