The duopoly stranglehold on the electoral process has led a few libertarian activists (i.e., those who wish to move beyond providing a symbolic, None-of-the-Above, ballot alternative) to run as a candidate of one of the old parties.
The chances of a principled individual surviving the the natural selection of the primary vetting process, a Darwinian exercise that overwhelmingly favors political animals, are remote. Only rarely does, for instance, a Ron Paul manage to actually attain public office when all the resources, weight and weaponry of his own party (in Dr. Paul’s case, Republican — as, thus far, all such have been) turn the qualifying round into a treacherous obstacle course.
While the barriers that confront a libertarian in running as a Republican (or, presumably, a Democrat) are daunting, the difficulties of a conservative running as a Libertarian are insurmountable.
Evidence the gubernatorial run in 1997 of one Murray Sabrin, a refugee from what he and his compatriots considered a too liberal New Jersey Republican Party, as the Libertarian Party candidate.
An utter failure from every perspective, doomed from conception, the story of this campaign reads like a Greek tragedy — a morality play that should serve as fair warning to any Libertarians whose eagerness for partisan success might lead them to consider embracing an aspirant from the conservative camp.
Sabrin Rattling is the story of what an oedipal interloper will do to mom and dad.
