The mission of Civil Public Square is to add civil commentary from a conservative perspective to the larger discussion of American politics and culture.
Why are we American conservatives? To put it simply – There is much about America that is worth conserving.
We are loyal to principles and policies, rather than politicians and personalities. We advocate for civil discourse – both for public figures across the political spectrum, as well as for all private citizens regardless of background.
We draw inspiration from many sources, among which are the late Father Richard John Neuhaus and the late Dr. Charles Krauthammer. Like our founder, Fr. Neuhaus and Dr. Krauthammer each made long but steady journeys from left to right on the political spectrum. They criticized the extremism of voices in the public square and predicted that they would threaten to end the American experiment in democracy.
Here at Civil Public Square, we advocate for the rights of citizens to make their voices heard in the public square. In its modern conception, the “public square” pertains less and less to space in the town center where a speaker addresses fellow community members from atop a soapbox, but more and more to digital media that enable countless voices to exchange opinions and perspectives on a global scale.
When filling the public square with our voices, we advocate that the exercising of our natural and Constitutional rights be done in a civil manner (see our “Standards” page for more information).
About our Founder:
Rob K. was born on the East Coast in the early 1970s and lived about half of his life in some of the bluest of blue states. He was raised in a working class family (his father was an HVAC mechanic and his mother was a secretary). He attended ethnically and socio-economically diverse public schools throughout his elementary and middle school years. He then graduated from a public high school in a nearby small town. He became the first in his family to attend college and graduated from a national university with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He met his wife there and relocated to a solidly purple state (though still lives in a blue county).
Rob would go on to earn Master’s and Doctoral degrees in education. He has worked in urban public schools for over 20 years. In his youth, he was solidly liberal (though he always liked President Reagan). He began to turn away from liberalism during the course of the 1990s, initially voting for H. Ross Perot in ’92 and later volunteering for his campaign in ’96. He cast his first vote for a Republican President in 2000. He soon began volunteering for Republican campaigns.
Though Rob agreed with several of then-candidate Trump’s policy positions, he quickly became disaffected with the unprecedented lack of civility in the Trump campaign and voiced concern that a Trump presidency might produce short-term gains but yield long term problems for the Republican Party and the national discourse. Due not only to her policy positions but also due to her own egregious personal conduct, Secretary Clinton was not a valid alterantive. Thus, for the first time, he voted for a write-in candidate in 2016.
Rob has been a proud member of his county’s Republican Party Executive Committee up to the present time. Due to his being born, raised, and educated in blue states and communities, as well as working as an urban practitioner in a profession at the nexus of education and psychology, Rob regularly discusses and debates politics with folks from the political left. Though he acknowledges that wholesale political “conversions” like his are quite rare, his adherence to the principles outlined on our Standards page has been helpful in moving many moderates and independents into the conservative column or, at the very least, giving it a fair hearing.
It was the feedback and encouragement of many friends, combined with his increasing concerns about the tone/tenor of our national conversation and its threat to the “American Experiment,” that led Rob to found CivilPublicSquare.