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Well, there's libertarian and Libertarian. The Libertarian Party is a rather purist form, to the point that, at least in the case of Harry Browne, they've joined the left in the Blame America First crowd.

There's small-l libertarian, which is basically a belief in the defense of individual liberty, as the primary role of government. To me, that means that there has to be some laws that state when these rights are violated, a system for sorting out differences when the there is at least apparent conflict, a defense and police force to defend individual liberty from those who would purposefully destroy it, and a low level of taxation (unfortunately) to pay for it.

The main bugaboos some conservatives seem to have with libertarians is drug laws and immigration.

On drug laws, I'm for legalization. However, I'm also for hard punishment for crimes committed while on drugs. If you can go off in a corner, smoke something, and mind your own business, it doesn't bother me. If you get high on something, go out, and start shooting up the place, you belong in jail.

On immigration, I believe in an open door: I believe that anyone who wants to come to this country and work for a living should be allowed to. I don't believe a person who should be allowed to come here for government largesse, but I see that as yet another bad side effect of the welfare state. I also think that we need strongly defended borders and strong screening processes to keep those out, who are coming in to commit criminal acts and acts of war. I believe in an open door; I also believe that anyone attempting to sneak in through a window should at least have their backside shot off.

I don't expect things to change overnight. In many cases, I don't think they should; the country has grown to emotionally dependent on certain things to give them up overnight. Socialism had its Fabian movement that didn't believe in overnight revolution, but slow change. I guess I'm a Fabian libertarian in that I believe slow change is, if not the only way, than at least the best way, for these things to happen.

The Libertarian Party leadership is so purist that it is unwilling to take what measures are necessary to defend the U.S., even after we were attacked. I will vote for them on a state and local level, but will not on a national level (President, Senator, or U.S. Representative) until that changes. I disagree with the GOP on many homosexual issues (though I do think the Boy Scouts, as a private organization, have the right to choose their leaders and members, as they wish); I'm on the fence with regard to abortion; I don't think either party does well on the drug war; and I think the left has, in the last 20 years, become more pro-censorship than the right.

Oh yeah, one more thing... When I disagree with Democrats, I often end up with them stating that they wish harm on my children, for my beliefs. I have had that occur only once in my disagreements with Republicans. For any but the purist, least practical, of libertarians, the GOP is the political party to belong to, IMO.

Interestingly, I was taking a look at the American Conservative Union ratings last night. If I had been a Senator in 2001, my ACU rating would be 96. If I had been a U.S. Representative, it would have been 80. So I guess there is a fair amount of overlap between conservatism and, at least, this libertarian.

ok ive been to my state libertian meetings for 2 years never once did we make the focus of our meetings about legalizing drugs. Mostly we discused something wacko,leftist and silly like removing the states food tax. Which we got on the ballot but the state brought out their shills and demonized anyone that didnt want to pay taxes on food, so it lost. We will try at it again. Ok they guys in our group are pro-life, abortion kinda ruins the childs right to liberty and happiness. I had a problem with the open borders issue, but it was explained to me that it didnt mean illegal immigration. I was disturbed at the lp site where H.Browne was bitching about the war with iraq. I asked the guys in our meeting they had a total opposite view they were all for the war. All of them praise George Bush even tho we all voted for harry browne. We do have issues with Bush but I may actually vote for him in 2004