Conservative columnist and Clovis resident joins The Bee’s ranks of opinion contributors

My name is Diane Pearce. I am 41, own and operate a successful small business with my husband and live in Clovis. I was born and raised in this area and absolutely love the Central Valley and our people.

I was also raised with conservative values and have seen the voice for these principles I hold shrink over the years and become rather marginalized in our state. Some of you reading this just cheered, and some of you share my disappointment. I want to connect with both sides and hope you all stick with me.

I am not breaking any news when I admit it can be disheartening to be a Republican in California. But I am grateful to The Bee for the opportunity to share with this readership every month why I believe conservative values are the way to restore this state to golden status.

As a strong, educated, independent woman who grew up being told and believing I could be anything and do anything I wanted to if I was willing to put in the work and effort required, I wholeheartedly consider myself a true feminist. My success is not dependent on additional consideration to “overcome” being a woman. I do not need government to help take care of me, either. I can make the decisions that are in my best interest for myself and can decide what is right for my family.

I believe my best opportunity for success comes when I can pursue my ambitions without outside interference. How could I not align myself with the principles of individual liberty and limited government? How could I support anything but empowering individuals and not increasing government’s influence over them?

That is what I see as the bottom-line difference between conservativism and liberalism. Conservative governance seeks to empower individuals to decide and follow what is best for them. Liberal governance chooses to empower the government to have say and sway over individuals’ lives and decisions.

California has struggled for many years now under liberal governance. We have increasing poverty and homelessness, a mass exodus of businesses fleeing onerous taxes and regulations, laws that create a revolving door in our jails and put criminals right back on our streets and in our neighborhoods, and we prioritize those who did not follow the rules to get here over citizens and immigrants who followed the rules and have the legal right to be here and enjoy the benefits intended for them.

I believe a more balanced legislature that cannot pass legislation without bipartisan support from a healthy opposition party is critical. That enables those in the middle, the moderates, to build effective coalitions from both sides, as opposed to a one-party supermajority that can pull its moderate members to the extreme.

But, to accomplish that, Republicans must improve in our ability to articulate our beliefs and positions and open lines of communication. The California electorate is not as polarized as we are led to think. We found quite a bit of common ground between left and right on the statewide propositions this past November when party affiliations were not part of the choice and it was just about principles.

I look forward to engaging in substantive discussion on the issues we face in our state and here locally and bringing a conservative perspective to these topics. I believe that we all reach our opinions and beliefs the same way — through our personal experiences and thoughtful consideration. So, we should keep our disagreements civil.

Feel free to write in with your thoughts, questions, and even criticism. I welcome it all.