S8 Ep957: (13) Peter Berkowitz examines two distinct intellectual critiques of the United States as it approaches its 250th anniversary: the postmodern progressives and the post-liberal right. The progressives argue that America is mired in systemic oppression and

Peter Berkowitz of the Hoover Institution joins John Batchelor to dissect two radical intellectual critiques of America as it approaches its 250th anniversary: postmodern progressives and the post-liberal right. The postmodern progressives argue that America’s founding principles—liberty, equality, and individual rights—are not solutions but the root of systemic oppression based on race, sex, and class. They see progress as illusory, dismissing America’s scientific, engineering, and democratic achievements as masking deep-seated injustice. In contrast, the post-liberal right blames the same founding ideals for America’s moral decline, claiming that the abandonment of religious virtue and the absence of a transcendent authority have led to decadence. They advocate for an active government role in promoting religion and moral cultivation—despite the nation’s historical foundation on religious freedom and separation of church and state. Berkowitz dismantles both critiques: he exposes the post-liberal right’s historical amnesia about America’s anti-establishment religious roots, and challenges the progressives’ dismissal of America’s actual progress. The episode reveals a deeper tension: America is being judged not by what it has achieved, but by what it has failed to become—by ideals that are both aspirational and, in some eyes, unattainable.