Civics and Civility in Thought and Action

While some insist emphatically on the importance of “American exceptionalism”—that the United States serve as a beacon of democracy and self-government to the world—many Americans continue alarmingly unaware of the very principles on which their nation was founded. This is having consequences. The adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 marked a fundamental change in that country’s legal system, making communities more important than individuals. In “Canadian Crackdown” (National Review, June 11, 2012), Canadian television host and columnist Michael Coren notes that various groups up north are seizing new powers to assert their interests over the personal freedom of others.

Although America has not entirely lost its focus on individual rights, Roger Clegg and John S. Rosenberg point out in this issue of AQthat we too have moved quite a distance toward group