Are Americans becoming more libertarian?

From David Boaz at the Cato Institute, evidence that libertarianism may be on the rise in the USA:

For more than a dozen years now, the Gallup Poll has been using two questions to categorize respondents by ideology:

* Some people think the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses. Others think that government should do more to solve our country’s problems. Which comes closer to your own view?

* Some people think the government should promote traditional values in our society. Others think the government should not favor any particular set of values. Which comes closer to your own view? Combining the responses to those two questions, Gallup found the ideological breakdown of the public shown below. With these two broad questions, Gallup consistently finds about 20 percent of respondents to be libertarian.


In fact, if anything, the graph seems to indicate that libertarian numbers are rising.

Note, by the way, the implied definition: A libertarian is someone who believes that the government is trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses, and that the government should not favour any particular set of values. Well, I think I know what they mean, but surely such things as freedom, honesty and compassion are values that a libertarian government should favour?

(Hat tip to Classically Liberal)