Here is a Mediaite article that is in reply to a couple of Breitbart columns imploring Ron Paul supporters and L(l)ibertarians to vote for Romney. I think the article addresses libertarian/Libertarian Party dynamics enough to be of interest to IPR readers.
…Schlichter’s misunderstanding of the libertarian mentality doesn’t help, either. The first and most obvious mistake he makes is to conveniently overlook the fact that small-L libertarians are truly unconcerned with the Libertarian Party. “Remember the Greens?” he ominously asks libertarians, alluding to the fact that following the Green Party’s role as “spoiler” in Al Gore‘s 2000 presidential bid, the “Greens” died off and became a punchline.
He naively assumes libertarians actually care what happens to the party that, for years, has been mismanaged and run by glibertarians like Wayne Allyn Root, a birther who only recently realized it’s time to give up the act and join the GOP. For many libertarians, the party already is a punchline….
@5 Some of us put in time trying to make it work and were stonewalled from within by a combination of LINOs and pure membership laziness. So we left.
I would like to point out that there are some libertarians who are Libertarians, some libertarians who stay within the Republican Party, and other libertarians who truly reject voting to begin with.
@5 Interesting that you bring up the 5% rule (although you said 10%).
In the real LP training program put on years ago it was noted that you should generally expect about 5% of your mailing list to be active at any given time in whatever you are doing or to show up for conventions or otherwise participate. The individuals who are in that 5% out of your list may be different on each occasion, but only 5% should be expected.
Further, if your participation rate should either fall below 5% or rise above 10% it means that you are doing something wrong.
Mr. Capozzi – there’s no one reason why they stay out of LP. Some,perhaps you, don’t believe there is a cult of the omnipotent state. There is but, thankfully, it isn’t very big. There’s a huge number, however, that do wish for an ever larger and more powerful state (if not an omnipotent one). To avoid the LP because of this in the SOP is, to my mind,petty and foolish.
Other small l libertarians are posers – they don’t want to do the hard work of making the LP successful and they don’t want the approbrium of their friends in the two big political parties or at cocktail parties. Some legitimately believe there is no way a third party can achieve meaningful success; as long as most libertarians stay out, they are probably right. I have several mostly libertarian friends who won’t get involved because of disagreement with one or two LP platform planks, even though they have less agreement with the parties they support with their votes. And there seems to be some sort of iron law that only 10% of people believing anything will actually pitch in to advance the interest of the groups advancing those ideas.
1 around: Those small l libertarians who avoid the Party are not only not helping to remedy this, but are giving sanction of the victim by staying in the GOP and voting for its terribly flawed candidates.
me: Any theories on why they continue to “sanction” the “flawed”? Why do they not jump ship to the LP?
Has the LP given any indication that it wishes to participate in politics for these 4 decades? Or is the LP more interested in challenging non-existent “cults” dedicated to “omnipotent” states?
Nominating GJ certainly was an indication. Many in the Cato crowd, for ex., seem to be on board this time. Unfortunately, the fantastical constructs were buried deep in the LP’s DNA, and separating the chaff out takes monumentally sophisticated gene therapy, it seems.
Actually, I think that’s Kennedy Montgomery.
I always confuse the order of her names. Both sound like last names.
If libertarians can change the culture, they don’t need the LP. The Republicans and Democrats will do their bidding.
Gay marriage was not won at the ballot box, but in films and TV shows, and by musicians and singers and celebrities who spoke out, and even by moderate and “conservative” local talk radio hosts in liberal cities (e.g., Los Angeles’s Montgomery Kennedy, Doug McIntire, Bill Handel, John and Ken, Al Rantel) and by activists who took to the streets.
They swayed the public.
After which, Democrats ran to support gay marriage. Even many Republicans support “civil unions,” a big shift from 30 years ago.
Fail to change the culture, and you’ll never win at the ballot box. Change the culture, and the ballot box becomes irrelevant — every party will follow you.
Every major party supported racial segregation a few generations ago. Today, none do. Another ballot won through culture before politics.
Are there things wrong with the LP? Sure; one being an inability to widely organize locally (a la as Boy Scout troops have) in order to make its presence felt 12 months every year. Those small l libertarians who avoid the Party are not only not helping to remedy this, but are giving sanction of the victim by staying in the GOP and voting for its terribly flawed candidates. Neither an Obama or Romney victory will “ruin the country.” What will ruin it is a continued slide down the slope of personal irresponsibility, a belief in Santa Claus government, a belief that it is well and proper to force others to conform to one’s beliefs. Libertarian thinkers have to present arguments that change minds, Libertarian candidates have to present these arguments. When done within the confines of the GOP, the message is terribly mixed and frustrating.