By Lingfeng Li

I often encounter more liberally-minded peers keen to attack my own political views, even if they don’t fully understand what these views are.  When I talk about how the country cannot afford the kind of spending President Obama has undertaken, I am quickly asked “why is it that we could afford the war on Iraq?”  The truth is, we couldn’t.  I didn’t support the war on Iraq either.  In fact, when the United States first declared war on Iraq, I wanted to skip my middle school classes and join fellow protesters in Washington, D.C.

Other popular misconceptions of my political beliefs as a conservative to debunk: I was not for the financial industry bailout, or for costly tax cuts.  Nor am I adamantly against gay marriage.

I am proud to be a conservative, even if my brand of conservatism differs from mainstream Republican politics.  While I am a registered Republican, I have a number of disagreements with popular “conservative” stances on important contemporary issues.

In fact, I think many young adults that identify themselves as liberal could identify with my beliefs, even if they are still considered “conservative” (if not necessarily terribly Republican).  My primary political concern is in America’s financial stability, but my greatest fear is for the state of its people’s liberty.  Recent leadership has led to a degradation of individual freedoms, potentially leading America down a path of socialist-authoritarianism.  Legislation like the Patriot Act and potential health care bills forcing all Americans to pay for coverage threaten both civil liberties and financial solvency.  We certainly do seem destined for bankruptcy at the very least. While I respect the good intentions behind health care reforms and bailouts, we simply cannot afford to pay for them with government coffers or our personal freedoms.

Perhaps my conservative ideals simply go back to my inherent distrust for concentrated power and my respect for individual liberty.  Many liberals seem to believe that all Republicans are old, rich white men that care nothing for the welfare of others.  As a Republican, I simply want to respect the Founding Fathers’ constitution and human rights, most important of which is liberty.  Liberty and a greater well-being for the general population are hardly mutually exclusive—if anything, it is my opinion that society would collectively be better off if individuals were allowed more freedoms.

There are a number of reasons why I think we would all benefit from greater freedom.  The first is simply a matter of efficiency — cutting government bureaucracy will reduce spending (and the deficit) and red tape, not to mention lower taxes for all.

Second, the government is not necessarily better able to handle private citizens’ well-being.  Take for example social security: American taxpayers surrender their valuable earnings to the government for safekeeping, and to provide for hard-working Americans before them.  The government has done an excellent job of “borrowing” money from the social security fund, spending it on whatever seems necessary at the time, and depending on more Americans to pay into the fund to make up the difference.  In the financial industry, this kind of activity is called a “Ponzi scheme” and can result in jail sentences.  While there are often arguments presented about how individuals need a government to make sure they are financially responsible, I believe our own government and its legislators have hardly set an example worth copying or depending on given the $10 trillion national debt.

But the most significant reason for my identification as a conservative, particularly a Barry Goldwater conservative, is my respect for individual liberty and the importance of freedom.  I believe that individual Americans know best how to allocate their money, and should be given that opportunity without government taking a third of their earnings.  Likewise, I believe that individuals should be able to get “married” and attain the same legal rights, but I believe that other individuals don’t necessary have to recognize the union as marriage.  Perhaps it’s the optimist in me, but I think that the more trust government shows in its people — essentially, the more Americans trust each other — the more trustworthy its people will be.  I believe that people should have the opportunity to demonstrate their honor, charity, and morality without authoritarian or socialist coercion.

In this regard, I echo the words of Barry Goldwater in The Conscience of a Conservative.  Goldwater wrote that “conservatism therefore looks upon the enhancements of man’s spiritual nature as the primary concern of political philosophy” while liberals “regard the satisfaction of economic wants as the dominant mission of society” (Goldwater 5).  True equality, in my mind, is not measured by barrels of material “stuff.”  True equality should be measured by the strength of personal freedom and the quality of personal character.

Goldwater, Barry. The Conscience of a Conservative. 1960. United States: BN Publishing, 2007. Print.