Submitted to a Candid World

Bob Barr will run for president! Celebrate!

You may remember Barr from such low points in American history as the hypocritical “impeach Clinton because he’s the only one of us having an affair” fiasco, and the passage of the draconian “Defense of Marriage Act.”

So why am I excited? Think Nader. But conservative. Bob Barr has the same appeal to selected elements of the Republican Party that Nader has to elements of the Democratic Party. In many ways, he’s more conservative than George W. Bush. And he’ll be running as a Libertarian, a party with intellectual bona fides and support from right-wing talk radio (just ask Neal Boortz). In a party that distrusts McCain as “too moderate” for them (see my earlier post), Barr is just the thing we need to either throw the general election into disarray, or spread McCain’s already weak funding just a little too thin.

Also, I’ve met Bob Barr. I worked for a friend of his, Georgia Congressman Phil Gingrey (R-Ga 11th), a very nice man (although opposed to nearly all of my political beliefs), before I came to realize exactly where I fit on the political spectrum. Barr is a forceful personality, and will campaign well (provided he gets on the ballots). Be sure to get him on the ballot in Florida and Ohio!

Religion has always been an integral part of American culture, but to argue that it is an integral part of American democracy is to vastly overstate the point. I cannot stand to see politicians arguing that religion alone is responsible for American freedom, American morality, or American successes. The American polity, and the system that defends it, is unique and independent from religion.

That’s why I was less than thrilled to read this speech, by failed presidential candidate and panderer par excellence Mitt Romney. In Mittens’ mind, “freedom requires religion.”

Read why & how he fails, below the line.

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