-Removed-Imagine a number line, from 0 to 10.
A liberal is a 0, on the left. A conservative is a 10, on the right.
Libertarians like to think they are 5's, and they try to convince you they are. Truth is, they are 9's. They are the kissing cousins of Republicans.
DISCLAIMER: Individuals can fall anywhere on the number line. I'm talking in a generality, where the parties like to think they stand, or the locus of where 'most' party members fall. Individuals vary in their adherence to the party line and therefore, can vary from these 'norms'. In actuality, most Democrats are 1, 2 or 3 while Republicans are mainly 7, 8 or 9. Wherever the 'average' Republican falls, the average Libertarian will fall about 1 number to the left of that. As you can see, yes, there will be some Republicans to the left of some Libertarians and vice versa. But they are very close, ideologically. As I said, most Libertarians like to think they are closer than this to Democrats, but ideologically, they are much, much closer to Republicans than to Democrats.
DISCLAIMER 2: Naturally, people will disagree, and I'm sure some dissenters may be quite vocal about it. Europeans, for example, view ALL Americans as existing only on the right of this spectrum, say from 5 to 10. My views are as one from the inside, not the outside, seeing it as a citizen of the US.
DISCLAIMER 3: My views are my own. I own them. I consulted no research resource materials in the crafting of this post. These are my opinions only.
-Removed-Wajoma [who seems to have packed it in on the Debates Forum] is perhaps the most prominent and steadfast libertarian I remember at RHP. I liked him; I didn't agree with much of what he said, but I liked him. And I think I learned quite a lot from him. He was, for the most part, a rock upon which a lot of non-libertarian posters dashed themselves [including myself sometimes].
