1. The fundamental political choice is between freedom and equality. Society can’t have 100% of both, because freedom and equality are antagonistic. If people are to be completely free, then their individual differences will naturally come to the fore and some people will demonstrate an advantage over other people. If people are to be completely equal, then the natural individual differences that lead to inequality will have to be controlled. Thus, the fundamental question to be asked is this: is it more important for a people to be free or to be equal? If you think that it is more important for a people to be equal, then you will necessarily become a liberal. If, on the other hand, you think that it is more important for a people to be free, then you will necessarily become a conservative.
Liberals have made the choice for equality over freedom. But what liberals choose to overlook is the fact that there are two different kinds of equality—“equality of opportunity” in which everyone is equal in the beginning and “equality of outcome” in which everyone is equal in the end. Liberals also choose to overlook the fact that it is a lot harder for a society to keep people from becoming unequal (and to keep them equal) than it is to make sure that everyone is equal in the beginning. (Most liberal legislation has to do with the former.) Conservatives, on the other hand, have made the choice of freedom over equality. Conservatives believe that no government can make its citizens truly and permanently equal, because individuals will always exercise their individual differences to their own advantage. Conservatives are always fighting against liberal legislation on the grounds that it almost always takes away some kind of freedom.