The party doesn’t seem to represent those that I’ve interacted with

That’s kinda true for everything, no? Parties just represent whatever is popular at the moment.

Look at the GOP in the US, in 2016, they were pretty universally on board with hating Trump, and now they’re trying to suck up to him. Likewise with Dems, they used to love unions, and recently they barely give them a nod. The parties of today look very different from even 10 years ago.

On the other hand, typically it’s the extreme fringes of movement that will tell you specifically what they believe, and the quiet majority in the middle keep to themselves. Sometimes Dems think I’m a Dem too, and sometimes they think I’m a Republican. Likewise for Republicans, it really depemds on the subject. Many people who would otherwise label themselves “libertarian” don’t because they play the lesser of two evils game depending on where they lean.

libritarians miss the forest for the trees

If anything, it’s the opposite. If libertarians miss nuance, it’s because they’re focused on big picture principles instead of exceptions and details.

Any change based on principles should be gradual and its impact carefully measured.

But you deney the help that social programs provide, and actually benift the economy.

When did I claim that? I explicitly said I support a social safety net. In fact, I’m left of many Dems on that, since I believe in UBI (or my preference NIT). I think we should repurpose SS for this and maybe expand it a bit.

I believe in a banced budget and to eliminate any part of government that isn’t carrying its weight. I want to closely examine:

• Dept of Education - esp. student loans, which I believe contribute to high tuition; increase Pell grants if needed
• TSA - should be converted to a security auditing org w/ seccarefullydled by airports; maybe add that duty to the Marshals service
• NSA - should be shuttered and duties handed to the CIA and FBI as appropriate

Basically, go agency by agency and determine what it’s value is, what it’s cost is in terms of freedom, and what options we have to accomplish similar goals with more freedom. The goal isn’t to gut the government, but to trim anything that isn’t providing sufficient value.

AFAIK, no libertarian has an ideal size of government except perhaps “zero,” but instead just knows we need to trim what we have to cut waste and trampling of freedoms.