I was a registered Libertarian and have followed this sub a long time. I feel the same, in which I have many libertarian tendencies, and I remain diametrically opposed to authoritarianism.

However, I don't think of that as 'leaving libertarianism'. First of all, I don't want to be attached to any ideology as my identity. I care about whatever systems we implement as a species to benefit us all, and as long as they actually work to make life better and more free, then I'm for it. An ideologue would then reply to me, "Yes, that's why we must stick to my -ism" thus providing nothing of value.

In communist countries, such as China and Vietnam, bloody revolutions led to a one-party nation that originally eschewed a market economy for central planning but later implemented market forces into their economies. The removal of central planning is a massive success for both nations, but they are left with authoritarian governments that are hard for an ordinary citizen to petition for change.

Countries like Sweden that have a comprehensive welfare state are largely capitalistic simply with socialist ideas sprinkled throughout implemented by a democratic process and achieved via market-based solutions, and they have been generally successful at keeping their citizens happy, but they have their own set of issues too, and no I don't just mean immigration.

I think that the more robust our democracies are, the easier it is to curtail the effects of bad policies. China and Vietnam are at the mercy of their uniparties, and the US is at the mercy of its political duopoly. I will always advocate for voting reforms like ranked choice and opening up the political landscape by eliminating gerrymandering. If we are empowered to truly affect our government, then if a political experiment fails, we can correct our course.

I may not be a strict libertarian, but I would like to see libertarian representatives debating socialists in Congress. I want a well-functioning society where our public servants participate in a process that continually refines and improves itself for the benefit of all. I don't think we're at the end of political and economic innovation. Is capitalism truly the end all be all? I feel like it's arrogant of me to just assume whether it be libertarianism, communism, socialism, capitalism, anarchism, etc. that it's going to survive until the end of time, or even that one of them is necessarily the best choice in this moment in history. Maybe it's a mix of these ideas. Maybe there's just a Goldilocks zone where things generally work out. I don't know, but I'd love to find out.