So, caveat, this is my colloquial understanding of the ideology. I don't profess expertise. That said... For most folks, libertarians are just... confusing.

So, caveat, this is my colloquial understanding of the ideology. I don't profess expertise. That said... For most folks, libertarians are just... confusing. To many, rightly or wrongly, "conservative" equates to things like free market dogmatism, some subset of individual freedoms (gun rights, property rights, etc), states rights/federalism, etc. Libertarians often share many of these views. To many, rightly or wrongly, "liberal" equates to a different set of individual freedoms (abortion, gay marriage, liberalized drug laws, etc), anti-corporatism, environmentalism, etc. Libertarians often share many of these views as well. So what makes libertarians unique is their extreme position on individual rights and free market economics. This leads them to hold views that cross the traditional left-right spectrum in unexpected ways. Now, that said, I think it's fair to say that if you drew a Venn diagram of views covering the left-right spectrum, and then drew a circle around "typical" libertarianism, that circle would skew to the right, naturally placing them moreso in the Republican sphere (though there are many many reasons why they're an ill fit for that party). Doubly so if you take social conservatives out of the equation (which is where, I would claim, most of the libertarian/Republican disagreements typically lie). To me, this just highlights the failings of a binary left/right view of politics, hence the advent of the Political Compass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_compass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_compass