Ryan ChartrandThe fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives is why I can’t be a Democrat. Heck, I can hardly stand being a Republican. There is a difference between selfishness and self-interest. Both liberalism and conservatism decry selfishness, but liberalism often attacks self-interest as well.
I am a conservative libertarian because I believe that I matter as an individual, and that I have the right to spend the rewards of my exertion and enterprise as my values direct. I fear liberalism because I perceive it as saying that I don’t matter – that only other people matter, and that I should be grateful to become a pawn in somebody else’s wonderful plan for my life. I fear that liberalism attempts to take away my adulthood and make me a perpetual ward of the state.
Conservatism is bad when its practitioners have bad values. Liberalism is bad when its practitioners have bad values. They are only modus operandi, and cannot correct the darkness of the heart.
Neither can offer any sort of guarantee. However, I choose conservative libertarianism because it treats me like an individual and an adult. I want to make a living by helping others become self-reliant adults as well. Liberals talk about fixing problems through education and understanding, but when a problem surfaces most liberals say that people should be coerced into doing whatever the experts claim is best. I want to improve the world by changing it; they want to create a perfect sociopolitical machine that individuals cannot change.
Eric Baldiwn
electrical engineering senior