August 22, 2024 - LAW AND RELIGION FORUM

For people who are interested, over at Law & Liberty, I have an essay on the 60th anniversary of Gore Vidal’s classic film on presidential nominating conventions, 1964’s “The Best Man.” I’ve always loved the film, which captures some of the fun and banality of democratic politics–as well as its deeply cynical, even nihilistic side. Very relevant this election year. Here’s an excerpt:

This year marks the 60th anniversary of perhaps the greatest political film of all time, 1964’s The Best Man. Based on a play of the same name by Gore Vidal, who also wrote the screenplay, The Best Man tells the story of a deadlocked political convention at which two candidates vie for their party’s presidential nomination. Sixty years on, the film remains tremendously entertaining: clever, suspenseful, with an exceptional cast. The dialogue is outstanding. Considering what we have witnessed in the current presidential campaign—and it’s only August—Americans might again find interest in Vidal’s depiction of the backroom intrigue that determines a nomination.

The Best Man holds up for its mordant but profound observations about American democracy. There’s not much idealism here. The film’s most principled character has flaws that make him unfit to lead and the ultimate nominee is a “nobody” whose lack of record is his best quality. But there are important lessons about the sort of person who seeks high office in a democracy—and the sort of person high office requires. Perhaps surprisingly, given that Vidal was a man of the Left and had a rather acid personality, The Best Man offers a basically fair, even forgiving, depiction of progressives and conservatives. Neither are wholly good nor wholly bad, just human.

You can read the whole essay here.

If Western philosophy consists of a series of footnotes to Plato, American sociology consists of a series of footnotes to Tocqueville. Again and again one finds, in researching religion or democracy in the US, that contemporary scholars repeat or develop observations that appear first in Democracy in America. Like the Simpsons, Tocqueville already did it.

Last month, Regnery released a new edition of Democracy in America, edited by law professor Bruce Frohnen (Ohio Northern). Here’s the description of the new edition from the publisher’s website:

This classic analysis of America’s unique political character is quoted heavily by politicians and perennially pops up on history professors’ reading lists.

The enduring appeal of Democracy in America lies in the eloquent, prophetic voice of Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), a French aristocrat who visited the United States in 1831. A thoughtful young man in a still-young country, he succeeded in penning this penetrating study of America’s people, culture, history, geography, politics, legal system, and economy.

Tocqueville asserts, “I confess that in America I saw more than America; I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations, its character, its prejudices, and its passions, in order to learn what we have to fear or hope from its progress.”

As Bruce Frohnen notes in his introduction to this edition, this republication of Henry Reeve’s “important translation” beautifully showcases “one of the world’s greatest achievements in political philosophy.”