As the older people here have pointed out, the Libertarianism of today is as far from the libertarianism of Reagan’s youth as the Democrat party of today is from that of Reagan’s younger years.
I like how you used the L and l. The libertarian thinkers of Reagan’s formative years had very little to say on social issues. The pinkos hadn’t destroyed our culture back then.
I think that libertarianism doesn’t work as a political party. It’s best understood as a presumption against government. That presumption is rebuttable, but the bar is usually set pretty high. As a distinct political party, I think it pretty much has to fail. If for no other reason than open borders would bring in millions of statist voters that would end any hope of limiting government. I get all kinds of heat for bringing that up with the Reason crowd. If a role for government is acknowledged, then people will fall all along a continuum for where to draw the line. All forms of extremism seem to carry the seeds of their own destruction.