The Art of Politics

"Americans enjoy the most benevolent political system that has ever emerged in the course of human history. Unprecedented prosperity, health, liberty, and stability give rise to the envy of the rest of the world. However these privileges cannot defend themselves. The Art of Politics necessitates that we balance the conflicting claims of these and other political goods in the midst of ever-changing circumstances and external and internal threats. Reason, pluralism, necessary limits, liberty, toleration, justice, the right to private property, democracy, authority, and civility are the goods. The enemies are the ideologues who scorn this system because it falls short of a never-realized theoretical ideal they have borrowed from their European brethren. This effort by the ideologues to change our systems radically is ultimately the betrayal of American politics, and one of the most serious threats we face. This book tells us how to defend ourselves against these threats and how to practice this most valuable art, the Art of Politics."--BOOK JACKET.