Not long ago, I was asked to describe what it is that makes me a “conservative.” That’s one of those questions that always gives me pause. Not to be all “No labels!” but I generally subscribe to the notion that labels are lazy and loaded — particularly when they’re used simply to otherize.

That said, they’re also convenient and, for better or worse, the way we peg others, politically, religiously, economically, etc. So they’re rather difficult to avoid.

Of course, there’s nothing more maddening than having others apply a label to you which is incorrect. Or which means something different to them than to you. Last night, I heard a pundit whom I’d generally describe as “conservative” refer to others with whom, at least until recently, he’d largely align politically as “so-called conservatives” — ostensibly because they take issue with a candidate who shall remain unnamed.

Well, Mr. Host, I disagree. There’s no one candidate or politician who serves as my political North Star and I refuse to place party over principle.

So, I’m just going to tell y’all what I believe and you can decide whatever label you think applies. Hello. I’m Susie:

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As someone who spent the first 35 or so years of her life as a liberal Democrat, the realization that I’d become a conservative was a jarring one, though it didn’t happen overnight. It was a gradual progression, born of major life changes combined with prolonged exposure — for the first time — to conservative ideals expressed BY conservatives in a civil, rational fashion, rather than filtered through liberal (negative) channels. But it was still a very strange realization.

So what is it that makes me “conservative” now?  In fairness, I’m probably better characterized as a hybrid – a fiscal conservative/social moderate.