Reply #6: I keep going back and forth on the liberal/libertarian question

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Sometimes I think an alliance might be possible. Other times, I despair of there ever being enough common ground.

The core issue it keeps coming back to is the question of who is to protect the weak from the strong.

Liberals tend to see this as the natural job of government and are willing to overlook the fact that governments are often intrusive, heavy-handed, and inefficient at the job.

Libertarians tend to resent government intrusion in their lives to the point where they're prepared to fantasize that anybody with a gun and a little knowledge of the law can take care of themselves -- or that if they can't, it's fine to let them fall by the wayside.

There are a lot of temperamental differences between liberals and libertarians that might prevent any sort of long-term alliance. But I keep thinking that if libertarians would just acknowledge that certain things and people do need protection, and if the liberals would come up with better methods than government bureaucracy and one-size-fits-all regulations, there could be a lot more commonality of effort.