I agree with you that in general the Right and the Left are philosophic ideals. Philosophic ideals which taken to their ultimate end in practice could be disast

I agree with you that in general the Right and the Left are philosophic ideals. Philosophic ideals which taken to their ultimate end in practice could be disastrous. But I've always looked at liberalism as more of a practical economic not philosophical approach to problems. And yes economics always ends up deep inside both politics and philosophy but deep underneath all of that ideological baggage there's still a kernel of practicality. This kernel of practicality aims for the most efficient use of resources. To achieve that goal, there are many real world practical strategies: 1. Rule of law - free of both government and private coercion. (No cartels like the RIAA, OPEC, DeBeers, but also no labor unions or government cartels like what used to ma bell AT&T) 2. Free competition. 3. Free information. (Not to be confused with perfect information in perfect markets). The above imply that active fraud and monopolistic practices are against the law. But I, like many other libertarians would take it even further. By that I mean that in practice there are many things for which the free market does nothing. Health is one example. The demand for insulin is the econ 101 example of things for which normal supply and demand doesn't work. So for me liberalism is not a fanatical extreme of no government ever, but a practical optimization. Seeking the most effective market and government which implies a very small government but acknowledges that things like market failures exist and some government is essential. That government is preferably small, local and a direct democracy like Switzerland.