Elephant in the Room Principles

Author: Stefan Claypool

My last column clearly got the attention of some people on campus, including a certain Mr. Harvey. I'm glad to see that some people are paying attention and not just tuning out when a conservative opens his mouth. I think that one of the great tragedies of modern political discourse is that our ideologies have become such points of pride that they define not how we view issues but the issues themselves. The reality is that both liberals and conservatives want what is best for the United States. We simply have different ways of getting to that final goal. What I'd like to do in this column is give the largely liberal Middlebury student body a glimpse into the mind of a genuine conservative.

What do conservatives believe in? Quite simply, we believe in the principles laid out in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, The Federalist papers, and The Wealth of Nations (our unofficial fourth founding document). We believe that for the most part, individuals are basically good and will act in their own self-interest to achieve their goals. We believe that a government ought to be formed by these individuals to serve their collective interests and to defend them, physically and philosophically. We believe that human beings are endowed with inalienable rights, and that it is the duty of the government to protect those rights. We believe that the most important of those rights is the right to free speech. We believe that individuals are far better equipped to run their own lives than the government is. We believe that the primary purpose of the government is to maintain infrastructure and protect us from bodily harm. We believe that the American way of life is something to which individuals should aspire, and that we have within us the capacity to make the world a better place. And we believe that despite its flaws, the United States still stands as the greatest force for good that the world has ever known.

In most instances, we do not believe that government is capable of achieving broad social reform. We do not believe that social engineering or "balancing" is a wise tool with which to build a sustainable, self-perpetuating society. We do not believe that the government should be allowed to infringe upon our individual rights to protect those of our neighbors, nor do we believe that the income that we earn should be taken from us and given to others without our consent. We do not believe that the federal apparatus is capable of understanding the intricacies of the local problems individual communities face. We do not believe that all societies and systems of morality are equal. We do not believe that we need to be babysat. We do not believe that we are the bad guys, nor that we owe any apologies for acting out of our self-interest. And we do not believe that anyone is qualified to determine what is best, or most suitable or most fair about another individual's life.

We are not cartoon characters. We are not yokels thumping our Bibles as we load our shotguns, nor do most us wear monocles as we read our stock ticker and sip our fine gin. We are people of all stripes, all backgrounds, and we are united largely by the beliefs explicated above. We are real. We are conservatives. We are Americans. And we want to work together with liberals, we do. We just want to do it in such a way that achieves our shared goals without compromising our core beliefs. And so, in the spirit of understanding, I am extending a hand to any columnist or letter-writer who wants to write a counterpoint for next week's paper. Tell me, readers: what defines a liberal?