Harry Jaffa and the Demise of the Old Republic (In DEFENSE OF THE OLD Republic) (Essay)

The writing of history, as we have learned from authors as diverse as Thucydides, Voltaire, Nietzsche, Butter-field, Collingwood, and Oakeshott can and has been done in strikingly different ways while serving radically different purposes. We shouldn't, therefore, be surprised to find that much the same might be said of American history. This is all the more likely because of the importance of history to America, a polity lacking some of the defining characteristics of national identity. The creation and dissemination of a historical narrative, in fact, is one of the ways that we have made up for these missing features: a common ancestry, a singular ethnicity, a long and continuous history, etc. These deficiencies, along with the opportunity for abuse in our judicial system, render history essential to American self-understanding. And among those features of the historical landscape of particular relevance to national identity are the Declaration of Independence and the principles undergirding the national Constitution. While American foundational history is important, if for no other reason than the political advantages that flow from its use, it is particularly relevant to American conservatives. This is true because: 1) such history is especially significant to the logic of conservative thought; 2) the relationship between conservatism and the Declaration of Independence is unavoidably awkward because of its defense of a violent rupture between two peoples using a universalistic language of natural rights; (1) and 3) the federal system of government is believed by many Americans to be liberal, thus, rendering conservatism alien. (2)