Liberty Maven

There are two candidates left in the Presidential race who have the ability to spread Ron Paul’s liberty message far and wide. Which of these two candidates has the best chance to spread that glorious message to the most people? Which candidate has more “reach” with voters?

The candidates for liberty are Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin and Libertarian Candidate Bob Barr. Like Ron Paul both are preaching to bring the troops home from Iraq and switching to a non-interventionist foreign policy. They are advocating getting rid of the Federal Reserve. They are both advocating privacy rights and an adherence to the Constitution. They are both preaching a federalist approach on abortion and drug policy. They are the only liberty candidates left in the race.

Ignoring media attention and the potential for more media attention for now let’s look at hard numbers where we can. The hard numbers we will look at are fund raising and meetup group support via meetup.com.

Chuck Baldwin seems to have taken down his fund raising ticker on his web site so it is difficult to determine how much money he has raised to date. The last time I checked his site it listed (if I remember correctly) about $35,000. Let’s say he has doubled that since then, bringing his total to $70,000. Not too shabby for a third party candidate.

Now let’s look at Bob Barr. The ticker on Bob Barr’s site currently reads just over $290,000. That’s pretty impressive. The Constitution Party boasts that they have more members than the Libertarian Party. Why such lackluster fund raising? Maybe there are more “rich” Libertarians than Constitution Party members. In any case, in today’s political climate money talks. The more you have the better your ability to spread the message. Barr has likely raised more than 3 times as much money as Baldwin. Barr wins the money round. By the way, if someone can point me to Chuck Baldwin’s actual fund raising numbers thus far I’d appreciate it.

Now we look at meetup group participation from Meetup.com. Chuck Baldwin currently has 18 meetup groups with 218 members and 75 members expressing interest in participating in a Baldwin meetup group (source).

Bob Barr has 69 meetup groups with 2,435 members and 203 members expressing interest in a Barr meetup (source).

Bob Barr has more than 11 times the number of meetup group members than Chuck Baldwin. Barr wins this round in a landslide.

Chuck Baldwin is a great candidate on the issues. He doesn’t have a bad voting record. He doesn’t have a voting record at all. He only has his articles and his radio show to represent his historical perspective on the issues. In one of his articles he claims that “homosexual marriage signals America’s undoing”. In it he states the following:

By accepting homosexuality, America is now fueling the flames of debauchery. When homosexuality is finally and fully accepted by American law, pedophilia and other more onerous behavior will not be far behind. As such, America is on the verge of a self-induced implosion (source).

That’s right. Baldwin suggests that legalizing homosexual marriage is a gateway to legalized pedophilia. I’m not sure how he arrives at that conclusion. I’m not sure I want to know. This is the area where Baldwin and the Constitution Party and I part ways. I don’t want a Presidential candidate who wears religion on his sleeve.

Like Ron Paul, both Baldwin and Barr are now saying that the definition of marriage is not a federal issue and should be left to the states. Barr has some historically bad votes on such things as the Patriot Act, the Iraq War authorization, and the drug war, but he openly denounces and regrets those and has for several years.

So both Barr and Baldwin have blemishes on their respective records. Yet both are pushing the drug of Ron Paul style liberty now. The assumption should also be made that neither candidate will win the election. Taking these assumptions into account, deciding between Barr and Baldwin comes down to three questions.

1. What is worse for you? Barr’s denounced record or Baldwin’s “in your face” religion?
2. Which candidate can spread Ron Paul’s liberty message to the most people?
3. Which candidate has the potential to get enough votes to not be ignored?

Even the Barr detractors should be willing to concede number 2 to Barr. Especially in light of the hard numbers listed previously. Those numbers along with the recent media attention suggest Barr is the obvious choice for number 3.

Ultimately the decision comes down to a question that may not really matter too much since neither candidate will win. Do you trust Barr is sincere with his voting record remorse or do you trust Pastor Baldwin to keep his religion out of his politics?

I believe Barr is sincere. He has said nothing to suggest he is not. I can’t stomach even the potential of mixing politics and religion.

This is why this Ron Paul supporter is going to happily support and vote for Bob Barr.