VDH is captive to that foundational myth of our modern post-Constitutional republic that affects almost all neocons and everything he does ultimately comes back to it with these grotesquely contrived explanations. He is like medieval doctor trained in Hippocratic theory. He can see the disease. He knows the patient is mortally ill. But he will never be able to actually provide any truly insightful advice or help because his foundation is that all disease is caused by an imbalance in the four humors and every explanation starts and ends there even though it is complete bunk.
For guys like VDH, Abraham Lincoln represents the best in America and the antebellum south the worst. Thus, he always tries to tie every evil, every wrong back to that. And it’s all bunk. He couldn’t be more wrong. Every explanation is contrived and if it makes sense, it makes sense because because one accepts the flawed foundational myth.
For guys like VDH the union victory represented the triumph of the ideas of the American revolution. But in reality, it represents the end. It was the repudiation of the constitution and the constitutional process for emotion and perceived moral superiority.
Good post
