I've had this question for a while now but what is the difference between liberal and libertarian?

This is a very tough thing to describe. I can tell you now as a former member of the Libertarian Party and a current self-proclaimed Classical Liberal, that there is a notable difference between the two.

I promise to discuss this more later, but I'll leave you with this quote I recall from some time ago:

"Libertarianism can best be described as the state that Classical Liberalism takes when common sense approaches zero". :D

Also, there is a difference between Classical Liberalism and Modern American Liberalism. That is something else to note.

Yea, is libertarianism more where you have less govt or want less govt influence? as that's always what I thought that was. I never really associated liberals as much with that.

There is a huge difference between Classical liberal and what liberal means today. The difference is like the difference of Fag of 200 years ago and today, fag 200 years ago ment a bunch of stick now it has to do with a preverted man that likes to screw other men.

A liberal today is some one that beleves in Marx's way. Meaning that he wents to pervert good and bad and went to turn the world up side down pretty much. There is no stardards in the liberal mind. Have sex and blame other people if you get sick because of it. Careless, and yes I do know what these kinds of people our because some of them our with in my own family. They blame every thing else for how messed up their lifes our. In don't went to try to better there selfs. Also they believe the world is a perfect place in America is what is all wrong. As said above good is bad and bad is good.

Classic liberalism is 180 degree's from what liberal means today.

The sounds more like the Rapeublicans conservatives than it does the liberals.

Nah liberals are neocommies these days. What would you do to protect this country if you where in power? That is all I went to know???

Liberals: Highly adaptive to social changes (a bit too much for my standards) and favor strong government influence on general public welfare.

Libertarians: Could care less about anyone, or anything --- heck... let's get rid of every law out there!

One way to think about political ideologies is a diamond. One the right you have conservatives, which favor economic freedom and government control of personal decisions. On the left you have liberals which favor more economic regulation with more personal freedoms. On the top you have libertarians, who want economic freedom, like conservatives, and more personal freedoms, like liberals. On the bottom is a group less well-known called the populists (or authoritarians). These people favor government regulation of the economy and government control over personal decisions.

So overall, the main difference between liberals and libertarians is that libertarians want less government intervention in the economy, lower taxes, lower spending, etc.

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Christian, Conservative, Republican... in that order

Nope libertarians are 180 degrees from the neocommie liberal that wents to control your life.