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Your assertion that they are corrupted by their environment leads to the liberal conclusion that if we just made the proper environment through empowering elites, everyone would act in a “good” way.

Wrong! That's merely a perverted liberal solution to accumulate power. A more valid argument is that giving people access to information (including moral training offered by the Word of God), truth and the freedom to choose will best enable them to overcome the evil influences presented by the environment.

There are a lot of conservatives (especially home schoolers) who make this very argument, regardless of which side of the nature/nurture divide they may fall on from either a theological or philosophical viewpoint.

Incidentally, not even all liberals believe “people are basically good”. Many argue that we are basically evil, which is why government power and enlightened elitism needs to force us to be good.