The biggest difference between libertarians and moderates usually lies with each type’s commitment to principles/ideals on the one hand and pragmatism/practical matters on the other. Libertarians tend to gauge issues through a lens of maximizing people’s autonomy and reducing the initiation of violence (whether by individuals or the state). By contrast, moderates tend to think of political matters on an issue-by-issue basis and tend to be more pragmatic than principled. Moderates usually think that idealism is hard to execute and try to think of politics in terms of measures that check too much theoretical abstraction or doctrinaire commitments.

Because moderates can “lean” in any of the other four directions, libertarians and moderates only have similarities to the extent that moderates lean libertarian on a given issue.