Libertarians who don't get it (or who have ulterior motives)

fauxLibertarian Republican publisher Eric Dondero makes no bones about his motives:  he wants to elect Mitt Romney.  He has this insane idea that there is a major difference between the two statists running for president.

As such, even though he pays lip service to supporting a larger voter turnout for Governor Gary Johnson, he's really only interested in Libertarians being a useful adjunct (he would say "ally") for the Republican Party.  So you have to be really careful about anything he publishes about the Libertarian presidential campaign.  For example, reading LR you'd never have any idea that Republicans were playing dirty tricks and using every legal maneuver in the books to force their "ally" off the ballot.

So when you read anything at fauxLibertarian Republican you have to realize that it is all agenda-driven, and the agenda is NOT a pro-LP, pro-Gary Johnson agenda.

Nonetheless, a brief post by Bruce Cohen, former Chair of the Orange County CA Libertarians deserves some attention, because it both highlights fauxLibertarian Republican's dishonest approach to "supporting" Gary Johnson and legitimate misunderstandings among many real Libertarians about the Johnson campaign:

Gary Earl Johnson is not doing as well as expected: In fundraising, in appearances and in polling.The way for him to become relevant...To become interesting to the media...And American voters...Is to threaten to take a battleground state away from Obama. Libertarians will be thrilled if he uses Marijuana as a wedge issue. Pot smokers are a large enough voting block to swing it in Oregon.I say to the Gary Johnson campaign, the way for you to do something good for the LP and for America, much less for your own efforts is to go hard against Obama in one or two swing states.How about Oregon and New Mexico for starters?Gary! Do America a favor and take down Obama. Or go down trying.

This is a fascinating post that deserves both fisking and parsing.

In what way is the Gary Johnson campaign not doing as well as expected, Bruce--and by whom?

The campaign has painstakingly raised several million dollars, almost entirely from small donors.  Did you somehow expect that million-dollar donations were going to roll in for a third-party candidate until after he had broken through?

Appearances?  You have to be kidding, right.  Gary Johnson and Jim Gray have been crisscrossing the nation, appearing nonstop at every possible venue.  While Gary has not cracked regular coverage on A-list media (and note that even Ron Paul, with ten times his funding never did, either), he has attracted more press coverage in local, state, alternative, and internet media than any other Libertarian candidate in history.  He's been on Fox, CNN, the Daily Beast. . . .  USA Today published his answers to debate questions; WaPo and Newsday called for his inclusion.  Three debate sponsors pulled out thanks to grassroots pressure from his campaign.

Polling?  He's disappointing in polling?  Some polls show him at double digits in the battleground state of Ohio, others at 6% nationally.  Even Eric admits that

With an electorate the size of approx. 120 million, a 1 to 2% showing for Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson amounts to nearly 2 million votes, way above the all-time high of 922,000 for the LP.

So if he's on target for an all-time LP record, he's disappointing, eh Bruce?

From this disappointment, Bruce goes on to argue that what Gary should really be doing is running hard against Obama in a swing state like Oregon, that he should make himself a single-issue candidate in order to tilt the balance in one state.

What an idiotic strategy, designed only to improve Mitt Romney's chances and not to improve the Libertarian Party's.  (By the way, it is again interesting that Eric Dondero has already published a post pointing out that Gary Johnson is very likely to swing North Carolina from Obama to Romney--guess Bruce doesn't read the blog.)

So what Bruce Cohen is doing--besides pimping for Eric Dondero and pro-Romney "Libertarians"--is arguing for the Libertarian Party to never try to be a national party, never try to run a national campaign.

What the Gary Johnson campaign is doing that has NEVER before happened in the Libertarian Party is building a truly nationwide effort with coordinators and events in virtually every state, with earned media aplenty, with true grassroots organizing. . .

An example from Delaware:  when Bob Barr (Eric's idea of the true "Libertarian") ran in 2008 he did nothing in Delaware.  Even if you wanted them, you couldn't find signs, or bumper stickers, or a campaign, much less an event.

This year Gary Johnson skyped into the Libertarian Party of Delaware convention, and Judge Jim Gray actually came to Delaware State University to address and excited crowd, doing radio and TV interviews while he was here.  You can actually see Gary Johnson signs around the state (when embittered Ds and Rs don't knock them down, which has happened), and third party candidates are getting a "coat tail" effect.  The Jewish Federation of Delaware reversed its longtime exclusion of third party candidates from its debate; state media has even covered the controversy of the University of Delaware holding to political apartheid in its debate.

That would not be happening without Gary Johnson, and more specifically the Gary Johnson 2012 campaign.

And Bruce (like Eric) knows this.  So why is he writing what he knows is not true?

Because he doesn't care (in a Wayne Allyn Root sense) one damn bit about electing Gary Johnson, or making Libertarians a national force in politics.

He cares about electing Mitt Romney.

Don't forget that for a second.

It's just another sign of the success our campaign is having:  the Republicans can no longer count on having fiscally conservative, socially liberal folks on their side, because now there is an alternative that doesn't depend on homophobia, endless war, and massive deficit spending.