Return of the Strong Gods: Nationalism, Populism, and the Future of the West

by R.R. Reno

At first glance, it seems obvious that politics without principles and personal growth without determinate ends are by definition open and capacious, for there is no basis on which to exclude particular ideas or initiatives. Consensus liberals like Schlesinger congratulated themselves for embodying that very openness. But in the main, consensus liberalism since 1945 has punished dissent, which it has consistently deplored as signaling a return of illiberalism, fascism, and other pre-1945 evils. The heightened rhetoric of anti-fascism should not surprise us. As Popper makes clear, pragmatism in politics—the end of strong truth-claims in public life—produces paradoxically powerful political and cultural imperatives. It requires denying principled political arguments and policies. Championing authenticity in personal life demands rejecting the authority of traditional moral norms. You can’t lead young people to the “post-conventional” promised land without condemnations of “conventionalism.”