Leading up to what will likely be a highly divisive presidential election, mired in partisan and increasingly ideological politics, today's anniversary of the Constitution's ratification offers a valuable opportunity to reassess where we are as a country.
Today, the grand nations of old Europe are stifled by over-regulated economies, nationalized industries, and socialized health care, ruled more by bureaucrats in Brussels than by their own elected legislatures. Magnificent cathedrals are now empty testaments to their postmodern faith in secularism. The cultures of Europe are in steep decline, and it is unclear whether they will ever be able to recover.
The primary reason the United States has not gone the way of Europe yet is that our country has long maintained a political culture grounded in moral and constitutional principles, which has kept it moored in the Western tradition of reason and faith, protected from the radicalization and emptiness of modern thought that has devastated Europe. European-style arguments have not fully succeeded here precisely because they are working against the deep currents of American ideas and institutions.
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