Crazy for Liberty - April 20. 2008 - Segments 3 & 4 - Bob Barr Interview
Posted by Garrett Michael Hayes at 4/20/2008 10:15 PM 
Categories: Georgia, Radio Show, National, Presidential Interviews
Categories: Georgia, Radio Show, National, Presidential Interviews
This is our interview with LP Presidential hopeful Bob Barr, former GA Congressman. (Note: It runs a full half-hour, because we started the interview a couple minutes late, and decided not to take the normal commercial break between segments 3 and 4)
Played: 2741 | Download | Duration: 00:29:18
I appreciate Garrett and Doug challenging Congressman Barr on his voting record. I do respect and admire Bob as a colleague on the LNC, but also encourage scrutiny of all our candidates to determine who is the best standard bearer.
Patrick Dixon
Chair, Libertarian Party of Texas
www.LPTexas.org
www.PatDixon.org
www.PatDixon.org/lnc.html
Thanks! That's why we have tried to talk to several of the high-profile names in the race. (And you can thank Doug for that - he's the fearless one calling and setting up the interviews. I'm just the Bozo teeing them up on-air.)
BTW, give a shout out to my old colleague Wes Benedict, would you? Time was he and I were two-thirds of the entire Cobb County affiliate here in Georgia!
GMH
Has this file has been slowed a bit? All of the voices are quite lower of a pitch than they should be.
Not by anything that I've done to it. The original plays normally on my system, as does the online version. I listened VERY briefly from a couple of other places on the net, and recall that one of them did seem like it was slow, but I had just chalked it up to a slow connection.
The only thing that's different about this clip AFAIK is that it's a half-hour rather than 15 minutes. If this is the only clip that plays slowly for you, my first assumption would have to be that it's got something to do with the length.
Let me know, would you please?
GMH (VERY fledgeling, Junior Woodchuck Audio "Engineer")
Well worth spending the half hour. As a "socially liberal" and gay libertarian, I was shuddering at the idea of a Barr nomination, based on my recollections of him from the '90s. This interview has helped allay my concerns. Not my first choice, but probably a nominee I could live with and vote for, if it comes to that. I respect his willingness to revisit and reconsider old positions.
As someone who has watched Bob's career for about 15 years, and having known him directly for about 4, I can tell you that *I* believe his conversion to APPLIED Libertarian values has been a slow, but genuine process. Like many politicians, he made some compromises with his core values for the sake of immediate needs. UNLIKE many politicians, I think he actually learned from that experience that "compromise" has a far more limited value than the people who urge you to do it would like you to believe.
He's not the ideal Libertarian yet (and frankly neither am I, but that's another story entirely).
I've had some interesting conversations with some very
(pause)
What's a good word here? Not "hard-line". Not "absolutist". Not "purist".
How about "definite"?
I've had some interesting conversations with some very definite Libertarians about the fact that the Constitution is not a fully Libertarian document. And I know that Bob's been characterized in some quarters as being more for State's Rights than for *individual* rights. In some ways, both of those are fair criticisms.
But with that said, here's exactly why I support a Barr candidacy - Because I believe that, under our system of laws and our Constitution, there are only two practical paths from where we are - The growing Cult of the Omnipotent NATION-STATE - to where we want to be - A society focused on INDIVIDUAL Liberty. Those two paths are A. Revolution or B. Moving THROUGH a return to Federalism and the dissolution of national power in favor of smaller (and hopelfully ever smaller) States.
Bob's a Federalist. And in that context, so am I. I'm not ready for revolution yet. But who knows...?