"If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals-–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."
Ronald Reagan, 1975
“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals-–if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.”
Ronald Reagan, 1975
While in the pure sense, all conservatives have a “libertarian” streak in them. They have nothing in common with the “Libertarian Party” which has ruined the meaning of the word. Even Ronald Reagan would shun the word IF in his time it had come to carry the conotations it has today. Most of us conservative are little “l” libertarians. We are not the anarchist big “L” libertarians (libertines actually) that the word is more closely associated with.