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FIRST PRINCIPLES FOUNDATIONAL CONCEPTS TO GUIDE POLITICS AND POLICY

NO. 45 | October 15, 2012

Barack Obama and the Crisis of Charles R. Kesler, PhD

Abstract Liberalism as we know it today in America is on the verge of exhaustion. Facing a fiscal crisis that it has precipitated and no longer sure of its purpose, liberalism will either go out of business or be forced to reinvent itself as something quite different from what it has been. In this careful analysis of Barack Obama’s political thought, Charles R. Kesler shows that the President, though intent on reinvigorating the liberal faith, nonetheless fails to understand its fatal contradictions—a shortsightedness that may prove to be liberalism’s undoing. This essay is adapted from Kesler’s new book, I Am the Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism.

arack Obama had the distinc- Since then, we have learned a lot He still had to answer, in some Btion of being the most liberal more about his political leanings as a measure, for his ties to William member of the Senate young man, which were fashionably Ayers and Jeremiah Wright, but the when he ran for President in 2008. leftist, broadly in keeping with the issue with, say, the good reverend The title had been conferred by climate of opinion on the campuses concerned his sermons about race National Journal, an inside-the-Belt- where he found himself—Occidental and Middle East politics, not his pen- way watchdog that annually assigns College, Columbia University, chant for visiting and honoring Fidel Senators (and Congressmen) an ideo- Harvard Law School. Castro, not to mention the Marxist logical rank based on their votes on As a senior at Columbia, he Sandinistas in Nicaragua.1 Partly by economic, social, and foreign policy attended the 1983 Socialist Scholars avoiding the worst of the old anti- issues. Conference, sponsored by the Communist gauntlet, Obama became Democratic Socialists of America. the most left-wing liberal to be elect- Though a meeting of democratic ed to national executive office since

This paper, in its entirety, can be found at socialists and, yes, community Henry Wallace. http://report.heritage.org/fp44 organizers, the conference as well as Still, the President is not a self- Produced by the B. Kenneth Simon Center his long-running friendships with proclaimed socialist—nor, like for Principles and Politics radicals of various sorts would have Wallace, a self-deceived fellow trav- The Heritage Foundation drawn more sustained attention if eler or worse. Obama never went so 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 the Cold War were still raging. But it far, so openly—whether out of inertia, (202) 546-4400 | heritage.org was not, and Obama pleaded youth- political calculation, or good sense— Nothing written here is to be construed as necessarily ful indiscretion and drift; and of and therefore never had to make a reflecting the views of The Heritage Foundation or as an attempt to aid or hinder the passage of any bill course his campaign did its best to public apostasy. As a result, we know before Congress. keep the details from coming out. less about his evolving views than FIRST PRINCIPLES | NO. 45 October 15, 2012

we might like, though probably more its excesses. Each wave of liberalism The first and most disorient- than he would like. featured a different aspect of it—call ing wave was political liberalism, He calls himself a progressive or them, for short, political liberalism, which began as a critique of the liberal, and we should take him at , and cultural Constitution and the under- his word, at least until we encoun- liberalism—and each deposited lying it. That morality, Woodrow ter a fatal contradiction. That’s only on our shores a distinctive type of Wilson charged, the natural reasonable and fair; and it avoids the politics—the politics of , the doctrine of and desperate shortcut, gratifying as it politics of entitlements, and the poli- , was based on an may be, of unmasking him as—take tics of meaning. outmoded account of human nature, your pick—a Third-World daddy’s an atomistic and egoistic view that boy, Alinskyist agitator, deep-cover MODERN LIBERALISM SPREAD needed to be corrected by a more Muslim, or undocumented alien. ACROSS THE COUNTRY IN THREE well-rounded or social view, made Conservatives, of all people, should plausible by the recent discovery know to beware instant gratification, POWERFUL WAVES—POLITICAL that human nature was necessarily especially when it comes wrapped LIBERALISM, ECONOMIC LIBERALISM, progressive or perfectible. So-called in a conspiracy theory. In any case, AND CULTURAL LIBERALISM—AND natural rights were actually histori- hypocrisy, as Rochefoucauld wrote, EACH DEPOSITED ON OUR SHORES cal or prescriptive, evolving with the is the tribute that vice pays to virtue, times toward a final and rational A DISTINCTIVE TYPE OF POLITICS— and Obama seems to think it would truth. The 18th century Constitution, be a virtuous thing to have been a THE POLITICS OF PROGRESS, THE based on the 18th century notion of a lifelong liberal, even if he wasn’t. POLITICS OF ENTITLEMENTS, AND fixed human nature with static rights, And so the question arises: What THE POLITICS OF MEANING. had in turn to be transcended by a does it mean anymore to be a liberal? modern or living constitution based To answer it, we must first retrace on the evolutionary view. Drawing the over the These terms are conceptual on a curious and unstable mixture of course of the past century. rather than, strictly speaking, his- Social Darwinism, German ideal- torical. They help to organize our ism, and English historicism, Wilson The Four Waves of Liberalism thinking more so than our record- outlined the new State that liberals The 20th century was, as the late keeping, inasmuch as elements of all would ever after be building, the goal Tom Silver used to say, “the liberal three were mixed up in each stage. of which would be nothing less than century.” Conservatism was a late Although it wasn’t inevitable that man’s complete spiritual fulfillment. arrival, debuting as a self-conscious one wave should follow the next, a The second wave explic- intellectual movement only in the certain logic connected the New itly adopted the name of liberal- 1950s and lacking significant politi- , the New Deal, and the ism, laying aside the old banner cal success until the 1980s. By con- Great Society. Each attempted to of . It championed trast, the liberal storm was already transform America, as their names liberality or generosity in the form gathering in the 1880s and broke suggest, and the second and third of a new doctrine of socioeconomic upon the land in the new century’s waves worked out themes implicit in rights and tried to connect the new second decade. It had made deep, the first. But the special flavor of each rights to the old, the Second Bill of decisive changes in American poli- period owed much to the issues and Rights (as FDR called it) to the First. tics long before conservatism as we forces involved, the legacy of previ- Instead of rights springing from know it came on the scene. ous reform, the character of the polit- the individual, the New Deal recon- It didn’t, however, win these vic- ical leaders, and the disagreements ceived as springing tories all at once. Modern liberalism within and between the generations from a new kind of rights created by spread across the country in three of reformers. The third wave, cen- the State. The new entitlement-style powerful waves, interrupted by wars tered on the Sixties, showed just how rights posed as personal rights, even and by rather haphazard reactions to fratricidal liberalism could become. though they effectually attached to

1. Stanley Kurtz, Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism (New York: Threshold Editions, 2010), pp. 1–11, 21–60, 71–77, 86.

