I came across a 2006 article by Brink Lindsey of the CATO institute. He was talking about a liberal-libertarian coalition. The meat and potatoes of his argument are based upon the following stats.
"According to a Cato report, "The Libertarian Vote," libertarians went for Nixon over McGovern 75%-25%, Ford over Carter 66%-20%, Reagan over Carter 66%-18%, Bush over Dukakis 74%-26%, Dole over Clinton 58%-29%, Bush over Gore 72%-20%, and Bush over Kerry 59%-38%."
The study breaks down the stats by age and not surprisingly finds that the majority of libertarians who voted Kerry were 18 - 29. Lindsey draws the conclusion that this may represent a shift if libertarian voters stay loyal to the democrat party as they age.
The problem with this assumption is that Lindsey uses the questionable tactic of predicting a shift or change based upon a single exception to an established trend. The most likely reason the majority of young libertarians voted for Kerry had to do with two unpopular Bush policies. The war and the Patriot Act. Oh yes, and he grew the federal government and spent unprescedented amounts of money in domestic and foreign aid.
While the war was still publicly popular in 2004 libertarians were against it as they are against any use of military might that is not in defense of the country. Similarly they are against any laws, such as the Patriot Act that gives the government powers not provided in the constitution. I personally recognize that times have changed and the need for a Patriot Act is irrevocably upon us and is necessary. The constitution was intended to provide a framework for our government, not to serve as a suicide pact. There is always the fear of a police state taking liberties and claiming it is for the good of the country. But security is a paramount function of the government and using software that scans phone conversations for keywords is not infringing on anyones civil liberties... unless of course you are a terrorist.
And as long as the Democrat party is married to their ideals of taxation, entitlements and policies counter to lassaiz faire business there is little reason to see the skew of young libertarian voters away from the GOP in 2004 as anything other than a reaction to Iraq and the Patriot Act.
In my personal experience the only people who are liberal and libertarians are those who are against drug laws (one of the more controversial of the libertarian candidates platforms and one of the least defensible.) In many local elections the same candidate will represent the Libertarian Party, the Marijuana Party, and sometimes other "third" parties. These vanity candidates do little to support the ideals or add credence to the party.
Libertarians are über-conservatives. While many paleo-libertarians strive to return the government to the scope and size of the constitution as it was originally written, more modern libertarians envision a realistic approach. Modern libertarians are happy (for now) to stop growth of government and government programs, and restoring to states many of the rights usurped by the federal government. if there is a reason for social control it should be determined on a local level with input and consent of the people, it should not be federal mandates
Libertarian and liberal ideals tend to be diametrically opposed to each other. While one favors freedom, the other favors control and entitlements. One support the pursuit of happiness, the other believes in "leveling the playing field". Libertarians are minarchist, while liberals support a massive government, all encompassing government.
Libertarianism has been referred to as classical liberalism. In this context "liberal" refers to liberties. Modern liberalism is not at all related to classical liberalism. Classic liberalism is a fusion of liberty, personal freedom and lassaiz faire economics. Modern liberals believe in a large central government that sets rules for businesses and creates laws that force social change as well as personal sacrifice for the "greater good."
So what do the Colorado jackalope, the Tennessee barking spider and liberal libertarians have in common? I'm not telling, go ask the tooth fairy.
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