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aknappjr
07-14-2008, 08:43 PM
http://www.alarmingnews.com/archives/007443.html


Bob Barr.




It should've been my guy Ron Paul, but now I'm voting for Bob Barr by Avery Knapp

Of course it should have been Ron Paul. As the only truly limited-government Republican in the race, the only Republican who believed in a humble, conservative foreign policy (not a Wilsonian one of nation building and wasted money overseas), the only Republican to oppose eliminating the D.O.E., D.O.A., the I.R.S., the 16th amendment, restraining the Fed, and the only Republican candidate to both speak and understand the language of Reagan circa 1975-9, Ron Paul would have been the best choice. But despite late success (coming in 2nd place in 12 states, 3rd in 17) and reigniting a limited-government freedom movement, Paul withdrew on June 12 and ruled out a third party run and went on to found the Campaign For Liberty.

So now I'm left to choose amongst the 2nd tier. Obama, Nader, McCain and Bob Bar. A vote for Obama and Nader is a vote for economic socialism at home and they would probably, despite the rhetoric, continue the Wilsonian foreign-policy of Clinton and George W. Bush, and therefore I cannot vote for them. McCain, while he occasionally sounds conservative, seems as though based on his past instincts and mindset he views the federal government as the solution to every problem - (steroids in baseball, 1st-amendment conflicts [McCain-Feingold], ultimate fighting, interventionalist-nation building, mistakes in advising and consenting to judicial appointments [as one of the Gang of 14]). I don't trust him on the 2nd amendment, the 4th or 5th amendments, the 10th amendment, and he seems to strongly support the 16th amendment and favors a unitary executive. Plus, McCain has basically no chance of winning California, being 20 points down, (or New York), where I vote. Therefore I won't even attempt to decide whether McCain is slightly less big-government than Obama (although he probably is). I will vote my conscience - I will vote for Bob Barr.


Despite changing stances on a number of positions, Bob Barr is promoting a pro-freedom agenda - rather similar to Paul's. He strongly supports economic freedom, in supporting repealing the 16th, eliminating corporate welfare, and drastically cutting government spending. Unlike the other candidates, Barr promotes individual liberty and social freedom - viewing the Nanny State that has so seduced our friends across the Atlantic as weakening the American spirit of freedom. He supports a humble foreign policy of no nation building and no policing the world - things Republicans used to believe in and I still do. He's likely to get more votes than any Libertarian candidate ever (unfortunately though not a high hurdle to jump), thanks to Ron Paul, and in view of the other candidates' strong beliefs that big government can solve most (McCain) if not all (Obama) problems, Barr is the only choice for me.


In these days of politicians promising the world and then delivering more regulation, red-tape, corporate and social welfare, corporatism, inflationist monetary policy, interventionalist meddling nation-building foreign policy, and assaults on the Constitution and on the ideals of individual liberty, it is refreshing to see politicians with somewhat of a mainstream presence advocating a return to the beliefs that made America free and hence great. Ron Paul and Bob Barr.

Avery Knapp is a radiologist "and grassroots organizer for the true conservative, Ron Paul."