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groups; but due to the slight Obama inherited that frayed lib- by his profession, in Berlin, that he resemblance, they allowed Roosevelt eralism. Against long odds, he’s tried is a citizen of the world as well. He to present himself and the New Deal to reunite its dissonant parts and seems to lack both the citizen’s pride as the loyal servants and successors restore its political élan. He brought and the immigrant’s gratitude. of the , of the America to the verge of a fourth wave Tempting as it might be to write old social compact suitably updated. of political and social transformation, off the President, it would be a big Liberalism’s third wave, cultural something that neither mistake. Whatever else he may or lifestyle liberalism, hit in the nor Republicans thought possible. accomplish, his staggering victory on 1960s. It was only when this wave But as the latest embodiment of the health care reform has earned him a crashed around them that the radi- visionary prophet-statesmen he future place on the Mount Rushmore cal character of liberalism became hasn’t been able to sustain the deep of liberalism, alongside those other clear to the American people; only connection to the American people supreme hero-statesmen of the then that conservatism became, at that his election in 2008 seemed to creed, , Franklin D. least temporarily, a majority move- promise and that his desire to restore Roosevelt, and Lyndon B. Johnson. ment, insofar as it stood for America liberalism as the country’s dominant Assuming that his signature achieve- against its cultured despisers and public philosophy required. Perhaps ment is not unceremoniously reformers. The Great Society agreed after the debacle of the Great Society, repealed and replaced, Obama will with the New Deal that government three decades in the political shadow almost certainly become one of the had to provide for Americans’ neces- of Ronald Reagan, and the current Democratic immortals, the giants sities in order that they may live in protracted economic doldrums, who built and expanded the modern freedom, but it denied that freedom Americans have grown suspicious of liberal state. from want and freedom from fear the liberal vision of the future as a (along with and kind of Brigadoon—a land of wonders The New Progressivism worship) were any longer sufficient that voters glimpse every four years of Barack Obama for all-around human liberation. but that quickly fades into the mists, Obama is neither an old-fashioned Freedom required not merely living and from which no one has ever Progressive nor a radical postmod- comfortably but also creatively, a returned. ernist. Part of what makes him inter- demand that the New Left took sev- esting is how he handles the conflict- eral steps further than poor Lyndon IN THE SIXTIES, WHEN SOCIAL ing strains of his own thought. As a Johnson was willing or able to go. MORALITY COLLIDED WITH decent man, he believes in justice In the Sixties, the “peculiar” char- and identifies with the civil rights acter of the bound up with PERSONAL LIBERATION, AND THE movement’s insistence that Jim contemporary liberalism began to STATE’S AUTHORITY CLASHED Crow was manifestly wrong and the tear it apart as its constituent ele- WITH THE PEOPLE’S RIGHTS, AND cause of black equality manifestly ments began to clash. When social THE ASSUMPTIONS OF RATIONAL right. As a self-described progres- morality collided with personal sive, he believes in change; that is, PROGRESS WERE DENIED BY liberation, and the State’s authority he believes that change is almost clashed with the people’s rights, and PROTESTORS WHO PREFERRED TO always synonymous with improve- the assumptions of rational prog- MAKE HISTORY BY FOLLOWING THEIR ment, that history has a direction ress were denied by protestors who AUTHENTIC SELVES RATHER THAN and destination, that it’s crucial to be preferred to make history by follow- on the right side of history, not the ADMIRE HISTORY AS IT CAME TO AN ing their authentic selves rather than wrong, and that it’s the leader’s job to admire history as it came to an end— END—THEN LIBERALISM BEGAN TO discern which is the right side and to then liberalism began to unravel. UNRAVEL. lead his people to that promised land For conflicting reasons, liberals lost of social equality and . faith that they were on the right side Unlike any of his liberal predeces- Yet he’s skeptical of the simple- of history and that the State could sors, Obama’s tortuous doubts about minded progressive equation of ever provide the conditions for com- American exceptionalism lead to a history with the inevitable tri- plete self-development or spiritual sense of his estrangement from his umph of justice; he fears that the fulfillment. own country, a disability not relieved foreknowledge of success or the

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optimistic certitude of victory would That’s the deeper meaning of “Yes, we can.” We affirm our right to detract from the honor of standing his slogan, “Yes, we can,” which he change by always changing; we shape up against Jim Crow, for example. It elsewhere called “a simple creed that history by reshaping ourselves. would also create a free-rider prob- sums up the spirit of a people.” In For all his openness to change, lem: Why risk opposing segregation itself, the phrase sounds like a reply there is one to which Obama consis- if its fall is inevitable? He shares the to “No, you can’t.” But was the nay- tently answers, “No, we can’t.” Any civil rights movement’s sense that sayer denying us permission to do change that would move the country you have to make history, not just something or doubting our ability to backward, in his view, is anathema. wait for it to make you. Yet if men do it? If the former, “Yes, we can” is “What I’m not willing to do is go back can make history and history makes an assertion of moral right or auton- to the days when…” is a phrase that morality, then don’t human beings omy; if the latter, it’s an assertion of begins many a sentence in his reper- create their own morality? power or competence. For Obama, in tory. When dealing with conserva- As the product of a very liberal Progressive fashion, the two appear tives, his confidence in history’s pur- education, alas, Obama never dis- to go together. Obama says, “Yes, we pose and beneficence is miraculously covered that this quandary could be can” to slaves, abolitionists, immi- raised to almost Wilsonian levels. He resolved by returning from history grants, western pioneers, suffrag- may not be exactly sure where his- to nature as the unchanging ground ettes, the space program, healing this tory is going, but somehow he knows of our changing experience, as the nation, and repairing the world—and it’s not going there. A certain impa- foundation of morality and poli- that’s in one speech.2 tience and irritability creep into his tics. Returning, say, to Lincoln’s and In a strange way, “Yes, we can” voice. If people reject his vision, he the Founders’ own understanding takes the place in his thought that can’t be a leader—and that makes of themselves, reconsidering their “all men are created equal” held in it personal. His tone turns petulant, argument for the Declaration’s prin- Lincoln’s thought. Insofar as it is and he begins to issue orders to fol- ciples, never occurred to him as a America’s national creed, it affirms low him. serious possibility. The progressivist that America is what we make it at The main target of his scoldings assumptions, though decadent, were any given time: America stands for is, of course, the House Republicans, still too strong. He thought the only the ability to change, openness to who tend to obstruct his measures. way was forward. change, the willingness to constantly But in a larger sense, Obama displays remake ourselves—but apparently for the Progressive impatience with poli- IN A LARGER SENSE, OBAMA no particular purpose. Jon Stewart, tics itself. It’s not merely the separa- DISPLAYS THE PROGRESSIVE the comedian, caught the dilemma tion of powers, checks and balances, perfectly when, joshing the President and other constitutional devices that IMPATIENCE WITH POLITICS ITSELF. over his equivocations on the Ground often stalemate change to which Zero mosque, he said Obama’s slogan, liberals object. It’s human nature in In his capacity as a political leader, as amended, now read: “Yes, we can…. its present state, still so inclined to Obama’s favorite formulation is But…should we?” praise God rather than man, to ven- that he seeks to “shape” history. But The country’s saving principle, erate the past, and to be guided by a shaping history leaves ambiguous then, is openness to change. “The healthy self-love. just how much freedom or influence genius of our founders is that they Eventually, man will be worthy human beings actually have—wheth- designed a system of government of liberalism, assuming it has its er we shape history decisively or only that can be changed,” Obama said in way with him and conditions him marginally. As he declared in Iowa 2007 when announcing his presi- to love the State as the bee loves the in 2010 after his health care victory: dential candidacy. In short, ours hive. In the meantime, it’s a constant “Our future is what we make it. Our is the kind of country that always struggle to bear with this unrecon- future is what we make it.” says, “Yes, we can” to the principle of structed individualist who would

