Libertarians seem to have an aversion to logic, just as do the two mainstream parties.

But this time the party is about to squander an opportunity that comes about just once in a generation.

The Libertarian National Party is set to "coronate" Gary Johnson at its Las Vegas National Convention in just a few short weeks.  Having clearly been preferred in the straw polls, it is an effective certainty that he will obtain the 50% + 1 necessary on the first round of balloting, and thus be the Presidential Nominee.

If the party does so it is making a critical error.

The usual argument for Johnson is one he has parroted and in fact manufactured himself: If he can get to 15% in the national polls, he will then be allowed into the national Presidential debates, and if he pulls 5% in the national election the Libertarian Party will then qualify for federal election funding in the next cycle.

This, he assures us, he can do.

Those representations are based on what, exactly?

The Republican Straw Polls results never showed him with a material number of votes of any sort.  In fact, he's not even in the table of most tabulators, although Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney (of course) and Rick Perry all are.  Incidentally Rick Perry never managed to exceed 15% (he got close in mid 2011) -- and he was the laggard.  Johnson's numbers at that time were off the bottom of the scale.

So exactly who is going to vote for him?  And how does he reach that mythical 15%, when the only polling organization that has included him has shown a 2% drop in his numbers from 9 to 7% over the last two polls?

Incidentally, a drop from 9% to 7% is a 23% decrease -- that's a big number and it's going the wrong way

There are those who will say "but it's better than 5% and that's all that matters!" and you might be right -- if that translates into votes in November.  Then again the very same argument was made for Bob Barr in 2008, and guess what -- he got 0.5%.

Further, despite the crooning press releases from Johnson he intentionally omits the following from the actual people who ran those polls in the very announcement of the results:

I doubt Johnson will really get anywhere close to 7% in the general

I doubt it too. I expect him to pull closer to 1% and far short of any hope at federal matching funds.  In support of this belief I cite a previous poll by the same organization that put Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert ahead of Johnson -- he pulled 13% in a three-way race!  Johnson doesn't mention that a comedian beat him nearly 2:1, as that might cause people to wonder exactly how bad of a joke his claims really are.

Bob Barr happened to us just four years ago, and on a clean evaluation of both Bob Barr's and Governor Johnson's resumes Bob Barr wins in a landslide.  It didn't matter as Barr was no Libertarian and he didn't hold to principle. If he had he could have come out against TARP and for jailing all the jackals that got us into this mess -- remember that the election was literally less than a month after all that crap hit the fan -- and he would have easily reached 5% in the polls. 

We would have our federal funding -- right here, right now -- but we nominated the wrong guy in 2008.  Barr didn't actually believe in Libertarian principles, he didn't advocate for them in the campaign even given a clean, unguarded shot at the goal, and he got less than 1% of the vote as a consequence.

Are we so stupid as to do the same thing again?

It appears so and come election day in 2012 we'll once again be scraping along the bottom with well under 5% of the vote and probably less than 1%.

In truth, however, it doesn't matter.

Why?

Because if Libertarians refuse to stand on principles as a party then we stand for nothing. We're nothing more than what we're derisively called by so many: Republicans who like to smoke pot.

And the worst part of it is that we don't even have the balls to smoke that pot on the courthouse steps in defiance of a law that's unjust and dare the Sheriff to arrest us en-masse. We instead snivel in the closet like a 15 year old kid who's afraid of his old man's belt and then we steal another $20 from our Dad to go buy another bag when the stash runs dry.

When you sell your soul to the Devil even if you get what you want you still go to Hell.  But the Devil doesn't play fair and he doesn't keep his word.  Libertarians won't win with Johnson and we won't get those funds, but even if we did it wouldn't matter as we'd lose the soul of the party in the process.

In short if Johnson was to get that magical 15% in the polls or 5% in the national contest The Libertarian Party would no longer be the Libertarian Party as it is currently defined and thus the "victory" would be false and hollow.

We're supposed to be the party of principle.

The only party of principle.

What principle?  Simple: The initiation of force is wrong. 

Libertarians are in fact required to take an oath that says "I do not believe in the initiation of force to achieve political or social goals."

I signed that oath.  Further, as an elected county party official I was required to and did take a notarized oath that I met the qualifications for office.

We're the only political party that requires an oath on the subject of exactly where the delineation of government and citizen lies.

Libertarians are, in fact, the only party of principle.

The people of this nation are tired of politicians who speak out of both sides of their mouths.  They're tired of political parties and candidates who lie to them.  This isn't just true of Americans -- a recent poll in the UK says that 62% of the people believe politicians "lie all the time" -- literally.

If we cede our founding principles as Libertarians we've ceded the only thing we've got that makes us different, better and more-worthy.  We cede that and we're just another cheap third party with no money, no influence and no voice.

