Running third-party, especially one that's conservative-oriented, is guaranteed to cost the election for whoever is running on the mainstream "right-wing" ticket. You all may be rabid supporters of RP, but as I've said before, the majority of America isn't. Many have no idea who he is, and those who do largely picture him as a kook. The "Libertarian" platform is far too easy for the Dems (who are masters at dirty politics) to make hash of; they can make the issue all about how the libertarians want to legalize all drugs and take away everyone's "safety net", true or not.
All RP could manage at this point, assuming he can get on enough ballots, is to pull the more conservative votes away from the main Republican ticket, while leaving the Democrat base undivided. Since in voting the Repubs and Dems are about evenly split in the country, grabbing even 20% away from the Repubs means the Dems win.
Ron was done months ago. While all your support for him is laudable, it is meaningless. All the talk about "sending a message" is nothing but hot air, because seriously, do you really think anyone cares anymore? Today's politicians are masters at the art of selective hearing. All the TEA party marches and meetups resulted in nothing more than the election of a small contingent of freshmen congresspeople, most of whom sold out within months of taking office. We are much too far along the road for the tiny measures that have been taken, and no one in politics with any clout has the courage to go against the tide and put in the major measures that would be required to back away from the edge. We're either going to see a gentle topple off the edge, or a forceful leap, but we're going over one way or another.
Frankly, I think trying to avoid the inevitable result is actually causing more damage at this point. Too many people still think things can be saved. We're in basically the same position that "Neo" faced in "Matrix Rebooted", where The Architect tells him that Zion, the home of the "Free Humans", has been destroyed many times before, and will be again, but that some humans always survive, but only if he takes the prescribed path (as all his predecessors did). It's time we did what Keanu's "Neo" did, and take the uncertain route by not sacrificing himself. Let it crash this time.
