"A teacup of water is enough to drown"

For the past several years in honor of United States' Independence Day I have focused on a fact I reiterated this week in post, namely that our constitutional order wholly depends on there being a transcendent source of rights, namely God. This does not necessarily mean that our constitution is built on a firm philosophical foundation, however. First, I offer something from a book that is by any measure a tour de force:

Burkeans, who, faithful to Burke’s own allegiance tried to combine adherence in politics to a conception of tradition that would vindicate the oligarchical revolution of property of 1688 and adherence in economics to the doctrine and institutions of the free market. The theoretical incoherence of this mismatch did not deprive it of ideological usefulness. But the outcome has been that modern conservatives are for the most part engaged in conserving only older rather than later versions of liberal individualism. Their own core doctrine is as liberal and as individualist as that of self-avowed liberals

– Alasdair MacIntyre, After Virtue

Our traditio for this Fourth of Jooolye is Zimming Point's cover of a song off Bob Dylan's 2009 album, Together Through Life. The song is "It's All Good." Dylan's song is not ironic, it's downright sarcastic, which is why I like it:

The widow's cry, the orphan's plea
Everywhere you look, more misery
Come along with me, babe, I wish you would
You know what I'm sayin', it's all good
All good
I said it's all good
All good

I will also add the insight of political philosopher Dr. Patrick Deneen, who is the David A. Potenziani Memorial Associate Professor of Constitutional Studies at the University of Notre Dame regarding the Hobby Lobby case:

The reactions to the Hobby Lobby decision demonstrate how thoroughly liberal every party in America is. The Left bemoans an apparent limitation on government coercion while missing that the decision itself is an affirmation of liberal State's control over religion. Meanwhile, the Right celebrates a victory for "religious liberty" while failing to notice that the case itself is an affirmation of the State's power to decide where, when and how religion is "free." What was most deeply affirmed is the State's control over the Church, granting or denying exemptions as it wishes. The Left and Right alike altogether accept the State's role as authoritative and final arbiter, even as they perform Kabuki theater in apparent opposition on the steps of the SUPREME Court, without wondering why it is supreme