“Your” National Capital

Not very long ago, I would refer to Washington, DC as “My” or “Our” National Capital.

In the flush of Ronald Reagan’s victory in 1980. I was eager to work on behalf of our new President, and spent months in Washington, DC.  About that time I met a Japanese citizen from a  distinguished family who told me that “Washington, DC has the smell of money.”

That was 39 years ago and our centralized administrative state was a source of contracts for government services and programs–enough federal funding to give off a scent of wealth and splendor that was to come.

In June, I spent two days in DC. On one day I had difficulty finding parking at the one event in which I was to give a presentation and that morning I was offended that I was charged $23 to park for 1 1/4  hours in a parking lot across from the U.S. Department of Education.

This past weekend at a reunion of Republican Congressional “staff,” I shuttled from Crystal City in Arlington to Northwest DC and then to the Trump Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. I realized that “Your” Capital City is now  the home of an Empire.

Back in 1961 when I interned at Human Events, DC was a village. Today those little areas of village life have been overtaken by buildings worthy of the greatest Empires on Earth.

This is “your” Capital City, not mine.