We're in fact exactly the same as the other guys -- we'll sell our mothers out and let them be evicted from their homes, have 600,000 Jefferson County Alabama residents get screwed out of 400% higher sewer bills forever on the back of greenmail, bribery and scam and what's worse it's not even the first time around for this crap.  In the 1990s the same schemes were run in the Internet space -- I was there as a CEO of such a company and both saw and documented them -- this time it's happened in the housing and derivative markets and screwed virtually every American blind.

Libertarians have a golden opportunity to seize on that injustice and wring the political necks of those who enabled and conspired in it.  A shot that comes around once in a generation and is handed to us -- a scam that is so pervasive and hurt so many that electoral anger opens an opportunity we couldn't buy with a billion dollars. 

We blew that opportunity in 2008 and now we're poised to do it again, simply because we're addicted to false hopes and beauty contests instead of what our Founding Fathers spent their time on -- principles, core beliefs, unalienable rights and the rule of law.

All we have to do is run a candidate who promises that he will not sleep until all the fraudsters in the financial system that perpetrated the greatest scam ever run on the American people are indicted, prosecuted and if found guilty go to prison with their personal fortunes clawed back to pay fines and restitution to the screwed, and his attorney general will focus his attention like a laser beam on exactly that.  A candidate that promises that in addition he will not sign any bills until the bank-led counterfeiting through bogus credit issuance that resulted in the destruction of American jobs, savings, retirements and futures is stopped by legislation that crosses his desk.

In short, we just have to run a candidate who actually took the Libertarian Oath of non-initiation of force seriously and believes that it is something greater than used toilet paper.

What is our answer to this challenge as a party?

We're going to flush it all down the toilet a second time sequentially in favor of a pretty face and promises from Judas Iscariot - the same Judas who whined about how "unfair" it was that he was rejected by the Republicans.  This is the same man who now claims those very Republicans who wanted nothing to do with him -- to the point that he couldn't even beat Rick Perry in the straw polls -- will magically vote for him in November!

Balderdash.

Let's not forget that in addition to proclaiming that "nobody committed any crimes" Johnson didn't bother telling anyone he came into the Libertarian camp with roughly $200,000 in debt and started trying to fund-raise from Libertarians.  Gee, were those people donating to Johnson's Libertarian run or helping him pay off his failed Republican campaign?  It's right in the FEC filings -- was he forthright and honest with the Libertarian party and donors since his "conversion" about this or did he remain silent until a handful of people, myself included, started raising hell about it?  Incidentally as of 2/29 the FEC says he's still $181,335 in the hole against $11,463 in cash.  How many of those who gave Johnson money in 2012 after he "converted" knew he was nearly $200 large in the hole at the time?  Did he tell those donors before they wrote the checks and should we be paying off a run for a different political party with our "contributions" instead of funding the advocacy of an alleged candidate in the party we belong to?

If the Libertarian National Party wants to coronate a guy who thinks there's nothing wrong with any of this it is free to do so.  Tell us why we should sell out our party, sell out our foundational principle and sell our soul by supporting a guy who has been soliciting money while deeply in debt for a campaign that wasn't intended to advance Libertarian principles, never mind the fact that he refuses to see the frauds perpetrated on the public for what they are and call them out, leaving him as just a pretty face that doesn't hold a word of the Libertarian's core beliefs as sacred.

This will mark the second sequential time Libertarians have acted foolishly at their National Convention.  As someone who was intending to attend as a delegate I must at present publicly decline, as there is no point or purpose in the expenditure of significant personal funds on a futile gesture nor do I believe that "TANSTAAFL" ("There ain't no such thing as a free [convention|lunch]") monies paid in the form of a floor fee should go to the National Party given the self-destructive act it is about to undertake.

I will not intentionally contribute one nickel toward this act of idiocy and I regret sending in my annual membership dues to the National Party.  Simply put they do not, at present, deserve my support.

The road to Hell always looks grand and comes with promise of great riches and power, but it never seems to work out that way.  One day perhaps the Libertarian National Party will see that the narrow road is much more difficult, that running candidates that actually speak to Libertarian principles without fear or favor and promise to enact them is worthy, and that calling fraud what it is -- the initiation of force and thus insufferable when allowed and enabled by government -- is how the national party finds its footing and becomes relevant in the national political debate.

You're welcome to sell your soul and your belief in the Libertarian oath if you wish.

But it is in fact immaterial whether Johnson's expected results prove up or not, although I fully expect Libertarians will be deeply disappointed (again) come November 7th -- my political soul is not for sale on a cheap date with a pretty face and a great smile.

When it comes down to it I can't vote for a person that has an "L" after their name but doesn't actually believe in the Libertarian oath. 

If I was willing to do that I'd be a Republican.