Shocker: Libertarian Acknowledges Reality

I think 3rd parties are dumb. At least on a national level. I get the appeal. I’m often disgusted by the Republican Party, even though I vote for them every time. The Republicans are (by far) the lesser of 2 evils. But the lesser of 2 evils still isn’t good. I am sure there is some other party out there (Libertarian / Constitution / American Independent / etc) that would better match my values. The thing is, to get anything done in DC you have to win the Presidency. There are rare exceptions, like Newt’s Contract for America. But in general, if the other Party controls the White House, your team is on defense. Likewise, you need a majority in the House and Senate to get anything done. If you are in the Congressional minority, again, your team is playing defense. The Party in the majority sets the agenda. They lead all the committees. They initiate and head the investigations. They decide what gets voted on, and what does not. Individual candidates don’t even matter. If I was a Democrat, I would vote for John Fetterman over Dr. Oz in a heartbeat. It doesn’t matter that Fetterman is a potted plant. The agenda is set by the Party. And the only thing that matters is achieving a majority so that agenda can be implemented. Of course, good candidates are important because they are more likely to be elected. But in US politics, winning is what matters.

To be clear, I am not saying people should not vote based on their values. By all means, when it is primary season, vote for the candidate who best represents your views and values and is still electable. The primaries are the right time to make changes in direction.

However, in my opinion, a 3rd Party will never be successful in the US. For a 3rd Party to be successful, their ideas would have to become widely popular. And if their ideas became widely popular, one of the existing parties would co-opt them. Most politicians will take up any position necessary to keep their jobs. (Unfortunately, popular ideas getting co-opted isn’t 100% reliable. Border security comes to mind. It is tremendously popular with the Republican base, but extremely unpopular with the Republican donor class. Republicans have decided money is more important than serving voters for getting re-elected. At least for now. But the exception doesn’t negate the general rule.)

Which leads to why I think 3rd parties are dumb. They draw little to no support because their ideas aren’t popular enough. If you really want to change the direction of the country, you need to change the opinions of the voters. Which will in turn force one of the major parties to co-opt the values and agenda you support. Unfortunately, changing opinions is hard. Especially when your political enemies control most of the news, entertainment, and social media platforms.

The thing that has driven me crazy about the Libertarians is they refuse to acknowledge these realities of American politics. They derive a kind of smug satisfaction from their protest votes. And delight in bragging that it isn’t “their guy” ruining the country. Which might feel good emotionally. But in doing so, they relegate themselves to irrelevance. Libertarians normally take an all or nothing approach to politics. Fully embrace the Libertarian worldview, or you don’t get my vote. So the politicians give them nothing. Because there is nothing in it for them to make concessions to the Libertarians. They won’t win any extra votes. In fact it will probably cost them votes from other groups, so why bother? Which is why I’m pleasantly surprised by the story below:

Maybe the Libertarians are finally starting to realize that the two parties aren’t like Coke and Pepsi, but closer to Castor Oil and Cyanide.