Insulting Libertarians

Randy Barnett at the Volokh Conspiracy is typing about Republicans insulting Libertarians. He has some good points. Randy points out that the winning party in a two party system is often the one that can hold together the most diverse coalition without fragmenting. One big problem is that he, by and large, misses a bigger point. It goes like this:

I believe that libertarians were in both camps this time around. Of those who did not vote Libertarian, anti-war libertarians ... supported Kerry. Those libertarians who support the administration's strategy for fighting the war ... voted Bush.

So the libertarian vote was split. He goes on to write:

It ill-behooves one constituent of a winning coalition to gratuitously insult another member.

Do these two statements jive? If the libertarian constituency was split are they really members of the coalition at all? Keep in mind half of them voted for the other guy. If I vote Bush and my (hypothetical) wife votes Kerry, can you call us a Republican couple? No you can't.

Thats why if the libertarians really want to have strong political influence, they are going to have to finally take sides and really join one of the two coalition parties. Then they will have a reason for complaint. Until then you can't have your cake and eat it too.