Salon interview today about Ex-Republican Bob Barr, who formally joined the Libertarian National Committee as a regional representative in Dec. 2006. According to the interview, two weeks ago, Barr and several others founded a civil-liberties-protection group, the American Freedom Agenda, and last week, Barr (who apparently was once an anti-drug crusader in Congress) announced he’s going to join the Marijuana Policy Project as a lobbyist. Barr:
… the real goal for the Libertarian Party in my view — I certainly don’t speak for it — needs to be to take that core philosophy and do a top-notch job of explaining it to the American people, and to impress on the American people the value of having a third party that is a true, workable alternative. [It needs to] work to identify, recruit and support good candidates for elective office at all levels, to work to open up the political and electoral process in this country so there are ways for a third party to truly become a player in that process and to articulate its philosophy in ways that appeal to and are relevant to the average voter, the average family out there. And certainly the libertarian philosophy of reduced regulatory burden, reduced tax burden, much smaller government and so forth, I think, will resonate very well with the American people.
