Topic: Bob Barr
Dear Bob Barr - Are You Really One of Us? Signed, a Ron Paul Revolutionary (PART 1/6) An Opening Salvo from a Ron Paul Supporter Asking for and Giving an Education to Bob Barr, the Libertarian nominee for Presidentby Jake, the Champion of the Constitution
(Libertarian)
Friday, June 6, 2008
To the Reader - I have sent links to these articles to Bob Barr's website.
Dear Bob Barr,
You have won the 2008 Libertarian party nomination for President of the United States. From my perspective, you have been riding the coat-tails of Dr. Ron Paul. Your presidential website's format copies that of Dr. Paul. You refer to Dr. Paul at times in your speeches and writings. The visual clip of you welcoming Dr. Paul to a podium is probably your best piece of internet propaganda. However, instead of running for Congress like Dr. Paul and other members of the Revolution such as Vern McKinley, Murray Sabrin, Amit Singh, and fellow Nolan Chart writer Dan Druck you have chosen to run for President, which makes you a competitor of Dr. Paul and I for one want to learn more about what you stand for. I have referred to you as a possible Assassin of the Ron Paul Revolution in an earlier article and after doing some research - well, my opinion has strengthened that you will be used to divert attention from Dr. Paul and perhaps just be a siphon on McCain.
The first article will attack your stand on the Preemptive Wars of Invasion - like Iraq, a war that you personally voted for, not against, in the 2003 Congress. Personally, this is my top topic and is the key reason that I have allied myself with Dr. Paul. Next is an attack on just some of your political past, which probably won't be new for you - prepare to defend yourself yet again from unasked questions on your 2002 support for the USA Patriot Act, then again on your Clinton Impeachment record, your anti-Marijuana stance and now your career as a pro-Marijuana lobbyist, your CIA career, your 2004 loss in running for Congress and well, your record on flip-flopping. What are your principles?
Next I will address the critical Black Hole in your campaign. Monetary Policy. Do you have any clue how critical it is? Dr. Paul is the only candidate brave enough to tell the American people the truth, but most simply don't understand the system. (It's simple. Our Money is all Debt. And Debt is the Bondage of We the People.) I entreat you, add this to your platform. If the nation's purse strings are still being pulled by that private bank, the Federal Reserve, We the People are still, frankly speaking, eventually screwed no matter how much Liberty we temporarily grab back from the Government.
You can either view the following articles as a chance to educate me, or as an attack. I assure you that I mean these articles as both. And if you find you agree with me, it's clear what you need to get done, there may even be a few gold nuggets you could use to make a real go of it. Why are you the best person to swear the presidential oath? Not just because you are lesser of the evils. You don't want to lose, right? or do you?
In Liberty,
Jake, the Champion of the Constitution
PS I've never listened to the show personally, but per Wiki you have a radio show called "Bob Barr's Laws of the Universe" where Your First "Law of the Universe" is that "the World is full of Idiots." You featured an "Idiot of the Week" weekly on his show, and every year select a top ten "Idiots of the Year" selected from the Idiots of the Week. Well I don't take kindly to the idea that my future President likes to ridicule a new person every week and picks his favorites every year. You have a real groundbreaking opportunity here since I don't believe any President that has served before did something like this. Oh, did I mention that as a Champion of the Constitution I am also a Defender for the Oppressed and Downtrodden? That includes the Oppressed and Downtrodden that happen to be stupid, by whatever judgement you care to use. How about you nominate me next week? I dare you to keep reading because I bet you've already classified me as an Idiot. Well, let's read the comments I get, and see how many Thumbs up show up, eh?
The views expressed in this
article are those of Jake, the Champion of the Constitution only and do not represent
the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates. Jake, the Champion of the Constitution is
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employee or otherwise affiliated with Nolan Chart, LLC in his/her role as a columnist.
Jake, I totally dig your title, "champion of the Constitution". However, Bob Barr stayed out of the race until it was obvious that Dr. Paul would not being continuing via a third party/independent campaign. By my reasoning, he is not a competitor of RP's, rather the new standard bearer for the r3VOLution.
I am heartened by the prospect of being able to move ourselves forward on several fronts simultaneously: Working on the GOP from within while showing them we can and will charge ahead without them.
