American political discourse has 1776 disease. If it happened before 1776, most Americans don’t want to hear about it. Maybe this makes sense. The American political project was supposed to be a break from the past, even though the founders to the last man had a better classical education than any pundit working today. Even their pen names were references to Greek and Roman history. This is not a type of problem that is entirely limited to Americans of our time and place. Time horizons tend to be limited, because language changes, it becomes more difficult to identify with the […]