The Little Brown Reader

Every four years around this time we get statements like these from libertarians who aren’t in the party:

"The Libertarian Party has finished its regularly scheduled exercise in futility."

"The LP has displayed a genius for assigning itself a role in American politics akin to irrelevance."

As though that weren’t bad enough, disgruntled party members also level broadsides when they don’t get what they want:

"The LP attempted to shoot itself in the foot by not nominating [Aaron Russo] for president."

I recently received an email message from someone asking, "If the LP was a stock that you (or I) had bought 20 years ago, based on its performance would you still be holding onto it?" — as though I would choose a political party or organization of any kind in the same way I would choose a stock.

After 33 years in operation, the LP presidential candidate has never received more than 1% of the vote, the party has elected less than a thousand office-holders, and currently has no one in Congress or a state legislature.

The armchair quarterbacks inside and outside the party know just what the party needs to do to reverse its fortunes. It must focus on a particular issue to the exclusion of all other topics, stage the right kind of media events, conduct a campaign that’s more "in your face," merge campaigns with another third party, tone down the message, or find a celebrity to carry the party’s banner.

If only it were so easy.

The armchair quarterbacks pay no attention to the obstacles that the LP is up against. Nor do they recognize the tremendous good the LP does.