The Constitution-as-covenant pushes us always to strive toward the “better angels of our nature,” to use Abraham Lincoln’s phrase. It pushes us to become the best version of ourselves and our government a continual reflection of that aspiration.

When liberalism with God at its center triumphed over Communism, people made the mistake of believing the victory was purely economic and not spiritual. An enfeebled liberalism has been replaced by globalism, which is nihilism by another name.

Faltering belief in common sense is behind the rejection of the Founders’ idea of America. More broadly, it is behind the astonishing rejection of Western civilization by its own people—a rejection that has reached what looks to be a civilization-ending crisis in Europe.

For Howard Zinn, it was not a good thing to simply treat former slaves as men, to leave them free to run their own lives. For Zinn, the very real horrors of slavery were simply more fodder for his war against America and Western civilization.

"To speak out fairly and honestly, though mercy may appear more amiable in a magistrate, severity is a more wholesome virtue," wrote the great 18th-century English jurist and author of Tom Jones. He has much to teach Americans about criminal justice in the 21st-century. 

The unchallenged premise that lies at the heart of unaffordable housing in America is that there is no room for more suburbs. That detached homes in new suburbs are unhealthy for people and the planet. It simply isn't true.

An alliance of special interests and government bureaucracies has acquired money and power by presiding over a problem that has only gotten worse, year after year. The worse the problem has gotten, the more money and power they have acquired. Creative solutions exist, and only await a critical mass of networked citizens and conscientious policymakers to insist on change.