Mike Gravel may have some competition! The presidential candidate, who yesterday ditched the Democrats for the Libertarian party, will now have to face off against former Congressman Bob Barr.
Georgian-based Barr told voters that he’s “very seriously considering” throwing his name into the ring:
There’s been a tremendous expressed to me both directly and indirectly on the Internet. I take that support very seriously, and I think it also reflects a great deal of dissatisfaction with the current candidates and the current two-party system. So it is something, to be honest with you, that I’m looking very seriously at.
The move’s a bit of a queer decision for former Republican Barr…
The Libertarian party’s relatively gay friendly, preferring to leave people’s private lives private, something that’s never been Barr’s strong suit: he sponsored the Defense of Marriage Act. That law, of course, prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage.
Perhaps Barr’s simply not well versed on the Libertarian principles: “As Libertarians, we seek a world of liberty…We believe that respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and prosperous world.”
Barr’s potential candidacy may seem insignificant, but the kids at Gay News Watch make a valid point: he may siphon some conservatives away from John McCain. While that may be the case, it seems to us that the Libertarians are more inclined to vote for someone like Gravel, who’s never made a secret of his gay-friendly ways.
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The DOMA protects my liberty, and my state’s liberty, not to recognize the existence of such a thing as same sex marriage. Granted, a federal law doing that shouldn’t be necessary. But I see nothing automatically anti-libertarian about it.
Libertarians are just another variety of right wing pro-corporate geek. This big bussiness obsession is the hobgoblin of small minds.
The U.S is one of the most seriously fascist counties in the world. Everybody but Americans knows it; We are so buried in the addictions of consumption and fears of “divine” reciprocity. and mostly so ignorant. If we want something that is actually alternative it has to be Socialist. Thats’ the only way we have to go.
good let him take away votes from mccain
Socialism is NOT the way to go. The US is always blamed for everything because we managed to be successful. Foreigners ought to stop being so jealous. Capitalism is the reason for our success, and our government is constantly using socialist schemes to destroy that, and has been for the past 100 years. Socialism is the cause of our economic problems, not capitalism. The fascism is a side-effect of the disrespect of individual rights, which include economic rights. Libetarianism and true conservatism are the only principled political beliefs that do not require submission.
DOMA protects your liberty? How the hell does gay marriage threaten your liberty? You would think that gay people were trying to force straights into same sex marriages at gunpoint.It’s gay peoples liberty that is at stake. I was interested in the libertarian party when I first heard about it, but all I’ve heard from them has convinced me that they are just a bunch of right wing nuts.Many libertarians I have heard sound like that want to impose a theocracy on us.(with the usual “christian right” view that if they are not allowed to force others to live by thier version of christianity it is somehow discriminating against them.) Also one of the worst ideas I have heard in a long time has come from libertarians, That we should sell off all public lands because the government shouldn’t own land. Sure, that would be great if we had no place to camp,hike,or otherwise enjoy the outdoors.
Stay tuned to this one, I see another Larry Craig bathroom troller sex scandal a brewing.
If you see this man in a public bathroom, tapping his feet and staring through the cracks, take his picture and send it to queerty for public exhibition.
Real Libertarians probably don’t consider Bob Barr one of their own, and not only for the gay reason. True freedom lovers should investigate true Libertarian candidates, like George Phillies.
www.phillies2008.org
Most responders to this blog don’t seem to have a clue about what Libertarianism is.
Every time I see Bob Barr I’m reminded of SS Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler. I wonder if they were separated at birth or perhaps he’s a reincarnation? Run, Bob, run. Right now the more the merrier. Maybe your candidacy will help off set Nader’s effect.
Wow, mention the word Libertarian and they come scampering out of the wood work quickly and in numbers; the same as mentioning Ron Paul. Libertarian’s like many other fringe groups will always be on the sidelines in American politics.
He has a weirdly stretched-out face.
Sorry, bur Barr and Himmler were born as twins…except they were joined at the cock, and the Dr. couldn’t decide who to make the bigger prick!!!!!
Chuckles
There’s an old saw about how libertarians are just gay republicans who like doing drugs.
The more drugs and gay sex I have, the more I find myself wanting to agree…
A lot of liberals don’t realize that
a)spending your own money how you choose is a fundamental liberty, on the same scale as free speech or free association and
b)the only way to beat the beast is to starve it. The fungibility of money, and the crafty venality of the political class ensure that “I’m gonna give you some money, but you can ONLY spend it on [welfare/health care/whatever you want it to be spent on]” is a naive, ultimately self-defeating attitude. Just look at what state govts have done with the money from the tobacco Master Settlement.
