My decision to vote for the next President has just gotten a lot easier.
While I have supported the Libertarian Party for the last 8 years, I cannot support it's current presidential nominee Bob Barr
1) Barr was a former Republican, and an extreme right-wing Republican. He was one of the main reasons I never became a Republican, even during the days I was inaccurately conisdered "the campus conservative" at UH! ( I was called a "campus conservative" for openly criticizing the Radical Left)
During his Republican days, Barr was openly aligned with the Religious Right, and wanted to either ban or severely restrict - abortion, birth control ,sex ed, same-sex marriage.
He wanted to impeach Bill Clinton over his lying about the Lewinsky affair, but guess what? Bob Barr had several affairs of his own. There's even some juicy details on it, which you can find on your own.
Barr, despite demanding bans on abortion, approved of his wife getting an abortion. Some even said he ordered her to get an abortion!
Bob Barr was a hard-core believer on the War on Drugs, which irritates many Libertarians. While most politicians in the Democratic and Republican Party supported the government's militaristic War on Drugs, Barr went further than most!
In the controversy over legalizing medical marijuana, Barr demonized those who publicly expressed that marijuana has helped them deal with symptoms of AIDS, MS, and cancer.
While marijuana has side effects (lung problems, hallucinations, impaired judgement), it is also known to be good at reducing nausea, body aches, and other ailments. Adults should have the freedom to smoke marijuana, though it shouldn't be sold to minors!
Bob Barr had made speeches to pro-segregationist groups, and was known to pander to such people! And Bob Barr is still siding with the anti-immigration fanatics!
Bob Barr also wanted the US military to ban the practice of the religion called Wicca amongst it's members!
Bob Barr represents everything that kept me from being a Republican!
2) While Barr become more aligned with the liberal ACLU within the last few years on civil liberties, Barr was one of the strongest supporter of the Main Violation of Civil Liberties by the Federal Government --- it's militaristic War on Drugs!
Libertarians like Harry Browne (1996/2000 Libertarian presidential candidate) understood the militaristic war on drugs encourages government abuse of power.
Bob Barr, however, publicly demonized those with such concerns.
While drug use should be discouraged, the militaristic war on drugs is a civil liberties nightmare.
Here's an example:
Someone who you don't get along with can falsely accuse you of using drugs. But the police isn't just going to ask nicely to search. Nope, the drug policy (advocated by Barr) is to use no-knock raids, in which SWAT teams violently enter your home. These no-knock raids rarely even get violent drug kingpins. They ended up violating innocent, non-violent people who have no connection to the drug trade!
The militaristic War on Drugs encourages unwarranted spying, unwarranted searching, racial profilling (where police targets young males of African-American and Latino ancestry driving a nice car, with the racist assumption that they're "drug dealers")
I remembered an article in the Source magazine mentioning a nightclub bouncer violently grabbing a young male, suspected of putting "drugs" in his mouth. It turned out to be just a breath mint!
3) Now that Bob Barr is the Libertarian nominee, it risks having a reputation for being the party of "conservatives who think the Republican Party isn't right-wing enough"
But what appealed me to the Libertarian Party in 2000, was that it horrified the Religious Right as well as go against the socialist, gun-phobic Left.
I disagreed with the Libertarian's reluctance to support the fight against Al Quaida in Afghanistan, and I felt Saddam Hussein was also a threat to world peace.
Now Bob Barr's nomination makes me really distanced from the Libertarian Party.
So I either 1) learn about other minor candidates or 2) choose between Barack Obama & John McCain.
