Topic: Libertarianism
The Pilgrim's Progress An appeal to LP purists on behalf of Bob Barr from a recovering Republican in full remission.by Josh Koch
(libertarian)
Monday, July 7, 2008
"All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king." J.R. R. Tolkien
Tolkien is one of my favorite writers because he takes so much of life's truth, compresses it into dense thoughts, then guilds it with beautiful form. The quote above was brought to my attention by someone recently when I discussed with them some degree of apprehension about the future.The quote is very true about our political lives, especially my own. Looking back on my roots, it would seem almost inevitable that I would grow into a libertarian, but that was hardly the case at the time. My conversion, like Bob Barr's, has been a long time in the making, but it is relatively recent.
It all started in the mid-1990's. I was raised in a conservative Christian family. We picketed the "Last Temptation of Christ" movie. We protested the abortion clinics in spring and fall. My first memorable trip to Washington, DC, was for a 1990 pro-life event on the Mall. Gays, abortion, booze, and anything less than attending church twice a week were off-limits or bad. Put simply, no libertarian would have been caught dead near me.
Yet, even in those days, the seeds of freedom were being sown. It began with my homeschool education, and it was almost by accident. At a rather young age, I had begun studying economics. Ironically, my first studies were from a guide that my mom had gotten from the Federal Reserve Bank through the mail. In the early 1990's, though, she was looking for books that had a little more depth, and she started me on the "Uncle Eric Books." While he has written a few more since then that I haven't had the chance to read, his Pennycandy, Justice, and Rome books are vital to a child's political education, and they come highly recommended.
At the time, I began to establish some radically different thought patterns. Every time I studied a map, I saw the truth. Every time I studied finance, fingerprints of great men and villains became apparent. When I broached these topics with my parents, they became alarmed. "Understand that this man is a libertarian," they would say. "It's a good education about dates and particulars, but some of the concepts are ones we disagree with." But the seeds were sown.
I probably would have continued in that path if it hadn't been for 1994. That year, I began working campaigns with my parents. It wasn't fun, but it had some nice perks. I got to meet Rick Santorum. The taste of victory was sweet, and I began to forget the libertarian principles. This abated somewhat in 1996 when the GOP lost several elections locally and nationally, but it returned in 1998 when Pat Toomey won the 15th Congressional District in PA.
Then the unthinkable happened.We went to Washington for the inauguration in 1999, and I'll never forget the event. It was a posh club, a real K Street affair. Everything was perfect. The crystal was polished. The buffet was good. The GOP elites were tossing booze and champagne around. The linens were crisp and clean. It was my senior year in high school, and it was everything I could have imagined. I was sitting at the table with my dad, and he said, "You know, it's funny. Pat used to be a Libertarian, but he'll do a great job getting the Republicans back on track on spending, even if he is somewhat ambiguous about the abortion issue."It hit me right in the chest. After Reagan and after the 1994 "Republican Revolution," why did the GOP need to bring in an outsider to handle their issue? In 1994, we won! If we hadn't won when we won the election, and we needed Mr. Toomey, a Libertarian, to keep on message, something was seriously wrong. I felt cheated, and the feeling was with me for the rest of the time that I affiliated formally and informally with the GOP. At the time, I had no idea how right I was, but I knew something dreadful had taken place.
Later in 1999, I registered as an independent. I had plans to make the military a career, and I understood that registering for one party or another could influence my success. After I left college, I dabbled in the left, but I really didn't know which way to turn. It was suggested that I try to work my way up in the GOP, but this was in the run-up to the 2000 elections, and the primaries convinced me to go another directionanywhere but politics. I enlisted in the military and missed the primary due to a prior engagement at Parris Island, but I knew I didn't want Bush or McCain as the nominee.
Until 2003, I stayed out of politics. Like Bob Barr, I initially supported invading Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the PATRIOT Act. I handed out fliers for Bush in 2004, but I was starting to become disenchanted over his profligate liberal spending plans. But, who wanted to be invaded by nuke-toting Arabs? Look what they could do with just a few airplanes, after all! Fortunately, I ran into the John Birch Society at about this time, and they put me on the path to discovering the Ron Paul sort of libertarianism. I had never heard of Ron before them, and I will always be grateful for the introduction. Since a lot of Birchers are Constitution Party folks, I will always have a fondness for both organizations. It was then that I discovered the lies behind the wars and the PATRIOT Act, and it was mind-boggling to realize that I had been so misled by the leaders of the party I trusted so implicitly.
