Over the weekend, Libertarian (and former Republican) Bob Barr announced the formation of a presidential exploratory committee to pursue the Libertarian Party nomination.
One can be a libertarian without being a member of the Libertarian party, or any political party. (One of the strengths of Wisconsin election law is that it does not require party affiliation.)
Longtime readers know that I was not a supporter of Ron Paul’s quest for the Republican presidential nomination. I had too many doubts about too many of Paul’s supposedly ‘libertarian’ positions. Paul was seeking only the Republican presidential nomination; he has declared no interest in a third-party run this year.
What to make of Barr? He’s certainly not the same politician that he was when he was one of the floor managers for the House impeachment effort against President Clinton. He has moved away from many of his former, Republican party positions.
Like many libertarians, I would say that there is another way to look at the apparent changes — toward a deeper respect for individual liberty — in Barr and others. They may have changed, but the party of which they had been members changed, too. Goldwater was an anti-establishment candidate, leading an effort against conventional Republicans to gain the nomination in 1964. Middle-of-the-road Republicans looked askance at Reagan during his 1980 primary race against George H.W. Bush. Those men had to fight to change the direction of their party.
If they could see that party today, dolling pork and passing restrictions and regulations at every turn, I am not sure what they would make of it. It’s closer to the truth to say that contemporary Republicans abandoned liberty than it is to saw the libertarians abandoned the Republican party.
I do not know how Barr will fare — a quick visit to his exploratory website states that he’s so far raised only about 19,000 dollars for his effort — Paul would have raised that much in less an hour. Still, the inside betting is that he’d win the third party nomination. Even more important, though, is what he’d do with the nomination if he did win. We’ll see.