On Tuesday, I sat down with Peter Berkowitz of the Hoover Institution to discuss his new book, Constitutional Conservatism: Liberty, Self-Government, and Political Moderation. That latter part of the subtitle might trip up a lot of folks, so I asked him to explain what exactly he meant by political moderation.

Political moderation rightly understood, Berkowitz explained, is not "compromise for the sake of compromise," but rather a "recognizing and reconciling [of] competing and worthy... political principles," such as individual liberty with traditional social customs and moral virtue. The Hoover senior fellow noted the concept has its origins in the great conservative British statesman Edmund Burke as can be seen in the political thinking of National Review founder William F. Buckley Jr. and conservative "fusionism" proponent Frank Meyer. [watch the full interview below the page break]