Dave Wiegel of Reason magazine is spending some of the final hours of Bob Barr’s campaign at their headquarters in Atlanta. He reports that staffers are working the phones trying to find last minute votes for Barr in Georgia.
One interesting point is made by Shane Cory (Barr Communications Director). He has some parting words of blame for Ron Paul.
As the campaign wound to a close, it was clear that Barr wouldn’t get close to the $30 million fundraising goal campaign manager Russ Verney set in May, a disappointment that staffers blame in part on former Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas). “Paul set the liberty movement back a decade by encouraging people to stay in the GOP,” Cory says. “Not that the Republicans planned it, but if they did they couldn’t have planned it any better.”
While I’ve been quite critical of the Barr campaign I’ve also said that there were many things that went wrong that were not under their control. I have no praise for Shane Cory other than to say that in this case I tend to agree with him.
I firmly believe that if Ron Paul chose to run as a Libertarian after losing the GOP nomination as Bob Barr and the Libertarian National Committee wanted back in December of 2007 we’d be looking at a very different electoral map on CNN and other news outlets today. Ron Paul was a great unique unifying figure. His supporters are a wire mesh of far left, far right, and in between. The decisions he made after losing the GOP nomination caused that wire mesh to rip apart.
However, the unity he once fostered is not gone for good. It is just gone for now. I have hope that a new unifying candidate emerges within the next few years to carry the torch of liberty toward the future and all of this divisiveness will be merely history.
Ron Paul received two write in votes in one of the first locations allowed to vote: Hart’s Location in New Hampshire. Of course, Obama sweeped both Dixville Notch and Hart’s Location with the highest number of votes beating out McCain handily, but Ron Paul was the only other candidate to receive votes, write in or not.
Democrat Obama defeated Republican John McCain by a count of 15 to 6 in Dixville Notch, where a loud whoop accompanied the announcement in Tuesday’s first minutes. The town of Hart’s Location reported 17 votes for Obama, 10 for McCain and two for write-in Ron Paul. Independent Ralph Nader was on both towns’ ballots but got no votes.
As much as I think the write in of Ron Paul is a waste of time in the majority of states this is not one of those. Any state that he is an official write in candidate or on the ballot such as in California, Louisiana, and Montana I can’t argue against voting for him. Or in a special case like these heavily reported first voting locations in New Hampshire.
Get out there and vote for liberty. That is, vote for Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, or Ron Paul where appropriate.
Here is Bob Barr on CNN talking about his efforts for providing voters for a real choice in the election today. Barr is a choice for limited government and maximum liberty. He also is one of the few who actually mention the Constitution. Bob Barr has my vote today. He should have yours as well.
reason: But you’d enjoyed the Paul movement (or moment)?
Jillette: I was just thrilled! I love it when people are seeing a point of view that they’ve never seen before. I had people coming to me and explaining RP’s positions in a way that I couldn’t explain them. I loved that! I love listening to somebody talk about liberty so much better than I ever had. I am such a believer in marketplace of ideas. What troubles me most about politics is this feeling that you shouldn’t waste time with anyone but the frontrunners. The fact that we had this little glitch in the system, that people might listen to somebody else who wasn’t at the top of the polls, it just fills me with such incredible joy to think about it. There were people who considered me a nut for not going with one of the two major party candidates who were, all of a sudden, supporting Ron Paul.
The thing is, I don’t think any of libertarian ideas are very far out of actual spirit of our culture. The reason I use the word “nut” positively is that I think a lot of people really do believe in libertarianism, and small government, and they just need to be told that it’s OK. Paul found ways to say talk about it. I don’t think winning or even running a good race was that important. I don’t even think the million-dollar fundraising days were important. What was important was people being able to say in their own words stuff I agree with about individual rights. I think we need somebody that has charisma and clarity to make people think that’s ok. I have always, like the singers and songwriters of country western music, identified with the losers. A lot of people are not like that. A lot of people watch the Olympics to see people pick up medals.
If you’ve never seen Penn and Teller’s Showtime series called “Bullshit!” I can’t recommend it enough. Below is a fine example of their work on flag burning and the Bill of Rights.
If Barack Obama should happen to lose today in some kind of “Do You Believe in Miracles?” moment, will there be rioting in the streets of cities and towns across the U.S.A.? I’m not sure, but it isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Heck, there may even be riots of celebration if Obama wins. In either case, the losers will be those of us who fancy America as a place our Founders would still be proud to call home.
Those of us paying attention know that our Founding Fathers — upon witnessing the America of 2008 — would be running around yelling their era’s equivalent of “WTF?” to anyone within earshot. So what do liberty lovers do after the battle between Barry O’Messiah and John McChameleon reveals a winner this evening?
