Reasons for Optimism?

Jim Geraghty lists a number of developments that he says are reasons for optimism if one is a libertarian:

• School choice is on the march in more states, even though Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor, Josh Shapiro, chickened out of embracing it at the last minute. So far this year, lawmakers in 14 states have passed bills establishing school-choice programs or expanding existing ones, and six states now or soon will allow nearly all students to use public money to attend private schools. Some form of school choice exists in almost all states and the District of Columbia, even if those forms aren’t as widespread or expansive as school-choice advocates would prefer.
• Even with near-constant demagoguery that demonizes law-abiding gun owners, Americans’ Second Amendment rights are as secure as they’ve been in several generations.
• Marijuana has never been more legal or more easily accessed, and you can smell the consequences in the downtowns of many American cities.
• Americans are much more aware of the abuses of law-enforcement officials, much less likely to give government authorities the benefit of the doubt in public controversies, and more likely to believe that policing procedures require either minor or major changes.
• By historical standards, federal income-tax rates are low. Even some Democratic governors are signing income-tax cuts into law.
• Gay marriage is, legally, a settled issue.
• The death penalty is growing rarer over time.
• “Stand your ground” and other laws ensuring a right to armed self-defense are growing more common. “Laws in at least 28 states and Puerto Rico declare there is no duty to retreat [sic] an attacker in any place in which one is lawfully present.”
• The makeup of the Supreme Court ensures, at least for now, that six justices are likely to be skeptical about extensive interpretations of federal or state government power. Yes, justices can surprise you and sometimes disappoint you, but the government faces a more skeptical Supreme Court now than it did in 2013 or 2003 or 1993.

One of the distinctions between libertarians and traditional conservatives is that libertarians believe government should be minimally invasive in peoples' lives and that we should be free to do as we please as long as no one else is harmed (a very difficult standard to actually apply in practice) whereas conservatives hold that some behaviors are so corrosive to our culture and public welfare that government has a role to play in preventing them.

Conservatives want minimal government on economic matters but a more restrictive, activist governmental involvement in preserving traditional values. Libertarians want government to take care of national defense, defend our borders, regulate interstate commerce and otherwise leave citizens alone to work out their own solutions to problems.

If you're a libertarian you'll applaud the above bullet points, although at the link Geraghty mentions other reasons for libertarians to be concerned.

If you're a conservative you're probably not so sanguine about the marijuana, gay marriage and death penalty items, but the others are indeed reasons to be at least a little optimistiuc about the future of the nation.