In 1972, the Libertarian Party nominated University of Southern
California philosophy Prof. John Hospers as its first
presidential candidate and ran Tonie Nathan for vice president.
When Roger MacBride, a Virginia Republican elector pledged to
Richard Nixon, voted instead for Hospers-Nathan, he cast the
first electoral vote in American history for a woman. The
Libertarian Party was off and running. In 1976, it nominated the
renegade elector as its presidential candidate.  As a young
libertarian, I was very enthusiastic about the formation of the
Libertarian Party. I proudly cast my vote for Roger MacBride for
president. I attended the 1975 national convention in New York
that nominated him. But, while I am as libertarian today as I
was then, I have come to believe that the Libertarian Party was
a mistake.  The reason is simple. Unlike a parliamentary system
in which governments are formed by coalitions of large and small
parties, our electoral system is a first-past-the-post, winner-
take-all one in which a wi