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DEL.ICIO.USOn Bob Barr: Reining in the disappointed left, renouncing the Defense of Marriage Act, and the YouTube video
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Libertarian presidential nominee Bob Barr — how strange it feels to write that — continues to churn on the Internet, as leaders try to rein in the disappointed Libertarian left.
Last night, on Third Party Watch, a web site now owned by former GOP direct mail titan Richard Viguerie, one of the candidates that Barr beat on Sunday urged his people to stay on board.
Wrote Steve Kubby, whose platform was largely based on easing marijuana laws:
“After their victory, the Barr campaign could have told their opponents not to let the door hit them in the ass on their way out and saved themselves a lot of future grief. Instead, we have seen a concerted effort by Barr and [Wayne] Root to unify the party.
Jim Ostrowski of Buffalo, N.Y., is already handing out strategy tips on Political Class Dismissed:
“First, Barr needs to get the endorsement of Ron Paul and try to get the Revolution behind him. Can he do this? I don’t know, but if they are anything like me, they’d like to continue the movement and this year, not four years from now….
“Step two is to convince conservatives and Republicans of the obvious fact that McCain is a dead man walking…
“Consider that if Barr can pass McCain in just one state — Georgia — McCain’s chances of winning an electoral college majority virtually disintegrate. He would then need to hold every one of about ten swing states. That’s highly unlikely because Barr would be chipping away at his support there too. Clearly, Barr needs to focus on Georgia first and aggressively. Georgia is the lever that can move the world.”
Outright Libertarian, a gay group, is focused on a video clip of Barr’s post-election disavowal of the Defense of Marriage Act — legislation the former Georgia congressman once pointed to with pride, when in front of Republican audiences.
Said Barr:
”Let me tell you — I have made mistakes. But the only way you make mistakes, the only way you get things done, is by getting out there, in the arena….
“As I mentioned to you all last night, and I reiterate here today — standing before you, looking you in the eye —the Defense of Marriage Act, insofar as it provided the federal government a club to club down the rights of law-abiding, American citizens, has been abused, misused and should be repealed. And I will work to repeal that.”
In the mainstream media, Tim Lee on The Atlantic magazine blog assesses Barr’s platform:
“It’s incredibly thin—a dozen or so bullet points in total—and one of the four categories is “secure our borders,” which suggests Barr may harbor the same kind of borderline xenophobia that has infected both the [Ron] Paul campaign and much of the modern conservative movement. That’s not the impression I want voters to get of libertarianism.
“Ultimately, I wish the LP would just go away. The structure of American elections dooms third parties to perpetual failure and obscurity, and that, in turn, creates a vicious cycle where the most talented activists and potential candidates go elsewhere, causing the party to be even more out of touch and politically tone-deaf in the next election. But given that the party is going to nominate somebody, Barr was probably the best choice.”
Free Liberal comes to the candidate’s defense:
“In 2001, Barr was the lead figure in the GOP-controlled House in pushing back against the PATRIOT Act, and ultimately suceeded in deleteing some text and forcing sunset clauses on the bill’s worst provisions.”
And, of course, every presidential candidate needs his own YouTube song. This one is more than a tad strange and not terribly flattering, but it’s still early — the Obama Girl could still come to Barr’s rescue:
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Comments
By Copyleft
May 28, 2008 2:15 PM | Link to this
The “libertarian left” needs to figure out that they don’t exist. It’s a contradiction in terms, like “compassionate conservative.”
The Libertarian Party will always be the hard-right faction of the GOP that doesn’t care about gays and churches, just money.
By scottwww
May 28, 2008 2:53 PM | Link to this
In my lifetime, Reagan was the best of Republican presidents.
Congress had far better Republican results than we have seen in the last 10 years and more (most recently think of Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America). Cooperation across the aisle is what is killing us. McCain leads that charge as Senator, and now as presidential candidate. We need to oppose the left, not become like them. I’ll oppose the one who cozies up to my enemy.
I am not a historian, but what I know of them, Goldwater was a good Republican. Perhaps Eisenhower. Not so much T. Roosevelt. How about Lincoln?
Take the greatest Democrats as contrast and you may have a better idea of what I oppose. F. Roosevelt is at the top of that list. Johnson is right up there. On the list, though not even close to the two on top would be Kennedy. Clinton was mediocre, at best. Carter just doesn’t belong on any list that includes the word great (except that of greatest failures).
We’re really screwed because our weakling Republican congressmen are likely to act even more weakly. The future is bleak. The nation is charging headlong into liberalism.
This year, a third party appears to be the only recourse.
See http://politics.dominates.us
By GodHatesTrash
May 29, 2008 6:12 AM | Link to this
Great video. The modern GOP is a cancer, a virus that is killing our country. Barr is just the latest tumor.
Trash.
By Will Jones
May 29, 2008 7:18 AM | Link to this
Read “Dark Victory,” by Dan Moldea if you actually think, and think Reagan was a good man, or a man, or an American.
Then look up “Willie Bioff” if you think, and think Goldwater was an American patriot.
Who do you think politically supported Bush’s father’s faction after they killed John Kennedy and ramped up the Gulf of Tonkin Hoax to send us to die for fascism the way Bush is now?
America’s foundational Whig ideals are “left.” Read Richard K. Matthews’ “The Radical Politics of Thomas Jefferson and gain a more evolved understanding of America…away from the Roman Anti-Christ.
www.theamericanfundament.blogspot.com
By C. Al Currier
May 30, 2008 6:29 PM | Link to this
I am not a historian, but what I know of them, Goldwater was a good Republican. Perhaps Eisenhower. —By scottwww
I’d say Eisenhower was the absolute worst president in US history, the one who brought us the interstate highway system and which subsequently destroyed the private-sector passenger rail system in this country. The US is now ‘bout the only developed country in the world without a high-peed rail system (unless you call the funky-Amtrak-garbage ‘high-speed’). Thanks to Eisenhower, we are hopeless addicted to oil and autos, and have impossible urban/suburban, auto-dependant infrastucture.
Eisenhower was a good general (WII) but as perz, he was the worst statist with the worst ‘solutions’. If there is one person to blame for our current problems in the middle east (and our chase for oil), I’d blame DDE.
By C. Al Currier
May 30, 2008 8:15 PM | Link to this
Oops (typo) above! perz should read prez
By C. Al Currier
May 31, 2008 4:04 PM | Link to this
RE: Eisenhower, etc. Here is aa link to an article on cnbc Energy Outrage: Mass Transit Mess Posted By:Lee Brodie http://www.cnbc.com/id/24896129
Big mess
By chris
August 4, 2008 12:55 AM | Link to this
“libertarian left” certainly does exist!, though in minimal numbers in the US.
social anarchists go by that label. it is also quite common in Europe and elsewhere. libertarianism and liberal share the same root in the Enlightenment in the persons of Locke, Smith and Jefferson.