And The Nominees for Best Civilization Are… Where’s the progressive model? James Freeman
Progressive leftists are good at destroying traditions, careers and free expression. But after all the societal broken eggs, where’s the progressive omelette? Surely somewhere there must be a model of success given the confidence with which the wokesters of modern media condemn America’s constitutional republic.
A recent headline on this column invited readers to “Name a Great Civilization Created by Progressive Leftists.” Your humble correspondent is still happy to accept nominations and the submissions so far have been extremely interesting. The search continues for a progressive paradise. But what’s striking is that a number of left-leaning respondents—those who did not simply express resentment at the question—have nominated nations of Western civilization that are the typical targets of progressive ire. In fact a few leftists even cite the good old USA as a place created by the progressives of their day.
Perhaps this is encouraging, because it suggests that when pressed the cancel crowd acknowledges that it’s not unreasonable to judge people by the standards of their own times.
But on the substance, what about this argument that the United States of America is the answer to the question posed in that headline?
Princeton professor of jurisprudence Robert George runs the school’s James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. In response to an email inquiry he writes that “the claim that the American founders were ‘progressive leftists’ is absurd.” Here’s the rest of his response:
Hamilton? Madison? Washington? Adams? Franklin? Jay? To identify any of these men as a progressive leftist is risible. Jefferson? Well, I suppose that at a very l-o-n-g stretch you might make something of his sympathies for the spirit of the French Revolution, and although he was not an atheist he was pretty secular (so he has that in common with most contemporary progressives); but, no, not even Jefferson can plausibly be claimed by the progressive leftists as one of them. They might as well go back to denouncing him as a slaveholder, rapist, and dead white male. The most you can say about Jefferson is that at some general level he was something of a Lockean liberal—but even that is overly simplistic and somewhat misleading. And contemporary progressive leftists can scarcely be characterized as Lockean liberals.
No, the roots of modern progressive leftism—about this George Will is absolutely right—are to be found in Wilson and the Wilsonianism of the (rightly denominated) Progressive movement, not in Madison and the Madisonianism of the Constitution of the United States. As Will has observed, the two basic options for our country are represented by the two Princeton graduates who have served as President of the United States: Madison and Wilson. Conservatives basically side with Madison; progressives side with Wilson. (Here’s George making the short version of the case in an interview at the National Constitution Center.)
Many people have commented rightly on the profound differences between the American and French revolutions. The French was a radical revolution bent on rejecting the past wholesale and establishing an entirely new order—from scratch. The American was fundamentally concerned with restoring and securing traditional rights. True, the American revolutionaries, once they had overthrown British rule, opted for a republican form of government—a bold, experimental (by their own lights) decision. But the “inference” from the choice of republicanism to the conclusion that the philosophy of the American founding was progressive leftism is a spectacular non sequitur. Was the founding “conservative”? Well, not in the classic European sense. It did not found a nation on blood and soil or throne and altar. In the classic sense the founding was “liberal” (as in “liberal democracy”) but it was not in any sense inspired or guided by the ideology of the progressive left. It valued not only individual rights but also (as Tocqueville did not fail to see) the autonomy and integrity of the institutions of civil society. The ideal of limited government—central to Madisonian constitutionalism—was to protect not only the individual but also the family, church, and other non-governmental associations from the control of the state. Needless to say, progressive leftism cares little for either limited government or the autonomy of the institutions of civil society. It is becoming increasingly clear, that even its rhetoric of “individual rights” was little more than a paying of lip service.
Any other nominations?
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