...Unless I hear very good word of mouth about a specific candidate.
I just decided "You know what? Fuck em'." to basically the whole party and will now only vote for 3rd party candidates and on measures and whatnot.
If there's a position with only people with D's and R's next to their names running for it, I'm leaving it blank.
I know I'm just one guy, and as such it won't really change anything, but it's nice to be honest with myself at least.
Libertarianism tends to be a collecting pool for people who are disgruntled by the status quo. It offers the promise of a utopia where all of the evils perpetrated by the state simply disappear in a puff of smoke. "Fuck the government, maximum freedom?" Sounds like a good pitch to me.
The problem is, people get stuck there if they don't do any further research, and it is fertile soil for right wing recruitment. I dabbled with libertarianism around 2012 after becoming disappointed with Obama. At the time, they were the loudest voices shitting on the wars and the surveillance state. It eventually became clear that the libertarian movement as a whole meant voting for right wing cranks though, so that phase was very short-lived for me.