Since 1971, when it first appeared, the Libertarian Party has been one of the stranger creatures roaming America's political landscape. Anti-tax, pro-liberty and pro-dope, it regularly fields candidates for local office in nearly every state. But the political mainstream remains far distant: the party has fewer than 20,000 members, and its presidential candidate in 2000 received just 380,000 votes. At last weekend's party convention in Atlanta, the mostly white, middle-aged members enjoyed swapping their experiences of living in a police state. After the first round of voting, the delegates watched a video message from a former Libertarian candidate and marijuana-grower in California who had fled to Canada, claiming political asylum. Visitors could munch on hemp-seed pretzels, exchange their limp greenbacks for silver "Liberty Dollars", or sign up to join the Free State Project, which recruits libertarian-minded voters to move en masse to no-income-tax New Hampshire.
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