by: Garry Reed

It's an argument as old as the Libertarian Party itself; is the primary purpose of running for office to get elected or to educate people?

When LP candidates concentrate on vote-getting rather than pushing principles they all too often end up sounding like Republicans.

Take this inventory of policy points in a pamphlet passed out by a Texas LP candidate:

• Lower Property Taxes
• Lower Utility Costs
• Lower Crime Rates
• Secure Borders
• Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms
• Civil Liberties and Privacy

All but the last sound like traditional conservative Republican Party talking points, with that last bullet maybe plopped in as a sop to the "moderates."

Why would any longtime Republican voter read this and decide to vote Libertarian? Especially a fed up classical liberal Republican who has heard it all before and seen government only get bigger.

What is there here to attract a longtime liberal disillusioned with his wasted Obama vote?

And how exactly are "Secure Borders" a libertarian issue? Libertarians believe in a free market not only of goods and services and ideas but a free flowing market of labor. "Secure Borders" sounds like typical big government Republicanism, security at the price of liberty.

One sentiment expressed at the First Annual Government Sucks Day Rally in Hillsboro, Texas, over the past weekend was this: if people aren't going to vote third party anyway, and specifically not for Libertarians, why not just be our own radical selves and just put our principles out there?

Soft selling the real libertarian message just sounds dishonest.

At least Harry Browne took a bold libertarian position when he proposed ditching the income tax and replacing it with nothing. Forget the flat tax and fair tax nonsense – a tax is still a tax!

And Ron Paul wasn't afraid to confront the Fed.

Selling soft soap accomplishes two things: you attract people who won't support you once they get to know you, so you've gained nothing, and you repel people who would eagerly support you if only they knew you, so you've lost everything.

Many non-Party libertarians might get on board with the so-called Party of Principle program if more candidates just quit soft selling soft soaping soft shoe pussyfooting around and just put it out there like this great example from Iowa:

Headline from The Iowa Independent: "Libertarians are in it, but not necessarily to win it."

Scheduled to make their official announcement today, Eric Cooper and Nick Weltha, LP of Iowa candidates for Governor and Lt. Governor, don't even pretend that they have a chance of winning.

“Our goal in this election is to get at least 2 percent of the vote, which would give the Libertarian Party major party status under Iowa law. We also hope to draw enough support away from the major parties to encourage them to poach our issues in order to steal our voters.”

Poach our issues? Steal our voters? Cooper expanded this strategy elsewhere: "Third parties can get everything they want without winning any elections at all. The Populists in the 1890s and the Socialists in the 1910s won almost no elections, and yet most of the major planks of their platforms were eventually implemented."

Now that's what you call Honesty In Politics.