I used to be a Libertarian. The first time I voted, I voted Libertarian down the line. I did grow up a Republican since I am a white male from a middle class background and it’s traditional for white males to be Republican in this country. However, like you said, I liked smoking weed and drinking, plus I hated cops and came to view war as a tremendous waste of money, resources and human life. My Republican upbringing had me believing that taxes were strangling the economy as well. So I figured gubmint bad. Republicans may say that too, but they love war and hate human rights when applied to people they don’t like. They want a “strong” government to hold down undesirables and conquer and control the rest of the world. Fascists. That is the difference. I’m very liberal now. I have lived through a lot of things in the real world and now realize that those veiwpoints are unrealistic and awful respectively.

You are describing Libertarians. Yes, that was a sect of the Republican cult in the past, but now they are mostly fascist. Government social spending is bad, but they want military and law enforcement granted MORE power. They want people they don’t like to suffer and or die. Both over seas and domestically. Those are the morons. The rich want protection of their wealth and free reign over basically everything.