Nathan Koenig asks:

Since libertarianism intimately connects to self-responsibility, and self-responsibility intimately connects to self-esteem, does it follow that all high self-esteem individuals are libertarians?

Nathaniel Branden responds:

How I wish life was that simple!

It’s true that if one thinks through all the implications of living self-responsibly one will logically be led to the politics of libertarianism. But the fact is that a person may operate self-responsibly in many areas of life while never thinking about the social/political implications of the practice.

Further, very few people are equally self-responsible in all areas. Most of us tend to operate more self-responsibly in some areas than in others.

I think it is safe to say that if a person operates self-responsibly in most areas of life, and if he or she is exposed to an intelligent exposition of the libertarian viewpoint, the odds favor something of a positive response to that viewpoint. But there is no guarantee.  Libertarianism may conflict with too many of the person’s other beliefs.

I am confident that everyone knows professed libertarians who seem low in self-responsibility and self-esteem. I am equally confident that everyone knows non-libertarians who are thoroughly decent human beings and who appear quite healthy psychologically.
When I was a teacher of Objectivism many years ago, I wanted to believe that supporters of Objectivism generally exhibited a higher level of psychological well-being than those who held different philosophical beliefs. Alas, I never saw the slightest evidence to support this notion.   Something to think about.