INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Bob Barr deserves your attention

Third-party presidential candidates have had a hard time capturing the public’s attention in the last 50 years. Only two, George Wallace in 1968 and Ross Perot in 1992 and ’96, have received more than 10 percent of the vote and only Wallace won any electoral votes.

Other candidates, such as John Anderson in 1980 and Ralph Nader in 2000, have won small percentages of votes and influenced the outcome.

This year, however, the Libertarian Party’s nominee, former Congressman Bob Barr, not only has a real chance to receive significant numbers of votes, his candidacy deserves serious consideration from all voters, especially conservatives disaffected with John McCain.

Barr’s credentials as a conservative are unassailable. He served as a federal prosecutor under Ronald Reagan and helped lead the Republican majority in Congress during the 1990s. He also helped push through the impeachment of President Clinton in 1998.

Since leaving Congress, though, he’s become a fierce opponent of the tax-and-spend policies of the Bush Administration, a staunch defender of civil rights in an era of warrantless wiretapping and has even changed his position on medical marijuana, which he once opposed.

Just as with the candidacy of Ron Paul, the ascension of Bob Barr into the presidential race represents a resurgence of true conservative principles. Conservatism at its best is marked by a frugality on economic issues and a hand’s-off approach on social issues. It fills the adage that the best government is the one that governs least.

The Libertarian Party has never received more than 1 percent of the vote in a presidential campaign, but recent polls show Barr having as much as 10 percent of the vote nationally right now. If he could reach the magic 15 percent mark, he would be included in the presidential debates this fall, a development that would be good news for everyone in the country save possibly Sen. McCain.

It’s hard to say anything negative about a candidate who vows to dismantle the “nanny state” of an overreaching federal government, promises to eliminate the Patriot Act, remove our troops from Iraq and legalize marijuana.

On top of that, he appeared in one of the funniest segments of the Borat movie and now admits that President Bush’s crimes far exceed any that Bill Clinton may have committed.

So why isn’t Barr receiving the media attention that he deserves? Blame it on the two-party system. It has such a stranglehold on the mindset of top TV producers and newspaper editors that any candidate outside it is marginalized and ignored.

A Barr Administration would reverse the Bush presidency and reduce the size of the federal government, reform the unfair tax laws and put more of your money back into your pocket, where it rightly belongs.

He’d establish a Cabinet-level position to make sure our privacy and civil liberties are being protected. He’d make sure that the writ of habeas corpus cannot be suspended within America, as Bush has effectively done.

On domestic policy, he’d entrust individuals to make their own choices without the intervention of the state. That includes issues such as marijuana law reform.

Some have tried to portray Barr as a Ralph Nader-style spoiler. Barr has a pretty good response as to why this isn’t the case. “The Republican Party has no vision, no agenda, no platform and a candidate that generates no excitement,” Barr has said. “There is a need to start reigning in the dramatic growth of big government. Neither of the major two-party candidates are doing that.”

This is a historic election. The Republican candidate is dedicated to continuing the policies of the failed Bush Administration, one that has ruined America’s image around the world, brought us to the brink of a global economic depression and trashed the Constitution in the process.

This would be disastrous. Bob Barr didn’t leave the Republican Party; the party deserted him and all other true conservatives. While there is very little chance that my support for Sen. Obama will be shaken, I’ll be following closely the statements of Barr as we head towards Election Day.

Everyone who believes in individual rights, small government and lower taxes owes it to himself or herself to do the same. My conservative friends, especially, should compare and contrast McCain’s positions with Barr’s.

If he can wave the flag for freedom and get both major candidates to do the same, Barr’s candidacy will not have been in vain. Let’s hope that it plays out that way.

For more on Bob Barr: www.bobbarr2008.com.