mainstream.

I gotta think I'm not the only person who thinks that:

I kinda like that the Republicans are pro-capitalism, at least claim to be for smaller government (although in practice, not so much), lower taxes, and only enough regulation to ensure the things we buy are safe and generally will not destroy the planet. But I'd rather they drop the moral busybody platform.

And I kinda like that the Democrats are ardent fighters for individual liberty and cultural diversity, but I'd rather they drop the neo-Communism economic platform.

If you shuffle those two ideas together, you basically get libertarianism. Other than the fact the R's and D's have a couple hundred years of inertia at their backs, why hasn't the concept caught on better?

I always hear that only about 20% of the voting base is solidly and irrefutably Republican, and only about 20% are similarly Democratic. About another 40% has a tendency to lean one way or the other. While the last 20% are the moderates who decide every election. Sure seems like on paper, a libertarian should be able to capture that middle 60% of the vote better than any Republican or Democrat if they could just overcome the inertia those two parties have.