R: Wake Up From the American Dream (Edmund Burke Weekend Debate)

November 2nd, 2018 at 7:30p.m. in the Saybrook Athenaeum Room

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, oil on canvas, 84.1 × 152.4 cm, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.

This week, join the Federalist Party to discuss the merits and character of the American nation. A revolution turned country which inspired De Tocqueville, Arendt, and more to produce new theories of revolution, authority, legitimacy, and democracy. But in an age of polarization, judicial activism, and general unrest, can we still claim to hold those same principles which inspired a generation to revolution? Did the American Dream die when manifest destiny came to fruition? Or is it intrinsic to the people, tradition carried on through the Constitutional texts and practices of a nation? Are the visions of Madison, Jay, and Hamilton still enshrined in the character of America? Or is the glory of the founders simply remnant of a long past dream, unrealistic and unobtainable?