Yesterday, Wayne Allyn Root, Mike Gravel, and Bob Barr participated in a forum moderated by Dave Weigel, associate editor of Reason. The American Spectator reports.
Some highlights:
Barr: We are poised for a new birth of freedom. Inside the heart of every American beats the heart of a libertarian, and what we need to do is show the American people that that is mainstream. Ron Paul has shown us the way, but we need to build far beyond that.
Gravel: One of the real damages [the Founding Fathers] did is they denied people the procedures to be able to make laws and amend the Constitution. . . Freedom is participating in power. The central power of a democracy is making laws. We don’t make laws at the federal level in this country. We really don’t have freedom.
Indirect quotes cited by the Spectator:
Root scored some points with the crowd when he declared the fight for school choice “the civil rights issue of our time” and railed against the Republican Party’s intrusion into people’s bedrooms on abortion, gay rights, online gambling, and medical marijuana. But he elicited boos when he called for sealing the border until the nation could figure out what to do with immigrants who were already here, given the existence of the welfare state.
Gravel won his most applause of the night by retorting, “The people I’ve met, the immigrants, they don’t come here for welfare. They come here to work.”
Barr did his best to argue that one of the legitimate roles of government was “to protect the sovereignty of the nation” and he called for all immigrants to undergo a basic background check, a test for communicable diseases, and to show identification.
On foreign policy:
Root said the only war he supported in the 20th century was World War II, but cited World War I as its cause.
Barr said he did not support any military operation “since 1991” — and then later corrected that he did in fact support the undeclared War in Afghanistan. No mention of his support for unconstitutional counter-narco-terrorism.
Gravel on health care:
“Do you think it’s the government’s role to give people health care?” I asked.
“Well, I don’t know who else could give people health care,” Gravel said.
[…]
“You rule by majority,” Gravel said.
“Well, what if the minority doesn’t want to pay for someone else’s health care?”
“Go to another country,” he said.
Oh, and of course, all three candidates had to take a pot-shot at Mary Ruwart, who was not invited to the Reason-sponsored forum.
“Root’s the most libertarian of the bunch, but what is that saying?”
My thoughts exactly.
As for Barr’s “illegals must show I.D.” thing — this is the same idea forwarded by Giuliani. It’s so absurd — only illegals have to have a National I.D. card. Think about it for five seconds. Barr is not a bright man from what I can tell though. He’s a thug and a bully, not a thinker.
As far as your welfare state/borders issue — I still don’t see why we can’t abolish welfare instead of enacting stricter centrally planned immigration. If anything, more open immigration could help bring down the welfare state. Why give it aid and comfort?
Root shouldn’t have been booed. The welfare state is being used by illegals to the destruction of American society. I have changed my opinion over the years. The welfare state must be abolished before the borders can be opened.
The LP has drifted far off the plumb-line with these 3. Root’s the most libertarian of the bunch, but what is that saying?
Barr’s best point? The LP needs to build far beyond the Ron Paul effort! Counting the dems, Paul was out voted 45 to 1. That isn’t very good. Third partys need 34 to 45 out of 100 to ever WIN…
Barr’s worse? Illegals must show ID. Which equals National I.D. for everyone. A 666 to the forehead anyone?
The LP can survive Barr, but does it have too?!
Moderates and purists unite and block the UNPURE ! i’m smiling in jest, but still hoping…