Ethan Berkowitz speaking to the AFL-CIO during the 2008 campaign season. "It doesn't matter if it's Obama, Obegich, or Oberkowitz."

In the midst of round two between Republican primary victor Joe Miller and Senator Lisa Murkowski, various labels have been thrown around without an ounce of thought or care. On one side Murkowski has branded the tea-party groups "extremist" while Miller's followers have opted to stick to either calling Murkowski a RINO (Republican in name only) or simply a liberal.

I have never put much weight into the extremist card, being an enthusiastic fan of the old-school conservative Barry Goldwater who famously said during his presidential nomination at the 1964 Republican convention, "I would remind you that extremism in the defense of Liberty is no vice!" 

What bothers me instead is this ridiculous notion that the only "true" conservatives are those who completely adhere to some non-existent set-in-stone manifesto. Conservatism isn't a fixed ideology in the classic Marxian sense, but instead a loosely defined way of looking at the world with an underlying set of general principles, tracing its roots back to the 18th century Irish statesman Edmund Burke.

It is debatable whether Lisa Murkowski herself is actually a liberal or conservative, but when voices on the right begin to dismiss men like Republican Lt. Governor candidate Mead Treadwell (someone both strongly socially and economically conservative) for lacking conservative credentials on the basis that he may have accepted the validity of the man-made global warming, then there needs to be a reassessment of what it means to be a conservative. Merely accepting or denying the man-made global warming theory in no way says anything about the conservatism or liberalism of an individual.

All too often these hot-headed conservative witch-hunters cast themselves in their own minds as being the model by which to measure all others. If you disagree on an issue, no matter how small, you must be a moderate at best, or liberal at worst.

And that is why I've decided  to try my hand at laying out the general principles which define conservatism, using three books as my guide: Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind, Thomas Sowell's A Conflict of Visions, and Benjamin Wiker's 10 Books Every Conservative Must Read.

Note: Expect to see the defining conservative article by the end of the week.

In honor of Constitution week I decided to write a piece titled Political views differ in understanding of the U.S. Constitution.

Here are two articles I wrote over the past few weeks featured on The Northern Light titled Mosque debate driven by "sensitivity" and UAA bookstore reveals political bias. I recommend the latter and plan to make an appeal to the UAA administration.