other differences between conservatives/tea partiers and libertarians include:

immigration: libertarians are pro open borders, unlimited immigration and conservatives/tea partiers are for securing our border and for restricting immigration

gay marriage: libertarians agree with it and conservatives/tea partiers generally oppose it.

drug use: libertarians favor the legalization of all drugs, including crack cocaine and heroin. conservatives/tea partiers generally oppose that.

and plenty more looney stuff. i actually got my information from libertarian party offical platform that was adopted in may 2012, and prominently posted on their LP site as the platform that they have adopted, so its pretty safe to say that the info is accurate.

Libertarian Party 2012 Platform

Adopted in Convention, May 2012, Las Vegas, NV

http://www.lp.org/platform

But what I’m curious to know is, where does conservatism begin and libertarianism end?

I don’t consider the foreign policy positions of Ron Paul to be libertarian, but if they were that is certainly one clear distinction. I guess its a line drawing exercise and I’m just not exactly sure where that line is drawn.

When I ask them why, here and now , Normally the Response is along the lines of “…tired of looking at the same 30 people …”, or “…it’s the only game around, and I Want In…”

Needless to say they’re getting on in years , and that might have something to do with it……

ok, lets spot every libertarian party candidate a FREE TWENTY POINT LEAD, and guess how many would have managed to win either a house seat, a senate seat, or a governors race. after all, there were over 500 open seats, and this was the year of change. the answer is… still ZERO.

now lets look at how many conservatives and tea party members got elected to those same seats in 2010. certainly over 100(and i am not counting RINO’s, moderates, or dems in that count).

i would say that is a DIRECT REJECTION of the libertarian party and what they stand for by the american people.

I don’t like libertarians
“we” do need their votes
Just because they’ve agreed to vote for Romney “we” shouldn’t have to be nice to them
I’d like to kick them out of the Republican party

This reads like the whining of a spoiled child. Get some self-awareness and good luck on voting for the first time.

Moe has always been respectful in his disagreement as to whether marriage should include gays and has only required the same from the other side. Calling the gay marriage movement a leftist/liberal attempt to attack tradition and conservatism is not crossing the line so not sure what you are trying to gain by warning him/her.

Limits on individual freedom have to pass a “strict scrutiny” test as far as I’m concerned.

Am a big believer in Amendments I-X, which say what the Feds can’t do.

Can’t think of a federal law enacted in the past 40 years that hasn’t served special interests.

Guess I’ll call myself a conservative and a libertarian.

Many libertarians supported the liberation of Iraq, because they support LIBERTY, which is something the people of Iraq had very little of under Saddam Hussein. This is very different from the Libertarian Party, which is run by a bunch of folks that don’t know their head from their backside when it comes to politics and many other things.

Abortion is in no way a primary libertarian issue, and you trying to equate abortion rights with libertarianism just shows me how completely clueless you are.

Sure I’ll argue in favor of drug legalization, because under the US Constitution, the federal government has no authority to ban drugs. That’s why there was a constitutional amendment to ban alcohol, after all. Why were drug laws passed but no constitutional amendment? Because they were passed by the New Deal Congress which threw off all previous limitations on Congressional power and passed whatever they felt like at the time.

Fiscal conservatism is libertarian, because libertarians think the government should only have the money it needs to perform the basic functions of government, and no more. This is not far from the Tea Party, really.

Go ahead and call gay marriage liberal if you want, but be aware that there’s at least one frontpager here who supports it, so I’d be careful with my insults on that front if I were you.

The fact that you don’t think your characterization of libertarians is a strawman tells me that you don’t know what straw is, let alone libertarianism.