by Zack Beauchamp
Fabio Rojas thinks the Paul candidacy won't end up changing the GOP much:
Paul had a surge in Iowa in December, but dropped to third on election day behind one of the most understaffed and underfunded campaigners, Rick Santorum. Paul has yet to win a state and he is now polling behind Gingrich…One might argue that the libertarian [ideology] may have a bright future within the GOP, but it is hard for me to believe that the young libertarians who are fueling the Paul campaign today can outnumber the social conservatives of tomorrow.
Rojas is assuming that this year's crop of "libertarian" candidates are demonstrative of the actual strength of a libertarian contingent among younger generations. There's a decent chance 18-29ers sympathetic to libertarian ideas may be turned off by a state's rights fanatic with increasingly troubling ties to racist groups who talks about "honest rape" and appears exceedingly uncomfortable with gay rights and gay people. The real test for libertarianism will be when it gets a champion equipped to stand up for the ideology's social views as well its economic and international ones.
The Dish 