Top 3 Reasons Libertarians Should Run for Office as Republicans

3. The Republican Party has a larger platform for spreading ideas than the Libertarian Party

Republicans have a bigger platform from which to spread their ideas than the Libertarian Party. While the Libertarian Party has gotten increasingly more attention over the past decade because of the internet, its outreach is still limited. That means its effects on shaping policies and converting non-libertarians is also limited.

Consider all the attention Rand Paul has brought to foreign policy through his twelve-hour filibuster. He likely wouldn’t have been able to garner that much interest if he hadn’t been in the Senate, and he likely wouldn’t have been in the Senate if he had run on the Libertarian Party ticket. Consider also the amount of support and influence Ron Paul had with his two recent presidential runs. He exposed millions of people to libertarian principles through his appearances in the Republican debates in 2008 and 2012. Had he been running instead on the Libertarian Party ticket, as he did in 1988, it’s doubtful he would have had such an impact.

Let’s hop across the aisle for a second and talk about Bernie Sanders. For months, when he was Hillary Clinton’s sole challenger for the nomination, he put out several campaign ads, raised a lot of money, inspired a grassroots movement, and helped shape the current Democratic Party platform. For most of his political career, Sanders has been an Independent, but he knew he would have a better shot at invoking the type of change he wanted to see by running as a Democrat. Although libertarians disagree with Sanders much more than we agree with him, he still shows how much more influence is possible when running on a main party ticket as opposed to a third-party ticket; think about the difference between his amount of support and influence compared to Jill Stein’s.

Given all of the above, the best chance for libertarian politicians to get their message heard by the largest possible audience, win elections, and change policies for the better rests in the Republican Party. This is not the easiest thing to say, as it would be a great David vs. Goliath story for the Libertarian Party to beat Republicans and Democrats in a major election. But, considering the advantages of the main parties and the disadvantages of third parties, as well as the staying power of the main parties compared to that of all the third parties over the course of history, that is unlikely to happen. So if we want to make this a free country again, the choice is clear. The path to victory lies not with the porcupines, but with the elephants.