Murray, Madison, and the Moderate Middle

As The Remnant kicks back into gear, we figured it would be best to let Jonah make his trek back to D.C. and instead treat you to a secret artifact from a few days after the election. This is a conversation between Jonah and AEI emeritus scholar Charles Murray on the state of libertarianism and liberalism (both of the “small-l” variants) in the aftermath of November 2020. Murray explains why he’s pessimistic, while he and Jonah also extol the virtues of a Madisonian system, and upon reflection, they both relish in being on the right side of the debate that character is indeed destiny in the political realm: “The idea that the United States can continue to be … exceptional without character being a leading principle is ridiculous—it can’t happen.”

Show Notes:

-Fusionism

-John Adams: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”

-Eric Voegelin on how lapses into fanaticism occur

-Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010

-Misreading Adam Smith

-Miracle At Philadelphia: The Story of the Constitutional Convention

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