Most libertarians are Republicans for the same reason that most socialists are Democrats instead of Greens. It’s better to work within a larger party-coalition and lose some battles ( outside of the tax cut libertarians aren’t doing so hot in the GOP lately – and even the tax cuts aren’t what we’d like them to be) than to lose chronically as marginalized outsiders. An acceptance of a permanent but narrowly tailored social safety net constructed on libertarian principles that emphasize opportunity rather than governmental dependence is certainly far more palatable than someday reading Cato Institute reports on the wastefulness of President Hillary Clinton’s new Department of National Child Care.

So, John Constantine is wrong to equate most libertarians, certainly a more numerous group by far than Libertarians, with fanatical idealists who would unleash some kind of wild anarchy. ( Frankly, I don’t even think that description applies to most members of the Libertarian Party or Objectivists either). Perhaps the more pragmatic libertarians need to, as Prometheus suggested, speak up a bit louder than our more ideologically rigid cousins.

That way at least, we will be less likely to be confused with Men of Straw.

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