Where's the Party?

They hardly talked about a third party.

I would like to see a third party based on libertarian tenets come about, and maybe even lead by Ron Paul .

But it's not very likely; I suspect a libertarian party would be more fractuous than the GOP are the Dem's are.

First, its clear that most American's want more from their government than they want taxed. In fact, the GOP has a much worse track record that the Democrats for deficit spending (which shows how expensive it is to trickle down compared to building up). They certainly expect more than the framework required, and maybe more than it permits in the end. The FDA, EPA, and DoE(-nergy or -ducation) are not only popular with many Americans in principle, but they serve extremely important roles for the infrastructure of our society ; whatever else they screw up. The DoD is pretty popular too, I've noticed.

Also, libertarians are frequently inconsolable on issues of gun control , abortion , the drug war , the death penalty , separation of church and state , and other 'third rail' issues that have become polarizing tuning forks for much political thought and effort today.

I think it's also important to consider that the largest sources of social capital and progressiveness are large, centralized instutions. The top private universities for instance, would not be able to operate in a manner simplified for libertarian economics without a lot of other radical changes to the world economy . Likewise public education , mass transportation , efficient energy grids, the exploration of space, emergency services agencies, and many other expansive institutions.

Whatever fundamental principles need to be reclaimed from the birth of our nation (mythological as it may be in some cases) I would be against so much puritanical book -burning that would eliminate the internet , the CDC, public universities, the UN, or other significant institutions in modern society.

I think a lot of people might regret getting what they wanted with a blanket return to the relative dark ages of late 18th century America, and it would be impossible to undue such a campaign, even with another 230 years.