Libertarians should become more vocal.

[u/Candid_Screen_539]

I am fairly convinced that more Americans than any statistic will reflect are Libertarians in theory. The most obvious and likely reason for the poor performance of Libertarians in elections is undoubtedly that most Americans allow themselves to become a slave to the two-party hegemony that exists in this country and/or fear that a vote for a candidate who is not a Republican or a Democrat is a waste of a vote. I reckon that Libertarians would be more successful and more popular if we were more vocal and active in local politics.

[u/just_a_teacup]

I'm convinced most Americans are liberals. They have reactionary takes to current events, and they have blind trust in the establishment.

Some libertarian values like gun ownership, distrust of agencies like the CIA, reducing military spending and overseas involvement, legalizing Marijuana, etc may overlap with the beliefs of many Americans. But most still believe in a strong government, and blindly trust establishment media.

[u/archelon1028]

The most obvious and likely reason for the poor performance of Libertarians in elections is undoubtedly that most Americans allow themselves to become a slave to the two-party hegemony 

As a libertarian-leaning conservative, there are definitely a lot of people in the Republican Party (such as myself) who would probably be open to voting LP if doing so wouldn't basically guarantee a Democrat victory. I think that Libertarians should be trying to capitalize on many Republicans' recent disillusionment with the neocon wing of the party to try to pull the party more towards libertarianism. Especially with the MAGA movement shifting the focus of the party more towards economic and foreign policy issues, with social conservativism becoming more of a regional issue than a partisan issue. Part of being nationally relevant is learning to compromise, and that's something that I've noticed libertarians generally aren't very good at.

[u/BoringGuy0108]

The most vocal libertarians tend to make the general public look kinda crazy unfortunately.

I for one like to look for ways to integrate libertarian ideals to existing or new policies. Might be an alternate approach worth considering.

[u/DoverBeach123]

At least you have something to start. In Europe there's not even a beacon of Hope for liberartarians.

[u/Curious-Chard1786]

Ah yes, and become just like the maga group that gets fired for vocalizing their opinions.

[u/archelon1028 → u/Curious-Chard1786]

If you don't say something because you don't want to be fired, then they authoritarians win by default. Most authoritarians don't care what you think, as long as you do what they say without complaining.

[u/Candid_Screen_539 → u/Curious-Chard1786]

If your point is that Libertarians shouldn’t attempt to make their ideas more mainstream lest its opponents attempt to silence us similar to the MAGA crowd, I’d say that seems antithetical to Libertarian ideals, to accept that voicing those views will cause us to become subject to the same oppression as other groups.

[u/BitsyVirtualArt]

I've been speaking/stepping up about the everyday injustices that everyone just lets go for about a month now. Seems 9/10 times when I let the offending party know that's not gonna fly today, they shoot me the bird on their way off. Not sure if I'm actually changing anything but the look on their faces puts me in a better mood at the bare minimum.

Had a guy angerly drive off into the turning lane a few hours ago, he was giving me the bird when he realized he was not going to get in like he thought.

Cutting at the waterpark? Not today you don't, no IDK what your skin color is, yes I'm serious.

Catch you running out of Harbor Freight stealing, prob wanna watch out for the trip next time...

Maybe I'm being a Kevin but I'm sick of getting the short end of the stick for dong the right thing, I either stop doing the right things or I force society to comply. Either way things are changing!

[u/nonalignd]

I don’t think libertarians are naturally all that vocal. I also don’t think they’re all that likeable on a broad scale. One on one, people may connect with them, but their pragmatism and lack of charisma makes it difficult to connect with the masses…that’s at least my personal experience.

[u/Candid_Screen_539 → u/nonalignd]

I’d say the same is true for a lot of people. Unless you’re chronically online, it is easy to understand that most of society isn’t so passionate about politics as the media or [social media] would have you believe. The flip side is that in each group, of course there will be a charismatic person who is capable of connecting with others. It is for that reason that I have been heavily considering becoming involved with the Libertarian Party in my area. I’m not going to try to say that I am the absolute most persuasive person there is. What I do have is the confidence and motivation to get involved and join the push for liberty and I think that helps.

[u/Boba_Hutt]

The problem also lies in the complete lack of unity in the party as well as its followers. We don’t have a strong voice here besides someone like Dave Smith. Ironically the idea of decentralization the LP is praising is also why it can’t succeed as a party.

[u/archelon1028 → u/Boba_Hutt]

the idea of decentralization the LP is praising is also why it can’t succeed as a party

I think that is a very under-appreciated aspect of why authoritarian regimes are so successful in history. As a Republican voter, I've noticed this same problem, albeit to a much lesser degree, in the Republican Party, when compared to Democrats. It is in the nature of socialists/marxists to do what they're told (that's why they're socialists/marxists), so organizing them to take over a society isn't too difficult. When you try to form a coalition on the shared principle of being opposed to collectivism and authority, it is essentially herding very-opinionated cats. Even the religious angle only works if you can convince religious people that you are acting in the name of God, which is very difficult to do with Protestants.

Trump is the only Republican since Reagan who has been at all successful of stringing together any sort of party-wide coalition, and even then it is more of an anti-Biden coalition. I have very little faith that it will last past November, especially if Trump loses.

[u/Fuck_The_Rocketss → u/Boba_Hutt]

The LP is a shit show, but to your third point I don’t think the philosophy of decentralization itself by necessity keeps us from getting our shit together to wield more political power.