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I was certainly never a fan of the Communist Party, but in America the Communists did do one useful thing -- they made American college students aware of Nelson Mandela and the struggle against apartheid. Eventually "Free Nelson Mandela" went from a Communist rally cry to a mainstream political position.
It's a similar case with the Libertarians. They were the first group to care about and study the damages caused by the War on Drugs.
Now that we see the mess the War on Drugs has made in Mexico, obviously the Libertarians were right about where this war was heading and about the ultimate folly of all the privacy-invading sacrifices we've made for this unwinnable war.
I don't think their job is to win elections. Their job is to be a laboratory for new ideas that is separate from the mainstream and informs the mainstream.
I would never want to live under a Communist government, but the Communists were the first ones to care about Nelson Mandela and that turned out to be an extremely worthy cause that Americans only learned about because the extreme left wouldn't shut up about it.
I don't vote Libertarian but I am grateful to Libertarians for making the drug reform movement what it is today, and I value their presence in the marketplace of ideas.
