How not to advance a political movement

Sudha Shenoy blogs at Liberty & Power:

Let there be a Ron Paul write-in, in November. This will be a better & a permanent register of the true numbers of those who still hold to a genuine liberalism, one of tolerance & peace, of markets & people’s actions.

This is only the latest confusion of Ron Paul's political career with the broader libertarian movement, but it is certainly one of the most confused.

Presidential elections are used by many people to determine the identity of the next President, not to make general political statements; those people will not write in the name of a sure loser.  Many people will not vote.  Many people do not read blogs or visit campaign websites and will never hear of a Ron Paul write-in campaign.  Libertarian sympathizers are to be found in all these groups, and thus a Ron Paul write-in campaign will not remotely measure the "true numbers of those who still hold to a genuine liberalism". 

However, a Ron Paul write-in campaign would create "a permanent register" of some very low number.  So by promoting such a campaign and claiming (falsely) that a write-in vote for Paul must occur if the voter has libertarian sympathy, Shenoy effectively would be aiming to convince the public that the number of libertarians is far lower than what it truly is.   It is difficult to imagine a more counterproductive political strategy.