In the 2004 elections, another big event was taking shape. Pat Toomey, the libertarian Republican, had taken on RINO Arlen Specter for the PA Senate primary. Bush, the fake conservative, came to support Arlen Specter. Even with that support, Arlen only won by 15,000 votes out of over a million cast, but the message was clear: The GOP will steal libertarian ideas, but, when the chips are down, the country-clubbers care about their careers more than freedom. I had re-registered as a Republican (from "independent") to vote for Pat, so the blow was heavy and devastating. Pat Toomey realized that the McCain/Bush/Specter/Rockefeller wing had usurped the conservative alliance's gains for the GOP, too, I think, and he left office to become the president of the Club for Growth.
2005 was to be a fateful year due to the corruption of the Harrisburg tyrants. The State Assembly had voted themselves a payraise. Due to the fact that the PA Constitution prohibits reaping the rewards of a payraise in the same term as the vote, they decided to take it under the table, via "unvouchered expenses." The PA Supreme Court later ruled in favor of the payraise because it had been extended to them.
A coalition called "PA Cleansweep" rose to meet the challenge of fighting the duopoly and the conflicted courts at the ballotbox.It was an odd coalition. I was a registered Republican, but the footsoldiers were led by libertarians. They were always out in front, leading the charges on the underlying issues. One of them told me I should check out the Libertarian Party, but I was reticent to do so because the term "libertarian" still seemed like I'd be abandoning the GOP. After all, the GOP had been my ideological home, and I was loathe to leave it for a mere "second-rate third party."
Even so, the coalition was similar to the coalition that became the nationwide Ron Paul r3VOLution, so it was a good opportunity for me to see the freedom movement in action, and it gave me a more open paradigm for the future. Still, I wasn't ready to make the change.A string of occurrences changed this perspective for me. Getting kicked out of the Capitol for being with someone recording a session of the Assembly, I realized that the government doesn't want any oversight at all. Getting roughed up by a union official at a polling place showed me what Democratic muscle is all about. Getting harassed and mischaracterized by the GOP, though, really pushed me over the edge. If the GOP was no better than the Democrats, and they had helped with the payraise, they weren't part of the solution. The 2004 defeat of Pat Toomey proved this to me without a doubt, but the GOP's complicity on the payraise corruption drove the point home.
After the 2006 elections, I finally registered "Libertarian." The blinders were off, and I had seen the GOP and the duopoly in their entire hideous splendor. They would use conservatives, people of faith, and libertarians, but it was all for the pursuit of political power and wealth. 1994 was a fraud. They had never intended to live by the "Contract with America," after all. Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity are frauds, though they are amusing in their deception. I had been lied to for the last time, and I left the GOP forever.
Or so I thought. After registering as a Libertarian in 2006, I was surprised that the LPPA never contacted me. The GOP had been begging for my money since the day I registered Republican, but the LP didn't seem interested in me one little bit. I never got involved with the PA party because I expected to hear from them. After all, I was still getting used to being out of the major party culture.
After moving south in 2007, I found myself involved with the Ron Paul movement. How could I not be? This man was a hero to me. As much as I had shifted around and changed over the last few years, the good doctor's words were always there comforting me. He could always be counted on to let me know that it wasn't me going crazy. When he ran for president, I was compelled to re-register in the GOP to vote for him. Imagine that: a Libertarian leaving the LP to vote for a libertarian. It was hard to fathom, but I felt compelled to do so because I owed so much to Ron Paul for being there for me in my moments of self-doubt. On top of that, he opened my mind and forced me to consider new truths and perspectives. When is the last time a major-party presidential candidate did that for anyone?
After Super Tuesday, things slowly wound down as our losses snowballed. One thing led to another, and, since I couldn't go to the conventions, my role in the r3VOLution wound down. My last act was voting for Ron in the May KY primaries. In the meantime, I managed to get ahold of the LPKY, and we started building a meaningful relationship.
