Am I a conservative?

My politics are frequently branded as 'conservative'. It is not a label I abhor; nor is it one I am completely comfortable with. I must admit, I was a liberal for most of my life, and I have not completely recovered. One of the lingering effects of that malaise is a certain antipathy for the conservative label. Unfairly or not, I associate the term with traditionalism, authoritarianism, anti-intellectualism, religiosity, and a certain curmudgeonly resistance to change.

At the same time, I share much in common with conservatives. I believe in limited government. I am a capitalist. I am more hawkish than George Bush.

My problem with the term is that I find it too general. 'Conservative' is used equally well to describe the Heritage Foundation, the Christian Coalition, and mullahs in the Iranian regime. The essential question, I think, is not whether you are conservative, but what is it that you are trying to conserve? The welfare state? United Airlines? Traditional marriage? The only answer that impresses me is the one Thomas Jefferson gave: the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Which is why, in a way, I still consider myself a liberal. 'Liberal' once had nearly the opposite of its current meaning: classically, it was used to describe an advocate for freedom and limited government; now it is used to describe a proponent for every kind of state control. I think the right made a strategic error by yielding such a valuable term to the left. The right's denigration of the term 'liberal' makes counterintuitive the truth that ours is the side of political freedom. We are the true defenders of individual rights and freedom from excessive and arbitrary government. The left, in contrast, seeks freedom from reality, at the expense of the individual.