Moreover, the Republican Party has abandoned its commitment to constitutional government. The GOP once believed in federalism, but now it is the Republican Party that pushes to expand national control over education. Republicans once recognized that the national government was one of limited, enumerated powers, yet it was Sen. John McCain who led the congressional “investigation” of steroid use in baseball.

Even more serious has been the sustained presidential and congressional assault on the system of separation of powers and checks and balances. President Bush’s theory of the "unitary executive" assumes that the president can ignore any statute—even the Constitution—whenever he claims it is necessary for "national security." The Republican Congress aided and abetted the administration’s pervasive and systemic misconduct.

The Founders expected the president to act to protect America, but they also carefully designed the Constitution to limit government power and ensure accountability for those who exercised power. Conservatives once opposed executive aggrandizement by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, yet it is the modern-day Republican Party that has turned these liberal icons into its newest patron saints.

Finally, today’s GOP has adopted as its foreign policy the neoconservative ideology of global social engineering, irrespective of cost. Traditional conservative foreign policy emphasized defense of America, not endless war for nation building and democracy-promotion. Unfortunately, Sen. McCain, even more than President Bush, seems determined to sacrifice American lives and our country's wealth in a vain attempt to reorder the globe rather than defend America.

A conservative vote for Sen. McCain is a wasted vote. It is wasted because even if he is elected, he does not stand for conservative values and will not promote conservative values. Government will grow, spending will rise, and liberty will diminish.

But it looks increasingly likely that he won’t be elected, and no one will care about his vote totals if he loses. In contrast, a vote for Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party will be noticed and will have a lasting, positive impact. A vote for Bob Barr and the Libertarian Party will be a vote for liberty and for America’s future.