BURLINGTON, N.C. — No casual visitor to the La Quinta Inn on
Maple Avenue would have suspected that anything politically
significant was happening inside Saturday. Only the bumper stickers
on the cars in the parking lot hinted that the hotel was hosting
the state convention of the Libertarian Party of North Carolina
(LPNC).
“Ask not what you can do for your country, ask what you can do
for yourself,” declared a sticker on a green sedan. “Government:
Causing more violence than it prevents since 10,000 B.C.,” said one
sticker on a silver hatchback that also bore another sticker with
four letters: “RKBA” — an acronym for the Second Amendment phrase
“right to keep and bear arms.”
These are not merely bumper-sticker sentiments for Libertarians.
At least one delegate was packing heat inside the hotel conference
room where the convention met. Richard Evey’s Ruger .357 Magnum was
safely holstered on his belt, but it was fully loaded with
hollow-point bullets. Evey joked that he is the party’s own one-man
Department of Homeland Security.
Such a gathering would seem a friendly environment for former
Rep. Bob Barr, a board member of the National Rifle Association who
served for more than a year as a regional representative to the
Libertarian National Committee. He came to address the North
Carolina convention and pitch his “exploratory” campaign for the
party’s presidential nomination.
Invoking the name of Ayn Rand, emphasizing “the importance of
the individual,” and denouncing government’s tendency toward
“one-size-fits-all” policies, Barr told the three dozen attendees,
“The Libertarian Party is certainly not a one-size-fits all party,
because freedom itself is not one-size-fits-all.”
Barr said that “in the heart of every American beats the heart
of a Libertarian” and outlined a strategy for party growth by
appealing to mainstream interests.
“Every American is libertarian about something,” he said. “There
is something in their lives — whether it’s in their own personal
preferences at home, whether it is in the way they educate their
children, whether it is in the way they express their religious and
political ideas, whether it is how they run their business — every
American is libertarian about something….One of the things we
need to remind ourselves to do is to tap into that libertarian
streak…that resides in the heart and the mind of every single
American, and bring it out.”
The delegates applauded at the end of Barr’s speech, but
afterwards it was clear that many of those attending the two-day
state convention still viewed the Republican-turned-Libertarian
with a good deal of skepticism. When a presidential preference
straw poll was taken the next day, Barr got only one vote, compared
to 17 for longtime LP activist Mary Ruwart, three for Massachusetts
physicist George Phillies and two for Las Vegas oddsmaker Wayne
Allen Root. (Ruwart is something of a “favorite daughter” among
Libertarians in North Carolina, where she lived for four years
before moving to Texas last year.)
Like Barr, ex-Democrat Mike Gravel got just one vote in the
straw poll. The former Alaska senator also addressed the LPNC
convention Saturday, delivering a speech in which he repudiated the
Constitution, saying the Framers “cut a deal with the Devil for
slavery.” Gravel told the Libertarians he had “lost faith in
representative government” and called for direct democracy by
ballot initiative — too much for one college student in
attendance.
“I was sort of apprehensive about Bob Barr,” the 23-year-old
said later, “but I left the room when Mike Gravel started talking
about losing faith in representative government.”
SINCE BARR ANNOUNCED the formation of his exploratory committee
April 5 at a Libertarian conference in Kansas City, his potential
impact on the presidential race has been widely discussed as if his
LP nomination were a certainty. “Come November, Barr conceivably
could be to John McCain what Ralph Nader was to Al Gore in 2000 —
ruinous,” George F. Will wrote in his latest Newsweek
column.
However, the fact that Barr could finish in a straw-poll tie
with Gravel — who only announced his conversion to the LP two
weeks ago — is one indication that Barr’s nomination is by no
means a fait accompli.
Barr’s status as a former member of Congress and his high
profile in the media — he even had a cameo role in the comedy film
Borat — might normally be considered decisive advantages
against lesser-known candidates who, except for Gravel, have never
held elective office. But when Libertarians convene their national
convention Memorial Day weekend in Denver, the selection of their
presidential nominee will be up to more than 900 delegates who may
disregard those advantages. The LP doesn’t have a presidential
primary system like the major parties do, and the nomination will
be decided on the convention floor.
The Ron Paul stickers adorning the bumpers of several cars in
the La Quinta Inn parking lot Saturday were one reminder of the
quirky history of LP conventions. Like Barr, Paul was a former
Republican congressman in 1988 when he ran for president as a
Libertarian, but he got the party’s nomination only after waging a
tough battle to edge Native American activist Russell Means at the
convention.
Although one online poll of Libertarians showed Barr as a narrow
favorite (with 30 percent, compared to 22 percent for Root and 17
percent for Ruwart), it is impossible to predict who will emerge
May 26 as the LP’s nominee. Barr acknowledges that he would face a
tough fight for the nomination, and notes that he’s still not an
official candidate.
“Whether it’s the Republican Party, Democratic Party or
Libertarian Party, anybody that goes into a party nominating
process viewing it as a sure thing is almost bound to recognize
that they’re surely going to lose,” he said in an interview after
his LPNC speech. “You cannot, and I do not, take it as a sure
thing. I feel very confident that if I do become a candidate, that
I will win the party’s nomination, but I do not take it for
granted.”
WHETHER OR NOT he is the LP’s presidential nominee, Barr remains
committed to expanding the party’s reach and political
viability.
“The Libertarian Party has a tremendous advantage, because they
have the opportunity to define themselves,” he said, explaining
that LP Chairman Bill Redpath and Executive Director Shane Cory
share his concern for recruiting and training candidates who will
talk “about issues that matter to families,” including economic and
education issues. “I see that happening, and I hope it can
continue, because if it doesn’t happen, the party’s going to be
relegated to incidental status, as best.”
Relegating the LP to incidental status is something Republican
leaders clearly hope to do. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich last
week was dismissive of the potential impact of a Barr candidacy,
saying that Americans in 2008 are not “really fed up with
Washington” as they were in 1992 when Ross Perot’s third-party
presidential bid helped derail George H.W. Bush’s re-election.
Gingrich’s analysis “overlooks the similarities between the
situation when Ross Perot ran and currently, which I think are
profound,” Barr said. “The implication is people are not
dissatisfied with government. I would beg to differ with the former
Speaker. People are very dissatisfied with government and they’re
particularly dissatisfied with the Republican Party, and I think
would welcome the opportunity for a real alternative even more so
now than when Ross Perot ran.”
