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There are tons of reasons why the LP is not a major player. Electioneering is a very complex system and the LP has roadblocks at almost every part of it.
Although we *think* that the purpose of political parties is to have a general philosophy, that is way down the list. The purpose of political parties is to bring together somewhat different points of view under a unifying common bloc to wield political power.
The purpose of parties is to run candidates, not to espouse a particular political philosophy so much. That's why if the US became instantly libertarian in political philosophy, there wouldn't be one libertarian party. There would be three, and two of them would be named Republican and Democrat.
The LP's main approach has been basically to disrespect politics - it rejects common politics at this point, because common politics are unproductive to it. You notice that Radar ran for an office that he could not possibly win. The major parties tend to ignore offices they can't possibly win. If they run someone for the office, they don't fund that candidate.
I could basically write a thesis on this matter, having worked on it and studied it in great detail for a decade of my life. Ask anything you want to know.
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