Allen West Quotes

Conservatism is a hard choice for a society that has become accustomed to big government and big entitlements promoted by liberals.

I stand for limited government, fiscal responsibility, personal freedom, personal responsibility, so the Republican Party will support me.

In the book I define conservatism, as I believe it is fit upon four categories of principle: respect for The Constitution, respect for life, less government, and personal responsibility.

The Tea Party is simply a loose description of local activism driven by Americans who want smaller government and more self-reliance. That sounds like what the Founding Fathers had in mind, does it not?

What does it mean to be a conservative? I don't even know anymore. I know what it means to me. It means to me, personal responsibility. That if I've done something wrong, its up to me to pay the price. It's up to me to make it right.

I believe in small government and people taking care of themselves.

Because of my upbringing, I believe in things like limited government, fiscal responsibility and personal accountability. I believe in the wisdom of our founders and the sanctity of our Constitution.

We need someone with proven conservative leadership experience, not entitlement, to be able to represent us and lead us.

Big-government proponents embrace both the power of the federal government and the idea that millions of Americans ought to be dependent on its largesse. It's time to return to our Founders' love for small government. More is not always better.

There are 100 different doors to come into the conservative movement. You can disagree with 99 of them, as long as you agree on one: more-limited government.

I became a Republican because I trust people more than I trust government.

Conservatism is about the basic rights of individuals. God created us. As far as the government goes, the Founding Fathers based the Constitution off of Christian values. It goes hand-in-hand. As far as the Republican Party? I felt connected to it because individual freedom should not be legislated by the federal government.

The conservative movement is about government playing its important yet limited role, and about not falling into the trap of believing that every problem has an exclusive government answer for it.

The anti-big-government movement is pure. Its participants represent something close to what used to be considered normative in this country.

I became a conservative because I believe that caring for people means more than just spending taxpayer money; it means delivering results. It means respecting and challenging our citizens, telling them what they need to hear, not simply what they want to hear.

America needs a strong, rational, positive, practical conservative movement. It needs that bulwark against liberal delusion and hubris. It needs a voice that says we are imperfect, that life is complex, that government can create need even as it meets need, that you can't fix everything, and freedom is worth some danger and sorrow.

No matter what the issue is, conservative principles are always better for people than big-government, liberal principles.

I realized that conservatism was the philosophy that best suited me, with its emphasis on individual liberty, personal responsibility, and merit.

The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom...

In my estimation, there should always be a mixture of economic liberalism - which means small government, a great emphasis on markets - but also a certain degree of social conservatism, not to favor change unless that change is beneficial. So I describe myself as an economic liberal and a social conservative.

The inherent purpose of American government is let people seek their own goals and to encourage them to be responsible on the various adventures they have on their way to those goals, good, bad, and otherwise.

My view is the less the government can do and the more freedom and opportunity you give people, that trusting people and free people and free enterprise - that America has built the greatest country in the history of the world.

People have to take responsibility for themselves. We need to get the housing industry going again. We don't need government intervening in every step.

We should reject big government and look inside ourselves for all the things that built this country into what it was.

Good for you, you have a heart, you can be a liberal. Now, couple your heart with your brain, and you can be a conservative.