The Political Centrist Book

Acknowledgments xi

Introduction: The Center Holds 1

Part I Beyond Liberalism and Conservatism

Chapter 1 The Liberal's Paradox 11

Two Visions of Liberalism

The Roots of Early Liberalism

The Utilitarian Influence

The Greatest Liberal of All

The New Liberalism Embraces Equality

Chapter 2 The Conservative's Dilemma 29

Conservatives before Conservatism: The Classical Worldview

The Roots of Modern Paleoconservatism: The Case of Joseph de Maistre

The Father of Conservative Traditionalism: Edmund Burke

The First Skeptical Conservative

Chapter 3 What "Liberalism" and "Conservatism" Mean Today 48

How Liberalism and Conservatism Have Moved Leftward

The Liberal Influence on Modem Conservatism

Reinterpreting Individualism and Collectivism

Openness to Change versus Conserving the Status Quo

Social versus Moral Causes of Human Discontent

Equality versus Elitism

Chapter 4 Why the Big "Isms" Fail 64

What's Wrong with Libertarianism?

What's Wrong with Conservatism?

What's Wrong with Left Liberalism?

Part II Toward a Centrist View of U.S. Politics

Chapter 5 Politics and the Big Questions: On God, Morality, and the Human Condition 81

The Traditional and Secular Understandings of the World

The Temptation of Fundamentalism

The Drift to Secularism

The Further Consequences of Secularism

Where Centrists Stand

Chapter 6 Between the Night Watchman and the Leviathan: The Centrist's Conception of Government 95

The Runaway State

The Argument from Compassion

A Top-Down View of the State

Why Some Economic Redistribution is Morally Justified

The Centrist's Approach to Government

Chapter 7 Centrist Constitutionalism:Democracy and the Role of the Judge 111

Practicing Politics at the Bar

The Countermajoritarian Difficulty

Conservative Constitutionalism: Its Virtues and its Limits

Liberal Constitutionalism: How Far is Too Far?

The Right to Privacy

Centrist Constitutionalism: Four Minimum Commitments

Chapter 8 From Gay Rights to Drug Legalization: The Tension between Individual Freedom and Social Morality 130

Morals Legislation and the Liberal-Conservative Fault Line

The Centrist's Stance

The Question of Gay Marriage

Prostitution

The Drug Legalization Debate

Chapter 9 A Centrist Approach to Abortion 146

Abortion in Social and Historical Context

Two Central Issues

The Standard Conservative Position

The Standard Liberal Position

The Constitutionalization of the Standard Liberal Position

What's Wrong with the Standard Liberal Position?

The Centrist's Approach

Chapter 10 Race, Gender, and Reasonable Equality of Opportunity 161

The Conservative Ideal: Formal Equality

The Liberal Ideal: Substantive Equality

Civil Rights, Yes; Affirmative Action, No

Reasonable Equality of Opportunity

Chapter 11 Crime and Punishment 176

What Causes Crime?

Explaining Crime without Excusing it

The Deterrent Effect

White-Collar Crime, Blue-Collar Crime, and Proportional Punishment

The Death Penalty: Some Background

The Arguments: A Brief Look

A Centrist Approach to Capital Punishment

Chapter 12 The Debate over Illegal Immigration 196

Immigration in U.S. History: The Swinging Pendulum

The Argument for Open Borders

The Conservative Counterattack: The Arguments against Illegal Immigration

The Centrist Approach: Five Proposals

Notes 215

Index 237