People should not confuse Libertarians with Conservatives. Generally speaking; real Libertarians are fiscally conservative, but morals and values play little import in their scheme of things while Conservatives worthy of the name, wish to preserve standing fiscal, moral and cultural values,
A little condescending, but overall this isn't too bad of an assessment. Libertarians are indeed fiscally conservative (more so than even the Republicans), and "morals" typically do not play any part in their positions. When it comes to social things, Libertarians tend to ere on the side of freedom. That means they are staunchly against any form on gun control - again, moreso than many Republicans. By the same token however, their position is consistent about getting the government out of our private lives where it doesn't belong. That means that they don't oppose gay marriage, drug use, prostitution or abortion. Being completely pro-free speech they also oppose virtually every form of censorship.
Basically, they are for small government in every way. Provide enough funding for the government to keep a standing military sufficient to DEFEND us (but not get involved in peacekeeping actions that don't effect us), and enough law enforcement to arrest and detain those charged with real honest to goodness crimes (theft, rape, murder, assault, etc), but otherwise not get involved in private affairs, and certainly don't go with the runaway declaration of countless actions as "crimes".
Did you know that by percentage, the United States has a larger percentage of its population in prison than any other nation on Earth? (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarceration_rate). Most of these are for simple offenses like "illegal" drug use, prostitution, and other such actions that the government shouldn't have any involvement with.
Repeal the laws against those actions, release those people, let them conduct their business unaffected by government "morals", and you'll get a host of benefits. A lower association rate of actual crimes (theft, rape, murder, etc) to such activities due to their legitimization. Afterall, it wasn't until alcohol was outlawed that you saw the rise of the criminal gangs surrounding moonshine. Once it was made legal again they lost all power and standing virtually overnight. You also get taxes from their income like everyone else, AND lessen the burden on the rest of the tax paying Americans simply because you're no longer locking up tons of people in prison for simple offenses.
I don't agree with every single aspect of the Libertarian Party (I am against abortion, considering it murder, while they are not), and I do think that some of their notions are a bit too extreme (ie, a complete and total privatization of the educational system), but IMHO they have a much better strategy than either of the big two parties.