OK, I think it is now fair for us to judge…

…both the conservatives and liberals by their adherence to libertarians' increasingly well-known standards, even in public discussions with the uninitiated, rather than to continue weighing in on which of the two larger factions is the lesser of two evils.  (The "not a dime's worth of difference" attitude seems pretty widely shared at this point, in part due to intervention in Libya.)

Time for the two big factions to catch up to us, even if -- admit it -- the GOP perhaps has a slight lead over the Dems at the moment by libertarian standards (a lead that will get bigger if people like the Republican Liberty Caucus, to whom I spoke last month, and Tea Party-affiliated politicians such as would-be Departments-abolisher Sen. Rand Paul have anything to say about it). 

The important thing is that I think we libertarian and Tea Party types are closer than ever before to being popularly regarded as the yardstick (prior to this point, I think that would've been a bit presumptuous).

As a corollary, if the GOP falters yet again, it's time to steer the Tea Partiers and everyone else who's willing into the Libertarian Party, strange and painful as that process would likely be -- and/or simply to start telling conservatives our ideology, not theirs, is the future of the GOP itself.  A party can have deeply divided factions, after all.  Maybe it should. 

(Note that I'm not saying libertarian principles just became correct yesterday -- they always were -- but rather that I think they have far more potential to mobilize voters and even politicians at this juncture than before, since in the past almost anyone being told to "switch to the LP," or "away from the old guard of the GOP," would merely have said "To the what?" and "You mean to the Democrats?" respectively.)

You have under two years to drink the tea deeply, GOP.   Then, I think, it's over -- not because we despair but because we may now be able to pull this off without you (and by "now" I mean…"eventually" -- but in this actual timeline/universe, which didn't always appear to be the case, if you follow me).  You'd better not nominate Huckabee.

P.S.  I predict it will be relatively easy for future students of law to remember the Lysander Spooner-like crackdown on private currency that ended with a conviction this week, since there are mnemonic devices aplenty in the tale of Bernard von NotHaus being convicted in Statesville for selling Liberty Dollars, in a case involving the Sheriff of Buncombe County.