Now, would it surprise you that what you've posted very directly contradicts a large percentage of what certain "libertarians" on this forum have told me?
Libertarians disagree with many Republicans on whether the state should punish people for committing sodomy if those people are taking reasonable efforts to keep their activities private and are only caught due to factors they could not reasonably have foreseen.This, for instance. I don't know how many times I've been called a socialist by a "libertarian" because I've supported the idea of prosecuting men who have public sex in restrooms and/or public parks.
You need to divest yourself of that fringe as much as we need to jettison Jerry Falwell!
Yes, but when a party's barely making 2% it tends to focus more on its differences with the other parties than on resolving the variations within itself.
The Constitution Party is really the one I'd favor, if they were ever on the ballot here (Illinois). Unfortunately, it's hard to support a party which doesn't really have much presence. Even the Libertarians, though, I tend to favor over the Republicans in that when they push for too much laxity on social issues it drives people to the Republicans; when Republicans, however, get too tyrannical it pushes more people to the Democrats than to the Libertarians.
Although homosexuals almost certainly do not comprise nearly the 10% of the population claimed by Kinsey et al., many if not most voters know at least one person who is, or who they think is, gay. How should these voters react to the knowledge that many Republicans would put their friend/acquaintance in jail if they could? Some probably brush such fears aside, on the basis that the Republicans would never get that much power. But can you really blame someone for believing that the Republicans pose a threat to their friend, given that the Republicans themselves say precisely that?
The way the Republicans play up things like the gay issues, it gives voters the choice between letting people commit all manner of lewdness in the park, or of throwing their friend (who does not commit such lewdness in public) in jail. Given such a choice, many voters are going to opt for the former even though they really don't like the lewdness in the park, just because they don't want their friend thrown in jail. If Republicans would stop providing fodder for Democrat fearmongers, they might actually be able to get enough votes to actually achieve some worthwhile conservative goals. Of course, if pigs had wings they could fly...