What is a libertarian?

Well, rather than have me try and summarize it, anyone who wants to know what the Libertarian Party is about can easily check the website at www.lp.org, or simply look it up on wikipedia. Growing up and paying attention in social studies class at Midwood High School, as well as in required courses in Politics at Brooklyn College (I was a Biology Major), I got the idea that voting was a rare opportunity, as far as most of the world sees it. Silly as it sounds, I believed that by not voting I might be somehow giving up some freedom.But whenever I got to the voting booth, except in some rare cases, I never really wanted to vote for any of the candidates. Many times I walked out after barely having turned any levers. I often agreed with many things that each of the major candidates said, but disagreed with alot as well. If I vote for progress in one area, I am also supporting a backslide in others. The Democratic Party has traditionally stood for personal freedom and civil rights, though recently not as much. However, most Democratic candidates also favored lots of taxes and wasteful unnecessary spending. The Republican Party has traditionally favored lower taxes and less waste, though recently not so much. However, most Republican candidates are weak on civil rights and somewhat antiquated in their ideas about personal freedom. Why couldn't a candidate ever be liberal on social issues and conservative on fiscal issues? Can't someone stand up for constitutional rights, diversity, equality, and justice......... without taxing us to death and wasting our money? Well they could, but they would have to be a Libertarian.