Wednesday, October 12, 2016

'The Fractured Republic' provides intellectually honest conversation

'The Fractured Republic' provides intellectually honest conversation: Book review: Yuval Levin's The Fractured Republic: Renewing America's Social Contract in the Age of Individualism is worth the attention of all of us who are more and less Catholic social doctrine fans.



MGB:A few comments.  First the 1950s can be seen as an era of religious power.  This was most likely acceptable because parents were raising a genearation of young baby boomers and when you have kids it is likely you go back to church.  Also, we were still recoiling from the war, so survivors stayed tuned into the Church.  When those kids got older, they rebelled - as did some veterans.  The book 1959 explains this well.



Second, the march toward economic individualism comes from the return of capitalist power - which was ascendant in the 1920s and discredited by the crash.  Union busting and tax cutting Ronald Reagan brought it back and Bill Clinton did nothing to stop it, leading to the great recession.  Sadly, Obama has wasted the crisis.



Third, the civil rights individualism is not individualism at all.  It is groups demanding respect - from gays to women to BLM.  Neither Loving nor Perry acted only for themselves, but instead for their entire class.  The ability to do so has its roots in the 14th Amendment - but it took the right generation of lawyers and judges to finally fulfill its promise.  The revolution, then came in law schools across the country. It was as egalitarian as libertarian, the consitent theme being that everyone has a right to be treated decently vis-a-vis the government.  These were not new freedoms, just the freedoms everyone else had.


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