A reminder that your vote for any candidate really goes to an unnamed Elector, and a few offbeat ideas on how to change the presidential election.
by Jake, the Champion of the Constitution Originally published November 3, 2008 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article5381.html
The vote for President and Vice President is quite different from any other vote you will cast on Tuesday. When you view your ballot, it has written on it your choices (say you pick John McCain and Sarah Palin) but unlike other votes, this vote does not actually go to Senator McCain nor Governor Palin. Your vote is actually in favor of a pool of specially selected representatives from the Republican Party, equal to your state’s number of electoral votes. These Electors pledge to support their party’s candidates, are NOT constitutionally bound to vote for either McCain or Palin. Electors are chosen by the States and the Electors elect the President and Vice-President. So, in effect, you are voting for a group of Jane or Joe Schmoe’s. [Except in Maine and Nebraska, where things get a little more complicated.]
Today’s article at the Ludwig von Mises Institute describes the farce that is our political system these days, building on quotes from Jesse Ventura, Walter E. Williams, Hans-Hermann Hoppe, Philip Jackson, Murray Rothbard, and James Bovard:
Jesse Ventura, when he’s not talking about 9-11, makes a lot of sense. Describing the two party system to Larry King, he said,
[W]hat you have today is like walking into the grocery store and you go to the soft drink department, and there is only Pepsi and Coke. Those are the two you get to choose from. There is no Mountain Dew, no Root Beer, no Orange. They’re both Colas; one is slightly sweeter than the other, depending on which side of the aisle you are on.
In an interview with Newsmax, he described politicians in the two party system as pro wrestlers.
In pro wrestling, out in front of the people, we make it look like we all hate each other and want to beat the crap out of each other, and that’s how we get your money, [and get you to] come down and buy tickets. They’re the same thing. Out in front of the public and the cameras, they hate each other, are going to beat the crap out of each other, but behind the scenes they’re all going to dinner, cutting deals. And [they're] doing what we did, too — laughing all the way to the bank. And that to me is what you have today, in today’s political world, with these two parties.
Jesse’s right. Our political system is a farce. This year, we have running for president a warmonger who’s a reluctant socialist versus a socialist who’s a reluctant warmonger. We have two parties that claim they’re different, but when the Establishment, the Complex, our shadowy overlords, whatever you want to call them, really want something, they get it. When the Establishment wanted the Bailout in the face of almost universal grassroots opposition, they got it. When the Complex wanted immunity to the telecoms who knowingly spied on Americans, they got it. When our shadowy overlords wanted stormtroopers to brutally stifle protesters during the party conventions, they got it.
But even if voters had a real choice — and even if the politicians followed the majority will on issues that matter — the system would still most likely be a farce. As Augustine observed, without justice, a government is nothing but a band of thieves. Augustine was writing about kingdoms, but his insight applies to democracies as well. Without justice, the ability of the subjects of a government to vote on the laws and rulers that govern them doesn’t make a government any more legitimate than an unjust monarchy. And the founders of this country did not believe democracies were likely to be just.
A comment on Steve Sailer’s new book on Barack Obama
by Jake, the Champion of the Constitution Originally published November 1, 2008 at http://www.nolanchart.com/article5360.html
A scant three days remain until Election Day 2008, but there is still time for everyone to check out an upcoming book from Steve Sailer. Mr. Sailor’s book “America’s Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama’s Story of Race and Inheritance” is a worthy investigative report into the mind of Barack Obama. Mr. Sailer has made his book temporarily available here in PDF format, but plans to close the link shortly and publish the book later this month.
Mr. Sailer delves into Obama’s psyche. And it’s not that of a confident, benevolent hero or “The One” or the messiah as many of Obama’s supporters believe him to be. It is not even that of “the Barackcuda,” my own personal label for the junior Senator from Illinois. In fact, I have a queasy feeling that Sailer’s version is wildly different than that of just about any of Tuesday’s voters’.
Video has been released for the hour long debate between Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, and Ralph Nader that was held last Thursday afternoon at the City Club of Cleveland in Ohio. For those that have rejected the two major party candidates this is your chance to compare the next tier of candidates. Although for some of us, we consider these 3 candidates our first tier.
The debate explores issues that you haven’t heard much about from the two major party candidates. That is quite refreshing in and of itself. Grab your beverage of choice, sit back and watch the debate below.
The Barr campaign has released a new commercial attacking the recent bailouts in the financial industry. I really like the ad. It gets the point across in a direct and dare I say “cute” way. It’s not a all shiny and polished ad like we’ve been seeing from McCain and Obama here in Virginia, but it’s not that far away.
Liberty Maven
” moment, will there be rioting in the streets of cities and towns across the U.S.A.? I’m not sure, but it isn’t out of the realm of possibility. Heck, there may even be riots of celebration if Obama wins. In either case, the losers will be those of us who fancy America as a place our Founders would still be proud to call home.
