Just this summer I got into an argument with my nephew about his radical libertarian ways. I explained to him that he spent too much time reading Reason, and I could say that because I was a subscriber for 15 years. (Also Liberty. Also Cato … I subscribed to something that is probably posted to their website these days.)

I was an honest-to-goodness card-carrying capital-L Libertarian. I went to the train station to pester commuters to sign petitions so we could run our own candidate against the two Jims. (One of whom, Jim Florio, ended up winning.) I manned a booth at the county fair (Middlesex? Somerset?) giving people the World’s Smallest Political Quiz and trying to explain the “diamond chart” to them.

Now I see that Stephen Green has been down the same path (plus or minus a few caveats, provisos, codicils, and asterisks; your mileage may vary) as myself. (Nor is he alone.)

I can’t remember if I voted LPUS for President in ’96, but I certainly didn’t in 2000. Like Green, I did make a habit of voting for the Libertarian candidates down-ticket; who really cares, I reasoned, about what the candidate for sheriff, or water commissioner, or board of equalization, thinks about the war?

Back in the day, Ronaldus Magnus used to say that he didn’t leave the Democratic party; the Democratic party left him. I don’t know if that’s true about the LPUS and me. I was never a lockstep party-liner.

For example, I have a problem with abortion. Which is not to say I’d outlaw it: I also have a problem with drugs and alcohol abuse, and outlawing them has been a disaster. Ditto prostitution, gambling, etc. But without getting into a discussion of my public-policy prescriptions, my point here is that I think most Libertarians, probably 90% or more, are pro-abortion rights to such a degree that it makes them at least seem to be pro-abortion — i.e., the procedure itself, as a means of fixing a mistake, righting a wrong, or as birth control/family planning, etc. — as well. What fraction actually are pro-abortion is another matter. This is just my hunch, but it illustrates that I was never with them all the way, or at least not with all of them all the way.

But whether or not we agreed on the principles upon which our libertarianism stood, we were able to make common cause about political strategery. (“Changing the world ‘one losing candidate at a time.'”) But for the past 10-odd years, and certainly since 9/11, I’ve held my nose and voted Republican. They may stink, but nothing like the Libertarian Party does.