In the Washington Post, Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch write about the libertarian influence on American politics:

In April 2006, the Pew Research Center published a study suggesting that 9 percent of Americans—more than enough to swing every presidential election since 1988—espouse a "libertarian" ideology that opposes "government regulation in both the economic and the social spheres." That is, a good chunk of your fellow citizens are fiscally conservative and socially liberal; in bumper-stickerese, they love their countrymen but distrust their government.