The Tempting of America

In the past few decades American institutions have struggled with

the temptations of politics. Professions and academic disciplines

that once possessed a life and structure of their own have steadily

succumbed, in some cases almost entirely, to the belief that nothing

matters beyond politically desirable results, however achieved. In

this quest, politics invariably tries to dominate another discipline,

to capture and use it for politics own purposes, while the second

subject--law, religion, literature, economics, science, journalism, or

whatever-struggles to maintain its independence. But retaining a

separate identity and integrity becomes increasingly difficult as more

and more areas of our culture, including the life of the intellect,

perhaps especially the life of the intellect, become politicized. It is

coming to be denied that anything counts, not logic, not objectivity,

not even intellectual honesty, that stands in the way of the "correct"

political outcome.

The process by which this is accomplished may vary from field

to field, from universities to the media to courts. In law, the moment

of temptation is the moment of choice, when a judge realizes that

in the case before him his strongly held view of justice, his political

and moral imperative, is not embodied in a statute or in any provision

0f the Constitution. He must then choose between his version of

justice and abiding by the American form of government. Yet the

desire to do justice, whose nature seems to him obvious, is compelling,

while the concept of constitutional process is abstract, rather arid,

and the abstinence it counsels unsatisfying. To give in to temptation,

this one time, solves an urgent human problem, and a faint crack

appears in the American foundation. A judge has begun to rule

where a legislator should.

The American people are tempted as well. Many of the results