2. See Barack Obama, Remarks Following the Iowa Caucuses, January 3, 2008, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=76232&st=&st1=#axzz1lvul Jr36.

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rather govern his potty little self (in leadership paradigm values freedom separate it as much as possible from Chesterton’s great phrase) according and self-rule much less than it does the radical politics of the Sixties to his own lights than be well gov- getting things done, attacking social and the burden of defending big erned by experts for his own (pur- problems, and making sure that lib- government. ported) good. eral programs survive the struggle President Clinton began this Obama, like most liberal thinkers, for existence on Capitol Hill. renewal in the 1990s. In some ways, dreams of overcoming man’s stub- Leadership is a term from the Obama continues and sharpens bornly political nature in two ways, military side of politics, and one of Clinton’s efforts, wringing all the by assimilating politics either to the the reasons the Founders resisted benefits he can out of the appearance family or to the military. He began it was their determination to pre- of post-partisanship while making his 2011 State of the Union address serve republican politics as a civil- few sacrifices of substance. He far by invoking the first theme: “We are ian forum, as the activity of a free outshines Clinton, however, in tell- part of the American family,” and people ruling itself. A standing army ing the story of America in a way that together as one we’re going to “win might be necessary for that people’s reinforces a resurgent liberalism. the future”—a slogan with deeply defense, but citizens had no business More than any other Democratic Social Darwinist roots, by the way. longing to exchange political debate President since FDR, Obama has After the future business didn’t and deliberation for military solidar- an impressive interpretation of pan out so well in numerous scrapes ity and discipline. American history that culminates with the House GOP, his frustra- On his better days, President in him and that reworks and coun- tion took a different direction a year Obama knows that, but this wasn’t ters Reagan’s view of our history as later. In his 2012 State of the Union, one of them. He went on: “When you the working out of American excep- after celebrating Osama bin Laden’s put on that uniform, it doesn’t mat- tionalism (including divine favor), killing and the withdrawal of com- ter if you’re black or white; Asian or individualism, , bat forces from Iraq, the President Latino; conservative or liberal; rich free-market economics, and time- focused on the “courage, selflessness, or poor; gay or straight.” Nor does tested morals. and teamwork of America’s armed it matter, by the way, whether you As a writer, Obama’s strength forces”: think the war is just or unjust, pru- is telling stories, and his account dent or imprudent. of America is a kind of story, mix- At a time when too many of It might seem that liberals have ing social, intellectual, and politi- our institutions have let us come a long way from the protest cal history. It begins with the down, they exceed all expecta- days of the 1960s when many of them Founding—with the Declaration of tions. They’re not consumed lustily denounced the American war Independence and Constitution. He with personal ambition. They machine; but in fact, they’re still tries to construct a new consensus don’t obsess over their differ- compensating or overcompensat- view of the country that acknowl- ences. They focus on the mission ing for their contempt of the U.S. edges and then contextualizes at hand. They work together…. military back then. At the same traditional views in a way meant Imagine what we could accom- time, they are returning to an older to be reassuring but that points to plish if we followed their example. Progressive tradition, highly vis- very untraditional conclusions. For ible in the New Deal, of trying vainly instance, in The Audacity of Hope, in Yes, if politics were rigidly hier- to make politics the moral equiva- a chapter titled “Values,” he quotes archical, if we had to follow orders lent of war. In any event, no one has the Declaration’s famous sentence from above without question, and if to put on a uniform to be an equal on self-evident truths and then living together as a free people were citizen with equal rights under our comments: as unequivocal and straightforward Constitution. an affair as pumping bullets into bin Those simple words are our Laden, then we could accomplish Progressivism starting point as Americans; they a lot more—or a lot less, depending Without Progress? describe not only the founda- on how highly you democratic To make possible a governing tions of our government but the self-government as an accomplish- liberal majority, Obama has to reha- substance of our common creed. ment. And the truth is that the bilitate liberalism’s reputation, to Not every American may be

