In contemporary American politics, most observers continue to describe political positions in terms of an illogical and outdated "liberal/conservative" spectrum. As we have already noted, many of the views that are often called "liberalism," such as those of socialist "intellectuals," conflict strongly with true liberalism, which upholds individual freedom as its guiding political principle (pp. 5.2:30-1). In opposition to the statist elements of such pseudo-liberalism, the ideas of authentic liberalism have only recently begun to be heard in this political arena and remain unfamiliar to most people. Consequently, it is often falsely assumed that opposition to statist interventions and to governmental encroachments on individual rights must reflect a "conservative" political outlook, despite the fact that conservatives have notoriously failed to provide any sound or consistent intellectual basis for upholding individual liberty and have frequently condoned egregious violations of it.

Conservatism, according to the Random House College Dictionary (rev. ed.) is "the disposition to preserve what is established and to resist change." Mere resistance to change, it should be clear, does not comprise a coherent political philosophy at all. In a relatively free society, conservatism opposes proposed statist measures; in a more statist system, in contrast, it resists the notion of individual freedom with the same tenacity. In the current political climate, to espouse individual rights is to advocate reform of a most progressive and even radical kind and hence represents a fundamental repudiation of conservatism.