Ever since the nomination of former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr (until two years ago a conservative Republican), one thing has become apparent: a large plurality of registered Libertarians are frightened to death of success.
Although there were six opportunities to nominate someone else, like Mary Ruwart or Steve Kubby (whom I supported until he was eliminated), Barr and his running mate Wayne Allyn Root were legitimately nominated by a majority of Libertarians attending the Denver convention.
Nonetheless, there are a lot of Libertarians who have refused to get behind the party's nominee; they advocate the dissolution of the party, a write-in vote for Ron Paul, contemplation of the Constitution Party or just waiting four years for someone like Ruwart.
It doesn't matter, though -- there aren't enough registered Libertarians for less than half of them to matter in any statistically significant way.
Bob Barr will receive a record number of votes simply because millions of Republicans, independents and even Democrats will vote for him. The class is entitled "Politics 101," not "Philosophy 101".
The nominee in 2012, whether it's Paul, Ruwart, Kubby, Root or Joe Wurzelbacher, will benefit from the work Barr has done on behalf of the Libertarian Party. Never before has a Libertarian broken through with the Big Four TV networks, but PBS and NBC have already covered Barr's campaign. ABC and CBS are now forced to give Barr a serious look.
Barr's candidacy will draw the interest of hundreds of thousands of pissed-off Republicans, former Perotistas, Blue Dog Democrats and awakening independents that will consider joining the Libertarian Party.
How will they be greeted? How will they be treated? Will they be ostracized and condemned for lack of "purity"? Or will they be welcomed and assimilated?
There are legitimate concerns that a large influx of newbie Libertarians would change the face and personality of the party. Is this party really geared up to incorporate, educate and assimilate hundreds of thousands of new members?
As a former liberal who supported Eugene McCarthy's run as an independent in 1976, I was not pure as the driven snow when I joined the Libertarian Party in 1980 following Ed Clark's record-setting campaign. But I attended seminars, lectures and conventions and became someone who scores 100 percent on the Nolan Chart.
There are two aspects or branches of libertarianism: the political and the philosophical. They are neither mutually incompatible nor completely interdependent, but one can't exist and grow without the other.
The libertarian philosophy won't grow without Libertarian Party progress and victories, which require libertarian pragmatism and incrementalism. The Libertarian Party won't succeed unless the libertarian philosophy suffuses throughout the population.
The greatest fallacy common to Libertarian thought is that the philosophy or party can grow without the cooperation of the mass media. Wrong. The libertarian philosophy and Libertarian Party will succeed only when libertarians infiltrate, personify and dominate the media.
I have founded a newspaper and constantly contribute libertarian thought to open forum websites such as this one. What have you done today to put libertarian ideas in front of thousands or millions?
The party is getting too big to process everyone in person through seminars, lectures and conventions. If assimiliation is not going to be accomplished through the media (including the Internet), how is it going to be accomplished? Without candidates like Barr, who provides a bridge between the Libertarian Party and the media, how are we ever going to break media barriers?
©2008 Ron Bain, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Thursday, October 23, 2008
Last modified: Thursday, October 23, 2008
The views expressed in this article are those of Ron Bain only and do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Ron Bain is solely responsible for the contents of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
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Reader Comments:
Posted By: Jean-Christophe Roux
Date: 2008-10-23 04:37:37
Former Libertarians, or future former Libertarians, are not afraid of success, media attention and influx of newcomers.
I, and most probably other former Libertarians, just don't want to be associated with liberty-singing but socialist-minded, political frauds like Bob Barr.
I don't want to be under the same political banner as conservatives who believe in massive government, which they cowardly label "smaller, constitutional government".
Bob Barr is a political fraud because he paints himself as libertarian but is still a regular conservative. The only reason he came to the Libertarian Party is that this was his cheapest way to get large ballot access. He does not care for ideas; he is just after a way to get to power following some setbacks inside the Republican Party.
Bob Barr is socialist-minded because he believes in government to intervene in so many domains. His usual trick is to move the issue from the Federal level to a more local layer of governemnt. How can he call for the strict enforcement of SEC regulations when the SEC should be abolished? How can he support the Federal Reserve and just ask for some audit? The guy thinks the US government should have "influence" around the world! Nothing wrong in Iraq except that since Saddam Hussein is gone the US should be gone as well! Nothing wrong with Afghanistan!
Bob Barr belongs to that long tradition of conservatives who sell socialist programs under the free-market slogan.
Please, read the introduction of "Socialism" by Ludwig von Mises.
Please, get a chart of the growth of the Federal debt and government's size under Reagan and watch conservatism at work.
What Bob Barr and his supporters are trying to do is no different from (hypothetical example) Coca-Cola poisoning its customers, getting caught and mired with reputation problem, and taking over Pespsi, a clean name in my analogy, to sell the same poison.
This is the usual government trick of relabelling the same principles under a different, possibly nicer, name.
The state: "You did not like the state under Bush? Ok you will get it under the McBama label! Happy?"
Me: No! I am not.
The State: "What about a Barr administration? The guy has changed ;He is different and agrees with you."
Me: Go away, rascal.
Posted By: Jack Tanner
Date: 2008-10-23 19:25:11
I am proud of Bob Barr as our candidate for President.
The Barr campaign provided more positive comments and interviews in the news media, about the Libertarian Party, than all the previous Libertarian candidates I supported.
I hope he is our candidate again in 2012.
http://bobbarr.meetup.com/65/
http://JackTanner.net
Posted By: ken
Date: 2008-10-27 04:23:36
Who is this ignorant moron? One of the government's plants from 1980 come back to haunt us?
Barr was the first to break through to the top media? What planet is this guy from?
You can see Barr on Youtube telling people to pad the vote at the convention and LP officials saying votes 'can't be right' when Root was losing and adjusting them on C-span, for crying out loud..
When someone says lose your philosophy for politics, he offers a false choice and is only trying to screw you.