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able to recite them; few, if asked, of Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, and it means coming together “as one could trace the genesis of the Sidney and proceeding from an American family.” “If fate causes Declaration of Independence to abstract truth, applicable to all men us to stumble or fall, our larger its roots in eighteenth-century and all times, could hardly be a sim- American family will be there to lift liberal and republican thought. ple distillation of 18th century ide- us up,” he explains. But the essential idea behind the ologies—unless, of course, Jefferson In real life, he hasn’t exactly been Declaration—that we are born and Lincoln didn’t know what they there to lift up his aunt in Boston into this world free, all of us; that were talking about. If they spoke for or his hut-dwelling half brother in each of us arrives with a bundle their age without knowing so, if they Kenya, but then in real life of rights that can’t be taken were men of their times but didn’t often disappoint. Even so, the fam- away by any person or any state realize it, then like their 21st century ily’s failings only leave more work for without just cause; that through countrymen, they too would have the State. Membership in it confers our own agency we can, and been ignorant of their 18th century or protects our “dignity,” Obama must, make of our lives what we wellsprings, but precisely because argues, in the sense of guarantee- will—is one that every American they were living in or at least not long ing “a basic standard of living” and understands.3 after the 18th century! effectively sharing “life’s risks and rewards for the benefit of each and It sounds almost Lincolnian until FOR OBAMA, UNITY MEANS BEING the good of all.” And no one can one notices that the rights in this YOUR BROTHER’S AND SISTER’S enjoy “dignity and respect” without a bundle are not said to be natural, society that guarantees both “social exactly, nor true and certainly not KEEPER; IT MEANS COMING justice” and “economic justice.” self-evident; they are an outgrowth TOGETHER “AS ONE AMERICAN These ramify widely, demanding, of 18th century political thought, FAMILY.” “IF FATE CAUSES US TO in Obama’s words, that “if you work too recondite for most Americans STUMBLE OR FALL, OUR LARGER in America you should not be poor”; to know or remember. Abraham that a college education should be AMERICAN FAMILY WILL BE THERE TO Lincoln, when explaining the every child’s “birthright”; and that Declaration, traced its central idea to LIFT US UP,” HE EXPLAINS. every American should have broad- God and nature, not to 18th century band access. Lately, he’s feeling even ideologies. He called for “all honor Returning to Obama’s American more generous. The “basic American to Jefferson” for introducing “into a story, we see that it blends two promise,” he said in his 2012 State of merely revolutionary document, an themes: individualism (symbolized the Union address, was and should be abstract truth, applicable to all men in the Declaration) and “unity” (sym- again that “if you worked hard, you and all times.” When Jefferson was bolized in the Constitution’s com- could do well enough to raise a family, asked about the document’s source mitment to “a more perfect Union”). own a home, send your kids to college, and purpose, he looked to common The latter phrase, plucked from the and put a little away for retirement.”5 sense as well as to a much older and Preamble, has long been a favorite of That sounds more like winning richer philosophical tradition.4 liberals from Wilson to Bill Clinton. life’s lottery than a promise that any- A commonsense argument har- For Obama, unity means being one could justly demand be fulfilled. monious with the political principles your brother’s and sister’s keeper; Notice how craftily, however, Obama

3. Barack Obama, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream (New York: Crown Publishers, 2006), p. 53. 4. Abraham Lincoln, Letter to H. L. Pierce and Others, April 6, 1859, in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Basler (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953), vol. 3, p. 376; Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Henry Lee, May 8, 1825, and Letter to Roger Weightman, June 24, 1826, inThomas Jefferson: Writings, ed. Merrill D. Peterson (New York: Library of America, 1984), pp. 1501, 1517. For a commentary, see Harry V. Jaffa,A New Birth of Freedom (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000), ch. 2. 5. Barack Obama, “A Hope to Fulfill,” Remarks of Senator Barack Obama at the National Press Club, April 26, 2005, http://obamaspeeches.com/014-National- Press-Club-Speech.htm; Remarks Following the Wisconsin Primary, February 19, 2008, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=76558&st=&st1 =#axzz1lvulJr36; Remarks in St. Paul, Minnesota, Claiming the Democratic Presidential Nomination Following the Montana and South Dakota Primaries, June 3, 2008, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=77409&st=&st1=#axzz1lvulJr36; Address Before a Joint Session of Congress on the State of the Union, January 24, 2012, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index/index.php?pid=99000#axzz1lvulJr36; and James T. Kloppenberg, Reading Obama: Dreams, Hope, and the American Political Tradition (Princeton, N.J.; Princeton University Press, 2011), pp. 89–110, 139–40.

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shifts his examples of social duty minimal, and besides, don’t respon- to the new times; and so finding the from picking up the fallen to sending sibilities and rights usually keep a proper balance between the individ- someone else’s kids to college. How house together? So these are rights ual and the community continues to easily liberal magicians transform of a sort, and Obama said so explic- stoke our increasingly polarized and needs into desires and desires into itly a month before the 2008 election polarizing political debates. rights. They do it right before our in a CNN debate with John McCain. Though he hails the Constitution eyes and never explain the secret Asked whether health care was a as a mechanism of “deliberative of the trick. Still, it’s revealing that privilege, a responsibility, or a right, democracy,” Obama doesn’t mean he doesn’t go whole hog, turning he replied, “Well, I think it should by that a back-and-forth on public such socioeconomic goods explicitly be a right for every American.”6 But policy conducted by the executive into rights and cataloging them for he had avoided saying so up to that and legislative branches with input our wonderment. Chastened by the point. from the people. Deliberation of that right-wing and middle-class back- kind, endorsed by The Federalist and lash against rights, he follows OBAMA DEPLORES THE BILE IN OUR consistent with natural rights, would Bill Clinton in silently recasting, say, CONTEMPORARY POLITICS, AND IT seek means to the ends of constitu- the right to go to college on someone tional government. That’s too nar- else’s money as an “investment” in MUST PUZZLE HIM THAT HE CAUSES row for Obama, who seeks delibera- “opportunity.” As Obama presents it: SO MUCH OF IT. BUT HE’S ASKING tion about the ends, or at least about FOR IT. what our rights will be and what the …opportunity is yours if you’re Constitution should mean in the age willing to reach for it and work Obama leaves the relationship that is dawning. He wants to turn all for it. It’s the idea that while between individualism and “a more of the Constitution’s mechanisms— there are few guarantees in life, perfect union” up in the air, to be separation of powers, federalism, you should be able to count on a settled pragmatically. Every soci- checks and balances—into ways of job that pays the bills; health care ety has a similar tension between forcing a “conversation” about our for when you need it; a pension “autonomy and solidarity,” he writes, identity. In such a conversation, “all for when you retire; an education and “it has been one of the blessings citizens are required to engage in a for your children that will allow of America that the circumstances process of testing their ideas against them to fulfill their God-given of our nation’s birth allowed us to an external reality, persuading oth- potential. negotiate these tensions better than ers of their point of view, and build- most.” The circumstances, not the ing shifting alliances of consent.”7 Actually, there are quite a few principles, of our nation were key, Required? An external reality? “guarantees” in a life lived in Obama’s because the wide-open continent And who judges whether the result- America. Even as he’s wary of rights allowed individuals to head west and ing conversation meets the require- talk after the Sixties’ implosion, he form new communities to their lik- ments of democracy or not? Obama also denies any fondness for “big gov- ing whenever they wanted to. deplores the bile in our contempo- ernment.” Newfangled rights would But the continent filled up; big rary politics, and it must puzzle him imply a big government to provide corporations gradually took over that he causes so much of it. But he’s them. He’s not in favor of that; he from the family farm, just as Wilson asking for it. As Bill Buckley used to supports “active government.” These and FDR had explained generations say, liberals always talk about their aren’t blank-check rights because before; and soon our “values” were in tolerance and eagerness to engage the recipient has some recipro- a more serious conflict that required with other views, but they’re always cal responsibilities—filling out the a bigger government to help recon- surprised to find that there are other enrollment forms, showing up at cile. Unfortunately, that government views. class, making passing grades, and the proved enduringly unpopular with Obama expects 21st century like. But the obligations are usually conservatives, who refused to adjust people to have, roughly speaking,

6. Barack Obama, Comments at Presidential Debate at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, October 7, 2008, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index. php?pid=84482&st=&st1=#axzz1lvulJr36. 7. Obama, The Audacity of Hope, pp. 55, 92.

