I read one of those same essays earlier this week, and definitely felt a neck tendon twitching a bit in the process.
It doesn't really matter if smart alecks today can't satisfyingly name a standard of failure for classical liberalism. Let's not waste our time on them. The founders themselves littered their writings with trepidatious statements about those exact standards of failure. Ad fontes. If we tripped any of their wires, we probably failed. And if we excuse ourselves for tripping any of their wires, do we really believe they gave us classical liberalism?
I read one of those same essays earlier this week, and definitely felt a neck tendon twitching a bit in the process.
It doesn't really matter if smart alecks today can't satisfyingly name a standard of failure for classical liberalism. Let's not waste our time on them. The founders themselves littered their writings with trepidatious statements about those exact standards of failure. Ad fontes. If we tripped any of their wires, we probably failed. And if we excuse ourselves for tripping any of their wires, do we really believe they gave us classical liberalism?