Democracy’s Moral Foundations and a Constitution in Full

America and American conservatism are at a crossroads. Conservatives are naturally the "patriotic party," proud of their country and committed to defending it against its cultured despisers. Most of us, most of the time, remain confident that America is mankind's "last best hope." Yet many of us cannot help but acknowledge that our country is becoming less morally estimable, as human freedom is increasingly understood as limitless relativism and accompanied by totalitarian moralism on much of the left. Some conservatives, such as Patrick J. Deneen in his widely discussed book Why Liberalism Failed, are tempted to blame this state of affairs on the principles of the American Founding. Deneen and some other Catholic traditionalists chalk up our discontent to liberalism itself, which is said, in the long run, to corrode personal responsibility, civic spirit, and authentic culture. Deneen argues that the American Founding is complicit in the corruption of true democracy because it is ultimately rooted in the not-so-concealed nihilism at the heart of Enlightenment liberalism. In this view, liberalism inexorably gives rise to an unrelenting anti-culture, which, because it recognizes no authoritative institutions, is destructive of civilization as such.