Clark Kent
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10-30-2008 09:45 PM
The Huffington Post “Off the Bus” contributor Kelly Nuxoll reports on Bob’s visit to the University of North Carolina:
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The Huffington Post “Off the Bus” contributor Kelly Nuxoll reports on Bob’s visit to the University of North Carolina:
Barr’s campaigning to get Americans to “open up the process” and demand more political parties, more honest debate, and a more authentic picture of candidates and how they would respond to “anything remotely resembling a real-life situation.”
Barr’s argument centers around defining the job of the president. Is it simply to manipulate the levers of power? he asked. To manage the economy? To provide security?
Or–and here the emphasis in his voice betrays that this is the right answer–”To protect and defend the freedom of the American people as guaranteed by the Constitution.”
In Barr’s view, the more authority government has, the less the citizens do. After all, we give government power by virtue of our taxes and our consent. For example, Barr cites the Departments of Education and Energy, relatively recent inventions. Only tenuously Constitutional in the first place, these departments have failed year after year in meeting their goals, yet both Obama and McCain are planning to expand them.
“Their view of government is to do things,” Barr said. “Democrats and Republicans are for increased power and bureaucracy in Washington.”
In general, Barr does not have much good to say about the mainstream candidates. At his most complimentary, he quotes Judge Brandeis: “The greatest dangers of liberty lie in the zeal of well-meaning individuals.”
McCain and Obama may be well-meaning, Barr concedes–but they don’t understand the proper role of the president or the federal government.
At worst, in Barr’s view modern politics is an example of raw arrogance. For this he points to the lack of accountability in the bailout package, and on Sarah Palin’s refusal to answer questions in the vice presidential debate.
“I have to admire her gall,” Barr said. “She just told the American people, ‘I don’t care what you want to know. Here’s what I want to tell you.’ She didn’t even bat an eye. Well, maybe she winked.”
Unlike Ron Paul, who’s working to reform the party from within, Barr believes that change will come only from the outside–from the American people demanding that the standard of public discourse be raised.
ShareThisBarr’s argument centers around defining the job of the president. Is it simply to manipulate the levers of power? he asked. To manage the economy? To provide security?
Or–and here the emphasis in his voice betrays that this is the right answer–”To protect and defend the freedom of the American people as guaranteed by the Constitution.”
In Barr’s view, the more authority government has, the less the citizens do. After all, we give government power by virtue of our taxes and our consent. For example, Barr cites the Departments of Education and Energy, relatively recent inventions. Only tenuously Constitutional in the first place, these departments have failed year after year in meeting their goals, yet both Obama and McCain are planning to expand them.
“Their view of government is to do things,” Barr said. “Democrats and Republicans are for increased power and bureaucracy in Washington.”
In general, Barr does not have much good to say about the mainstream candidates. At his most complimentary, he quotes Judge Brandeis: “The greatest dangers of liberty lie in the zeal of well-meaning individuals.”
McCain and Obama may be well-meaning, Barr concedes–but they don’t understand the proper role of the president or the federal government.
At worst, in Barr’s view modern politics is an example of raw arrogance. For this he points to the lack of accountability in the bailout package, and on Sarah Palin’s refusal to answer questions in the vice presidential debate.
“I have to admire her gall,” Barr said. “She just told the American people, ‘I don’t care what you want to know. Here’s what I want to tell you.’ She didn’t even bat an eye. Well, maybe she winked.”
Unlike Ron Paul, who’s working to reform the party from within, Barr believes that change will come only from the outside–from the American people demanding that the standard of public discourse be raised.
More...
