{"id":12737,"date":"2020-09-08T16:20:43","date_gmt":"2020-09-08T23:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogschapman.wpenginepowered.com\/wilkinson\/2020\/09\/08\/faculty-books-kevin-oleary-and-madisons-sorrow\/"},"modified":"2020-09-08T16:20:43","modified_gmt":"2020-09-08T23:20:43","slug":"faculty-books-kevin-oleary-and-madisons-sorrow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/2020\/09\/08\/faculty-books-kevin-oleary-and-madisons-sorrow\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Books: Kevin O\u2019Leary and Madison\u2019s Sorrow"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

With a current political environment that seems more divisive than ever, many Americans find themselves questioning the actions, decisions, and beliefs of those in power.<\/p>\n

In his new book, \u201cMadison\u2019s Sorrow: Today\u2019s War on the Founders and America\u2019s Liberal Ideal<\/a>,\u201d\u00a0(Pegasus Books distributed by Simon & Schuster), Kevin C. O\u2019Leary<\/a> (Political Science<\/a>) provides \u201can eye-opening cultural history of the political revolution that has destroyed the Republican Party and unleashed an illiberal crusade against the ideals of the Founding Fathers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his analysis, O\u2019Leary dives into American history to explain the presidency of Donald Trump and argues that the beliefs and actions of the contemporary Republican Party are antithetical to the core beliefs of the United States and those who founded this nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe story of America is struggle between our liberal ideal and illiberal resistance,\u201d said O\u2019Leary.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican politics is experiencing politics without conservatives.\u00a0 It\u2019s not a pretty sight.\u00a0 Unlike liberals and conservatives, reactionaries accept and encourage the core illiberal values of privilege, hierarchy, radical inequality, and exclusion, particularly for white males and their families.\u00a0 These are the foundational values of the feudal, aristocratic society that the founders fled.\u201d<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWhat most impressed me about Kevin\u2019s book is the way he moves effortlessly between the history of ideas, on the one hand, and the rough-and-tumble world of politics, on the other,\u201d said Dr. John Compton<\/a>, chair of the Political Science department. \u201cHe argues that the framers of our constitutional system were motivated by a coherent set of liberal ideals; and while these ideals were often ignored in the day-to-day world of politics, they nonetheless provided the ideological framework for later egalitarian reform movements, such as the civil rights movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Compton goes on to say that \u201cthe problem he sees in the present is that many powerful actors now openly reject the egalitarian ideals that motivated earlier generations of Americans. And based on the illiberal rhetoric that has dominated our political discourse in recent years — particularly, but not exclusively, on the right — I think he has a point.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur system of government has worked for more than 250 years because while liberals and conservatives disagree about policy, at a deep level they agree with the founders that America is about liberty, equality, and democracy,\u201d said O\u2019Leary. \u201cWhen one party goes to the extreme, Madisonian democracy breaks down.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Leary\u2019s blend of history and politics provides a unique and enlightening perspective when looking at the contemporary American political system, and for those who find themselves looking for answers, O\u2019Leary\u2019s analysis and explanation might just do the trick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With a current political environment that seems more divisive than ever, many Americans find themselves questioning the actions, decisions, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":12743,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"custom_author_name":"","chapman_pin_hero_slider":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,43,5,6,2631],"tags":[2864,2865,2494,28],"class_list":["post-12737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-awards","category-history-2","category-news","category-posc","category-wilkinson-college","tag-dr-john-compton","tag-dr-kevin-oleary","tag-faculty-books","tag-political-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.chapman.edu\/wilkinson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}