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Originally Posted by KevinTheOmnivore
"Fringe politics does not work in the United States. A political party must appeal to a plurality of voters (effectively, at least 40%) in some districts in order to win elections .. In other words, for the Libertarian Party to be effective, it must appeal to the top 20-30% of freedom-lovers.
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In particular, the party needs: A platform that proposes a realistic vision for the next few years, as opposed to an idealistic vision of a libertarian future ... A platform based on the realization that there are other important values in addition to the non-initiation of force. Freedom is extremely valuable, but it is not the only value," explained the LRC's website. At the convention, the LRC succeeded in gutting all but four of the party's longstanding platform planks -- over 90% of the party's original platform -- and replaced them with a shorter, more moderate libertarian platform of four old planks and nine new ones. No previous LP convention had ever before repealed any of the party's original platform planks. "We never expected this kind of success to be had at this convention ... The delegates were obviously tired of seeing the party continue being a minor player in the political arena. At the convention many delegates spontaneously jumped on board the reform bandwagon," said an LRC spokesman.
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To be kind of honest, I'm glad they're doing this. I think they have a real opportunity to appeal to some the more disgruntled Republicans (just as Nader appealed to progressives who didn't want to vote for Al Gore in 2000), and some of the left that isn't fond of Hilary.