Libertarians always get into trouble when they try claiming vast swaths of the public as libertarian.
One doesn’t need to be libertarian to oppose wasting lives and money in pointless wars. One doesn’t need to be libertarian to oppose the drug war that could be more effectively dealt with through strict border control.
Republicans win when they combine conservative and libertarian voters, and lose otherwise.
RR of course was a hero to both.
Bush 41 was elected as Reagan’s successor, but governed as an establishment Republican.
Dole, in ‘96, by naming Jack Kemp as his running mate, kept the libertarians on the reservation and, so, denied Clinton a landslide and helped us retain the House and Senate.
Bush 43, in 2000, sounded libertarian, talking about tax reform, partial privatization of SS, choice in education, and respect for state laws on marijuana, but what we got were two wars, the promotion of home ownership, a Medicare drug entitlement, and leave no child behind. By ‘06, we lost the House and the Senate.
McCain, in ‘08, embraced the libertarian wing by naming Sarah Palin, and for a time was neck and neck with Obama, And then the financial crisis hit.
In ‘10, with the enthusiasm of the Tea Party movement, we took back the House, made progress in the Senate, and made enormous gains in state legislatures.
Romney, in ‘12, did not embrace his success in the private-sector. While he had been neck-and-neck with the President in the polls, in the end, he came up short and we lost seats in the House and Senate (although we kept control of the House).
3 2 1...... LIBERTARIANS ARE A BUNCH OF DOPE SMOKING, HOMOSEXUAL MARRYING PERVERTS.
There. doesn’t that make you libertarian haters feel better? I’ve said it for you. Now, STFU!
Problem with Libertarians is that they support many of the same things the left (in both Dem/GOP)....support.....
Open Borders
Unlimited immigration/Amnesty for illegals
Free Trade/Globalism
Legalized recreational drug use
Limited enforcement of basic moral values
The Liberal Media likes Liberaltarians right now because they are the “useful idiots” to undermine conservatives
Sarah Palin in 2016.
Response: So has homosexual Sodomy, Third World governors, food stamps and "Free" cell phones.
Comment: If it is bizarre America will adopt it!