My point has been that the libertarian party because of it's wacko platform is not the best vehicle to enact conservative principles."
Good morning.
The GOP can be, and is, so infuriating to conservatives that many go elsewhere and for years, the LP was the only place to go.
The LP does have an image problem and a PR problem. They are not good at getting their ideas out and when they do, they scare as many people away as they attract. Same thing with money. Until the GOP steers more to the right and the LP falls to the wayside, they will be relegated to the role of spoiler and the GOP had better not take anything for granted. That's Muth's point.
"The LP does have an image problem and a PR problem. They are not good at getting their ideas out and when they do, they scare as many people away as they attract."
It's not an image problem and it's not a PR problem. As you point out, "when they do (get their ideas out), they scare away as many people as they attract." IMHO, they scare away more than they do attract by about 50:1.
I'm fascinated by the similarities between arguments made by the libertarians and the wack left. They both claim there is a huge number of disaffected voters. They both claim their problem is the fact that they can't get their message out. They both claim that if only they could get this message out, then they would be swept into power. Both fail to grasp that their message is their problem.