Which party's electoral/demographic coalition is more unstable?

[Vosem]

I would actually say Republicans. The alliance between big-business libertarian types and populist social-conservative types ultimately cannot last.

[Vosem]

Republicans. Soccons are not going to keep sharing the same party with libertarians. One or the other has to crack.

libertarians don't actually exist outside of the internet

Really? More than 1 million people voted for Libertarian Party in the congressional elections in 2010, to say nothing of members of the Republican Party with libertarian leanings. Libertarianism is a very real, and btw strengthening, force in American politics.

[Vosem]

Republicans. Soccons are not going to keep sharing the same party with libertarians. One or the other has to crack.

libertarians don't actually exist outside of the internet

Really? More than 1 million people voted for Libertarian Party in the congressional elections in 2010, to say nothing of members of the Republican Party with libertarian leanings. Libertarianism is a very real, and btw strengthening, force in American politics.

so? ralph nader received almost three times that many votes in 2000 alone.

So is the 'green movement' in the US nonexistent?

how many libertarians have been elected locally compared to the green party?

Nationwide, there are 157 elected officials who are registered members of the Libertarian Party (list: http://www.lp.org/candidates/elected-officials), compared to 135 registered members of the Green Party (list: http://www.gp.org/elections/officeholders/index.php).

how many americans favor cutting entitlements, let alone abolishing them?

'Cutting entitlements', vaguely, without specifying which ones? Probably a solid majority. 'Abolishing entitlements'? Probably somewhere in the 30s or maybe low 40s, again when you phrase it vaguely.

how many are on board with legalizing child labor or heroin or ending the tyranny of food safety laws?

The first, legalizing outright probably a very low number, but it's not hard to find people who think child labor law, especially for teens, is unnecessarily strict. (At least where I live; to get a job when your under 18 requires going through a lot of bureaucracy.) Heroin, probably a number in the teens or twenties. The last one, somewhere in the 30s. These are all rough estimates, but you get the idea: a non-negligible amount. I'm too lazy to search for it myself, but I'd love for someone to post a link to some polling about this (I freely admit these are estimates). Scaling down the food safety net and liberalizing child labor law are both 'mainstream' positions in the US; the middle one isn't.

i could go on but you get the idea. just because a few idiots like glenn beck or neil boortz in the media call themselves 'libertarian' (they aren't btw) or you occasionally see john stossel let outside of his cage doesn't mean that libertarianism is at all an actually relevant movement.

Er...it is, and it's gaining strength.

in the absence of communism the bizarre mix of aggressive neoconservatism, evangelical appeals, occasional anti-federalist appeals, and 'supply side' smokescreens will collapse under its own absurdity.

After 20 years, this doesn't seem to be happening, at all...