Brief Political Thought Before Bed

I've always been bugged by some of the liberal criticism of libertarians- in particular, the line of thought that says "libertarians want to privatize the roads and our water, so lets not take them seriously." What's irritating is that the entire libertarian mode of thought is rejected because of the somewhat extreme (even among libertarians) position of road privatization. It's no different than rejecting all leftist thought because of the totalitarian implications of Soviet communism.

Libertarianism (in my mind) is a political philosophy that puts its faith in the individual and looks at all government action with skepticism. It's not so much a hard and fast world view as it is almost a methodology for examining the issues of the day. I don't look to libertarianism to provide cut and dry answers, but to provide guidance in my search for answers. I think the vast number of people that reject libertarian views do so not out of a real examination of the libertarian thought process, but as I said above, out of a jaded view of a few extreme positions.