Commentary: Conservatives should oppose shrinking national monuments

The Western United States may be the last natural bastion of what it means to be a free American. The image of the Old West brings a sense of beauty, with sky-scraping mountain ranges, deep valleys and endless desert and woods. The feeling of utter freedom is something one must experience to understand.That sense of beauty and utter freedom is purely American, and for me, purely conservative. I first traipsed the romantic desolation of New Mexico as a Boy Scout long ago and came to understand th