Conservative; not to be confused with the GOP

There is a saying that goes, "A young conservative has no heart, and an old liberal has no brain." While I agree that the latter part of the phrase holds some truth, the former part I must argue.

As a twenty-year-old conservative activist, I have been the subject of much criticism and controversy over the past couple years because there is ignorance in our society as to what a conservative truly is. Many of my peers believe a conservative is one whom espouses more freedom for big corporations and elites, while espousing an individual's personal and moral freedom less.It disheartens me when the media, liberals, and uninformed citizens deduce my way of life -- my conservatism --to greed and religious fascism. The people of the United States, particularly the GOP, need to be taught or reminded what real conservatism represents.

Although I am a College Republican leader, I will confidently make the claim, though controversial, that Americans are ignorant to what true conservatism is because the term, conservative, is too closely associated with the Republican Party. This causes many to believe that a conservative and a Republican are one in the same.

However, today's GOP leaders have diluted the meaning of conservatism with their hypocrisy.Since Republicans gained control of the White House and Congress they have done anything but 'conserve.' The United States has experienced the biggest spending increases and expansion of entitlement programs since Lyndon B. Johnson. Also, the federalizing of education, the McCain-Fiengold restrictions on political speech, and most recently, Republican support for a bill that would grant amnesty to illegal immigrants: all of which is a far cry from the conservative principles that so many of these same Republican's campaigned on.

With the combination of our universities left-wing biases, and our supposedly "conservative" leaders being anything but conservative, it is no wonder young people today are liberal.I encourage all sincere conservatives to expose the politicians whom adopt the word conservative for their own political gain, and then degrade all that it stands for.

I encourage young people to study American history and read the works of great conservative thinkers such as Edmund Burke, Russell Kirk, and TS Eliot. It is necessary that the youth educate themselves on the proper meaning of conservatism, since it's teaching seems to be forbidden in the contemporary classroom.

In contradiction to the modern day stereotype, conservatism is actually a philosophy of the heart. It is rooted in the love and respect of individuality, opportunity, responsibility, and most of all, freedom.

So long as the GOP continues to lose sight of this, then the GOP, will indeed, continue to lose.