This helps Libertarians... how exactly?
You voiced dissatisfaction. Great; voiced dissatisfaction and a buck will get you a cup of coffee.
The Republicans won't take you for granted next time. Yeah, right. You just proved that you're an inconsistent and fickle minority demographic. If I'm a Republican candidate I realized a long time ago that a)appealling to Libs is never going to gain me all that many votes (if pure Libs were a substantial voting block they'd actually be electing Libs to national office) and b)advocating hardcore Lib positions is going to alienate a large portion of my reliable base. If Libs can't be counted on to deliver a couple of percentage points and give me room to work (and we know how well Libs deal with compromise "...the lesser of two evils is still evil...") what good are they, it's just easier to get votes elsewhere. Not right, but that's how politics works. 80% of this country agrees with me on most issues, I just need to tune the message and the implementation. Heck, if the GOP softened their stance on a couple of issues, they'd pick up a decent chunk of the middle class black vote, which would be far more consistent and a natural fit (socially conservative, put a lot of urban areas back in play, and reliable). If I can get 2-5 percent out of something like that, Lib votes aren't worth the hassle.
Democrats tried to court Libs. Well yeah, they did. Except at the end of the day, Democrat don't believe in any of the fundamental truths that Libs hold. Libs see government as the problem, or a neccessary evil; Dems see government as the solution, a prerequisite for civilization. If you thought advocating change in the GOP was tough, good luck with that.
Gridlocked government has a lighter footprint. Okay, probably true, especially since there aren't enough votes to override a veto. Except now the government is gridlocked in the middle of a war (don't care who started it, how it's been conducted, who's to blame, it is the extant situation, and it has to be dealt with) and the things that the President and the new Congress will agree on are open borders and a new AWB. So Congress will defund the war, proving everything about America's lack of heart to be true, diminishing our ability to credibly deter threats in the future, the border will never be adequately policed, and my highcaps will shortly be a really good investment.
When you look at it like that, it makes perfect sense!
This, in a nutshell, is why Libertarians will never be more than a niche party. For all the good ideas, and Libertarians are full of theoretically good ideas, the average big L Lib can't cooperate his way out of a paperbag. Can't swallow principle for the political reality that good ideas mean nothing without the power to implement them. And the instant a Lib candidate figures that out, and changes his game up to make himself electable, the faithful denounce him as not pure enough. So rather than make the best of a bad situation they get nothing; well that's wrong, they do get comfort from the righteousness of their indignation, they get the purity of noble failure. I don't fault anybody for voting their heart, but that's what it was, an emotional outburst, rather than actions toward one's interest. So don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining. Libs directly cost Republicans some close races (after the Republicans did everything they could to lose), in favor of Libs polar opposites, and it's unlikely the country will be better off for it.
