The Little Brown Reader

1) Too many Americans regard Libertarians as "disgruntled conservatives" -- people who would be comfortable in the Republican Party "if only the GOP did what it promised to do."

2) Too many Libertarians -- at the individual and organizational level -- give credence to this assumption in too many ways, from choices of rhetoric to choices of focus.

Please don't read too much into these allegations. I am not saying that Libertarians have nothing in common with conservatives, or that "disgruntled conservatives" might not find themselves more at home in the LP. However, to the extent that the commonalities between conservatives and Libertarians take center stage, the Libertarian Party automatically limits its ability to forge an identity of its own ... an identity that it not only deserves, but desperately needs if it is ever to aspire to something other than "also ran" status.

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