I'm John Batchel with my friend and colleague Peter Berkowitz of the Hoover Institution, writing about

America 250. And this is the intellectual life, and I acknowledge it. There are famous names,

some of them once upon a time lived in Concord, Massachusetts. We're talking about

thinking about America, and it's wonderful to meet fresh ideas. The postmodern progressive critique

resembles that of the post-liberal right critique. That is striking to me, Peter,

you write because eventually I would have gotten there that these are the same people.

Do they see themselves as having the same approach unhappy with America because and then fill in the blank?

You know, only a small number do, and those are on the post-liber right, they see some similarities between themselves and the post-modern progressives.

Again, what is that similarity and agreement

that the fundamentals of our constitutional system, they are the problem. We were founded on

profoundly defective principles, on Lachian principles, on the belief in human freedom and equality, that was a mistake, that was a misfire.

From the point of view, it was a misfire, from the point of view of the post-liber right, it was a misfire because we lost sight of traditional authorities like Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas.

From the point of view of the postmodern

progressives, men and women of the left, it was a misfire because it concealed a variety of forms

of systemic oppression. America was grounded in oppression. It continues to be a fundamentally oppressive society,

and our highfalutin language about freedom and equality only disguises that oppression.

I'm going to be difficult. In comparison to what? What are we being measured against? Where is this

nation they want to live in well john i'm going

to have to quarrel with you you're not being difficult you're being reasonable uh that's exactly

right in other words um one activity they almost never engage in is comparative politics um Where exactly in 1776 had racism been, racial discrimination been

abolished? Where had sexism been overcome? Where had perfect equality been achieved? As far as I know, nowhere. Moreover,

if you're running an experiment today and you wish to maximize your own freedom and equal

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