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21st century views, as he does. What Declaration and the Constitution, generations into a single, unalter- then of Jefferson and his 18th cen- and with Stephen Douglas’s as well. able course, or drive both majorities tury compeers? Obama soon makes Despite his admiration for Lincoln, and minorities into the cruelties clear that despite their fine words, Obama sides with Lincoln’s oppo- of the Inquisition, the pogrom, the Jefferson and the other Founders nents in their interpretation of gulag, or the jihad.” There is no abso- were less than faithful to the liberal Jefferson and the Declaration as pro- lute truth—and that’s the absolute and republican inferences of the slavery.8 Obama regards the original truth, he argues. Such feeble, self- principles they proclaimed. Like a intention of both the Declaration contradictory reasoning is at the good law school professor, in The and the Constitution to be racist heart of Obama’s very private and Audacity of Hope, Obama lines up and even pro-slavery, but he refrains yet very public struggle with him- evidence and argument on both sides from making the point explicit. self to determine whether there is before concluding that, in fact, the anything anywhere that can truly Founders probably did not under- OBAMA’S UNDERSTANDING OF THE be known, or even that is rational to stand their principles as natural and PAST PAYS LIP SERVICE TO SUCH have faith in. Anyone who believes, universal, despite their language, but really believes, in absolute truth, he rather as confined to the white race. THINGS AS SELF-EVIDENT TRUTHS, asserts, is a fanatic or in imminent The Declaration of Independence ORIGINAL INTENT, AND FIRST danger of becoming a fanatic; abso- “may have been,” he says, a transfor- PRINCIPLES BUT QUICKLY CHANGES lute truth is the mother of extremism mative moment in world history, a THE SUBJECT TO VALUES, VISIONS, everywhere. great breakthrough for freedom, but Although it’s certainly a good DREAMS, IDEALS, MYTHS, AND “that spirit of didn’t extend, thing that America avoided religious in the minds of the Founders, to the NARRATIVES. and political tyranny, no previous slaves who worked their fields, made President has ever credited this their beds, and nursed their chil- His understanding of the past achievement to the Founders’ rejec- dren.” As a result, the Constitution thus pays lip service to such things tion of absolute truth, previously “provided no protection to those as self-evident truths, original intent, known as “truth.” Is the idea that outside the constitutional circle,” to and first principles but quickly human freedom is right, slavery those who were not “deemed mem- changes the subject to values, visions, wrong, thus to be rejected lest we bers of America’s political commu- dreams, ideals, myths, and narra- embrace an “absolute truth”? What nity”: “the Native American whose tives. This is a postmodern “move.” becomes of the “universal truths” treaties proved worthless before the We can’t know or share truth, post- Obama himself celebrates on occa- court of the conqueror, or the black modernists assert, because there sion? Surely the problem is not with man Dred Scott, who would walk is no truth “out there,” but we can the degree of belief, but with the into the Supreme Court a free man share stories and thus construct falseness of the causes for which the and leave a slave.” a community of shared meaning. Inquisition, the pogrom, the gulag, Obama doesn’t argue, as Lincoln It’s these ideas that mark his fur- and the jihad stood. A fervent belief did, that the Supreme Court major- thest departure from old-fashioned in religious liberty is not equivalent ity was in error, that Dred Scott liberalism. to a fervent belief in religious tyran- was wrongly and unjustly returned More and less radical, more and ny any more than a passionate belief to slavery, and that Chief Justice less nihilist—Obama comes in on in democracy is equivalent to a pas- Roger Taney’s dictum—that, in the the “less” side, but then a little bit of sionate longing for dictatorship. Founders’ view, the black man had no nihilism goes a long way. “Implicit… In The Audacity of Hope, within rights that the white man was bound in the very idea of ordered liberty,” two pages of his criticism of the to respect—was a profound solecism. he writes in The Audacity of Hope, Founders for allegedly excluding On the contrary, Obama accepts Dred is “a rejection of absolute truth, the black Americans from constitutional Scott as rightly decided according to infallibility of any idea or ideology protection as equal human beings the standards of the time. He agrees, or theology or ‘ism,’ any tyrannical and citizens, he warns against all in effect, with Taney’s reading of the consistency that might lock future such sweeping truth claims and

