This last presidential election cycle was all about “Outsiders.” From Bernie Sanders, to Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, they all ran as the “outsider candidate.” Why? The answer is obvious. People are sick and tired of politicians and the whole political system.
Why are people tired of the system? Because it seems as if politicians lie, waste our hard-earned money on insane programs, and give it away; often to the undeserving. One wonders if they care more about their reelection than the good of the country. Political office, it seems for many, is the quickest way to the good life and personal fortune. No wonder Donald Trump is our president, people were looking for the real “Outsider.”
“Outsiders” have always been a breath of political fresh air. Elected officials that run against the political wind, those who dare, even at the expense of their own political good, to stand for constitutional principles and our personal liberties.
Before the title “Outsider” became part of our national vernacular, there were modern day trailblazers, those who stood against the “Establishment.” Those who, even though were in the body politic, for the good of the citizenry, fidelity to the Constitution and love of country, were outside. Persons in government who did go along to get along.
One such “Outsider,” from the Clinton era, was Bob Barr. Congressman Barr was appointed by Ronald Reagan as U. S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia. In that capacity, as a Republican, he successfully prosecuted Pat Swindall. Swindall (appropriately named) was a Republican member of the U. S. House of Representatives for Georgia’s 4th District. He was convicted of perjury.
This did not sit well with other Republicans.
Congressman Barr led the call to impeach then President William Jefferson Clinton. Which as the Washington Post reported at the time, was “making the Republican leadership just a tad nervous (Washington Post). He was always an “Outsider.”
This “Outsider’s” purpose was to serve the people who put him in office, not the political elite. At the time he was calling for the impeachment of President Clinton he quipped, “My constituents didn’t send me up here to glad-hand and have a good time. They sent me up here to get something done.”
As the consummate “Outsider,” in 2008 Bob ran for President of the United States, not as a Republican, but as the Libertarian candidate.
What does this “Outsider” do when elected office is behind him? Continue to fight for the rights granted the individual in our beloved Constitution.
Bob Barr practices law and runs Liberty Strategies in Atlanta, Georgia. He has a weekly column published nationally and has served on the board of the NRA since 1997, along with sitting on the board of several other organizations.
Bob also heads Liberty Guard, a non-profit and non-partisan organization dedicated to protecting individual liberty. Liberty Guard has one mission: Protect and Defend Individual Liberty! This has always been Bob’s driving passion.
“We recognize that life, liberty, and property were granted to us by God, and set forth by our Founding Fathers. Our country was created to protect these freedoms – but has lost sight of their fundamental importance in recent years. We seek to correct that – and place focus back on these founding principles” (Liberty Guard).
Liberty Guard demands a flat tax. They have delivered thousands of petitions to the Congress on a rolling basis.
In 2010 Liberty Guard formed the Opt-Out Alliance. This program was created to protect air travelers from unwarranted screening methods, such as naked body scans.
Currently Liberty Guard is considering the Deep State, the bureaucrats who are imbedded in the government, that are responsible for the leaks undermining the Trump Administration. Not only are these government employees a problem for any administration, that governs contrary to their personal ideologies, but due to the unlimited power they have in the arena of personal data collection and the possibility of misusing the data, they are worrisome to anyone who values their privacy. They literally have the power to destroy the career and reputation of anyone who disagrees with their political views.
Solutions to reining in the Deep State are not readily available. However, under the leadership of Bob Barr, always the champion of privacy, Liberty Guard desires to expose this corruption and offer legal solutions.
Presently Liberty Guard boasts 123,898 members. It has saved $32,000,000 tax dollars and delivered over 1,000,000 petitions.
So, what does this “Outsider” do when elected office is behind him? Continue to fight for the rights granted the individual in our beloved Constitution.
