For decades, libertarianism was the only somewhat-influential brand of politics for Americans who didn't really like either major party. It obviously didn't get there on its own merits (lol); it was astroturfed by the Kochs since the founding of the Libertarian Party back in the 70s. But if you took a look at Republicans and Democrats and weren't thrilled with either, your choices were basically libertarianism or even smaller, even less-effective groups that you sometimes had to start from scratch. Because those other groups didn't get much done and libertarianism didn't get much done and was an incoherent ideological mess, a lot of people who initially looked outward would eventually filter back into the major parties or disengage from politics altogether.
Now we have more people who are dissatisfied with the major parties than we've had in at least a generation or two, and there are increasingly credible political movements outside both parties. Who the fuck knows where that's going, but a fun side effect might be libertarian cranks slowly going extinct.
For decades, libertarianism was the only somewhat-influential brand of politics for Americans who didn’t really like either major party.
It's pretty funny hearing from my mid-aged libertarian coworker whine about politics (as you do) and say "... yeah anyway.... it's just part of being a libertarian, you kinda never get what you want..." lmao
For decades, libertarianism was the only somewhat-influential brand of politics for Americans who didn't really like either major party. It obviously didn't get there on its own merits (lol); it was astroturfed by the Kochs since the founding of the Libertarian Party back in the 70s. But if you took a look at Republicans and Democrats and weren't thrilled with either, your choices were basically libertarianism or even smaller, even less-effective groups that you sometimes had to start from scratch. Because those other groups didn't get much done and libertarianism didn't get much done and was an incoherent ideological mess, a lot of people who initially looked outward would eventually filter back into the major parties or disengage from politics altogether.
Now we have more people who are dissatisfied with the major parties than we've had in at least a generation or two, and there are increasingly credible political movements outside both parties. Who the fuck knows where that's going, but a fun side effect might be libertarian cranks slowly going extinct.
It's pretty funny hearing from my mid-aged libertarian coworker whine about politics (as you do) and say "... yeah anyway.... it's just part of being a libertarian, you kinda never get what you want..." lmao