Tom Garrison

I am the youngest of four children to two Dust Bowl Oklahoma residents who migrated to Shafter, California in the Central Valley. My family was fairly apolitical, with Republican leanings. I graduated with a BA in political science from California State College, Bakersfield in 1974 (magna cum laude); earned a MA in political science from University of California, Davis in 1976; and finished everything but my PhD dissertation (ABD) in political science at University of California, Santa Barbara in 1980.

I began political life as a typical McGovern liberal, moved left to become a card carrying member of the Socialist Party USA, and in the late 1990s evolved into a libertarian.

In 1980 I was arrested, along with hundreds of others, for civil disobedience at the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. From the early 1980s to the mid-1990s I was a hyper-active socialist: twice running for Santa Barbara City Council openly as a socialist in the mid-1980s; worked with tenants (three city-wide rent control campaigns in seven years), and gays and lesbians; and fighting political cultists in California's Peace and Freedom Party (the only socialist party with ballot status in California). During this period I also found time to work full-time as an editor (from 1982 to 2000) of a political science journal published in Santa Barbara.

I believe my transition from leftist activist to libertarian, while not common, is instructive. Why would someone abandon a strong belief system, lose many comrades/"friends", and suffer the loss of much of his social network? Why, because I grew to see that the Left (and its handmaiden liberalism) lacked respect and understanding of the concept of personal responsibility; lying was an all too common occurrence that undermined the democratic process; leftists/liberals slavishly adhered to affirmative action preferences, quotas, and identity politics; and leftists/liberals--while embracing "diversity"--all too often display an intolerance for a real diversity of ideas. In 1997 I joined the Libertarian Party.

From the early 1980s to 2000, I published several political articles in publications such as Liberty magazine, the Santa Barbara News-Press, the Santa Barbara Independent, The Socialist, Left Out, and Tenants United.

More than 30 years ago my wife Deb and I began seriously exploring the American Southwest. During the first several years we concentrated on areas fairly close to our then home in Santa Barbara, California—the Mojave Desert around Barstow and Baker and Death Valley. We later branched out to Joshua Tree National Park and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in south central California. In the early 2000s Arizona became a favorite destination. Finally, we began exploring southern Utah in 2006. In the fall of 2009 we left California and settled in St. George, Utah. St. George is a great base camp for adventures in southwest Utah, southern Nevada, and northern Arizona.

While we much enjoy the grandeur of big name desert national parks—Death Valley, Zion, Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon, and others—our preference is hard to find, out of the bustle of humanity, slot canyons. Fortunately, the area we choose to live is full of slot canyons.

From 2000 to 2009, I mostly dropped out of politics and concentrate on my job (Real Property Appraiser for the Santa Barbara County Assessor's Office); building a real estate "empire" (four rental condos); and exploring and hiking the southwestern United States with Deb, as often as we could get away.

Since December 2010 I have had more than 165 hiking stories and political and humorous essays published (as of October 2024) in The Spectrum (St. George, UT daily newspaper), The Independent (St. George, UT), the Salt Lake Tribune (Salt Lake City, UT), the Mesquite Local News (Mesquite, NV), The Sun Runner (Joshua Tree, CA), Moapa Valley Progress (Logandale/Overton, NV), and the Los Alamos Daily Post (Los Alamos, NM). My most recent book is Hiking Southwest Utah and Adjacent Areas, Volume Four (September 2024).

For about one year, starting in October 2011 I had a once-a-week (Mondays at 2:30) 30-minute talk radio show (as a segment of Jake Shannon's two hour "Mental Self-Defense" program) on station KTKK (630 am) out of Sandy, Utah covering the Salt Lake City area. I discuss the libertarian perspective on a variety of issues.