Liberalism

Eric Patterson discusses Christian realism, wishful-thinking idealism, and national security stewardship. The following is a transcript of the lecture. Well,…

Once again, public opinion polls have disappointed isolationists and others who want the United States to have a minimalist foreign policy. Almost overnight, a large swath of America now wants to counter Russia, and elected officials who want to keep their jobs have responded.

The Free World needs to rediscover its identity and its confidence as a global force for good, with lower thresholds for taking decisive, unified action, and greater attentiveness to “canary violations” like those against religious freedom.

President Roosevelt first enunciated the Four Freedoms in an evening session with his speechwriters. He made them the peroration of his message to Congress and wove them into the Atlantic Charter and the United Nations Charter. They have constituted the basis of American foreign policy ever since. Now is the time to reaffirm them.

Russia’s unwarranted aggression toward Ukraine has not only shattered the peace of Europe and unleashed a torrent of economic and physical destruction, but it has also thrown into stark relief the moral chasm between Russia and its rivals. As Putin dismembers Ukraine, he shows the importance and value of America’s empire of nations.

The New Right cannot be bothered with foreign threats because they are rationing political capital for an ideological fight at home. That’s bad enough. Even worse, they seem less interested in transcending tyranny and more interested in learning from it.

Late last year, Adrian Vermeule published “‘It Can’t Happen’; Or, the Poverty of Political Imagination,” an article that critiques what he calls the “futility trope” used by conservative critics of postliberalism.

This week the editors discuss articles by Lubomir Martin Ondrasek, Flynn Evans, and Mark Tooley.

China can only be substantively challenged by a United States that is fully aware of what the Founders sought to offer the world through enshrining their fervent hope for shared and mutually defended liberty and equality for all.