Even though he’s one of the wing-nuttiest politicians that Georgians ever elected to Congress, there have been times when I found myself in agreement with Bob Barr. He has noted the failure of the never-ending war on drugs, for one thing. He was also consistent in speaking out against the flaws of the Patriot Act and other attacks on civil liberties promulgated by the Bush administration. But Bob never can resist the temptation to jump back into deep nuttiness.
He’s in full-nut mode in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this week where he grumps about the decision from federal Judge Paul Magnuson that quite accurately pointed out the illegality of metro Atlanta withdrawing water all these years from Lake Lanier.
“A non-elected official from a state far, far away, has issued what may very well turn out to be a fatal blow to our area’s survival,” Barr huffed.
Let’s take Barr’s argument to its logical conclusion. A group of “non-elected” judges who were “far, far away” from Georgia ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that school segregation was unconstitutional. If you take Barr at his word, then he obviously believes we should send black students back to their separate but unequal public schools.
It was also a group of “far away” judges who upheld the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Are you telling us, Bob, that we need to go back to the days when we denied black citizens the right to vote and use public restrooms and drinking fountains? Sure sounds like it to me.
If you read all the way through Barr’s column you’ll find another hint that, at heart, he’s really a white supremacist. Towards the end, he remarks: “Still, we may want to keep in reserve (at least quietly) the views of an early U.S. president, Andrew Jackson, who successfully challenged the federal courts to try and ‘enforce’ its decision if it could. Perhaps it’s time once again to consider challenging federal judges when they overstep their bounds.”
Barr is referring to a landmark Supreme Court decision (also handed down by far away unelected judges) styled Worcester v. Georgia. This 1832 decision held that the Cherokee tribe had the rights of a sovereign nation and was not subject to the laws of Georgia, which at the time was trying to seize their lands and drive them out of the state.
Andrew Jackson, who probably hated Native Americans more intensely than any other American president, was popularly credited with saying: “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.” While some historians contend he did not utter those exact words, Jackson also did not lift a hand to enforce the court’s decision. The Cherokees were later removed from their land by the U.S. Army and exiled to Oklahoma along The Trail of Tears.
This is the president that Barr speaks of so approvingly: a racist who wanted to exterminate non-white residents because they had the ill fortune to be living on land that whites wanted to take.
In making this sly reference to Jackson, Barr is saying, with a nudge and a wink to the white supremacy crowd: Don’t worry boys — I’m one of you.
That you are, Bob.
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