Maybe we didn't see the same episodes..

Best description that I've heard in a long time of libertarians (from a Crooked Timber comment):

Libertarianism is politics for over-age Star Trek fans. The real world of real people is ignored in favor of a fantasy land where sweeping abstractions trump actual results. It is a flight from the messiness of everyday life. Why do you think so many libertarians identify with Spock? No messy emotion and the illusion of disinterested analysis. To be fair to the Trekkies there is a lot of libertarian overlap with space colonizers (don’t like the rules on this orbital pod? Start your own!), D&D players and so on. All a retreat from compromise and practicality.