I plant my flag on liberty, and I won't be moved.

I knew this was going to happen. I just felt it coming.

In the past few weeks, as the LP started getting more and more publicity, I branched outside the core of the liberty movement and started listening as non-libertarian, pro-limited government people talked about libertarians. I realized really quickly that tons of people--who would embrace our message if they actually heard it--have no clue what libertarians actually believe.

Those misconceptions are the biggest thing holding back the movement. People don't understand what liberty-minded people believe.

Let me say that again:

People don't understand what liberty-minded people believe.

We're generally perceived as wishy-washy, hedonist centrists who lack principle. And those perceptions are INTENSE--meaning they'll take a lot to overcome.

When the LP nominated Gary Johnson in an election cycle where libertarians are getting more publicity than ever before, they cemented that perception in the minds of the masses.

Once upon a time, a liberal was someone who stood for liberty. Not anymore. Once upon a time, a Democrat was someone who stood for limited government and wanted to amplify the voice of the people. Not anymore. Once upon a time, a Republican was someone who stood for principle and sought to limit government's influence in the lives of the citizenry. Not anymore.

Once upon a time, a libertarian was a principled defender of liberty, a stalwart who climbed that mountain of liberty, planted his flag at the top, and said, "I will not be moved." Once upon a time, a libertarian was someone who embraced the principles of limited government, tolerance, peace, individualism, and freed markets because he believed he had no right to control the lives of others, because he left the two major parties when they moved on and refused to represent him, because he believed in the power of liberty, because he believed all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights, because he was willing to stand for what's right no matter who is standing with him.

Not anymore.

Regardless of what you believe about yourself, Gary Johnson is now the face of libertarianism to the masses. Not Ron Paul, not Rand Paul, not Murray Rothbard, not Milton Friedman, not Thomas Jefferson, not Frederic Bastiat, not Tom Woods, not Jason Stapleton.

If being a libertarian means being represented by Gary Johnson, I can't call myself a libertarian. It's become a watered-down, meaningless term that doesn't remotely convey a principled message of limited government, tolerance, peace, individualism, and freed markets. For all intents and purposes, "libertarian" no longer means "champion of liberty."

The true political spectrum isn't Democrat on the far left and Republican on the far right, with liberty somewhere in the middle. The true political spectrum is liberty at one end and tyranny at the other end. The two main parties have shifted their platform down the line from one end to the other, and the LP has followed suit, if subtly.

I choose to plant my flag on liberty, and I won't budge just because the so-called Libertarian Party asks me to. If they choose to co-opt "libertarian" to mean something other than "liberty first," so be it.

"Libertarian" isn't my identity. Standing for liberty is my identity, and I can do that under any banner.