8. Ibid., p. 95.

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indeed praises the Founders for on to confess he has a soft spot for “as if we are certain,” God help us. being “suspicious of abstraction.” On “those possessed of similar certainty Unlike John Brown, Lincoln was an every major question in America’s today”—for example, the “antiabor- absolutist who realized the limita- early history, he writes, “theory tion activist” or the “animal rights tions of absolutism yet still brought yielded to fact and necessity…. It may activist” who’s willing to break the forth a new order. “Lincoln, and be the vision of the Founders that law. He seems to suffer from certain- those buried at Gettysburg,” Obama inspires us, but it was their realism, ty envy. He respects passionate, even concludes, “remind us that we should their practicality and flexibility and fanatic commitment as such. Though pursue our own absolute truths only curiosity, that ensured the Union’s he may “disagree with their views,” if we acknowledge that there may survival.”9 Obama cannot decide he admits that “I am robbed even be a terrible price to pay.”10 Our own whether to blame the Founders as of the certainty of uncertainty—for absolute truths? Those words ought racists or to celebrate them as rela- sometimes absolute truths may well to send a shudder down Americans’ tivists; to assail them for not apply- be absolute.” Not true, necessarily, constitutional spine, assuming we ing their truths absolutely to blacks but absolute. It’s hard to know what still have one. and Indians along with whites or to he means exactly. That the “truths” praise them for compromising their are fit for the times, are destined The Liberal Crisis too absolute principles for the sake of to win out and forge a “new order”? Liberals like crises, and one something concrete. That they are willed absolutely, not shouldn’t spoil them by handing pragmatically or contingently? Even them another on a silver salver. The OBAMA CANNOT DECIDE WHETHER his rejection of absolute truth is now kind of crisis that is approaching, TO BLAME THE FOUNDERS AS uncertain. however, is probably not their favor- So, finally, in his perplexity, he ite kind—an emergency that presents RACISTS OR TO CELEBRATE THEM turns again to Lincoln. Like “no man an opportunity to enlarge govern- AS RELATIVISTS; TO ASSAIL THEM before or since,” Lincoln “under- ment—but one that will find liberal- FOR NOT APPLYING THEIR TRUTHS stood both the deliberative function ism at a crossroads, a turning point. ABSOLUTELY TO BLACKS AND of our democracy and the limits of Liberalism can’t go on as it is, not for such deliberation.” His presidency very long. It faces difficulties both INDIANS ALONG WITH WHITES OR TO combined firm convictions with philosophical and fiscal that will PRAISE THEM FOR COMPROMISING practicality or expediency. Obama compel it either to go out of business THEIR TOO ABSOLUTE PRINCIPLES seems never to have heard of pru- or to become something quite differ- FOR THE SAKE OF SOMETHING dence, the way a statesman (and ent from what it has been. a reasonable and decent person) For most of the past century, lib- CONCRETE. moves from universal principles to eralism was happy to use relativism particular conclusions in particular as an argument against conservatism. His attempt to resolve this contra- circumstances. The 16th President, Those self-evident truths that the old diction carries him into still deeper he ventures, was humble and self- American constitutional order rested and murkier waters. Obama turns for aware, “maintaining within himself on were neither logically self-evident inspiration to the abolitionists, draw- the balance between two contradic- nor true, Woodrow Wilson and his ing no distinction between a superb tory ideas,” that we are all imperfect followers argued, but merely ratio- publicist and reasoner like Frederick and thus must reach for “common nalizations for an immature, sub- Douglass and a butcher like John understandings” and that at times jective form of right that enshrined Brown, who was happy “to spill blood “we must act nonetheless, as if we are selfishness as national morality. and not just words on behalf of his certain, protected from error only by What was truly evident was the visions.” Both were “absolutists,” providence.” relativity of all past views of moral- which, by Obama’s definition, means For a man like Lincoln, there is no ity, each a reflection of its society’s they were “unreasonable” but will- such thing, he says in effect, as act- stage of development. But there was a ing to fight for “a new order.” He goes ing with moral certainty, only acting final stage of development when true

9. Ibid., pp. 93–96. Obama echoes, and radicalizes, Woodrow Wilson’s distinction between the Founders as time-bound theorists and as competent statesmen. 10. Ibid., pp. 97–98.

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morality would be actualized and its at the moment of decision because More worrisome even than the inevitability made abundantly clear— it doesn’t satisfy his love of justice, danger of a superman able to prom- that is, self-evident. or rather his love of a certain kind ise that everything desirable will Disillusionment came when the of courage or resolute action. “The soon be possible is a people unat- purported end or near end of his- blood of slaves reminds us that our tached to its constitution and laws; tory coincided not with idealism pragmatism can sometimes be moral and for that, liberalism has much to justified and realized, but with what cowardice,” he writes.11 In a moment answer. many liberals in the 1960s, espe- like that, a great man must follow his In one crucial respect, our situa- cially the young, despaired of as the own absolute truth, and the rest of tion would seem more perilous than infinite immorality of poverty, racial us are left hoping it is Lincoln and the future danger Lincoln sketched injustice, Vietnam, the System, and not John Brown, much less Jefferson insofar as the very definitions of the threat of nuclear annihilation. Davis, whose will is triumphant. The political “good” and “harm” are now Relativism rounded on liberalism. great man doesn’t anticipate or fol- uncertain. Avant-garde liberalism Having promised so much, liberal- low or approximate history’s course; used to be about progress; now it’s ism was peculiarly vulnerable to the he creates it, wills it according to about nothingness. You call that charge that the complete spiritual his own absolute will, not absolute progress? Perhaps, paradoxically, fulfillment it once promised was nei- knowledge. that’s why Obama prefers to be called ther complete nor fulfilling. When combined with liberalism’s a progressive rather than a liberal. lust for strong leaders, this open- It’s better to believe in something INTELLIGENT AND MORALLY ness to Nietzschean creativity looms than in nothing, even if the some- SENSITIVE LIBERALS MAY TRY TO dangerously over the liberal future. thing, Progress, is not as believable If we are lucky, if liberalism is lucky, as it used to be. His residual progres- SUPPRESS OR INTERNALIZE THE no one will ever apply for the position sivism helps insure him against his PROBLEM OF RELATIVISM, BUT of liberal “superhero,” in Michael instinctual postmodernism. Still, IT CANNOT BE FORGOTTEN OR Tomasky’s term, and the role will liberalism is in a bad way when it IGNORED. DESPITE HIS INVESTMENT remain vacant. But as Lincoln asked has lost confidence in its own truth, in the Lyceum speech, “Is it unrea- and it’s an odd sort of “progress” to IN DELIBERATIVE DEMOCRACY, sonable then to expect, that some go back to a name it surrendered 80 COMMUNITARIANISM, AND man possessed of the loftiest genius, years ago. PRAGMATIC DECISION MAKING, HE’S coupled with ambition sufficient to Adding to liberal self-doubt is that WILLING TO THROW IT ALL ASIDE AT push it to its utmost stretch, will at liberalism’s monopoly on the social some time, spring up among us?” sciences, long since broken, has THE MOMENT OF DECISION BECAUSE been supplanted by a multiple-front IT DOESN’T SATISFY HIS LOVE OF And when such a one does, it will argument with conservative schol- A CERTAIN KIND OF COURAGE OR require the people to be united ars in economics, , RESOLUTE ACTION. with each other, attached to the and other fields. In the beginning, government and laws, and gener- Progressivism commanded all the ally intelligent, to successfully social sciences because it had invent- As Obama’s grappling shows, frustrate his designs. Distinction ed or imported them all. Wilson, intelligent and morally sensitive will be his paramount object; Franklin Roosevelt, and Lyndon liberals may try to suppress or inter- and although he would as will- Johnson could be confident in the nalize the problem of relativism, but ingly, perhaps more so, acquire inevitability of progress, despite tem- it cannot be forgotten or ignored. it by doing good as harm; yet, porary setbacks, because the social Despite his investment in delibera- that opportunity being past, and sciences backed them up. An exper- tive democracy, communitarian- nothing left to be done in the tise in administering progress exist- ism, and pragmatic decision mak- way of building up, he would set ed, and experts in public administra- ing, he’s willing to throw it all aside boldly to the task of pulling down. tion, Keynesian economics, national

