Liberalism

Now what is here symbolized has been the most fundamental idea in our American democracy. Ours is a government by discussion.

The courage of Václav Havel was grounded in a sense of responsibility for promoting ideals and values that transcend material goods, confront human decadence, and endure beyond our earthly existence.

Living in truth was Václav Havel’s basic answer to the problem of falsehood, one of the defining characteristics of the ideology and regime that ruled Czechoslovakia until 1989.

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.

The prophet Václav Havel wants Americans to know that there is an important connection between remembering God and living in freedom.

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.

Yet what does Nelson mean by Pelagianism? A close reading of the book’s early pages shows that he offers three distinct formulations of the concept. Should we accept them? I argue that we should not.