You just made a great case to vote AGAINST Libertarians! How any conservative could brag about putting Cantwell in office is beyond my comprehension. Your vote is a gift to the Liberals just as a vote for the Green Party is a gift to the Conservatives.
Easy... I'm not a conservative, I'm a Libertarian. I wasn't bragging about getting Cantwell elected, I was bragging about costing Gorton the election because he flip-flopped on guns. One of the reasons I became a Libertarian is to punish Republicans like him for pretending to be something they're not. Since the only language they seem to understand is brute force, that's the way we'll communicate with them. I'm sure he never thought a lowly Libertarian like Jeff Jared could cost him reelection; well now he knows better. Save your tears for the hunters and sportsmen of his state, you know the ones he sold out so he could appeal to the left-wing gun grabbers who wound up not voting for him anyway.
Fringers, of any stripe here, who keep beating the tom toms, with the " there's no difference between Bush and Gore / Dems and / GOPers, are proponents of " THE BIG LIE ". Even IF they really believe this canard, it just proves how politically naive and foolish they are.
Bottom line, for those who either stay home, or vote third party ? They do exactly what they claim they aren't doing AND do absolutely NOTHING to advance what they supposedly claim they really, real REALLY yearn for.
Cantwell won and the Republicans lost control of the Senate because of the RP, not Libertarians. When the RP begins running candidates who will steadfastly defend individual rights, limited government, and free-market capitalism then I'll start voting for them and so will many Libertarians. So long as the RP keeps running candidates who sell-out, pander, and support every increase in government spending they'll continue to get pricisely what they've earned -- defeat.