We are now in a position which our forefathers of a hundred years ago were not in to see the danger and to see the path that leads away from that danger and back to constitutional sanity.

But we can see the problem and at least glimmers of the solution to the problem

in a way that no other earlier generation could see. Are you trying to understand the principles that guide American politics? So are we.

Welcome to the American Mind Podcast.

I'm your host, Ben Judge.

Why, even after electoral triumphs, have conservatives had such a hard time governing.

I think this question only applies to today. 20 years ago, as part of the

American Enterprise Institute's Bradley Lecture Series, Charles Kessler, gave an answer to why conservatives felt adrift.

That lecture is just as relevant now as it was in 1998, and it forms the basis for this discussion.

Dr. Kesseler is a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College and the editor of the Claremont Review of books.

In 2017, he was named to the Politico 50 for his pioneering work in American political thought, and in 2018 he won the Bradley

prize for his work on, among other topics, liberalism and conservatism.

In this interview you'll hear why Dr. Kessler says American conservatism can only feel grounded

when it argues policy based on the principles of equality and justice. But to get there we have to work our way through the different

pieces of conservatism's intellectual heritage. Only then will we see what's wrong

with conservatism.

Charles Kessler on the American mind.

June 8th, 1998.

This is you speaking at the American Enterprise Institute.

Quote, what is plaguing conservatism is that its sense of mission,

its devotion to a high, clear, and overarching cause has deserted it and recognition of this fact has begun to

sink in among conservatives and liberals alike. That was almost 21 years ago. Has anything changed?

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