I'm 19 years old and a student at Vanderbilt University, where I intend to double major in Economics and Political Science if I don't decide to go pre-law my upcoming (sophomore) year.

Up until about a year ago, I considered myself conservative but my political stance varied on issue to issue. I pretty much took whatever was said in my high school econ and government classes as the truth and got my news in sound bites.

My political sentiments as they stand now developed rapidly after 9/11. Growing up in New Jersey and working in New York, the terrorist attacks affected me deeply, as it did many of my family friends. I remember for the first time taking genuine pride in being an American, and my patriotic feelings stuck. I have tremendous disdain for the current, fashionable anti-American rhetoric being spewed by liberal malcontents, who seem to be dissenting for the sake of doing so.

I believe in the free market, campaign finance reform, the repeal of affirmative action, education reform, patriotism, and the moral superiority of America. At the risk of sounding sanctimonious, America, as a country whose culture is a conglomerate of the best aspects of other cultures, has to hold itself to a higher standard than the theocracies we currently find ourselves in conflict with. I have faith in my government and my troops. My political views will no doubt continue to develop and be shaped by the people here, which is one of the reasons I joined these boards.

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Criticism from the French is difficult to accept, coming as it does from men carrying handbags. - D'Souza