Comment: Georgewhitfield -- I wish the LP a fast death. And here is why

All that time and energy would then go into ONE Congressional race for either a liberty minded Democrat or Republican.

And if libertarian minded voters are allowed to just simply vote LP and not even know who the person with the "L" by his name is, then you just let your power slip away. Libertarian men and woman and liberty will all be better served if they ran inside the DNC & GOP.

Indeed, you SHOULD pit a liberty minded candidate inside both parties and for the same race each and every time. This way, during the election year and in the media, a FULL argument for liberty can be made. The DNC candidate can go mute on schools and unions and spending but go loud against wars, civil right violations, and drug laws. Meanwhile the GOP candidate can go loud on schools, unions, and spending and stay mute on wars, civil rights and drug laws. Hence the full libertarian sweep of issues is before the electorate.

Hence only libertarians would know who is the real libertarian ON VOTE DAY. Unfortunately to few realize that the existence of the LP allows for voting libertarians to be LAZY. Let me spell that out for you and all your worship for LP "hardwork" on ballot access: The LP's existence saps your libertarian voters Strength and allows them on vote day to simply vote the "L" wearing candidate, ie LAZY.

Most of all, the existence of the LP HURTS the libertarian voter in two key ways. No access to the VOTER DATABASE and no access to the media DEBATE STAGE (which confers legitimacy).

By the EXCLUDING the libertarian voter from access to the GOP & DNC VOTER DATABASE. With that voter database in hand, the libertarian voter and the libertarian-minded candidate COULD work the voters who are "already liberty minded", and those that "on the margin" and those that are "single issue" minded and finally to those voters who are "personality-persona voters". That is, you can build your support through direct marketing to the voter Database, door to door, issue by issue. Yep, that is hard work, but that will pay liberty-dividends.

By the EXCLUDING the libertarian candidate and voter from access to the media's DEBATE STAGE, both the liberty minded candidate and voter is pushed off to the side. The LP's existence means those liberty leaning voters, those single issue voters and those on the margin and those who vote the persona, all will be over in either the DNC or GOP voting and NOT SEEING OR HEARING from the libertarian...ie, libertarians are a wasted vote, and its perfectly rational for voters to think that. The Debate Stage confers legitimacy, and there is nothing, zero, wrong with wearing a D or an R on your chest to stand there. Selling liberty with legitimacy is a thousand times more effective, even if your liberty D or R wearing candidate looses. The media time alone is worth it.

And that is why I wish the LP a fast death.

But there is still one more reason. The LP itself is morphing. If we look at its three last "winners", Bob Barr, Wayne Root, and Gary Johnson, what you have here are NOT libertarians, but old school right wing low tax small government conservatives. All of them can say what Ron Paul says, "I would Legalize All Drugs". It was sad listening to these guys twist and turn when Sean Hannity asked them "You wouldn't legalize heroin would you?". Mary Ruwart and other REAL libertarians would not skip a beat to say, "absolutely i would legalize ALL drugs, and here is why...", yet your post-pot smoking Gary Johnson can't make the argument for legalizing the "hard drugs". The point being, there is nothing libertarian or radical or principled about these guys, indeed, that was the point of choosing them, for acceptability from the voter on the outside.

May the death of the LP come sooner rather than later. Sure, let libertarian meet-up groups and debate societies spring up, but work the DNC & GOP system and gain access to that precious voter database and debate stage. The R3VOLution and Ron Paul has proven this works, now get busy, do the "hard work".

Treg