03356cam a2200313 i 4500 476967099 TxAuBib 20210302120000.0 200128s2020||||||||||||||||||||||||eng|u 2020003421 9781641771023 HRD 34.99 164177102X HRD 34.99 TxAuBib rda Kesler, Charles R. Crisis of the two constitutions. Crisis of the two constitutions [BOOK] : the rise, decline, and recovery of American greatness / Charles R. Kesler. First American edition. New York : Encounter Books, 2020. xviii, 451 pages ; 24 cm. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Includes bibliographical references and index. Education, Cultural Relativism, and the American Founding -- Natural Right in the American Revolution -- The Founders and the Classics -- Federalist 10 and American Republicanism -- The Promise of American Citizenship -- Civility and Citizenship -- Education and Politics -- A New Birth of Freedom -- The Crisis of American National Identity -- Democracy and the Bush Doctrine -- Woodrow Wilson and the Statesmanship of Progress -- Separation of Powers and the Administrative State -- The Reagan Revolution andthe Legacy of the New Deal -- What's Wrong with Conservatism -- The Conservative Challenge -- The Old New Left and the New New Left -- Trump and the Conservative Cause. American politics grows embittered because it is increasingly torn between two rival constitutions, two opposed cultures, two contrary ways of life. American conservatives rally around the founders’ Constitution, as amended, and as grounded in the natural and divine rights and duties of the Declaration of Independence. American liberals herald their “living Constitution,” a term that implies the original is dead or superseded, and that the fundamental political imperative is constant change or “transformation” (as President Obama called it) toward a more and more perfect social democracy, made possible by man’s increasingly god-like control of his own moral evolution. Crisis of the Two Constitutions details how we got to and what is at stake in our increasingly divided America. It takes controversial stands on matters political and scholarly, describing the political genius of America’s founders and their efforts to shape future generations through a constitutional culture that included immigration, citizenship, and educational policies. Then it turns to the attempted progressive refounding of America, tracing its accelerating radicalism from the New Deal to the 1960s’ New Left to today’s unhappy campus nihilists. Finally, the volume appraises American conservatives’ efforts, so far unavailing despite many famous victories, to restore the founders’ Constitution and moral common sense. From Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump, what have conservatives learned and where should we go from here? Provided by publisher. 20210302. Constitutional history United States. Conservatism United States. United States Politics and government.