Being a libertarian is harder than you think.  One of the things that defeats most Libertarians I think is a loss of what I call "Libertarian Hope".  We know we're in the minority.  We know the rules are stacked in the other guy's favor.  We know government continues to grow, almost without bounds, and without care for liberty.  We know all these things.  And yet, we all have hope that it can change.  If we didn't think that, then why bother writing about policy changes and ideas that seemingly go into the ether never to be seen again?

But every now and then, you get a glimer of real hope out there.  I saw it this morning in this poll:

A new Gallup/USA TODAY Poll asks Americans what Congress should do now to address the economic crisis. Twenty percent of those surveyed say they think lawmakers should just pass a bill like the one they rejected on Monday; 57% say start over but do something, and 14% say don't do anything.

And if they don't do anything? 56% say we will either go into a severe recession, a prolonged recession (34%) or a depression (22%). But 36% say either we will have major problems but not a recession (31%) or that we won't even have major problems (5%).

Remember, this was taken after the major 700+ point slide in the stock market.  A clear majority are saying that Congress should start over completely, but still do something.  The people are also saying that they understand that a recession or even a depression are real possibilities here.  Talk about a stunning rebuke of government power... and one that is a long time coming.  I have feared for many years that people had become so dependent on government, that they actually had decided it needed to grow for them to accomplish things.

What are the other possible plans?  There are too many to mention them all, but Megan McArdle recently asked people to submit ones that they heard about.  Her goal is to write about them in the near future.  But in the meantime, check out the comment thread in this post for people's ideas.  I think you'll be surprised.