Position Paper

The United States was founded back in the 1700’s, primarily due to the colonists’ liberal thoughts and philosophies, which helped infuse the Declaration of Independence. These “liberals” of that time advocated freedom of religion, opposed the monarchy and aristocracy, and believed intensely in the rights of individuals to pursue their own interests that were not affected by restrictive government. Not all people during this time, however, had these general thoughts and ideas. Some, like the Americans Monarchists, in contrast, wished to conserve the established order in the United States, which became the basis of what Conservatism is today. Nevertheless it wasn’t until the 19th century that conservatism truly developed, mainly because of the French Revolution. These early conservatives believed in a strong centralized government, tradition, and stability. I am in favor of these conservatives because of my strong viewpoints regarding Human Nature, Tradition and Reform, and Authority and Individual Freedom.

I generally have a pessimistic opinion of human nature. I strongly agree with most conservatives’ views that we should expect less of people, because they have been corrupted and flawed by sin. I am definitely unwilling to provide welfare programs such as aid to unemployment, or aid to dependent children because I don’t think that these programs use it properly. Human Nature will sit back and use the benefits allotted to them without being forced to learn trades and earn their own �keep’. Thus the patterns that allow people to line up for handouts are established. There’s also no way to be sure that these dependent children and unemployed are really benefiting from my contributions, when the people running the programs could be using it to benefit themselves. In fact, I think that this will cause more problems in the long run.

When dealing with Tradition and Reform, I again, strongly agree with the Conservatives beliefs that we should preserve and conserve the old ways and traditions of the past. I certainly don’t feel that change is necessarily a good thing, because of the chaos and detrimental results that may come of it. Quick change isn’t essentially a good thing because it can lead to quick failure and