# Are There Moderate Libertarians?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-moderate-libertarians/628810>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 20, 2012, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-moderate-libertarians/628810 "2012-07-20T03:46:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-moderate-libertarians/628810/21 "2012-07-23T16:55:27Z")

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What **furt** said. It’s less important as an ideology than it is an analytical framework for reforming _existing_ democratic institutions.

“How do we fix Social Security?”  
“Why not privatize some of it?”

“How should space exploration be handled?”  
“Why not let private enterprise assume the risk and enjoy the rewards?”

I am not necessarily advocating either of these plans.

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**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\
**Post date:** [July 23, 2012, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-moderate-libertarians/628810/22 "2012-07-23T18:59:07Z")

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> [@furt](#):
>
> I don’t know about Teller, but Penn is a capital-L Libertarian. He is “balanced and intelligent,” but he’s not kinda-sorta-semi-libertarian, he’s a party member.

I would argue that you could be a Libertarian and still be a kinda-sorta-semi-libertarian. Same way you can be a Democrat or a Republican, but not be super hardcore about it.

Penn comes off that way to me, most of the time.

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