Liberty, American Style

Yuval Levin returns to the Remnant to provide his signature brand of edifying eggheadery. Institutions, ...

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Yuval Levin returns to the Remnant to provide his signature brand of edifying eggheadery. Institutions, the culture war, and the necessity of staying in your lane are all covered in this high minded conversation. Jonah and Yuval also discuss America’s unique fusion of liberalism and republicanism and what we can expect from abortion law if Roe v. Wade is overturned. Plus, tune in for an update on the Remnant’s special 500th episode live event.

Show Notes:

– Yuval’s page at AEI

– Yuval: “How to Curb the Culture War”

– The Wednesday G-File

– Francis Fukuyama’s Liberalism and its Discontents

– The Remnant with Francis Fukuyama

– Daniel E. Burns: “Liberal Practice v. Liberal Theory”

– Carl Eric Scott: “The Five Conceptions of Liberty”

– Yuval on Obama’s second inaugural

– Yuval: “Family Policy After Roe”

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Comments (31)
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  1. Butch Kamena

    I'm almost a week late in listening to this, nonetheless ...
    Yuval's discussion of communal liberty reminded me of one of my favorite essays of all time - "The Communal Basis of Swiss Liberty" by Max Frenkel. Originally published in the journal Publius, it is very short - a 15-minute read at most, but gets to the heart of a lot of this. Frenkel's point that national standards of 'rights' often work against local variation was particularly poignant reading it nearly 30 years ago.

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  2. Chris Ohland

    Just listened and "subsidiarity" came up a few times in their discussion. I need to explore what exactly that term means but it seems like it might connect in some ways to an event I recently saw advertised and sponsored by a local university here in Twin Cities: https://cas.stthomas.edu/departments/areas-of-study/catholic-studies/john-a-ryan-institute/freedom-subsidiarity-spirit-gift-conference/index.html

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    Mkapnick

    You had me at Yuval. : ) .....As always with Yuval (and Jonah), an enlightening conversation. For the life of me, I can't understand why Progressives et al can't be more enthusiastic about federalism. They can make the states they control into the perfect utopia they envision and laugh at the rest of us for being so unenlightened. Whats not to love?

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    Whitman H. Brisky

    I remember the concept of "ordered liberty" from high school which was certainly part of the Federalist Papers and de Tocqueville. It seems an awful lot like the dichotomy between liberalism and republicanism.

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      PaulH

      I was thinking of the John Adams quote: "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other." Setting aside whether religiosity per se is required, there was a definitely an understanding by the founders that a certain level of virtue was required for the government to succeed and that virtue would be engendered by institutions other than the government.

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  5. There Is No Ben, Only Zuul

    I really liked this episode and I really think more needs to made out of Yuval's comment that institutional trust is based on a history of demonstrated restraint.

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    Theirn Scott

    FYI, liveouter.com/remnant comes us as "Oops! This page has gone on vacation"

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    Ben Connelly

    “Statesmanlike” is a good way to describe Yuval. He very much is a Remnant fan favorite. I’m going to go now and read that article he said he wished more Americans had read.

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    Ceich62

    If there aren't Gold Jackets at the 500th, ... [imagines idle threats] ... I will be sad!

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    Rev Snow

    President Obama's NASA Director did not declare a top priority to fight racism. He declared a top priority to reach out to Muslim nations and celebrate their contributions to science.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-obama-nasa/white-house-corrects-nasa-chief-on-muslim-comment-idUSTRE66B6MQ20100712

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    Calvin S.

    I thought Jonah and Yuval's discussion of liberalism and republicanism was fascinating.

    I think with the end of the first cold war with the USSR, many older historical conflicts began to resurface. I don't mean any offence to Roman Catholic or non-Christian listeners, but it seems to me that one of the historical conflicts that bears some weight in this discussion is the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism.

    A conversionist understanding of Christianity, in which the individual takes personal ownership of their confession of faith, is one of the distinctive features of Protestant theology, and played a role in the historical development of what we now call classical liberalism (though you could argue that those who practiced Catholicism in a Protestant nation where Catholicism was illegal made a similar choice of conscience that formed identity.)

    The "from the bottom up" view of authority that is one of the characteristics of what Jonah and Yuval were calling republicanism is also a distinctive feature of the historical development of Protestant ecclesiology, and maybe specifically congregationalist and baptist ecclesiology which was an influence on James Madison and other framers of the US constitution.

    It's been a while since there was an eschatology themed Remnant episode. Maybe Jonah should have a Christian ecclesiology themed episode. I nominate Paul Miller or some similarly qualified guest.

    Sorry this was a long post. Stuff I've been thinking about for awhile listening to the show.

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      Theirn Scott

      Great idea. I second the motion.

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