Why, as a libertarian, I will not vote Libertarian

  I generally consider myself a libertarian with a small "l", so why do I say in this title that I am not willing to vote for the Libertarian candidate?  Doesn't this mean that I am betraying my principles in order to settle for the "lesser of two evils?"

  You could make this accusation, but only at the expense of ignoring political and constitutional realities.  In the United States 3rd parties, with the exception of the Republican party in 1860, have been political failures, and there is a reason for that.  In almost all cases, a vote for a third party means that the more objectionable candidate will win, unless there are "3rd parties" running on both the left and the right.

   Why?  There are two facts that have to be considered on this issue, and both of them are fatal to 3rd party activity, even in the long term.

   1.  The United States does not at the federal or state level have a system of proportional representation.  Congressional and Senatorial races are "winner take all" races.

   2.  Our government is not parliamentary; by design, the President is not responsible to the Congress, but to the citizen body as a whole, even if, admittedly, through the Electoral College.

   Third parties do best when the government has a system of proportional representation.  For example, in Germany the voter, in effect, casts two ballots.  The first is for his or her elected representative in the Bundestag, the lower house.  That election is winner take all.  However, he also casts a vote for the party, and some seats in the Bundestag are allotted based upon the results of this election.  That means that a party might field candidates, NONE of whom win a direct seat in the Bundestag, but can still earn some seats if they get a high enough percentage of the popular vote.

  We don't do that in the United States.  Even if the Libertarian--or any other 3rd party--runs a candidate in every Congressional district, only those candidates who actually win a majority for that district will get a seat in Congress.  The Libertarian Party could get, say, 25% of the vote across the nation and still not win even a single seat in Congress or the Senate.  Since the Libertarians will probably be splitting the vote of citizens on the center-right, that can help Democrats win more seats. 

   In Parliamentary governments, the majority party in lower house selects the chief executive, call him or her the Prime Minister, Premier, or Chancellor, whatever the title might be.  That also does not apply to the United States.  Short of impeachment for a criminal offense, the Congress has absolutely no say in who will be the Chief Executive of the United States.   Because the President is not selected by the Congress, there is no option for the kind of power-sharing coalitions that can occur in Parliamentary systems.

   I am convinced that the best hope for those who consider themselves to be libertarian is to become an active part of the Republican party, and create a power bloc to force libertarian ideals on the party.  America may be, and I think is, a center-right nation, but that is the point--center right, not conservative.  This Gallup poll shows that fact rather clearly.  We can be an influence, we can attract supporters and voters, but we have to do so intelligently, not emotionally.  .http://www.theblaze.com/stories/gallup-conservatives-outnumber-liberals-nearly-2-to-1/