Actually if you read that 1975 libertarian interview that you want to pretend is something important, as lonely as it it in his long life of politics, Reagan while wanting to keep his audience, still disagrees with them about what we do here at FR as well, social liberalism and being weak on national defense.
Is that a vote for not wanting to figure out exactly what he meant by "libertarianism", and use that definition?
“Actually if you read that 1975 libertarian interview that you want to pretend is something important, as lonely as it it in his long life of politics, Reagan while wanting to keep his audience, still disagrees with them about what we do here at FR as well, social liberalism and being weak on national defense.”
I did read that article, and Reagan draws a clear distinction between his disagreement with some in the Libertarian party who advocate on those types of issues, and the libertarian philosophy itself in general:
” 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.
Now, I can’t say that I will agree with all the things that the present group who call themselves Libertarians in the sense of a party say, because I think that like in any political movement there are shades, and there are libertarians who are almost over at the point of wanting no government at all or anarchy. I believe there are legitimate government functions. There is a legitimate need in an orderly society for some government to maintain freedom or we will have tyranny by individuals. The strongest man on the block will run the neighborhood. We have government to insure that we don’t each one of us have to carry a club to defend ourselves. But again, I stand on my statement that I think that libertarianism and conservatism are travelling the same path.”
http://reason.com/archives/1975/07/01/inside-ronald-reagan