I don't know if you're not being somewhat disingenuous. Pretty clearly the Democrats are more likely to support "same-sex marriage, legalization of drugs, abortion, etc" than the Republicans whether pre-Trump or post Trump. There's simply no question about that.
You might consider that "They both waste tax money on a monumental scale." - but they do tend to spend it on different priorities. Democrats ARE unquestionably "champions of the poor and underserved" on some level. In fact, they are constantly accused by Republicans of being "socialists", or even "communists". The position of Republicans ... & for that matter libertarians on this, is that providing help to the poor & underserved is actually counter-productive & that a progressive tax system that allows you to do this may be "unconstitutional', or even "immoral".
I don't see Democrats as champions of the poor. Democratic socialist sure, but not the Democrat party as a whole. Like Republicans, they exist to serve the interest of lobbies and therefore whatever top donators ask for. The only difference between the two parties, in my opinion, is a handful of social issues. Both still love to go to war, spend money, and tell you how to live your life. The only difference with that is that they spend their money slightly different and the basis of how you should live your life stems from different things.
So what factors do you base your vote on: "social freedoms" promoted by Democrats or "fiscal freedoms" promoted by Republicans? Voting libertarian, on a pragmatic level, seems to simply sidestep that essential dilemma. You wind up casting your vote in a way that will have no practical influence on the actual outcome. Having a rigidly two party system does not offer the voter much possibility of a nuanced voice on policy direction. At times this has seemed to work acceptably well in US politics ... at least not appreciably worse than the political systems in other countries. However, at the minute, it seems to have descended to a new level of disfunction.
The way I see it is that if neither party supports the way I think the country should be run, I'm not voting for them. Both Republicans and Democrats don't do this, so why should I vote for them? A vote for something I don't believe in is a wasted vote in my opinion. I know a Libertarian candidate has little chance of winning, but I can take some solace in knowing I voted for the person that has ideas that I support. I also can feel pretty good knowing I didn't vote for establishment candidates that have no concept of the country's founding principals. In 2016, neither Clinton nor Trump were even worthy of the office, never mind that neither had any plan that was positive for the country. I couldn't in good faith cast a vote for that.
I think many people get stuck in the idea that they can only vote for one or the other. But in reality, if people spent a couple minutes reading what all the candidates stood for, they would probably vote for a third party or even an independent candidate. It's also sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Saying I'm not going to vote for a third party because no one votes for a third party means no one is actually going to vote for them. The only way I see our government getting back on track is to have more third parties play a bigger part in the elections. Imagine if there was Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, and Greens all in the running for an office. That would give you four chances to get someone who represents the people instead of just two.
Granted I'm not a pure libertarian. I still believe in some government intervention, but only to fix or pave the way towards them butting out of things. Take net neutrality for example. Government policies have made it so there's virtually no competition in some areas which leaves a monopoly. If that one company decides to do whatever it wants your choice is to either go without internet or pay a huge premium. I don't agree with that and the market can't work itself out due to the government mucking things up. I also agree with things like roads, emergency services, and other things along those lines are fine as government services - at least to an extent.
However, I think many things should be privatized, taxes should be low, and government interference should be kept to a minimum. I also believe the Constitution should be followed - which is one of the main reasons I think Trump should get impeached since he's clearly in violation of it (tariffs).