11. Ibid., p. 98.

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planning, urban affairs, moderniza- After World War II, an unantici- Progressivism has never been in a tion theory, development studies, pated and at first unheralded revival fair fight, an equal fight, until now, and a half-dozen other specialties of political philosophy began, associ- because its political opponents had beavered away at bringing the future ated above all with Leo Strauss, ques- largely been educated in the same to life. tioning historicism and nihilism in ideas, had lost touch, like Antaeus, What a difference a half-century the name of a broadly Socratic under- with the ground of the Constitution makes. The vogue for national plan- standing of nature and natural right. in natural right, and so tended to ning disappeared under the pres- New studies of the tradition yielded offer only Progressivism Lite as an sure of ideas and events. Friedrich some very untraditional results. alternative. Hayek demonstrated why socialist Though there were left-wing as well The sheer superficiality of economic planning, lacking free- as right-wing aspects to this revival, Progressive scholarship is now evi- market pricing information, could the latter proved more influential dent. Progressives could never take not succeed. In a side-by-side experi- and liberating. The unquestionabil- the ideas of the Declaration and ment, West Germany far outpaced ity of both progress and relativism Constitution seriously for many of East Germany in economic develop- died quietly in classrooms around the same reasons that Obama can- ment, and all the people escaping the country. Economics is an instru- not ultimately take them seriously. across the Wall traveled from east to mental science, studying means not Wilson never demonstrated that the west, leaving their workers’ para- ends, and so much of the successes Constitution was inadequate to the dise behind. Keynesianism flunked of free-market economics could be problems of his age—he asserted the test of the 1970s stagflation. The swallowed pragmatically by liber- it, or rather assumed it. His refer- Reagan boom, with its repeated tax alism’s maw. The developments in ences to The Federalist are shallow cuts, flew in the face of the ortho- political philosophy challenged the and general, never betraying a close doxy at the Harvard Department ends of Progressivism, proving far familiarity with any paper or papers, of Economics but was cheered more damaging to it. and willfully ignorant of the separa- by the Chicago School. Milton tion of powers as an instrument to Friedman’s advice to Chile proved THE SHEER SUPERFICIALITY OF energize and hone, not merely limit, far sounder than Jeffrey Sachs’s to PROGRESSIVE SCHOLARSHIP IS NOW the national government. Though Russia. Monetarism, rational choice he thought of himself as picking economics, supply-side, “govern- EVIDENT. PROGRESSIVES COULD up where Hamilton, Webster, and ment failure,” “regulatory capture,” NEVER TAKE THE IDEAS OF THE Lincoln had left off, Wilson never “incentive effects”—the intellectual DECLARATION AND CONSTITUTION investigated where they left off discoveries were predominantly on SERIOUSLY FOR MANY OF THE SAME and why. Neither he nor his main the Right. Conservative and libertar- contemporaries asked how far The REASONS THAT OBAMA CANNOT ian think tanks multiplied, carrying Federalist’s or Lincoln’s reading of the new insights directly into the ULTIMATELY TAKE THEM SERIOUSLY. national powers and duties might fray. take them, because they assumed it The scholarly counterattack pro- In sheer numbers, the academy would not take them very far, that ceeded in political science and the remained safely, overwhelmingly in it reflected the political forces of its law, too. Rational choice and “law the hands of the Left, whose mem- age and had to be superseded by new and economics” changed the agenda bers in fact grew more radical, with doctrines for a new age. They weren’t to some degree. Both politics and the some notable exceptions, in these interested in Lincoln’s reasons, only law became increasingly “originalist” years. But they gradually lost the in his results. Not right but histori- in bearing, enriched by a new appre- unchallenged intellectual ascendan- cal might was the Progressives’ true ciation for 18th century sources and cy, though not the prestige, they once focus. the original intent of the Founders had enjoyed. Today liberalism looks increas- and the Framers of the Constitution. Thanks to this intellectual rebirth, ingly, well, elderly. Hard of hearing, Above all, the Progressives’ attempt the case against Progressivism and irascible, enamored of past glories, to replace political philosophy with in favor of the Constitution is stron- forgetful of mistakes and promises, social science foundered. ger and deeper than it has ever been. prone to repeat the same stories over

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and over—it isn’t the youthful voice —is to add a third? Perhaps it is a and entitlements are mostly spent of tomorrow it once imagined itself stratagem. More likely it is simply effecting the right to health care, the to be. Only a rhetorician of Obama’s the reflexive liberal solution to any insolvency of the health care entitle- youth and artfulness could breathe social problem: Spend more. ment programs is rightly regarded life into the old tropes again. as a major part of the economic and Even he can’t repeat the perfor- OBAMA IS THE FIRST LIBERAL TO moral crisis of liberalism. “Simply mance in 2012. With a track record SUGGEST THAT EVEN put,” Yuval Levin writes, “we cannot to defend, he will have to speak more afford to preserve our prose and less poetry. With a centu- CANNOT PAY FOR ALL THE BENEFITS in anything like its present form.” ry-old track record, liberalism will PROMISED BY THE AMERICAN According to the Congressional find it harder than ever to paint itself WELFARE STATE, PARTICULARLY Budget Office, by 2025, Medicare, as the disinterested champion of the REGARDING HEALTH CARE. Medicaid, Social Security, and the public good. Long ago, it became an interest on the federal debt will Establishment, one of the estates consume all—all—federal revenues, of the realm, with its court-party of From Karl Marx to , if leaving defense and all other expen- notoriously self-interested constitu- you’ll excuse the juxtaposition, left- ditures to be paid for by borrowing; encies: the public employee unions, wing critics of capitalism have often and the debt will be approaching the trial lawyers, the feminists, the paid it the supreme compliment of twice the country’s annual GDP.13 environmentalists, and the corpo- presuming it so productive an eco- rations aching to be public utilities nomic system that it has overcome Conclusion paying private-sector salaries. Not permanently the problem of scarcity If something can’t go on forever, visions of the future, but visions of in human life. Capitalism has gener- Herbert Stein noted sagely, it won’t. plunder come to mind. This is one ated a “plenty.” It has distributional It would be possible to increase side of what Walter Russell Mead problems, which produce intolerable federal revenues by raising taxes, means when he criticizes the “blue social and economic instability; but but the kind of money that’s needed state social model” as outmoded and eliminate or control those inconve- could only be raised by taxing the heavy-handed.12 niences and it could produce wealth middle class (defined, let us say, as The Patient Protection and enough not only to provide for every all those families making less than Affordable Care Act is about as sleek man’s necessities, but also to lift him $250,000 a year) very heavily. Like and innovative as the several phone into the realm of freedom. To some every other Democratic candidate books’ worth of paper it takes up in liberals, that premise implied that since Walter Mondale, who made printed form. Can one imagine Steve socioeconomic rights could be paid the mistake of confessing to the Jobs’s reaction if he had been tasked for without severe damage to the American people that he was going to with reading, much less implement- economy and without oppressive raise their taxes, Obama swore not to ing, the PPACA? It is exhibit A in the taxation, at least of the majority. do that. case for the intellectual obsolescence Obama is the first liberal to sug- If the bankruptcy of the entitle- of liberalism. gest that even capitalism cannot pay ment programs were handled just Finally, we come to the fiscal for all the benefits promised by the the right way, with world-class embarrassments confronting con- American welfare state, particularly cynicism and opportunism, in an temporary liberals. Again, Obama- regarding health care. Granted, his emergency demanding quick, pain- care is wonderfully emblematic. solution is counterintuitive in the ful action lest Grandma descend into President Obama’s solution to the extreme, which makes one wonder if an irreversible diabetic coma, then problem of two health care entitle- he is sincere. To the extent that lib- liberalism might succeed in maneu- ment programs quickly going eralism is the welfare state, and the vering America into a Scandinavia- bankrupt—Medicare and Medicaid welfare state is entitlement spending, style überwelfare state, fueled by

