The American political reformer Herbert Croly wrote, "For better or worse, democracy cannot be disentangled from an aspiration toward human perfectibility." Democratic Faith is at once a trenchant analysis and a powerful critique of this underlying assumption that informs democratic theory. Patrick Deneen argues that among democracy's most ardent supporters there is an oft-expressed belief in the need to "transform" human beings in order to reconcile the sometimes disappointing reality of human self-interest with the democratic ideal of selfless commitment. This "transformative impulse" is frequently couched in religious language, such as the need for political "redemption." This is all the more striking given the frequent accompanying condemnation of traditional religious belief that informs the "democratic faith.

Deneen argues that democracy is ill-served by such faith. Instead, he proposes a form of "democratic realism" that recognizes democracy not as a regime with aspirations to perfection, but that justifies democracy as the regime most appropriate for imperfect humans. If democratic faith aspires to transformation, democratic realism insists on the central importance of humility, hope, and charity.

Here again in this book, Democratic Faith, Deneen seems to be ignoring our main driver: competition and the management thereof. Humility, hope and charity, though somewhat helpful cannot deal with our competitive "rage" that underlies our modern desires. The transformation aspired by Democratic Faith would be going all over the place like the breakdown of artistic styles that are now navel gazing in a million broken pieces, in the search of the new... This why we're on the way towards President Trump...

The Devils We Know

Us and Them in America's Raucous Political Culture

James A. Morone

Is there an American culture? Certainly, says James Morone. Americans are fighting over it now. They have been fighting over it since the first Puritan stepped ashore. Americans hate government (no national health insurance!) and call for more of it (lock em up!). They prize democracy (power to the people) and scramble to restrict it (the electoral college in the 21st century?). They celebrate opportunity—but only for some (dont let those people in!). Americans proclaim liberty then wrestle over which kind—positive (freedom from want) or negative (no new taxes!)?

In this volume Morone offers his own answer to the conundrum of American political culture: It is a perpetual work in progress. Immigrants arrive, excluded groups demand power, and each generation injects new ethnicities, races, religions, ideas, foods, entertainments, sins, and body types into the national mix. The challengers—the devils we know—keep inventing new answers to the nations fundamental question: Who are we?

“Morone is a lively writer and shrewd interpreter of political culture. . . . provide[s] an invigorating tour of multiple sites where American identity has been created and recreated over time.”

—Journal of American History

“Who constitute the ‘them’ outside the American community can differ at any particular time—various immigrant groups, the ‘undeserving poor,’ alcoholics, smokers, and recently, the obese—though race-based exclusion has been, Morone maintains, the cosmological constant in the American cultural universe. Americans’ efforts to separate the culturally normative ‘us’ from the alien ‘them’ has resulted in a politics in which power is gained by cultivating fear of one’s enemies and frequently enacted prohibitionist public policies that are, according to Morone, ‘miserable.’”

—Choice

“How good it is to have this collection of bracing essays by one of the most imaginative scholars of the American experience.Ranging across a wide range of ideas, personalities, events, policies, and ethical challenges, The Devils We Know offers the gift of clarifying crucial conundrums and contradictions in American political culture.”

—Ira Katznelson, author of Fear Itself: The New Deal and the Origins of Our Time

“A landmark book. Morone stands out—yet again—as a pioneer in melding American political thought and political development. In this collection, Morone reworks Louis Hartz to produce a mesmerizing new synthesis of America’s kaleidoscopic political culture—one that despises government but embraces Social Security and Medicare, tolerates stinging racial and income disparities even as it sings the praises of democracy and opportunity, and simultaneously worships individualism and country.”

—Larry Jacobs, coauthor of Health Reform and American Politics

“No one portrays the development of our politics with more verve and insight than James Morone. The Devils We Know displays Morone’s wit and wisdom at its best. With a collection of sparkling essays that span slavery, prohibition, obesity and health care, Morone charms us into taking a hard look at the inspiring and troubling battles for the soul of America.”

—Sidney Milkis, author of Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy

Each essay in The Devils We Know takes up a different aspect of the creative conflicts that shape America. Ranging from Huck Finn to Obamacare, Morone explores the ways in which culture interacts with other forces—most notably the rules and organizations that channel collective choices. The battle to define the nations political culture spills over into every area of American life, but three are especially important: democracy, economics, and morals — each, in turn, complicated by race, race, race. Written over 25 years, these essays constitute a closely observed and deeply thoughtful vision of what America is—its ideas, images, rules, institutions, and culture clashes. Together, they explain just why America is the way it is. And what it might become.

About the Author

James A. Morone is the John Hazen White Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Brown University. His many books include Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History, The Democratic Wish, The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office (with David Blumenthal) and, By the People: Debating American Government (with Rogan Kersh).