Randy Barnett Meet Paul Leidig

Back in February Randy Barnett posted the following on the Volokh Conspiracy; In hindsight, I think that the creation of the Libertarian Party has been very detrimental to the political influence of libertarians. Some voters (not many lately) and, more importantly, those libertarians who are interested in engaging in political activism (which does not include me) have been drained from both political parties, rendering both parties less libertarian at the margin. His and a considerable number of other libertarians’ solution to the above problem is to work for freedom within the Republican Party. Barnett believes the Libertarian Party should cease to exist.

What we are seeing in Michigan from the chair of the Ottawa County GOP, Professor Paul Leidig, demonstrates the bankruptcy of the above strategy. David Beito and Charles Nuckolls have posts directly below ( here, here, here ) which describe the controversy over an affirmative action bake sale held by the Grand View State College Republicans. When judicial referrals were filed against students involved with the sale, despite the administration having allowed a feminist group to have a pay equity bake sale, group advisor Leidig behaved disgracefully by engineering the ouster of the student leader who planned the event and having the College Republicans apologize.

It has been suggested and I agree with the notion that Leidig took the actions he did with an eye towards protecting his political prospects. So my question to Randy Barnett is, how are self respecting libertarians supposed to work within a party where abandoning the principle of free speech, personally betraying a student, worshipping at the altar of identity politics, and telling transparent lies are seen as means of advancement?