Months later, I am the vice-chair of the Libertarian Party of Kentucky. Now, if you can follow my convoluted story, you can understand how a recovering Republican activist can become a Libertarian. If you can grasp that, you should be able to see why I have hope for Bob Barr. He and I have traveled similar roads out of the desolation that is the GOP, and it is a most unpleasant path. If I can make it to full conversion, so can Bob Barr. It's a path to a sort of political zen, the denial of our own selfish desires and the refusal to impose our proactive impulses on another. Basically, it is the opposite of both the Republican and Democrat Parties. Even so, it is a path, and our journey is constantly ongoing. We may be moving toward the pure ideals, but we are never done pursuing their truths.
If I can make that transition to that path, coming from my fundamentalist GOP background, I am fully confident that Bob Barr can. Considering what he has done in recent years, I feel that he has. I hope "purist" Libertarians will take a moment to consider their own conversions and paths, and I further hope that they will consider that they were not always the perfect libertarians they consider themselves today. If you and I can do it, why not Bob Barr? I'll vote for him with a clear conscience, and I hope you will, too.
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Your story is a fascinating read. I expect that there are thousands, even millions, of Americans primed to make the same journey. I hope that many of them get to read this.
Posted By: Walt Thiessen
Date: 2008-07-07 08:16:57
Sure, Barr can make the transition. Anyone can. The question isn't whether Barr can make the transition. The question is whether he actually has already made the transition, or if he is merely pretending to transition for political gain. We will never know the answer until Barr sits down with libertarian skeptic on camera and gives a long, detailed interview in which he goes over all aspects of his conversion. Until that happens, libertarian skeptics are right to be skeptical, particularly given Barr's Congressional record.
Josh, I read your article with great interest. Mainly because much of it sounded familiar. I, too, have made the jump from the GOP to the LP--and for many of the same reasons you did. It was not an overnight conversion, but took a couple of decades. I think George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and John McCain pushed me over the edge. The once-great RP has become a den of liars and looters. I hope others will have the courage to make the choice you and I have made.
Bob Barr has the nomination for president from the Libertarian Party for 2008. The mold is cast. To me the question is wether Congressman Barr will be good for the LP or bad for it. Only time will tell. No mater what any one says in any interview or speech we can not see what is inside of them or of what their future will bring. Am I going to Vote for Barr let alone make a donation to his efforts like I have in the past. Singing Jessie Helms praises with out at least mentioning his short comings isn't going to attract me. It might attract conservative republicans but not me!
I suppose the pragmatic question, then, is this: What political gain could Barr gain from this run? We have never gotten close to winning a presidential run in the LP. If this is a sly attempt at gain, wouldn't it make more sense to do so with the Republicrats?
I submit to you that he has changed. His recent work with the MPP, ACLU, and others is hard to mesh with his previous activities, and I think it is definitely a move in the right direction.
Seeing the level of distrust that many in the LP have with Mr. Barr is a sad testimony of how jaded the two-party system has made all of us. We simply can't believe that anyone is genuine anymore. The Republicrats have taught us to trust no one. Suspect everyone's motives. Even if I didn't have strong libertarian leanings, I would probably be supporting the LP right now--if for no other reason than to give the American voter a viable alternative and bring the two-party oligarchy that is ruling--and ruining--this nation to an end.
It is not that the system has made people jaded. What you are seeing is the typical puritanical wing of the LP 'eat their own.' They do this with any viable candidate because NO ONE is EVER 'libertarian enough' to suit their twisted idea of libertarianism.
The sad fact is that most of them are anarcho-libertarians who do not believe in government, believe that voting is a form of aggression and anyone who runs for office should receive no support on the basis of 'principle.'
Their whole objective is to tear down, not to build. They label anyone they disagree with as a 'enocon.' They lie, and have no compunction about the fraud they initiate against their own.
Bottom line is that their multi-decade track-recoerd of PROVEN FAILURES resulted in their losing control of the party in '04. They they are pissed that their 'devine tretise' (a.k.a. the '04 platform) was REJECTECTED and replaced by the delegates for a better, and rational document. They desire a debating society and not a political organization. They will never stop trying to discredit candidates or officers until THEY are back in charge.
Welcome to the LP. Home of the nutjob anarchists hell bent on burning down DC and planting weed.
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