3. It’s Just Election-Year Politics and Will Quickly Fade. Candidates say all kinds of things on the trail. But that doesn’t mean they believe them. Besides, says John Samples of the libertarian Cato Institute, most voters—and most stump speeches—are still focused on the economy. It’s just smart electoral politics; there’s no good reason to bring in divisive issues when conservatives are united on fiscal discipline. But will the more staunchly libertarian members of the Tea Party—the 20 percent who aren’t Republicans, or who are adamant that libertarianism means the government shouldn’t decide who can and can’t get married—be alienated? Perhaps, Samples says, but he hasn’t seen it yet. Indeed, despite hopeful prophecies to the contrary as far back as February, there haven’t been any high-profile defections. Part of it is that libertarians are holding their noses for the time being. “The socially conservative emphasis didn’t really work very well as an issue and they don’t want to blow this one,” Samples says. And in fact, it’s the values voters who are starting to panic, he adds: “Two or three weeks ago I was at the Family Research Council, and there seemed to be an almost desperate sense that the train was leaving the station and they weren’t on it.”