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Mon 14 Apr 2008 9:34
by Kevin McGehee
43° and sunny
in Coweta County, GA
1 comment
[Get Offa My Lawn!]
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Robert Stacy McCain writes at Spectator.org that former Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA) didn’t do well at the North Carolina state convention of the Libertarian Party.
Barr said that “in the heart of every American beats the heart of a Libertarian” and outlined a strategy for party growth by appealing to mainstream interests.
“Every American is libertarian about something,“ he said. “There is something in their lives—whether it’s in their own personal preferences at home, whether it is in the way they educate their children, whether it is in the way they express their religious and political ideas, whether it is how they run their business—every American is libertarian about something….One of the things we need to remind ourselves to do is to tap into that libertarian streak…that resides in the heart and the mind of every single American, and bring it out.“
The delegates applauded at the end of Barr’s speech, but afterwards it was clear that many of those attending the two-day state convention still viewed the Republican-turned-Libertarian with a good deal of skepticism. When a presidential preference straw poll was taken the next day, Barr got only one vote, compared to 17 for longtime LP activist Mary Ruwart, three for Massachusetts physicist George Phillies and two for Las Vegas oddsmaker Wayne Allen Root. (Ruwart is something of a “favorite daughter” among Libertarians in North Carolina, where she lived for four years before moving to Texas last year.)
Like Barr, ex-Democrat Mike Gravel got just one vote in the straw poll. The former Alaska senator also addressed the LPNC convention Saturday, delivering a speech in which he repudiated the Constitution, saying the Framers “cut a deal with the Devil for slavery.“ Gravel told the Libertarians he had “lost faith in representative government” and called for direct democracy by ballot initiative—too much for one college student in attendance.
“I was sort of apprehensive about Bob Barr,“ the 23-year-old said later, “but I left the room when Mike Gravel started talking about losing faith in representative government.“ » Barr Set High
Everyone joked about what fruitcakes Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich are as they sought their respective parties’ presidential nominations, but repudiating the Constitution?
On the one hand, it’s encouraging that only one delegate went for Gravel (rhymes with Chevelle). But Barr didn’t do any better.
Unless things change dramatically over the next six weeks or so, John McCain won’t have to worry about Georgia’s 15 electoral votes in November.
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