Remember the Founding

Despite what Michael Lind thinks, the American Founding is not a dead letter.

In his most recent essay, Compact Magazine columnist Michael Lind urges readers to “Forget the Founding Fathers.” He argues that respect for the American Founding constitutes a “cult” which inhibits our ability to make sound policy. Bizarrely, Lind claims that appeals to the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Independence prevent Americans from having “nice things” such as “a living wage, labor unions, guaranteed access to inexpensive health care, or adequate social insurance.”

Despite what Lind thinks, the American Founding is not a dead letter. Our Constitution is rooted in eternal principles that point the way towards true social renewal. The ideas that animated the Founding are still full of vital energy, and the actual deeds of the Founders can serve as models for political action.

Lind has been part of the “national conservatism” vanguard for some time now. In fact, he gave a speech on industrial policy titled “What Would Alexander Hamilton Do?” at the last National Conservatism conference. Lind has either become persuaded that he was in error for asking such a question, or is now a hypocrite. This more recent essay reveals there is nothing nationalist, let alone conservative, about his ideology. Instead, he panders to the deeply unpatriotic liberal establishment’s low opinion of the American Founding.

Conservatism should be a defense of the permanent things, but Lind seems to suggest there are no enduring political truths. Nationalism should aim at preserving the nation as it really is, but Lind seems to sneer at its history. Though he blusters about the limits of “the powerful technocratic progressive strain on the American center left,” there is little in his ideology that resists the tug of tinkering and central planning. Surely conservatives can find a better approach to politics in the Founding.

Read more at Law & Liberty.