A friend of mine, an anarcho-capitalist, recently became a candidate of the Israeli libertarian party (Ale Yarok) the parliament. He has a real chance of becoming one of the 120 Knesset members. That's a significant achievement.
However I myself am not really comfortable with this. How can I support a political party? By supporting it I am giving legitimacy to the idea that other people can rule me. On the other hand politics is good for spreading ideas. Unfortunately people are very attentive to politicians, so a lot of the propaganda game is played in politics.
So what do you think? Should I swallow the posionous pill and support his candidacy and the party? Should I help the party by spreading knowledge about it and its ideas? Should I vote for it? How far would you go to entangle yourself with the state?
By supporting it I am giving legitimacy to the idea that other people can rule me
You're supporting a specific person. Nowhere did you sign off "I allow you to rule me." Even if you did, it's not an enforceable contract.
As a libertarian, your friend's entire pitch is that he's going to relax the power that government has over you. It is also my belief that the libertarian party is a means to an end: it is easier to go from a minarchist state to an anarchist state than it is to go from a very large state to an anarchist state.
Well, as a politician you live at the expense of the tax payers, which is arguably a violation of NAP. However what bothers me more I guess is that non-radical approach to the abolishenment of the state, that is, trying to minimize its power in small steps didn't work in the past and unlikely to work in the future. You can't destroy the game by playing by its rules.
Are you saying that minimizing its powers in small steps didn't work in the past because its powers were not minimized, or because even though its powers were minimized they were never totally abolished?
I don't think you can minimize the state using democracy in the long term. In the short term you might, but then after another crisis, war, or period of great wealth, socialists and fascists will rise and convince the public to increase the state.
There's incredibly few that can play the game and not be corrupted by it.
To stand on principle is to marginalize yourself in the eyes of the power players in politics.
Ron Paul was as close as one could ever come to making a difference on that path, and it was through education primarily.