To be totally honest, as far as modern American Politics go I'm not on either side.
It's propbably all the historical study of the Founding Fathers that did it to me, but I'm not a liberal or a conservative in the modern American sense. I do tend to beleive that our government is somewhat off of its ideal course, and that our history could teach us some important lessons if we would but pay attention. Ideologically I have always been opposed to communism and socialism on the basis that they have never proven themselves viable systems, and that their sttempts to regulate the economy are rarely if ever as efficient as Adam Smith's "invisible hand." Economies are hugely complex and unpredictable things, but for any planned economy to work the predictions must be close enough to reality that the system does not totally break down. If the whole ideological point of the system is equity for all citizens, i would hold that inequities resulting from party favoritism, and government subsidies and priorities generally displace the concept of equity in such systems.
For that reason i cannot place myself in the liberal camp today, nor can I place myself in the conservative camp since the "conservatives" have in general embraced large portions of such a system with the caveat that they have also retained ties to business and industrial interests, and tend to use the government to aid those interests.
The Libertarians make the most sense to me from the perspective of governmental ideology (i.e. limited government at the federal level, low taxes, no corporate welfare, etc.) However, on social issues they tend to rub me the wrong way coming very near to what James Madison might have called license instead of Liberty. So, it is a complicated thing, but when I watch C-span (as us old school historians who haven't totally given up and turned completely to social history sometimes do) I find myself most convinced by the arguyments of Independents in Congress. So for these reasons I would classify myself as a Independent with Libertarian leanings.
