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Article: The lost soul of American politics.
- Article from:
- National Review
- Article date:
- July 12, 1985
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1985 National Review, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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IT MAY NOT be the way most of us think of politics but, at least in the classical tradition, politics is a moral enterprise. This does not mean that politics is typically conducted in a morally elevated, or even morally acceptable, manner. It does mean that politics addresses questions of right and wrong. Politics deals with the public dimensions of the virtuous life. Or so Aristotle, for one, believed. He left no doubt that his Politics was an extension of his Ethics. According to Aristotle, the question with which politics begins and to which it ever returns is simply this: How ought we to live together?
We Americans have never been entirely at ease with ...