Prejudiced Against Progressives?
In “Three Progressive Prejudices” (March), Anthony T. Kronman offers an often insightful conservative critique of attitudes toward equality, tradition, and religion that he attributes to “progressives.” As a Christian who advocates for a strong social safety net, compassionate immigration policy, and responsible climate action, I do not usually identify as conservative. But I am deeply sympathetic to Kronman’s concern with a “disenchanted secularism that is the cause of our spiritual woes.” I am with him in spirit, but I question some of his claims and assumptions.
First, Kornman calls the progressive views he critiques “prejudiced,” by which he seems to mean unexamined. But this is an unwarranted assumption. There are many people for whom these progressive views are well-thought-out positions for which they can provide thoughtful and penetrating defenses.
Second, Kronman’s extensive use of the pronouns “we” and “our” seems to assume a dominant and uniform progressive secular culture that, in the United States at least, does not exist. Ours is a highly fractured society with no single unifying spirit or philosophy. Our bitterly divided politics and highly diverse cultural landscape demonstrate that there is no singular dominant “we,” let alone a dominant progressive “we.” There is also no simple progressive/conservative binary into which people may be neatly sorted. Many self-identified progressives could agree with some or even all three of his critiques. For example, I don’t believe one could find many progressives who believe that “no human being is superior to any other.” And an atheist might feel a deep and affectionate “loyalty to her inheritance.” Kronman’s imagined progressive is a stereotype with limited real-world validity.
Third, Kronman does not adequately acknowledge how terribly wrong a superficial embrace of his stipulated conservative values can go. Professed beliefs in God, tradition, and transcendent beauty are no guarantee of personal integrity and decency. When reading his defense of “affection for the dead,” I could not help but think of the mythology of the Lost Cause that arose in the American South after the Confederacy’s defeat in the Civil War. It was a central feature of an intensely racist society and is even now enjoying a resurgence of popularity on the extreme right. I disagree with Kronman’s claim that “these great reactionary movements, and many lesser ones, have been defeated.” They have been beaten back and suppressed, but not completely vanquished. Populist movements worldwide display a disturbing affinity with historic repressive and racist regimes. In the United States, the election of Donald Trump to a second term and the MAGA movement more generally represent a nightmarish distortion of the three conservative values Kronman endorses in his essay and to which I, too, give qualified assent.
Fourth, although I find Kronman’s critique interesting and insightful in some ways, it does nothing to advance a dialogue between those who hold some version of his views and those who reject them. What can one say to someone who hears Mozart as a manifestation of white European supremacy, sees no intrinsic value to tradition, or is steeped in New Atheist views of God and religion? It may be interesting to argue, as Kronman does, that a value such as “equality” may be valid in one domain (politics and civil rights) but not another (culture). But what really separates those who acknowledge transcendent beauty, the inherent value of tradition, and a “longing for eternity” from those who do not is the felt experience of each, not logic.
Alan Windle
Philadelphia, Pa.
A Pilgrim Existence
Jessica Swoboda’s fascinating article (“No Easy Answers,” March) about her life journey and possible irreparable break with the Catholic Church posits four possible paths for a seeker. I propose a fifth. My own engagement with the curriculum of life is as one who entered as a Catholic, has questioned my religion since 1963, has seen the Church be an institutional sinner in ways such as clerical abuse and discrimination against women, and who nevertheless continues as a faithful Catholic. I hope Swoboda read Anthony Domestico’s review of Scott Cairn’s recent Correspondence with My Greeks (“Dangers and Elations,” March). “Dwelling in uncertainties is the state of all pilgrims,” writes Domestico, “and Cairns sees human existence as a pilgrim existence. We’re still waiting, always waiting, perpetually on the way.” Swoboda suggests restless curiosity, constant self-examination, and consideration of why one chooses to remain in the Church. I agree. Thanks to Domestico’s review, I’m about to read Cairns to help me with my ongoing education.
Greg Weyandt
Saint Paul, Minn.
Holding on to History
John Connelly’s article on Trump’s betrayal of Ukraine (“Worse than Chamberlain,” April) was superb. My great-grandparents emigrated from Poland well over a hundred years ago, and I have been a student of history keeping their struggles in Poland and the United States alive.
As Americans, we have lost a sense of history. However, as an eighty-one-year-old man, I am proud of my ancestry in this country. My dad and most men in my family served valiantly during World War II. Their fight was for freedom, democracy, and the common good. I am dismayed at the political arena in this country today, where materialism and greed seem to be the highest values.
Connelly’s article was a masterpiece of history that needs to be our focus and our direction. The goal is the ideals the colonists fought for at the founding. They looked for a future of freedom and individual rights. I am old enough to remember the sixties and seventies and the strides made then. I recall the history of Poland under Communism and the rebirth of freedom. We have forgotten the past, and Connelly does a great job of reminding us of the lesson of history. A travesty of justice is being imposed on Ukraine and also upon us citizens as we ignore the lessons of history for Trump’s short-sighted goals. His isolationism and courting of a dictatorship will have consequences for us all.
I thank the author for his insights and Commonweal for fortitude in publishing it. How terrible that I must commend a publication for having the courage to publish established history at a time when truth is squashed because of political ideology.
Stanley Zagraniczny
Rome, N.Y.
Looking Forward, Looking Back
I have been a subscriber for many years, largely because of prescient essays and articles like Peter Steinfels’s “‘Commonweal’ and the Vietnam War” (March). I hope today’s journalists and essayists realize that, in the same fashion, people will be looking back thirty years from now to see who was speaking up for justice and righteousness, even when it wasn’t popular. Even when the Church and our political leaders might be taking a differing position. I’ll enjoy going back to these essays, mostly published before I began reading Commonweal in 1975. You have continued the brave and necessary work through the years, and I have continued with my reading and with my subscription—and my own occasional essay.
Kevin Kane
Bronx, N.Y.
