Comment: My journey: where's Gary?

When I first became a libertarian about 12 years ago, my thought process was mostly cheery picking policies and programs from the D and R and realizing that I was "socially liberal and fiscally conservative"

It was then later I read Ayn Rand and understood a moral and rational basis for individualism.

And then later (and still) studied Austrian economics and libertarian theory, non-agression principle, property rights etc.

And still later in anarchism/capitalism.*

And realized that I was NOTHING like "socially liberal and fiscally conservative".

I think Gary might be at the beginning of his thinking, basically taking the most sensible-sounding bits of the left and right. I don't know if this is just message, or if he hasn't advanced his thinking through study, or what.

He might be a newbie despite getting some actual real political experience as the governor of a state.

Or perhaps being governor has made him into an administrative realist i.e., someone who bases their philosophical outlook based on the realities of what government is and does today.

I.e., he's as libertarian as a governor can be. And how could a libertarian in the Rothbard/Rockwell tradition EVER be a governor of any sort? They are intellectually contradictory.

* (full disclosure: I'm still at the beginning of my intellectual development and still just learning.)