After months of effort, I finally land a first date off those stupid online dating sites. So I crossed the state line, had brunch with this girl, and went for a walk with her. The date didn't go well, but I did see a group of people in the town square while on the walk. I didn't know what it was, but they had a bunch of Gadsden flags and "Come and take" it flags. After awkwardly saying goodbye to the silly girl, I decided to go check it out.

As I walked up, I saw a bunch of people OCing rifles. I got a little closer, and there were handguns being OCed too. Handguns seemed to be loaded; rifles were all unloaded (I wonder if that is a WA law thing, I don't know their laws very well. But it's not like I follow them anyways).

They had a bunch of Libertarian candidates speaking. None of them were very good speakers. They said a lot of stuff about liberty and freedom, but didn't really say anything of substance. They mostly seemed to be bitching about the current state of things.

That's all well and good, but the thing that stood out to me, was the people at this rally. There was only about 40 people there. Many of them were "proud vets" (you know the kind I'm talking about), a few seemed to fringe gun guys, a few independent media guys, and the rest (cough cough, me) seemed to be popping in for the shit show.

This led me to conclude what I had already suspected. The Libertarian Party is a hopeless cause that only attracts those with the least political power.

Now I'm very libertarian leaning. I'm even a registered Libertarian (But not because I'm a fan of the platform, I just don't like the two party system we have and it saves me from getting calls and letters from the Rs and Ds). But what I saw was just a silly effort. Libertarian candidates need to run with a D or an R in from of their name; anything else is a waste of time. Make change from the inside, because is will NEVER happen from the outside.

Good news was, I didn't hear any ramblings about weed. Maybe that's because WA already legalized it.

Was it POF?

She was cute. Lost in life though, and not very sociable.

Now that weed has been legalized, I would expect the membership of the Washington LP to be cut in half.





For a good percentage of Libertarians, free weed is all they want.

 

Try about 99% of them, partner.  Think Republican guy guys who like to get high.  That's it...in a nutshell.  

Who still believes this crap in this day and age?

Yeah, you ever hardly see any of that type of behavior at GOP rallies.

that seems about par for the course for the gadsden flag crowd. lotta bluster, no brains.

In my case, someone who used to vote for Libertarian candidates, attended several party meetings, and almost became a registered Libertarian.



For many (but not all) Libertarians it's all about abortion, gay marriage, and legalized weed.  Everything else is just window dressing.



 

Semi-valid point. At every GOP rally and tea party really that I have been to, some of the same crowd was present. However, they were always a small minority. Most everyone else (save for a few of the crazy sign holders) were more or less normal everyday folks.

especially if sweet sister sarah is talking. i love how she drops all the ra-ra posing and gets right down to brass tacks.

Maybe it was the hand cuffs?



 

He is never going to live that one down...



 

Those are the only 3 issues that all the parties are talking about.

The problem with liberty is the sales pitch.



How do you "sell" yourself as a guy who will restore liberty when you have to try to dovetail that into the current system?



No, Bob, you can't do ANYTHING you want, there are SOME rules here....



Trying to restore liberty to our current system ends up being a giant clusterfuck of bitching about current regulations and laws.



A core set of principals  are all good and dandy until lawyers get involved and start picking apart the broad general rules with endless litigation.



Common sense ends up taking a back seat as population grows because there are endless numbers of people looking for exemptions, special privileges, or simply to undermine the whole idea so they can have more power.



How do you sell a set of principals that doesn't result in freebies? Even harder, how do you convince people to give up their "freebies" and step up to personal responsibility?



It's real easy to sell the GoP or DNC platforms when everyone wants something from government.

Also, another valid point. However, I've noticed that libertarians are somewhat split on abortion, solidly pro-drug, and solidly pro-gun.

I didn't hear anything about gay marriage, abortion, or weed at the rally. I did hear a lot of stuff about guns.

What is a "proud vet"?

Reasons the Libertarian party is so small and will never grow:

There is a sizable segment of society whom you will never get to vote against Santa Claus.

Pretty much the rest want to control the other half and vote party line, dem or pub.

Then there is a small number who truly want liberty, freedom, self reliance and responsibility. These are the people who don't have a home party anymore but are true libertarians. And the statist pubs and dems have nothing better to deal with their viewpoints with other than to call names and make false accusations such as "dope and open borders".

That leaves the Libertarian party. The left over nuts who've corrupted the term libertarian just as much as the dems and pubs have bastardized their parties.

True ....... don't forget open borders.  

Most people are still dedicated to either of the two major parties.  Some still believe that voting or writing their congress critter makes a difference.

The only thing that catches the attention of any elected official is the threat of being unseated.  

What America needs is an edema that includes the flushing out of most elected officials at all levels of government.  I don't think that will happen.

Ok

Or

Republican guys who are tired of:
1) Religious right's power plays within the GOP
2)  Losing elections because of hardon's for stupid social issues
3)  GOP being absolutely terrified of anyone who wants to reduce spending (look at what they did to the tea party)
4)  Establishment politics
5)  GOP being unwilling to actually mean small government.
6)  GOP does not mean reduction of government scope & power, it just means less expansion.

ETA.  I live in CO, and I stayed home on 4/20 to avoid the idiots.  Watched some TV, did some work, had some sex, drank some whiskey.

You went to a Libertarian rally on 4/20? That is a good cover story.

Wat?