This may have gotten lost in the spewing of this thread, or I may have forgotten to ask it. Either way I'm not going back to find out. What about the Libertarian politicians? Are they still evil?
Well, let's say that they are, in an attempt to reduce the evil of the system, assisting the system in propping up the image it has (undeservedly) of legitimacy. If you believe that good intentions excuse bad results, then even the non-Libertarian politicians can claim they only did what they did because they had good intentions. If, on the other hand, you believe (as I think most who subscribe to the non-aggression principle do) that your intentions, while it may be all well and good to know what they were, are unimportant when it comes to assessing whether or not you are responsible for harm--no one has the right to intiate force against another
for any reason..
Thus, the Libertarian politicians ARE guilty, if to perhaps a lesser degree than other politicians. But they are guilty, nonetheless. The idea of "working within the system" is seductive. But you can't reform a death camp by cleaning up the records and repainting the barracks, and making the guards be polite as they herd the victims into the gas chamber. Nor do you end the evil by reducing the number of victims killed by 70%. It's still wrong. Is it better than nothing? Perhaps. But it's still wrong. The proper thing to do is to stop the killing altogether, and punish those who operated the death camp, as well as those who ordered its establishment in the first place.
One of the reasons a common thief, rapist, or murderer is morally superior to a politician (at least, a statist politician) is that at least they don't try to convince you that what they're doing to you is Right and Good (not to mention the fact that they usuaully don't keep coming back to do it to you over and over again). The Libertarian politician is putting himself in the place of saying: "I don't WANT to rape you and steal your wallet every payday, but if I want to be in a position to reduce the theft to every third payday, and the rape to sexual assault and a drink, then I HAVE to rape you a little bit and take your wallet right now."
It was when I finally ran out of excuses and realized that, that I stopped voting and running for office. I don't want to rape anyone, or steal from them, at all--not even one little bit. And if it's necessary that I be uncomfortable, and have to work harder, and plan more carefully and think about things a lot more, so be it.
That being said, I don't claim that I am a perfect follower of the non-aggression principle. I still make the odd slip now and then--but they are rare, they are small in scope, and I own up to them, take responsibility, and offer restitution--even to those who do not follow the non-aggression principle themselves. It gets me looked at funny, and talked about, but it also allows me to shave with a mirror, rather than having to do it by touch and guess-work.