Bridging on Paul Gessing's take on the Barlett column, I've got a different view.

At day's end, what one does or doesn't do politically makes little difference. Be an activist, a politician, work for a think tank, simply read up on current events, odds are VERY low that any one person will "make a difference." Of course, there are exceptions. Gandhi comes to mind on the plus side, Lenin on the minus, for example.

Trying to second, third, and fourth guess the appropriate strategy to "plug in to" seems like folly. Odds are very high that the current state of affairs will drift as they will. The forces of liberty will tug things one way, the forces of coercion the other. Sometimes one will dominate a bit, other times the other. Rare is it historically that a third party, for instance, catches fire and the imagination of large numbers of people, but it does and can happen.

It's of course Bartlett's right to criticize from the sidelines, but let's make no mistake, that's all he's doing...criticizing. Perhaps he should spend more time actually organizing the "Libertarian League" that he suggests. Perhaps that's the right thing.

-Robert Capozzi