Brave Humans

Congratulations on your new blog. I am glad to see a prominent politician such as yourself enter the blogosphere with an intent to “further the online discussion in the marketplace of ideas.” Too often politicians provide little more than liberal vs. conservative punditry with no real willingness to engage in serious civil discourse. We at BraveHumans share the same goal of cutting through the right-left divide to focus on meaningful discussions on topical issues.

To that end, I must say I was a little disappointed in your recent call to action. While I agree we should all play an active role in our political system, and I admire your desire to stir a grassroots movement to protect American ideals, I found your post lacking in details.

Specifically, you list the First Principles of conservatives: order, justice and freedom. These all sound great, however you don’t provide any details as to what you mean by these principles. You simply state them and move on to criticize liberals for standing in opposition to these ideas. You argue that liberals stand for chaos, injustice and oppression, but again you provide no details.

Such vague generalizations seem to play into the old left-right, Republican vs. Democrat partisanship which does little to advance American ideals. I do hope this was not your intent. Therefore in the interest of furthering discussion in the marketplace of ideas, I would ask that you outline in more detail your conservative first principles. What form do they take? How might they be applied to issues such as gay marriage, national defense, education, religious freedoms, habeas corpus, etc. I seek details so that we may openly discuss them.

I do hope to hear from you soon.

Be brave. Be human.

Brian