To the
extent that we respect a basic demarcation between the public sphere and the
private sphere, it’s possible for two men to agree to disagree, but still get
along. They continue to go about their business.
To the extent that the public
sphere swallows up the private sphere, the culture becomes increasingly
polarized. In politics there are winners and losers. But the stakes are
generally higher than they used to be.
Liberals have a chronic itch
to change things. To “improve” things (in their estimation). Which means
changing things for everyone else. They constantly tinker with social
experiments. When one social program fails, they use that failure as an excuse to
introduce yet another social program to fix the failed social program. It never
ends. A cycle of bureaucratic failure followed by bureaucratic expansion. The
solution to government gone bad is always more government.
Conservatives are more
naturally content. More easily satisfied. They don’t feel a chronic need to
change the status go, except when they wish to change things back to the way
they were before liberal social engineers began shredding the social fabric.
As one pundit recently
observed:
We used to get along by leaving each other alone. The Founders established a limited government, neutral on religion, allowing states, localities, and voluntary associations to do much of society’s work. Even that didn’t always work: We had a Civil War.An enlarged federal government didn’t divide mid-20th-century Americans, except on civil-rights issues. Otherwise, there was general agreement about the values government should foster.Now the two Americas disagree, sharply. Government decisions enthuse one and enrage the other. The election may be over, but the two Americas are still not on speaking terms.
At this point we have two
countries in one–two competing countries, like Jacob and Esau:
Two nations are in your womb,and two peoples from within you shall be divided;the one shall be stronger than the other,the older shall serve the younger.
(Gen 25:23)
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