Cal Thomas: Reporting on America

Syndicated Columnist, Author, Radio & TV Commentator

Cal Thomas is one of the most highly regarded voices on American politics and contemporary society. For nearly 40 years, he has written two columns a week appearing in more than 250 newspapers. He also produces five one-minute commentaries a week for more than 250 radio stations.

Thomas is a veteran of broadcast and print journalism, having worked for NBC News in Washington, D.C., hosted his own program on CNBC, and for 19 years was a commentator on the Fox News Channel. In 2011, he received the William F. Buckley, Jr. Award for Media Excellence from the Media Research Center.

He has authored many books, including “Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War that is Destroying America” (2008), “What Works: Common Sense Solutions for a Stronger America” (2014), and “America’s Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpowers and the Future of the United States” (2020).

Latest Achievement

Thomas, who keeps a home in Coral Gables, recently published “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America,” from which he read excerpts on July 14 at Books & Books.

“I thought it would be fun to go back and look at the columns that started in 1984, and my years as a reporter before then, to see what has changed,” says Thomas. “The answer is not much. Human nature never changes, so that is the problem.”

What He Says

When asked if he is optimistic about America, Thomas is not sanguine. “There are certain commonalities for every nation state that has existed, and the three things that precipitate the collapse of an empire. These are massive debt, uncontrolled immigration, and the loss of a shared sense of moral values, which is the glue that has always held a country and culture together.”

That, he says, is what the nation is experiencing today. “There is no secret to these things, but people are ignorant of their own history. I am not very optimistic about the future.”

Right now, says Thomas, “We are running on the inertia of the greatest generation [and] we are only one generation away from collapse.” As for his centrist politics, he says “I’m a conservative but one with a sense of humor. I want to preserve things that have proven themselves in the past.”

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