Since at least the early 90s, there has been a segment of the LP that falls into the "paleolibertarian" mold. Under the umbrella of Ron Paul's 1988 LP presidential campaign and in the immediate aftermath, Murray Rothbard promoted an explicit alliance between libertarians and the populist right to reduce the size and scope of at least the federal government. Borrowing from Dr. Paul's anti-Roe v. Wade stance on abortion that the federal government should not protect abortion rights and instead leave the decision on the legality of the procedure to the states, Rothbardian paleolibertarianism focuses less on the individual rights dear to Libertarians in favor of shrinking the federal government to promote states' rights.
Whether it was explicitly intended or not, when partnered with language in the Ron Paul newsletters disparaging to racial minorities in the wake of the Rodney King riots and dismissive of gay rights as those issues began to rise in prominence, this populist paleolibertarianism was at least less antagonistic towards if not explicitly welcoming to bigots of all kinds hewing to a "traditional" white heteronormative perspective that had been pushed out of the mainstream in both of the two dominant parties.
Running up through the presidential candidacy of Bob Barr and his VP nominee Wayne Allen Root, this influence within the LP became an integral part of the whole. Following the 2008 election though, a more organized resistance against this faction advanced within the LP and was most clearly realized with the departure of Wayne Allen Root from the LP and his explicit endorsement of Donald Trump in the 2016 elections. The moderate cosmopolitan Libertarianism of Gary Johnson and his admonition to "bake the cake" symbolized the importance of resisting bigotry in the context of laws prohibiting discrimination against gender and sexual minorities in spite of the infringement on freedom of association that only bigots are practically injured enforcing.
However, "bake the cake" and Bill Weld's kind words about Hillary Clinton did provoke a backlash. That backlash took the form of the Libertarian Party Mises Caucus. With these and other issues serving as their rallying cry, they organized for the 2018 LP convention around electing Josh Smith as LNC chair to unseat the incumbent Nick Sarwark. Paying convention attendance expenses for their pledged delegates, who were chosen in State Conventions by affiliates around the country who did not know these delegates were going to represent the caucus instead of the affiliate, Josh Smith earned less than a quarter of the delegates' votes despite widespread frustration with Nick Sarwark, the disappointing performance of Gary Johnson against easily the two worst old party presidential nominees to date, and the common Libertarian need to change things up and rebel against any authority.
Josh tried again in 2020 after the Mises Caucus, nominally rebelling against COVID restrictions, insisted that a convention be held in person after the original venue in Houston cancelled the LP's contract. In fact they felt secure in the knowledge that their demographically younger and ideologically more rebellious delegates, many of whom were only selected as alternates, would hold a higher share of the delegates if the older delegates and those outside the caucus more likely to isolate out of a sense of personal responsibility did not show up and they would be more successful than they were in promoting their presidential nominee.
Earning more votes but still failing to break even 40% after two rounds of balloting, the Mises Caucus still failed to secure control of the LP. Josh even managed to lose an election for chair a third time in the wake of Joe Bishop-Henchmen's resignation when the election among LNC members chose Whitney Bileyu to complete the 2020-2022 term.
However the real fight for the soul of the LP happens in the state affiliates. After a year of COVID restrictions shutting down meeting venues and keeping older and more temperate party activists at home, the Mises Caucus is taking control of affiliates across the country. Another key to their strategy grows out of the internet troll culture that created them. They make themselves so obnoxious, behave so abusively, and make no effort to disguise their contempt for anyone who came before them and anyone who disagrees with them. In doing so, they turn what is usually a cordial environment of at most friendly disagreements about effective strategies into toxic battlefields with defamatory accusations of corruption and illegality. The LP is a volunteer organization and no volunteer should have to tolerate that kind of harassment. Many don't. As understandable as their choices are for their own personal needs, in doing so they cede the battlefield and the party to the Mises Caucus.
Estimates suggest that the state affiliates controlled by the Mises Caucus number slightly fewer than those they don't control, but several states are rated as a "toss up" and even the states outside their control are under attack. Delegates have largely not been chosen for Reno in 2022 and they've chosen a different candidate to endorse for LNC Chair following two failed attempts by Josh Smith. This could be the year where the dam breaks.
