Published 2004-09-15T00:00:00Z”/>

Robert Lahue<br>Opinion Columnist

I am a conservative.

And with that declaration, my mug shot has made its way onto many dartboard bull’s-eyes.

Sure, I know the conservative stereotype. Conservatives are racist hicks who drink beer, horde money, blast shotguns at anything that moves, listen to country music and watch NASCAR races.

I would like to refute this, because stereotypes are damaging and hurtful and ruin opportunities for open discussion. So no, I’m not racist, and…well, that’s all I can personally disprove. Sorry.

But being serious, since my arrival at Chico State last fall, I’ve detected a general anti-conservative attitude on this campus. Conservatives can’t talk openly about their politics, because if you look at the Chico State political landscape, like many college campuses, conservatism is a minority view, and its message is greeted as warmly as Antarctica.

This unwillingness to talk is called a “spiral of silence.” Many students speak down about conservatives not because they actually believe conservatism is bad, but because “everybody else does.”

Put down the darts for a second and let me explain myself.

Conservatism to me is an attitude of “just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should.” I like that because I don’t rush into decisions. Any decision. It takes me 15 minutes to choose between a hot dog or Caesar salad at Butte Station, let alone make up my mind on political issues.

Modern liberalism, however, is as appealing to me as cuddling with an irate skunk. Their social and fiscal ideas are hypocritical and ethically off-kilter.

To best illustrate the social problems of liberalism, just compare a popular stance combination for human rights and abortion rights. Human rights, the rights every person is supposed to have, sounds like this: you should be taken care of for everything, be considered equal to everybody else and be guaranteed the right to live your life how you want–sounds nice.

Here’s the hiccup: human rights are null and void if a person is still in the womb. Evidently allowing unborn babies a shot to live infringes on the mothers’ rights, and their rights are more important because they were here first, or something.

If liberals brag about their defense of rights, it would make real sense to include the most innocent and oppressed people around–the unborn ones. That stance screams “hypocrite.” Just because we can abort, does that mean we should? Conservatives lean toward no, and I agree with that.

Then there are fiscal issues. I scanned the issue record of the prominent liberal candidate for president, one John Kerry of Massachusetts. I noticed a trend: the great liberal Kerry’s cure for the country’s woes is a smorgasbord of higher taxes, washed down with a double shot of high taxes and a high tax chaser.

I’m not naive. I know that occasionally there may have to be a necessary tax hike, and I have no issue with that. Even so, I’m more comfortable when I know the government is making genuine efforts to let people keep money they earn.

In other words, just because a tax raise is the easiest fix doesn’t mean it should be done. Conservatives are aware of that and plead for alternate solutions and tax cuts.

There is a lot more to my conservative choice than what you’re reading, but to sum it up in a sentence: I’m conservative because I cannot ethically support candidates who align themselves with liberal platforms.

Being conservative hits the bull’s-eye.

Robert LaHue can be reached at

<a href= “mailto:[email protected]”>[email protected]</a>