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@hamandcheese Sam, responding to what you say here since I've seen this in a couple places.
I’m not saying the V piece is bad because it’s illiberal - though, like you, I do think that’s bad. https://twitter.com/hamandcheese/status/1245185553508847619
I’m not saying the V piece is bad because it’s illiberal - though, like you, I do think that’s bad. https://twitter.com/hamandcheese/status/1245185553508847619
Mostly I think it’s bad because it’s rhetorically dishonest and opportunistic. It’s Medievalism dressed up in contemporary partisan garb, masquerading (poorly) as a legit alternative within the American constitutional tradition, at a time of vulnerability for liberal democracies.
If Vermeule were being truly honest, he would be transparent about his defense of religious authoritarianism. Instead, he is exploiting public credulity and the ambiguity of terms related to liberalism etc to make cagey authoritarian political moves.
In other contexts, as you know, he is more upfront, so this is a calculated thing:
“Vermeule advocates “strategic raillement”: Catholics working within the liberal order in order to eventually supersede it altogether with an integrally Catholic state.” https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/04/21306/
“Vermeule advocates “strategic raillement”: Catholics working within the liberal order in order to eventually supersede it altogether with an integrally Catholic state.” https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2018/04/21306/
Or here, the piece you cite in your own discussion of Vermeule:
https://thejosias.com/2018/03/16/ralliement-two-distinctions/
(Sam's piece here: https://americanmind.org/features/the-common-good-will-out-or-will-it/too-many-hands/)
https://thejosias.com/2018/03/16/ralliement-two-distinctions/
(Sam's piece here: https://americanmind.org/features/the-common-good-will-out-or-will-it/too-many-hands/)
Anyways, it’s one thing to have authoritarians spouting off online, in books/blogs/conferences, or even as some fringe element at Harvard. I think it's different to see a thinly-veiled defense of authoritarian rule in pages of the Atlantic, especially at a time of crisis.
So, in short, for me it's less about the theory proper ("illiberalism is bad") than about the political context in which the piece appeared. Maybe it's good to have it in the open so people who disagree can call it out and fight back. I'm not sure.
@jeffreygoldberg I think I get why you ran Vermeule's essay, but he does seem to depart from the worthy purpose of the series insofar as he shows so little respect for “the mechanisms of our representative democracy as outlined in the Constitution.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/09/the-battle-for-the-constitution-goldberg-note/598639/
