Molon Labe! by Boston T. Party, Kenneth W. Royce

very simple — if there's a big beast that keeps running around eating people, then you can see that it ought to be caged or done away with. You don't need to base that opinion on any kind of belief system.
— Neal Stephenson, interview, SFX magazine #8, Jan 1996
I pitched the Wyoming plan to a renowned libertarian novelist. He did not find much with which to agree, countering that we should continue to "retake America." I replied that such simply could not be accomplished with our present numbers, nor with our likely future numbers. He opined such talk as "defeatist."
Let's say that a small child wants a cookie, but the cookie jar is on the top shelf and too high for him to reach. That cookie jar is America. We cannot reach it, but we can use a chair to climb onto the counter.
Wyoming is the chair.
It's time we simultaneously realize our limitations and our abilities. We cannot reach the cookie jar, or even the kitchen counter — but we are tall enough to climb onto that chair.
Even if we never make it to the cookie jar, there are some gummibears on the counter. So, not only will the effort prove at least somewhat worthwhile, we really have no other choice . . .
— James Wayne Preston, Journals
    April 2003 Speech
    Colorado Libertarian convention
    "Look, here's the straight scoop, like it or not. The Libertarian Party has about 50,000 paid members. Even as the largest third party — or, if you prefer, the third largest party — the LP commands no more than a million votes in presidential elections, and usually less than half that. It has one US Congressman out of 435 — Ron Paul of Texas — and he has to run as a Republican. It has one sheriff out of 3,100 counties, and no Senators or governors. Only billionaires like Perot or DuPont have ever hurdled the obstacles put in the way of third parties, and the LP has no billionaires on the ticket, and likely never will. The LP has never met the 15% electorate requirement to enter the presidential debates, and national media understandably carry on as if the LP isn't even a blip on the political radar screen, so the vast percentage of the electorate will never hear of a Libertarian candidate, and even if they ever did , the LP's platform of ending welfare and Social Security would end their brief interest.
    "The graying Baby Boomers — who will not begin to die off until the year 2024, and half of them will live until 2035 — will do anything necessary to ensure their monthly Social Security checks, including the increased wage slavery of their children and grandchildren. That means Social Security will not only remain a politically-untouchable issue for at least the next thirty years, it will also, at minimum, double in size during that period. And you believe that some political party will be able to reduce, privatize, or eliminate Social Security and MediCare in our lifetimes? Hah! They don't call SS a "third-rail" issue for nothing. Touch it, and you're fried.
    "Point being, it is a political and social impossibility to convert the United States of America into a Libertarian nation. It'd be like trying to Christianize Iran. America simply does not want to go there, and since we do not believe in using force as a political instrument we cannot drag the country there kicking and screaming. Neither will we ever win by education and argument because we have no access to media and academia, and we likely never will. Perhaps after the Social Security collapse and the demise of the elderly Baby Boomers a third party may have a chance to lead from the chaos, but for the next generation or two the USA will continue to be run by some variant of the DemoPublicans. Them's the facts.
    "Does that mean that libertarians, classical liberals, constitutionalists, and conservatives have no chance of some political victory in our lifetimes? No, it doesn't. All it means is that we must honestly assess our strength and pick a fight that we can actually win for a change. Numerically, 50,000