John C. Calhoun Is the Wrong Example for Modern Conservatives

In my last piece, I alluded to an article by Hunter Derensis of The American Conservative, which makes the case that conservatives should look to John C. Calhoun, of all people, for political guidance. Though I didn’t have space to fully address it yesterday, I believe Derensis’s argument is historically illiterate and intellectually shabby enough to merit a longer response.

Derensis begins his piece by sounding a note of alarm about the growing hostility of progressives toward the Supreme Court, the Senate, the Electoral College, and America’s other counter-majoritarian institutions. He cites various voices on the left who have been spouting off recently about the need to tear down these institutions so that the untrammeled will of the (presumably) Democratic majority can reign. These calls from the left are, indeed, concerning. As I wrote in my article yesterday, the proper role of democracy in the American tradition is as a safeguard for individual rights and liberties against the encroachment of the state. It is the least undesirable mechanism we in the free world have found for warding off tyranny and maintaining liberty under the law. So one can understand, and even laud, the conservative impulse to check its excesses. If the security and defense of individual dignity are, indeed, the chief ends of government, then a democratic majority must be greeted with hostility when its express will undermines these ends.

About the Author

Cameron Hilditch

Cameron Hilditch was a 2020-2021 William F. Buckley Fellow in Political Journalism at National Review Institute.

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In my last piece, I alluded to an article by Hunter Derensis of The American Conservative, which makes the case that conservatives should look to John C. Calhoun, of all people, for political guidance. Though I didn’t have space to fully address it yesterday, I believe Derensis’s argument is historically illiterate and intellectually shabby enough to merit a longer response.

Derensis begins his piece by sounding a note of alarm about the growing hostility of progressives toward the Supreme Court, the Senate, the Electoral College, and America’s other counter-majoritarian institutions. He cites various voices on the left who have been spouting off recently about the need to tear down these institutions so that the untrammeled will of the (presumably) Democratic majority can reign. These calls from the left are, indeed, concerning. As I wrote in my article yesterday, the proper role of democracy in the American tradition is as a safeguard for individual rights and liberties against the encroachment of the state. It is the least undesirable mechanism we in the free world have found for warding off tyranny and maintaining liberty under the law. So one can understand, and even laud, the conservative impulse to check its excesses. If the security and defense of individual dignity are, indeed, the chief ends of government, then a democratic majority must be greeted with hostility when its express will undermines these ends.