Gary Cruse says that the Libertarian Party has to be reinvented, post September 11.

Could not agree more! As a registered Libertarian I find myself increasingly frustrated with my own party. I'm quickly reaching the inescapable conclusion that they're pie-in-the-sky dreamers out of touch with reality and committed to losing election after election more than anything else. My party badly needs a revolution - the entire current crop of leaders need to be deposed entirely before we can be lifted out of irrelevance.

Although I was a charter founder of a libertarian law society at UCLA in the early 80s, I found that I could never sign on the dotted line wth the LP, and I became more estranged from Libertarians over the course of time, because of their New Left approach to national defense. I guess I understand the mindset that at the time the buried lede was that the only thing standing between the U.S. and an anarcho-capitalist utopia was a need for the a national defense policy to keep us free of the totalitarians who were creating their own utopias filled with Gulags and killing fields. But with Libertarians began to parrot the New Left by blaming the bad behavior of the totalitarians on the United States and arguing that the U.S. was the cause of all that was bad in the world, that was a bit much, and I severed my connection. Looks like their still locked up in their silly world and still losing members.

The Losertarians need to reinvent themselves as an indispensable bloc that's part of either the Republican or Democrat coalitions. That way, like with the Black Caucus or the "religious right", they would have disproportionate influence within their chosen party. They wouldn't always get their way, but the other parts of the coalition would cross them at their peril, especially when it comes to core issues.

By the early 1990s it became obvious that Libertarians are more concerned with ideological purity, which is why I dumped my support years ago. It was dominated by people no longer willing to build an alternative, but playing the part of spoiler and sticking it to the incumbent, especially if Republican. (Like here in Washington, replacing Slade Gorton with Maria Cantwell. Good job guys!)

So, libertarians, which are those one or two core issues (like affirmative action or abortion (pro- or anti-) or "gun rights"), and which party is the best vehicle to achieve them?

As a proud libertarian instead of a Libertarian, I couldn't agree more. The LP's current mess is no surprise, since it was born from the remnants of the anti-war/anti-establishment politics of the late 1960s and is still trapped in that same utopian mindset. The LP is focused on these gradiose schemes to remake society in a single masterstroke instead of doing the slow, painstaking, but necessary work to gradually get the government out of your face. LP supporters just aren't pragmatic enough to be effective.

The Libertarian Party is run by French Revolutionaries. It needs to be run by American Revolutionaries instead.

I say this as a former state chair -- in Texas.

I've posted a few things on this:

Libertarianism and War

Diagnosis

A Modest Proposal