"Serious libertarians should, and probably do, focus on the ISSUES, not trashing the Republican party!!!!"
The Republican party needs to wake the hell up and stop spending money hand over fist on social "entitlement" programs like the new Medicare drug nonsense. I'm a libertarian/conservative (note the small "l") first - being a Republican is always secondary to that. Issues should always come first.
Now having said that, I think the Libertarian party is good for two reasons. First, it speaks truth to power - reminding the Republicans that they are supposed to stand for small government and individual liberty. Sometimes the Republican Party needs a bit of friendly trashing to pull it back to the actual issues. Second, the Libertarian Party it can be used to scare RINOs into acting like Republicans again. Competition is always good for the marketplace.
That's one thing I don't get.
Slim, your points are valid in principle, but my concern is that in practice, the capital-L Libertarians, that is the members of the LP, seem more interested in trashing both parties equally. I would prefer that their message to the public, and to the GOP, be that the GOP is better than the Dems, but its feet must be held to the fire. This would be the constructive and more effective approach.