About my blog

I started The Capitol Tribune in late 2005 for one primary reason: I wanted to engage in the discussion and debate going on in the blogosphere.

I bring to the discussion a background in government, management, history, literature, philosophy, rhetoric, and politics. I consider myself an intellectual. For me, that is simply one who enjoys the study and discussion of ideas.

My political views are not entirely easy to categorize. I’m a conservative on most issues, a moderate on some, and a liberal on a few. It all depends on the issue. However, if forced to choose, I consider myself a conservative. Michael Gerson said it perfectly: “I am a conservative because I believe in the accumulated wisdom of humanity—a kind of democracy that gives a vote to the dead—expressed in the institutions and moral ideals we inherit from the past. When those ideals and institutions are causally discarded in the cause of personal liberation, the result is usually personal suffering and social decay. We cannot prosper as a ‘cut-flower civilization’—separated from our sustaining roots.” For those with a classical history background, I’d consider my perspective a cross between Tacitus and Livy. A sort of realistic idealist.

I believe in the preeminence of Western culture. The values and cultural inheritance passed down to us from the ancient Greeks and Romans have made Western societies the most powerful, prosperous, free and envied nations in the history of the world. It’s a cultural inheritance worth protecting and fighting for. I believe in American exceptionalism. America is, in a comparative historical sense, the new Rome. As the most powerful Western nation in the world, I believe America is a tremendous force for good.

The name of my blog was a carefully chosen one. For some years now I have served and toiled in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol dome. I’ve had the privilege of being a spectator in the most powerful place in the world. The Capitol Tribune is my journal.