Are Conservatives and Libertarians Opposed to Each Other?

Conservatives, to simplify the label, are primarily concerned with sustaining values such as family, belief in God and respect for authority which are believed to underpin a healthy society. 

Libertarians, on the other hand, focus on the primacy of the individual:   protect his right to be free of governmental restraint. 

In popular terminology, proponents of both political philosophies are on the Right.  And, in reality, proponents rarely hold exclusively one perspective but, rather, believe in a combination of the two.  (Ron Paul, for one, is a likely exception.)

Take me, for example.  While in college, I was a fervent libertarian.  My right to do what I wanted (but not harming anyone by so doing) was my guiding principle.  I was an individualist.

But, with age and maturity, I came to appreciate that man is very much a social animal.  Without society and its wise traditions and sanctioned virtues, he will not long survive.  This was hardly a unique realization on my part.  It was put more poetically by John Donne in the 17^th century who noted “that no man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main… Any man’s death diminishes me for I am involved with mankind”.

And so I came to recognize that preserving -- in modern day America, restoring -- a healthy society and culture is also a political objective.  We have responsibilities, too.

After all, what rights will survive if our free society collapses?