12. See, for example, Walter Russell Mead, “Beyond the Blue Part One: The Crisis of the American Dream,” American Interest, January 29, 2012, http://blogs.the- american-interest.com/wrm/2012/01/29/beyond-blue-part-one-the-crisis-of-the-american-dream/. 13. Yuval Levin, “Beyond the Welfare State,” National Affairs, Spring 2011, pp. 21–38, 30, 32.

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massive and regressive taxes cheer- abroad, a combined intellectual combination that is contemporary fully accepted by the citizenry. But movement, political party, and form liberalism, is not. Compounded odds are we stand instead at the twi- of government crumbled away, to be of the Hegelian philosophy of his- light of the liberal welfare state. As it swept up and consigned to the dust- tory, Social Darwinism, the living sinks, a new, more conservative sys- bin of history. Communism, which in constitution, leadership, the cult of tem will likely rise that will feature a very different way from American the State, the rule of administra- some combination of more means- liberalism traced its roots to Hegel, tive experts, entitlements and group testing of benefits, a switch from Social Darwinism, and leadership rights, and moral creativity, modern defined-benefit to defined-contribu- by a vanguard group of intellectuals, liberalism is something new and tion programs, greater devolution of vanished before our eyes, though not distinctive, despite the presence in authority to the states and localities, without an abortive coup or two. If it, too, of certain American constants a new budget process that will force Communism, armed with millions of like the love of equality and demo- welfare expenditures to compete troops and thousands of megatons of cratic individualism. with other national priorities, and nuclear weapons, could collapse of its Under the pressure of ideas and the redefinition of the welfare func- own dead weight and implausibility, events, that compound could come tion away from fulfilling socioeco- why not American liberalism? apart. Liberals’ confidence in being nomic “rights” and toward charita- on the right, the winning side of bly taking care of the truly needy as COMPOUNDED OF THE HEGELIAN history could crumble, perhaps has best the community can afford when , already begun to crumble. Trust in private efforts have failed or proved government, which really means in inadequate. SOCIAL DARWINISM, THE LIVING the State, is at all-time lows. A major- Currently, the welfare state oper- CONSTITUTION, LEADERSHIP, THE ity of Americans oppose a new enti- ates almost independently along- CULT OF THE STATE, THE RULE tlement program—in part because side the general government. Taken OF ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERTS, they want to keep the old programs together, these reforms will work unimpaired, but also because the ENTITLEMENTS AND GROUP RIGHTS, to reintegrate the welfare state into economic and moral sustainability of the government, curtailing its state- AND MORAL CREATIVITY, MODERN the whole welfare state grows more within-a-state status and, even more LIBERALISM IS SOMETHING NEW AND and more doubtful. The goodwill important, integrating it back into DISTINCTIVE. UNDER THE PRESSURE and even the presumptive expertise the constitutional system that stands of many government experts com- OF IDEAS AND EVENTS, THAT on natural rights and consent. mand less and less respect. Obama’s Is it just wishful thinking to COMPOUND COULD COME APART. speeches no longer send the old thrill imagine the end of liberalism? Few up the leg, and his leadership, wheth- things in politics are permanent. The parallel is imperfect, of er for one or two terms, may yet help Conservatism and liberalism didn’t course, because liberalism and to discredit the respectability of fol- become the central division in our its vehicle, the Democratic Party, lowing the Leader. politics until the middle of the 20th remain profoundly popular, resilient, The Democratic Party is unlikely century. Before that, American poli- and changeable. Elections matter to to go poof, but it’s possible that mod- tics revolved around such issues as them. What’s more, the egalitarian ern liberalism will. A series of nasty states’ rights, the wars, slavery, the impulse, centralized government political defeats and painful repudia- tariff, and suffrage. Parties have come (though not centralized administra- tions of its impossible dreams might and gone in our history. You won’t find tion), and the Democratic Party have do the trick. At the least, it will have many Federalists, Whigs, or Populists deep roots in the American political to downsize its ambitions and get lining up at the polls these days. tradition—and reflect permanent back in touch with political, moral, Britain’s Liberal Party faded from aspects of modern democracy itself, and fiscal reality. It will have to—all power in the 1920s. The Canadian as Tocqueville testifies. together now—turn back the clock. Liberal Party collapsed in 2011. Some elements of liberalism are Much will depend, too, on what con- Recently, within a decade of its inherent in American democracy, servatives say and do in the coming maximum empire at home and then, but the compound, the peculiar years. Will they have the prudence

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and guile to elevate the fight to the conservatives to exploit. His course —Charles R. Kesler, PhD, is level of constitutional principle, to makes the problems of liberalism a senior fellow at the Claremont expose the Tory credentials of their worse and more urgent, as though he Institute, editor of the Claremont opponents? is eager for a crisis. Sooner or later, Review of Books, and professor of President Obama’s decision to the crisis will come. If the people government at Claremont McKenna double down aggressively on the remain attached to their govern- College. He is the author of I Am the reach and cost of big government ment and laws and American states- Change: Barack Obama and the just as the European model of social men do their part, the country may Crisis of Liberalism (Broadside Books, democracy is hitting the skids pro- yet take the path leading up from 2012), from which this essay was vides the perfect opportunity for liberalism. adapted.

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