Conservatives???

Cato Institute just ran a series of public opinion polls. In one they asked people if they thought of themselves as fiscally conservative and socially liberal and received 58% positive response. They then changed the question to include the words "otherwise known as libertarian" to the end of the first question and the positive response dropped to 44%. OK, so people are mostly libertarians but don't want to be called libertarians. Why? is the question the Libertarian Party really need to be asking itself. Even people who would be willing to be identified as libertarians are not registering as Libertarians. Instead they glom on to the false hope that the alliance of so-called-conservative causes known as the Republican Party will really represent their interests. Even after multiple Bush terms that should have convinced them that the Republican Party left them long ago, these Libertarians-should-Be's stay with their unfaithful party.
What do I think the Libertarian Party needs to do about helping the American public with their identity crisis? In this age of consensus I say that the Libertarian Party needs to denounce "conservatives" and Republicans for their lack of economic knowledge or backbone required to institute proper economic policy. The reason many conservatives will never be Libertarians is because they will never sign on to the social liberties that libertarians feel are a critical freedoms in a state that doesn't pose as a victim. The likelihood of overcoming that aversion is very low. Libertarians must find the will to simply walk away from these closed minded people and walk in the direction that follows their principles and hope that the people follow them. As much as it pains me to say this, that includes walking away from Ron Paul now that he has declared that he will not leave the Republican Party (sorry Ron but the remnant is not in the Republican Party and hasn't been for a long long time).
This leaves us with everyone else with their varying levels of economic education. Some people don't even understand that the free trade of goods and services is the only economic system that is compatible with a free society. Some people who could be convinced of that still think that becuase Republicans say they are free-market advocates that any free-market advocate is automatically a corporate shill due to the overly comfy relationship Republicans and corporate America have. I think that it is this almost indelible stain on the free-market name has bled through from the conservatives and has sullied the reputation of Libertarians. Libertarians need to openly declare that the conservative adoption of the free-market name is a sham that they perpetuate purely with the intent to continually abuse the power of their offices and dole out favors to their corporate allies. Now, in case you are thinking that all of this venom is directed at corporations let me clear things up for you. Corporations are not moral creatures (no matter how much they pretend to be, or how much anyone WISHES otherwise) and they will take any advantage they can. If it takes buying politicians to limit their competitors from entering their markets then odds are they are going to do exactly that. What we need to get straight here is that this problem was not created by corporations, it was created by corrupt politicians that ignored the restrictions on government power put in place by the Constitution. The solution is not punishing the corporations but simply taking away the politicians power to play favorites. I think that once Libertarians make this point crystal clear to the economically literate voters that we will have more and more of them choosing to walk along with us down the path to real Liberty embodied in true free markets.