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Americans are more divided today than at any time since the Civil War. Our differences are not merely moral and political, but philosophical, and even spiritual. We hardly seem to experience the same reality anymore, preferring to self-select into media perception chambers whose projections vary according to political persuasion.
Something has gone terribly wrong in the American political community. We have entered an era wherein the federal government’s democratically elected officers are powerless in comparison to their unelected, bureaucratic counterparts. The old balance of power, laid out in the Constitution, has been replaced by an entirely new structure.
The American regime has become post-constitutional. But what is this post-constitutional arrangement? How does it operate? Who is in charge? Can it be overcome? What role will the Constitution play in the nation’s future?
Glenn Ellmers—senior fellow with the Claremont Institute, widely-published analyst of current affairs, and scholar of political philosophy—provides answers to these and other questions, as he explores the deepest roots of our political turmoil, illustrating the connections between government bureaucracy, the misuse of science, and the leftwing ideology that controls so much of our public and private life.
“Glenn Ellmers has written an important book in the spirit of his teacher, Harry V. Jaffa. He shows that the study of political philosophy is indispensable to an understanding of the political turmoil in America today. Combining the intellectual and political, or the theoretical and practical, he reveals the deeper crisis of civilization itself, what Leo Strauss called the Crisis of the West.”
—John Marini, author of Unmasking the Administrative State
GLENN ELLMERS holds a PhD in political philosophy and American government from Claremont Graduate University, and is the author of The Soul of Politics: Harry V. Jaffa and the Fight for America. He is the Salvatori Research Fellow in the American Founding at the Claremont Institute, and a prolific—often controversial—commentator on public affairs.
Chapter I: Existential War 1
Chapter II: The Crisis of the West and the Self-Destruction of Reason 13
Chapter III: The Altar of our Fathers 43
Chapter IV: Progress or the Return to Nature 67
Notes 81