Topic: Bob Barr
Bob Barr:Reconsider voting for him? I didn't think that Bob Barr had it in him and I wrote my previous articles accordingly. It now appears that Barr just might have the stuff I was looking for in a Libertarian candidate after all.by Dan Steward
(libertarian)
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Last month I unintentionally stirred up a veritable hornet's nest on nolanchart.com by stating that I wouldn't vote for Bob Barr "no matter what". What has happened more recently has just blindsided me. Barr's people in Texas have gotten my attention in a way that I never would have expected. I'll admit that I may have acted hastily and if I'm wrong...here's my plate, heap an extra serving of crow on it. I'll happily provide the barbecue sauce, if need be.
They have showed me what I have desperately been looking for, a reason to believe in his candidacy for what it should always have been...an attempt to show voters that he is serious about his run for the presidency. In Texas, both Obama and McCain have failed legal filing deadlines to place their candidates on the Texas ballot. The word is that Barr's people are seeking to have them both removed.
Whether Bob's people can pull this off is not even the point as far as I'm concerned. That they are trying to go on the offensive against these two Demopublican juggernauts who have no problem using the same law to prevent Libertarian candidates from competing if given the chance. The chickens of onerous ballot access restrictions have finally come home to roost.
Will I vote for Bob Barr? Time will tell, but this has undoubtedly tipped me in the right direction if I am indeed to be tipped at all. This is the kind of stuff that I have been waiting for and didn't expect to ever happen. Distancing himself from fools like Al Gore and equally absurd pro-statist views will go a long way towards winning me over in November, but this will do fine for now.
I don't need much, just something good.
In Liberty,
Dan Steward
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The views expressed in this
article are those of Dan Steward only and do not represent
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Nothing has changed for me; I'm still voting for Bob Barr. I've been a Barr supporter ever since the national GOP "leadership" clearly decided to sodomize grass-roots, limited government conservatives this year by deliberately working with state party chairs to facilitate a heavily front-loaded primary season so that conditions would favor a RINO nominee for POTUS.
Those jerks at RNC headquarters probably thought originally that their RINO nominee might be Rudy Giuliani, but it wound up being John "King of the RINOs" McCain. I think it is very telling that two-thirds of GOP primary voters (not just social and economic conservatives, but constitutional conservatives as well) who cast votes through "Tsunami Tuesday" back in February cast their votes for someone other than McCain. The heavily front-loaded primary season with "winner take all" northeastern states in the early running simply did not allow enough time for that two-thirds to coalesce around a single alternative. So, with two-thirds of the primary votes essentially split between Romney, Thompson, and Huckabee, McCain basically got the nomination by default.
Now the short-sighted GOP "leadership" who have wantonly squandered the Reagan legacy and turned their backs on the principles of limited government are stuck with John "King of the RINOs" McCain, and even the admirable Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate probably won't be enough to save the GOP ticket. As much as I like what I've seen and read so far about Governor Palin, her addition to the ticket as the nominee for VPOTUS is not nearly enough to get me to bend over and grab my ankles for the GOP one more time. The problem with the McCain ticket was never who he might choose as his running mate. The problem with the McCain ticket is and always has been McCain.
After McCain-Feingold, the infamous "Gang of 14" conspiracy, and numerous other onerous, if somewhat less egregious transgressions, I'm finally fed up with bullshit from the current GOP "leadership." McCain's nomination was a bridge too far. After 30 years of my loyal support, they've finally pushed me to consider the LP. I wouldn't vote for John McCain even if the anti-Christ himself and the whore of Babylon was the Democrat ticket. Fortunately, the LP actually woke up enough this year to recognize that Bob Barr presented them with a golden opportunity to have a serious shot at finally becoming a force to be reckoned with in American politics. Here's hoping that LP voters don't blow it with foolish, stupid infighting between the purists and the pragmatists.
You would consider voting for someone who has proven time and time again that he's neither favorable nor neutral toward liberty, because he made some symbolic ballot access gesture?
No one who's as hostile toward freedom of religion as Barr has any business running for political office in this country.
Any updates? It has happened before that libertarians could file suits of this nature but due to inefficiency filed after the deadline and lost by default. I hope Barr isn't planning THAT.
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