David Koch

[Mister Agenda]

Libertarians in the USA strike me as an attempt by the GOP to expand without alienating an important core constituency (the religious right).

I don't think that's what actually happened.

They're really just Republicans who take a slightly more liberal stand on social issues... sometimes.

They do pick up their share of disaffected Republicans.

I think that the GOP is understandably concerned with getting them back into the fold, since a split could be devastating for them in future elections.

I doubt they're concerned, but demographics will make the GOP more libertarian, as their hard-core social conservatives are dying off.

An honest-to-goodness libertarian party would be more liberal than conservative, IMO.

I agree. I sometimes refer to myself as a 'liberaltarian', but I'm barely to the left of what should be the libertarian center, classic liberalism.

Therefore, if the migration goes in that direction (ie, GOP towards libertarianism) it's probably better for the country in the long run.

A congress that mainly just argued over budgets would be an improvement, I think. Maybe I'm nostalgic, but it seems to me that in my youth it was more like that (probably because Democrats were more socially conservative back then); like parents arguing over the family budget.