Barr is a mainsteam-appeal version of the r3VOLutionary candidate who will doubtlessly avoid many of the shortcomings of the RP'08 campaign. Hiring people like Verney and Viguerie is smarter than hiring your family members if your trying to maximize your impact. That's the best way to show me that my contributions won't be squandered.
Ron Paul has a great message but squat for campaign skills. He'll be the first to admit in his inimitably humble style that it was US, the grassroots, activists that made his campaign what it became.
I learned this year that with a bit of organizing, we could take an unknown like RP and create a dynamic campaign without the candidates knowledge, which shows me that WE are a force to be reckoned with, not Ron Paul.
Libertarians who don't like Barr should concentrate on helping libertarian candidates for lower offices get elected. The publicity generated by the Barr campaign should help even if Barr is not a perfect libertarian. Moreover, it is in these lower offices - representatives, state legislatures, etc. - that the real work gets done or, in our case, where the real hanky panky will get undone.
Jake, I'm going to delve into my psychology degrees for this comment by applying social/communication aspects.
Be warned, this is going to be a bit long. :-)
Ok, so you wrote above: ".he featured an "Idiot of the Week" weekly on his show, and every year select a top ten "Idiots of the Year" selected from the Idiots of the Week. Well I don't take kindly to the idea that my future President likes to ridicule a new person every week and picks his favorites every year."
O.K. now for my comment. Well first I'm assuming you know who Dr. Michael Savage is? He hosts a very popular nightime AM radio talk show called "The Savage Nation" and has written some best selling books such as "Liberalism is a Mental Disorder." He is as radical right as one could be (although in the past few years he has started to criticize Dubya and even called him a war criminal.) If your on the line with him and he doesn't agree with your view, he will hurt you, insult you, find a soft spot in your past (either from getting bits of info in the begginning of the call before it became heated, often family related issues.) I've heard him say things to a woman like "you slimy liberal, you couldn't keep your legs closed for daddy when his goat ran away isn't that right? Or did you cut it's head off because you were jealous?" There are plenty more that were worse. So I couldn't believe he kept his job after these things, but he did. Until some psycho at MSNBC decided Savage should do a LIVE tv show!! And whaddya know within a month or so, he was fired from MSNBC from remarks he made to a prank caller who insulted Savage's teeth. Savage then asked if the man was a "sodomite" and the caller said "Yes." Savage then said, "Oh, so you're one of those sodomites. You should only get AIDS and die, you pig; how's that? Why don't you see if you can sue me, you pig? You got nothing better to do than to put me down, you piece of garbage? Go eat a sausage and choke on it. I don't care about these bums; they mean nothing to me. They're all sausages."
Basically what we're seeing is the creation of a new form of public entertainment. ENTERTAINMENT is the key word here. It consists of underlying serious problems that need real solutions, topped off by an eccentric commentator who was carefully chosen. This peron would tend to have radical ideas (typically towards the right but not always) and ALSO be humorous and entertaining, but he doesn't need to be likeable.
It kinda started with The Jon Stewart Show - taking very serious issues like the Iraq war, Bin Laden, and piling satirical humor on top of it to make it easier to digest and less threatening to the general public. Although this has been done for years, a study found that 30% of U.S. citizens get their news from the monologues by Jay Leno, David Letterman, etc..
I view Bob Barr's "idiot of the week" and "idiot of the year" stuff very similiar to the above examples. Take a very serious subject, make it entertaining by being either 1) really mean or 2) really funny, or a clever combination of both. In general the more extreme the host or commentator is, the higher the ratings will go Lets look at a real world example of it. Ok, so everyone I talk to HATES Rugh Limbaugh and his show. Most everyone on TV says they hate him and his show too. Public poll after poll turns out bad for him. Yet Limbaugh's still the #1 radio program in the U.S....why? Because of his extreme views and the controversies that surround them. Limbaugh decided to take a middle of the road approach in between mean and funny, whereas Dr. Savage is on the mean side, and their ratings show it. Look at Howard Stern, people love him or hate him. In fact, people love him and hate him SO much that Sirius thought he was worth $200 MILLION dollars when he made the transition from terrestrial radio to their satellite service. Now Barr's "idiot of the week" gag doesn't seem as bad.
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