Several years ago, when Bob Barr left the Republican Party, he chose the Libertarian Party over the Constitution Party. That is significant, because while both parties are similar on economic issues, he chose the one that has always supported Gay Rights over the one that opposes them.
Since leaving the Republican Party Barr has undergone a transition, which is why many Libertarians want him to run. The Bob Barr of 10 years ago would have had to work as hard as Mike Gravel will to get 10 Delegates to place his name in Nomination.
Every candidate has skeletons, for Barr, they’re many of the things on his record from Congress. I am a Delegate to the Denver Convention and I will not support a fag bashing candidate. Before bashing him as anti-gay search for him on youtube.
Libertarianism a fringe group now and always. Just like those guys Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine those crazy libertarians stayed right on the sidelines. And yes if it wasn’t for the great state we would have nowhere to hike or camp because no private property owners would allow such a thing, we don’t have things called private campgrounds. The evil libertarians would try to force christ right down our throats (insert joke here) with their live and let live ideals. Gravel would be such a better selection because his big oppressive government does not openly target gays ( unless he thinks you make to much money, then he will take it for the great state). The problem with the “leftys” stance on the issue of same sex marriage is that you are looking for the state to sanction your union.Why would you want an evil institution like the state to sanction something as important as a life parnter is beyond me(this goes for hetro and homosexuals). The libertarian view - The liberty you enjoy to associate and make contract with whomever you want and under which terms is your choice. The state should have no part in this agreement but to make sure both parties live up to their side of the agreement.
Society in every state is a blessing, but government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. Thomas Paine
Contrary to the general uneducated, or right wing consensus, the most profound and invariable danger to liberty, political freedom, and democracy has proven to be unregulated free enterprise.
This was a debatable issue 50 years ago, when naive Freidmanites believed that there should be some relationship between political freedom and free enterprise.
All of the experiments in South America e.g. Pinochet in Chili,etc. etc. have proven that free enterprise only functions with the abolition of civil rights.
Economics is not just one of many freedoms, it’s existence barrs all other freedoms. A libertarian is the same as a republican as a right wing democrate. They all supress freedom of the individual with their economic
perfix..
Poscha: it’s not that funny: I actually thinkthe jumncture was at the head but with Papa Doc, Bush, Pinochet and an assortment of that variety of yahoos, orchestrated by Mengula. The separation left them with tiny brains. I think that that’s where the notion that “Compulsion is the Hobgoblin of small minds” came from.
M. Shane:
You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. Look back at history and consider how many countries have had real political freedom without some degree of economic freedom. Even if the USSR tried to promise its people free speech, that guarantee was a joke when the government owned everything and could therefore shut down any speech it didn’t see fit to sponsor. In an even less extreme example, think about Winston Churchill’s difficulty getting airtime on the BBC when he had not yet been elected Prime Minister in pre-WWII England. Whatever flaws our system may or may not have, it is pure ignorance to say that economic freedom exists at the expense of all other freedoms. If anything, the existence of a private sector is a valuable counterbalance to what would otherwise be unimpeded government power.
DOMA is not anti-gay!
From a libertarian perspective, it keeps the federal government out of the marriage business.
Why should the government treat married people differently than single people?
Bill: If you read, or quoted what i actually wrote,
you would find that there is pretty invariabnle truth to what I said: You misquoted me: I said that there is no instance of UNREGULATED free enterprise in whch there is freedom or democracy.The 1944 Bretton Woods Post WW2 agreement , was made with the intention of preventing Nazism from recuring and to allow capitalism a reasonable way of functioning.
If you had followed histoy you would knoew that the USSR as well as China are pure CAPITALIST systems; Milton Freidman was thier economic advisor. Yeltsen gave away public resources to private corporations; same happened in chins in 1980.
The fact is that Stalinist Communism and Unregulated Corporatism both only work when there is no democratic political freedom, because they defeat the general good.
The reason why Most modern governments are turning to a combination of regulated privitization and socialism is that it provids the
greatest amount of fredom and economic stability for everyone.
The right wing has made a practice of confusing Democratic Socialism with Stalinism, in America so that large corporations can take total control over all aspects of peoples lives. I don’t see any advantage of having a corporate dictatorship over that of a political party. Better use what works.
sorry for the typing; my glasses are falling apart.
Eric,
Slavery protected MY ancestors’ liberty to own other human beings! (Actually, during slavery I’m pretty sure my ancestors were being deprived of their liberty to own freakin’ ANYTHING in eastern Europe. But you get my point, right?)