With the Libertarian Party (LP) on television last weekend choosing its presidential nominee, it’s time for the smug, superior types to come out of the woodwork and tell us what a sorry spectacle the party is.

Every four years around this time we get statements like these from libertarians who aren’t in the party:

As though that weren’t bad enough, disgruntled party members also level broadsides when they don’t get what they want:

I recently received an email message from someone asking, "If the LP was a stock that you (or I) had bought 20 years ago, based on its performance would you still be holding onto it?" — as though I would choose a political party or organization of any kind in the same way I would choose a stock.

After 33 years in operation, the LP presidential candidate has never received more than 1% of the vote, the party has elected less than a thousand office-holders, and currently has no one in Congress or a state legislature.

The armchair quarterbacks inside and outside the party know just what the party needs to do to reverse its fortunes. It must focus on a particular issue to the exclusion of all other topics, stage the right kind of media events, conduct a campaign that’s more "in your face," merge campaigns with another third party, tone down the message, or find a celebrity to carry the party’s banner.

If only it were so easy.

The armchair quarterbacks pay no attention to the obstacles that the LP is up against. Nor do they recognize the tremendous good the LP does.

America today is without question a two-party country. But this isn't because public opinion has demanded it, because it’s more convenient to have only two parties, or because there’s any inherent benefit to the country.

America is a two-party nation because the politicians have used the force of government to make it so.

The Republicans and Democrats have imposed the two-party system on us with five major types of laws. These laws not only place direct obstacles to electoral breakthroughs, they also affect the way the media and the public perceive third parties — thus creating enormous resistance to Libertarian breakthroughs.

Here are the five types of laws:

Because people in the media recognize these hurdles intuitively, if not explicitly, they know we have virtually no chance of affecting the outcome of a presidential race. Thus they won’t cover a Libertarian presidential candidate the way they do a Republican or Democrat.

And because there’s so little media coverage, most people in turn consider a vote for a third-party candidate to be largely a wasted vote.

So why does the Libertarian Party run a presidential campaign?

Even though the candidate has a slim chance of getting a million votes or more, he can do a great deal for the party and the libertarian cause:

It’s important that the candidate emphasize the positive side — the better life the listener can enjoy if we get the government out of health care, out of education, out of Social Security, if we repeal the income tax, if we end the Drug War, if we stop the government from meddling in foreign affairs. These are permanent issues that can create permanent libertarians — whereas railing against the latest big-government proposals might attract short-term attention but not long-term converts.

The candidate must be able to provide short, persuasive answers to questions on current issues, and then point out the principle underlying his answer — thereby making the case that we must keep government out of all areas of our lives.

The Libertarian Party’s presidential candidate can get exposure that simply isn’t available to any other libertarian — within or outside the LP.

Between February and November 2000, I appeared on 53 national TV shows and 90 national radio shows — and had a total of 852 media appearances — along with making dozens of speeches.

Those appearances told millions of Americans that there was something well beyond the big-government proposals of George Bush and Al Gore. People heard that it was possible to have an America quite unlike anything they had seen in their lifetimes.

It is an America in which the government stays out of your life — and government is so small that you don't pay any income tax at all. An America in which you're completely free from the oppressive and wasteful Social Security tax. An America in which the government doesn't foster gang warfare and violence through an insane War on Drugs. An America at peace because its government isn’t threatening foreign countries or stirring up terrorists. An America in which government doesn't interfere in any way with your ability to defend yourself, your family, and your property.

It is an America of charity hospitals, free clinics, doctors who make house calls, low-cost health insurance accessible to almost everyone, and hospital stays that don't bankrupt you — in short, the kind of health-care system we had before the government systematically destroyed it with Medicare and Medicaid.

If there had been no Libertarian presidential candidate, how many times would Americans have heard ideas like that on television and radio?

That's right: not once. No one else was describing possibilities that go beyond the narrow, depressingly pessimistic choices offered by Democrats and Republicans.

No one else was on TV and radio across the country proposing to reduce government dramatically. No one else was giving specific examples of government failing to achieve what it promises, or explaining libertarian proposals to large audiences.

Having a Libertarian candidate lets millions of Americans know that there's a large number of people who think as they do — who want to get government out of their lives, who want them to be free to live as they think best, not as George Bush or John Kerry thinks they should. Such a campaign gives hope — no matter how faint — to people who had long since given up on the idea that anything would ever change or that government could ever be cut down to size.

It's true that other libertarians appear on TV and radio. But those appearances are very rare compared to those of a presidential campaign. More important, a non-campaign appearance is linked almost always to a specific issue of the day — and usually an issue in which the Libertarian is being asked to argue against some new proposal, rather than presenting a picture of a better life.

During the presidential campaign, most of the time the Libertarian candidate can raise the issues he wants — talking about a better world that would come from positive change toward truly smaller government.

The truth is that no other element in the libertarian movement gets the media exposure that an LP presidential candidate can generate.

And it can be exploited without compromising a single libertarian tenet. In the entire 2000 campaign, I never said a single government program was either effective or justified. In fact, one of my favorite approaches was to ask a host or talk-show caller to name one government program that works (I never got a single convincing answer).

Yes, sometimes it seems that the LP is nothing but a debating society, although that’s the case far less often than it might appear.

And it’s true that malcontents within the party often spread malicious rumors and do their best to sabotage party programs. But that’s true not only of all political parties, but of most membership organizations that are engaged in business its members take seriously.

But I consider these to be small drawbacks when compared with the good the party does.

If the Libertarian Party didn’t exist, we would have to invent it. But, fortunately, we don’t have to.

It does exist, and it achieves a great deal that isn’t accomplished by any other libertarian organization. The party is by no means the entire libertarian movement, but it’s a vital part of it.

Whether or not you decide to join the Libertarian Party, don’t overlook what it does — and give thanks that it’s there.

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Click here for a complete report on the 2000 campaign, as well as my daily journal of campaign activities.