Could you help me get a tighter grip on your viewpoint? America strikes me as fundamentally, historically, politically, economically, legally, culturally, and religiously liberal. Which is why, perhaps, American soi-disant “conservatives” always end up making liberal arguments for liberal positions. Cf. First Things (with the lone exception of David Hart). Where is this alleged “alternative tradition” actually incarnated or, at least, who are the voices, American or otherwise, who articulate it? What is its alleged geneology?

Michael Zuckert makes a good stab at it in his recent book on Leo Strauss and America.

A lot of Straussians are smart people and do good work, but the ones at Claremont (Jaffa’s followers) are the real hacks.