Dead Corpse: “Libertarians advocate you clean up your own messes...”
I respect and agree with that, but most people do simply do not want to clean up their own messes. Those people vote in droves for Democrats.
Again, libertarians need to think things through and decide which path is most likely to lead to actual political success. You can stand on principle and see the statist Democrat get elected, or you can compromise on a small number of issues and elect someone who agrees with 80% of what you want.
Voting for third party candidates typically results in the election of far worse statists than what libertarians would have elected had they supported the conservative Republican.
Don't leave them any other choice. Amazing how fast people clean up their act then...
Is it the 'far worse statists' who have put us in the position we are now in?
No. It is the almost conservative statists who have voted for the incremental usurpations of our Liberty who have brought us to this point.
The far worse statists would have overreached and evoked a public reaction which would have sent the pendulum hurtling in the other direction, instead the less worse statists have slowly turned up the heat under the veritable frog pot, slowly, over generations.
The lesser evil is still evil, and no matter whether the steps are great strides or small hobbles, they were all headed in the same direction.
The small steps toward tyranny are perhaps to be even more greatly feared than the great strides, because the electorate is more likely to suffer the indignities of those small increments, and then become accustomed to them before rising in protest. It is those little nibbles that reduce Liberty most efficiently.