The return of honor politics

America is reverting to an older, more dangerous form of political life

James Madison and Aaron Burr.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Asya_mix/iStock, Library of Congress)

When we talk about the many political problems of the present, we often revert to concepts bequeathed to us by political science: partisanship and polarization, norms and institutions, public opinion and populism.

These terms are often illuminating. But there is another, older way of talking about politics that may reveal even more. I'm thinking of words like honor and dishonor, glory and humiliation — ideas meant to evoke the vertical dimension of political life in which individuals and parties compete to demonstrate their superiority to their rivals and opponents, hurl insults, take umbrage, and promise to exact vengeance for wounded pride. They are the virtues and vices of the battlefield, collected and analyzed in the works of political philosophers and historians of the pre-modern world.

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Damon Linker

Damon Linker is a senior correspondent at TheWeek.com. He is also a former contributing editor at The New Republic and the author of The Theocons and The Religious Test.