The Universality of Conservatism: A Reflection

Conservatism is for everyone. This is the mantra which has undergirded the mission and purpose of our organization. Our organization stands as one of the most ethnically and socioeconomically diverse student groups on campus, a clear testament to the fact that conservative principles are strong enough to supersede any racial or cultural divide. They are reflected in the lettering of our Declaration of Independence, where to my recollection, God did not confer our rights to us any of these distinctions. These rights are conferred to all equally, so that all Americans have the opportunity to share in the promise of the American Dream.

Even as the radical left and alt-right serve to divide us on the basis of identity politics, now more and more Americans are realizing that there is more that we have in common on the basis of our values that can ever stand to divide us.

The appeal to people on the basis of division has always been a tool of the political left. The success of the Democrat Party is also predicated on an agenda of dependency and economic slavery. This was apparent through the Democrat Party’s support of Slavery, Jim Crow, and a failed economic program designed to keep low-income Americans poor while continuing to get their continued political support by giving them another handout.

Now more than ever, our nation needs an agenda grounded in economic freedom and the conservative ethos; an agenda which encourages growth and wages organically, and one which encourages low-income Americans to overcome the disincentives of a welfare state designed to keep them poor. Furthermore, a free market agenda deregulating housing restrictions and removing zoning laws, would do more to address the housing crisis and help low-income Americans than any command control economic policy ever will. If we are to win our nation with the strength of conservative ideas, we must make the conservative case to communities we haven’t reached before.

Millions of Americans continue to hold that there is no other country we would rather live in. And while our nation isn’t perfect, this is the place that the American Dream was born. If we can make Americans believe that again with conservative ideas, then we have won.

Stephen Sills

SCR President