Today, I present a miniature manifesto. I hope you will take what I believe to heart and develop your own manifesto, no matter how different it is from mine. I also hope that I will get responses requesting that I explain myself further regarding any issue I mention – or fail to mention – in this article.

I do not pretend to speak for everyone who takes the title of conservative. I only claim that I believe I speak for a majority of true conservatives on most issues.

First and foremost, I believe in limited government. Small government in the hands of people at the local level is my dream. I believe government has one true responsibility: to protect its people from attack at home and abroad.

This is why I support military action abroad in Iraq and elsewhere. I believe that these missions are in our national interest. As part of its job to protect and defend us, government should also control law enforcement at the federal, state and local levels.

Illegal immigration is still illegal, although this fact is often lost on many pro-illegals Americans. The government has a duty to protect our borders. Deportation should be a viable option. We need to eliminate incentives to illegals, as well. Did you know that qualified illegal immigrants get in-state tuition at Texas public universities? Imagine living in Oklahoma and paying more to attend Texas Tech than a Mexican national from Chihuahua. It’s a reality.

At the same time, we should encourage legal migration to the United States. We have always welcomed legal immigrants and that should not change.

I believe there are certain circumstances that require the government to protect us even from ourselves. The best military in the world will not do any good if we are killing ourselves from within. For this reason, as well as my faith in God and His Son Jesus, I am morally opposed to abortion and assisted suicide in all circumstances.

Some will question my support for the death penalty in light of my belief that government should protect us from ourselves. I note one important distinction here: I support the death penalty for criminal cases where there is clear evidence of murder with intent to kill.

I don’t support the death penalty for involuntary manslaughter and less violent crimes. This position does not violate my principle of government protection, because the government is preventing a convict from killing others by humanely killing the convict through lethal injection.

Beyond the above extenuating circumstances, government should not be given a blank check under the guise of protection.

I believe in the Bill of Rights. Government needs probable cause to conduct searches and indictments to hold criminal suspects. Americans should not live in fear of government invasion of privacy, and privacy only exists when private property exists. Private property is perhaps our most fundamental right as Americans.

In keeping with my belief in limited government, I believe it is time for government to remove itself from marriage, including the conferring of marital benefits and tax breaks. Marriage is a religious institution, and that is where it belongs. In doing so, government will leave the gay marriage debate in the hands of churches and other religious organizations.

Speaking of benefits, government should not be in the welfare business. I believe that government should offer limited, short-term job training and assistance instead of the modern welfare state that has developed. I think that this would encourage personal responsibility and financial planning.

Social Security and Medicare should be greatly reduced, if not eliminated. Government spending in these areas is reckless and wasteful, and it crowds out private investment. Big government healthcare has caused Canadians to seek treatment in the United States for the most basic operations. That should not be allowed to happen in America.

Government should not monopolize the education business. Since the government is tied into education for at least my lifetime and likely longer, government should allow school choice and require that a higher percentage of funding go straight to classroom instruction. Competition is what drives our entire capitalistic system. Empirical evidence shows that it would also greatly improve our schools if only given the chance.

Speaking of funding, our tax system is fundamentally flawed. I personally support a flat tax. I think that every American should pay the same percentage of income in taxes. Progressive taxes penalize productivity and entrepreneurship. Flat taxes also promote economic growth. Many Eastern European nations have adopted flat taxes with great success, including Russia and the Baltic countries.

I diverge significantly from many modern conservatives in my views on censorship. I think that censorship is an incredibly bad idea except in rare circumstances. I don’t believe in the sort of censorship that occurred during the Super Bowl this week. Do not mistake my position as an endorsement of violence, coarse language or sexual perversion. I think that we should discourage such action as a society, but government should not be involved.

These are my personal beliefs, and I am willing to defend them.

Reed Hanson is a junior electrical engineering major. He may be reached at [email protected].