It sounds like you are projecting. You are doing the very thing that you are against people who are critical of Republicans as doing. Replace Libertarian with Republican and it is almost an identical criticism.

I guess I am a loser then, not that I want to lose, I think if anything has demonstrated the need for less government it is the last three years.

Dave Smith, who strikes me as libertarian doesn't sound like he wants to lose, he also doesn't sound like a globalist or socialist. But then again, he isn't a candidate either. But it sounds to me like there has been a recent sea change in the libertarian party recently for the reasons you outlined. You're right in that the examples you mentioned are not libertarians. I would like to think most libertarians agree with you.

Your assertion sounds almost like the bandwagon logical fallacy. "Most people, or a majority of people act this way, so if you aren't going to join them, then your ideas don't matter at all."

How about no? No that I will not join a majority if that majority does not represent my views.

A big part of sacrifice is doing something on principle because it is the right thing to do regardless of how popular it is. I am sorry that your experience as a libertarian has left you so hopeless in that regards. It's not an easy road to have principles that go against the very way reality currently is. If I lived in China, I'd probably already be in a quarantine camp.

If I could, I would run for office, and continuously propose more and more absurd laws hopelessly clogging the system until people finally understood how arbitrary and capricious our current society has become. If enough lawmakers did this, maybe we would enact a law that made it difficult to create absurd laws.

I am sure you know of what you speak in terms of libertarians, but that doesn't mean that is all that is, or could be. If convincing people that wearing masks has taught me anything, it's that there is far more possible than we believe.

Loyalty has nothing to do with it. If you nail down most conservatives, you will find in a lot of ways they align with libertarian thinking. I think there was a recent podcast with Dave Smith who was doing this very bit of deconstruction over a criticism of libertarians by a conservative. The problem was they were criticizing libertarians but the points they were making were the very talking points of the libertarian party.

Finally, it is not a throw away vote to vote libertarian if the opposition makes the assertion that "If you vote libertarian it could cause the opposing side to win." That sounds like the libertarian vote in that case is very important. If a few percentage points make that much a difference, then I would say it is a great reason to vote libertarian.

If it is a throwaway vote, and does not matter, then why care at all what the libertarian or independent does?

Here's the rub though: we know the swamp that generated the tyranny enacted on us were not voted into powe and thus can equally be removed from power in a similar fashion. Aside from the one issue for voting, this is something that I would love to look into finding the answer to.

Also "Jury Box, Ballot Box, Ammo Box" sounds suspiciously like a mantra, which means the truth again, is more nuanced and complex.