A Few Words on Bob Barr

Bob Barr has announced his desire for the Libertarian party nomination. For those of you who are unfamiliar, Barr was a Republican who served four terms in Congress (for Georgia) before losing in a 2002 primary fight against Rep. John Linder. A quick sum-up of his time in Congress: he voted Yes to the Iraq war, Yes to the prescription-drug program, and Yes to the Patriot Act.

Barr now flies the Libertarian flag and says he is Pure-Dee anti-government as well as a staunch non-Interventionist. In another interesting role reversal, he has recently joined hands with the Marijuana Policy Project to repeal the hard work he did as as member of the Task Force for a Drug-Free America (Barr once helped block a voter initiative to legalize medical marijuana in D.C.) He says the expansion of government power after 9/11 changed his views on the war on drugs. (What does the Patriot Act have to do with cracking down on joint-smoking cancer patients? I’m just wondering…)

Anyway, I agree with Barr’s change of mind on medical marijuana and I sure don’t mind him opposing a taxpayer subsidized prescription drug plan (or any other kind of subsidy), but on the Patriot Act and the war on terror I think he’s just plain wrong. Barr now opposes laws which (I believe) have improved U.S. counter-terrorism efforts without stomping on too many constitutional liberties.

As my GOP friends keep reminding me: in a close presidential race, every vote is important. Even if that weren't the case this year, I don’t think I would vote for Bob Barr based on his views re: international relations. Perhaps I’m not leaning as Libertarian as I thought…

Question: Are Libertarian candidates making a mistake vis a vis their insistence on being anti-Interventionist? It seems to me that those who care most deeply about protecting fundamental liberties should be in favor of intelligently deploying our military wherever and whenever lunatics gather and train with the monomaniacal goal of killing us (death being the ultimate loss of freedom). 9/11 and other deadly incidents of international terrorism over the past two decades should have changed the way we think about how, when, and where we send troops and wage wars...shouldn't it?