The reason libertarians and the LP haven't been more successful has been because of a 1-2 punch from the Republicrats:
1) Ballot access laws;
2) Media freeze-outs.
Well, I think we in the LP are doing good things.
We've overcome the ballot access laws (which DID sap a lot of our resources). We are the only third party with a consistent and enduring ability to run candidates in all fifty states.
The second blockade -- media freeze-outs -- is losing its strength.
The mainstream media is dying. The readership of the NY Times is down by almost 50%. Conservative magazines are literally going out of business. The cable news regime is tiny in comparison to the number of readers of popular blogs.
Look what the Dean people did -- they had some ideas, NO media coverage, and scared the living bejesus out of the folks who run the Demopublican party with their numerical strength. We can do the same thing with new media and the internet.
Why else do you think the guys in Washington are so keen to tackle our First Amendment rights into the mud with "campaign finance reform?" The last LP campaign -- and the Dean campaign -- illustrated the danger that the largely impossible-to-control decentralized free market of ideas has on the establishment. We've scared the piss out of them.
Now considering that people with libertarian ideas represent a large chunk of the electorate in this country, the challenge is reaching out to them and connecting them to their local Libertarian Party organization. To do that, we have to change the way the LP is managed, from a political party debate society of the 1960s with conventions and such crap, to a lean and mean organizing machine with a decentralized information network. Once we do that, our political fortunes are destined to grow.
It's not going to be an easy slog of it, and there ARE going to be disappointments along the way. But disappointments bring learning and growth. Again, look at the Dean people -- they didn't get their man their party nomination and the chance to run against Bush, but they DID get him the top job running the organization which tried so hard to undermine him.
All we have to do is scare the bejesus out of some Republicans, become spoilers in close races, and be the lone challengers in many of the unipartisan races you'll find all over this country, and we grow. And grow. And grow.
It's the internet and personalized communications in a free market of ideas which has given us this opportunity. Let's not blow it by pretending the only way to move forward is take over a teeny-tiny New England state.