Libertarians with a moral compass?

I have these Libertarian leanings, this laissez-faire bent to my thinking, that I have had since middle school (or what we used to call Junior High), and try as I might I can't seem to shake.  Every election cycle they come 'round again and upset my applecart.  At one level, hyper-Libertarian ideas like legalizing drugs & prostitution, and privatizing highways & bridges, run afoul of my belief system, which says that there is an appropriate role for government in both ordering society and restraining wrongdoing.

At other times my penchant for minimalist government is in sync with my religious sensibilities, which tell me that placing faith in human institutions is essentially based on a flawed premise.  The flawed premise is that when people act in concert, the best in them comes out, not the worst; this premise is foundational to a positive view of government's role in human affairs, one that favors its expansion. Opposing this premise is the truism that power corrupts, and its corollary that constraints on human depravity need to be built into power structures of any kind, whether political, social, economic or
 ... yes, religious.

So when the opportunity to vote, or to get involved with a political campaign (which I will do this very evening, God help me!) comes along, I am conflicted.  Routinely.  I want political & social structures that are just and compassionate, but at the same time encourage self-reliance and discourage dependency.  I want a hands-off government, that is still willing to extend a hand on my behalf.  I want a government free of entanglements with business or labor or education or medicine.  I want a government that doesn't use tax policy to enforce justice, regulatory policy to compel uniformity (and throttle initiative), monetary policy to manipulate the economy for retaining power, or national security policy to bully us into patriotism.

But I also want a government which has its sense of justice informed by love for the downtrodden & protection for the vulnerable, and its sense of compliance informed by a long Monetheistic tradition of right & wrong.  I want a government that allows for both individual freedom and failure, but also helps the poor, heals the sick, clothes the naked.  I want Ayn Rand, converted to a born-again Evangelical, with a classic liberal's tender bleeding heart.

So when I read an article like this one, and its follow-on letters to the editor the next day, I wonder... am I hopelessly idealistic?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/forum/2011-06-05-Ayn-Rand-and-Jesus-dont-mix_n.htm

Perhaps.  But I'm still going to a Ron Paul rally tonight.  With mixed emotions.  And a little hope.