It wasn’t always that way, and it doesn’t have to stay like that. If we don’t fight this battle, and point out that there are other ways then only the Republicans and the US Libertarian party will gain from it.
I think this ties into what is going on in the Defining Socialism thread. If socialism/communism/anarchism are poisoned terms and libertarianism is only associated with the right, then should we come up with a new term to describe that area of politics, knowing that we will have to do it all again when that is inevitably poisoned/taken away from us? Or do we make a stand and fight for how we identify ourselves?
The Lib-Caps have no right to stop us from calling ourselves Libertarian-Socialists/Communists/Marxists if we identify that way, and we shouldn’t let them.