It is fashionable now among some observers on the right to blame liberalism for America's problems. Our nation, they argue, was founded on liberal ideas, and we now struggle with the inevitable negative consequences of those ideas. As Notre Dame's Patrick Deneen has written, "[l]iberalism has failed — not because it fell short, but because it was true to itself." Accordingly, some now believe our most pressing challenges require post-liberal responses.
This view overstates the role of liberalism in the American founding and distorts how we think about American institutions and policy. It neglects the tradition that primarily shaped the views of our founding generation, the principles underlying the federal and state constitutions, and the governing practices of subsequent generations. Republicanism — rooted in the ancient world and renewed during the Renaissance and the Enlightenment — was embraced and consciously adapted by America's founders. Today's governing problems are not the result of liberalism's ascendency, but republicanism's decline. Our goal, therefore, shouldn't be to move past liberalism, but to revitalize republicanism.
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Andy Smarick is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.
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