I think that the most telling (about us!) of Trump's challenges to our liberal democracy are the ones least discussed: the powerful ideas he embodies, and the paradoxical appeal of the amoral norms he flaunts. I discuss these in my two-part post, "Trump, Politics and Climate" in my Substack "Light Not Heat".
I've come to believe that, alas, we have no decency.
If it were so important to The Founders they probably should have said more about it than they did, though that might not have saved us from ourselves either.
Don't blame the Founders. I use the word "decency" because we now flinch at their word, "virtue." Decency is surely one of the virtues, along with courage, self-sacrifice, temperance.
The antecedent to "it" was unclear. I was actually responding to the last paragraph of your essay, "it" being education, which our founders left entirely to the states.
So, so terribly true.
I think that the most telling (about us!) of Trump's challenges to our liberal democracy are the ones least discussed: the powerful ideas he embodies, and the paradoxical appeal of the amoral norms he flaunts. I discuss these in my two-part post, "Trump, Politics and Climate" in my Substack "Light Not Heat".
https://open.substack.com/pub/lightnotheat/p/trump-power-and-climate-part-1?r=4oms8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
I've come to believe that, alas, we have no decency.
If it were so important to The Founders they probably should have said more about it than they did, though that might not have saved us from ourselves either.
Don't blame the Founders. I use the word "decency" because we now flinch at their word, "virtue." Decency is surely one of the virtues, along with courage, self-sacrifice, temperance.
The antecedent to "it" was unclear. I was actually responding to the last paragraph of your essay, "it" being education, which our founders left entirely to the states.