--- title: Carly Fiorina: Liberals Don't Believe Everyone Has God-Given Gifts description: Fiorina cited faith and self-determinism as she drew comparisons between her views on conservatives and liberals. canonical: https://time.com/3707109/carly-fiorina-conservative-philosophy/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-12T17:02:42.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:22:51.411Z article:section: Politics og:title: This Is Carly Fiorina's Conservative Philosophy og:description: Fiorina cited faith and self-determinism as she drew comparisons between her views on conservatives and liberals. og:url: https://time.com/3707109/carly-fiorina-conservative-philosophy/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73c79947129e91be/69877ef9a988ca08896ac708/carly-fiorina.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Conservative Activists And Leaders Attend The Iowa Freedom Summit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: This Is Carly Fiorina's Conservative Philosophy twitter:description: Fiorina cited faith and self-determinism as she drew comparisons between her views on conservatives and liberals. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73c79947129e91be/69877ef9a988ca08896ac708/carly-fiorina.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Carly Fiorina: Liberals Don't Believe Everyone Has God-Given Gifts  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 12, 2015 5:02 PM CUT  Carly Fiorina, former chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Co., during the Iowa Freedom Summit in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 24, 2015. Carly Fiorina, former chairman and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Co., during the Iowa Freedom Summit in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 24, 2015.Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Feb 12, 2015 5:02 PM CUT Potential 2016 candidate Carly Fiorina told business leaders Thursday that the difference between liberals and conservatives can be found in how they view the inherent worth of every person. “I think the core of conservative philosophy is that every one of us is equal. Every one of us has God-given gifts. No one of us is better than any other one of us,” she told an audience at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, during a morning address on technology and philanthropy in the Lincoln Labs’ Reboot Congress conference. “I don’t think liberals believe that.” The former CEO of Hewlett-Packard cited her own experience rising from an office secretary to become the first female CEO of a Fortune 50 company as an example of the self-determinism and potential of the “God-given gifts” in everyone. She said this philosophy was fundamentally at odds with liberal government. “The heart of liberal philosophy, if you look at their actions as opposed to listen to their words… is that actually not everyone is capable,” she said. “Some are smarter than others. Some are better than others. But don’t worry, some of us are going to take care of the rest of us. I think that’s the core of liberal programs.” Fiorina is the chairwoman of the American Conservative Union Foundation, and will be a host of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference outside Washington, D.C., at the end of the month. Many likely Republican presidential candidates, including Fiorina, Jeb Bush, Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, Bobby Jindal and Rand Paul, are scheduled to speak at the event. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3707109/carly-fiorina-conservative-philosophy/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3707109/carly-fiorina-conservative-philosophy/"},"headline":"Carly Fiorina: Liberals Don't Believe Everyone Has God-Given Gifts","datePublished":"2015-02-12T17:02:42.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:22:51.411Z","description":"The 2016 Republican presidential field's only likely female candidate goes on offense","url":"https://time.com/3707109/carly-fiorina-conservative-philosophy/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election topic","Republican","Carly Fiorina"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73c79947129e91be/69877ef9a988ca08896ac708/carly-fiorina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt73c79947129e91be/69877ef9a988ca08896ac708/carly-fiorina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Conservative Activists And Leaders Attend The Iowa Freedom Summit","caption":"Conservative Activists And Leaders Attend The Iowa Freedom Summit","creditText":"Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3707109/carly-fiorina-conservative-philosophy/","name":"Carly Fiorina: Liberals Don't Believe Everyone Has God-Given Gifts"}}]}] ```