[Jeffiner99]

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I don't understand the idea that voting libertarian is useless. If libertarians gain a larger percentage of the vote, on the margins this should induce the democrats and republicans to co-opt libertarian policies to try and re-capture libertarian voters.

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I agree. If you believe in a Libertarian platform and then vote for the lesser of two evils you are voting for evil and telling the one you voted for that you approve of his ideals and message. You are also telling the rest of the establishment that you approve of that guy's policies. All votes are counted as a positive support. It is a message I will never send again.

I believe in the Libertarian position with all my heart. If I don't vote Libertarian I have no chance to get what I want. I want a Libertarian in office. So I vote Libertarian.

I can't stand the argument that "we have no chance to win, so..." Well we certainly don't with that kind of attitude. And even if we didn't win this time, if the candidate got 25% of the vote that would send a strong message to the candidates who are running and to the rest of the public who up to now hasn't even heard the Libertarian platform. Wouldn't that be great? Getting more people to hear the platform.

With all that said, the original question was Where are all the Libertarians? This forum has a huge selection bias. You can't look at the people here as a true representation of the public. So you really can't look at this forum and assume that there are that many Libertarians in the general population. After all, most of them were trained to be good little statists after 16 years of government training/education.

Right now, we Libertarians have a great opportunity. Ron Paul is running as a Republican and could have a chance. He is a true Libertarian, don't be fooled. But he can't win the presidency on that ticket. So I re-registered as a Republican to vote for him in the primary and if he doesn't win then it will just appear as if another Republican left the party and voted Libertarian. Either way it is a win for our position. Of course, all the rest of the positions I vote for will be Libertarian regardless and if they don't have a candidate then I don't vote.

Plus, it feels GREAT to actually vote for something you believe in versus voting against a guy.