[Reagan Man]

So now there is a "libertarian" agenda and a Libertarian party Platform. I always thought political libertarians, were members of the Libertarian Party, or as the definition says, "a member of a political party advocating libertarian principles.

I've never met a republican, who wasn't a member of the Republican Party, or a democrat, who wasn't a member of the Democratic Party. Why should libertarians be any different?

In that case, if an indivdual leaves a political party, because of basic disagreements with that party's political platform, if it was me, I'd call myself an independent. Makes a lot more sense to me and keeps everyone from guessing what political party a certain person may, or may not associate with and allows that person to have a multitude of different beliefs and values.

Does that make any sense to you?

It makes total, rational and logical sense to me.

[tpaine]

There are probably 10 times more libertarians than there are party members, imo. - Most hold their noses & vote for Rinos.

[jlogajan]

I always thought political libertarians, were members of the Libertarian Party

We in the LP would like that definition :-) but libertarians not in the LP don't like the idea at all. So take it up with them. :-)

[A.J.Armitage]

I've never met a republican, who wasn't a member of the Republican Party, or a democrat, who wasn't a member of the Democratic Party. Why should libertarians be any different?

I've met a great many republicans who aren't Republicans. Anyone who supports filling offices by election rather than heredity is a republican. Except for a few of the more radical Kennedy supporters, that covers the whole Democratic Party.

You're a conservative, aren't you? Does that make you a member of the Conservative Party? There is such an entity, you know. Do you pay taxes? You must also be a member of the Taxpayer's Party. (I think they changed their name, but at least you were a member.)

[dubyajames]

I understand what you're saying, but there are several small problems with it. There are Democrats who are definitely small-r Republicans and most Republicans would probably consider themselves small-d democrats, so your analogy breaks down there. Secondly, libertarianism is a political ideology, like liberalism or conservatism (although it is not completely exclusive of those labels - there are left-libertarians and right-libertarians). It is not simply the creed of a political party. The Libertarian Party exists, ostensibly at least, to promote libertarianism, but libertarianism doesn't exist to promote the Libertarian Party. In fact, libertarianism as a body of thought considerably predates the LP. So your analogy is a little bit like saying that a conservative should belong to something called the Conservative Party rather than the Republican Party.