Is the Libertarian party a mistake?

The only way we will be able to end the two party system in the US is to support a third party that will be able to reach the 5% of the electoral vote and to grow from there. The author essentially has given up and votes on which one he believe is the less bad option.

It sounds like the issue is actually the electoral college system and the way it marginalizes views on the extreme. Fix that first.

The libertarian party absolutely should exist. Even in today's world where it is impossible for it to gain DIRECT traction, it does gain INDIRECT traction via influencing the views of the major parties; Republicans have arguably become more libertarian in thought with the rise of Ron Paul/ Tea Party-era (libertarian-influenced) politics.

However, the latter point doesn't negate the former.

Even if a 3rd party candidate is unlikely to win, the diversity of thought keeps the two main party's candidates viewpoints honest because they need to contend with siphoning votes to that 3rd party. With only two candidates you get two opposing views on pretty much every topic when we know that voters themselves are much more complex than that. Having a 3rd party, however futile in terms of winning elections, at least allows a diversity of thought to affect the elections platforms...otherwise these guys are basically campaigning in a vacuum.

The libertarian party is probably the only party with some sort of RATIONALE that in my opinion, holds the key to save America. If there was some miraculous way of educating 50% of R/D voters of the benefits of being fiscally conservative and socially liberal- I am not short of being absolutely sure that those 50% would join the libertarian party.

It didn't start out as a mistake, but Murray Rothbard spoiled the party early on with his insistence on ideological purity and having a pledge.

The non-aggression principle is a great guideline for trying to figure out what the libertarian way of approaching a problem. But the solution of complex real world problems often requires analyzing the problem from many different perspectives: idealistic, pragmatic, incrementalism, and so on.

The Libertarian Party's membership pledge, which is interpreted differently by different Libertarians for various issues, has too often used as a bludgeon to intimidate or purge various political sub-camps from the party. No matter the Party has remained small rather than turning into a big tent.

It wouldn't be so much of a lost opportunity if they hadn't put the word, libertarian, right in the name of the Libertarian Party. This has led to the pigeonholing of all libertarians as being as being extremists prone to going off on ideological harangues.