Today's Topic: Does Barr's Libertarian switch show a sorry trend for the GOP?

If President Bush sends 30,000 more troops to Iraq, by the time the next Presidential election rolls around any alternative candidate will have a legitimate shot at becoming President.

Of course, he and other conservatives can "make it" by switching to Libertarian. A couple of observations:

1) They will be relegated to the back seat forever, since the Libertarians are viewed (rightfully or wrongfully) as a fring party, and
2) This is virtually all due to (unfortunately) President Bush. I take a back seat to no one in my conservative Republican beliefs, and I am extremely disappointed in the level of federal spending tht has occurred sinc 2000.

The problem here seems to be that Republicans have lost sight of the principles upon which their party was founded. President Bush calls himself a Compassionate Conservative when in fact he is neither. Right now, given the direction he continues to take, the Democrats are going to have to screw up big time and literally shoot themselves in the foot to lose the next election.

Unfortunately shooting themselves in the foot is something at which Democrats excel, and despite the fact they have not even been sworn in as yet, they are already beginning to back away from the promises they made during the election.

A lot of Republicans are disgusted with the way Mr. Bush is leading their party. There is a call to return to the principles upon which the Republican party was founded originally. It will be interesting to see if more of them turn their back on this spend and big government arm of their party.

As long as the Libertarians will embrace someone who is cozy with the CCC (Council of Conservative Citizens), it'll be just fine. Barr gave the keynote address to the annual meeting of the National Board of the CCC in 1998. Pacifica Radio has a recording of his racially-charged comments, although Barr later claimed he knew little about the CCC's racist character before the meeting.

Here are some of the CCC's views:

"Each of the three major races plays a distinct role in history. . . . The whites were the creators of civilization, the yellows its sustainers and copyists, the blacks its destroyers." (web site, 12/98)

"Western civilization with all its might and glory would never have achieved its greatness without the directing hand of God and the creative genius of the white race. Any effort to destroy the race by a mixture of black blood is an effort to destroy Western civilization itself." (Citizens Informer, Fall/94)

"Our liberal establishment is using the media of television to promote racial intimacy and miscegenation…. All of the news teams on the major networks have black and white newscasters of opposite sexes." (Citizens Informer, Fall/98)

"Is it racist to say that it is legally and morally wrong for government to force a mixing of the races to produce a mongrel?" (Citizens Informer, Spring/97)

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1451

The Republican Party has lost any right to claim they are the party which supports limited government. They adopted the Patriot Act (the biggest intrusion into the private lives of Americans in history), they adopted the misnamed No Child Left Behind (the biggest intrusion of the Federal Government into education on record), they have gotten us into one of the most expensive wars we have ever fought. Any one who votes Republican because they think that it is a party of limited government is a flat out credulous idiot. As for Barr -- he does the Libertarian Party a disservice given his voting record.