“American politics is an endless argument among people who share a history, a geography, a culture, a national character and a broad sense of commitments in common.”  The Constitution gives us a way “to keep our balance as a nation, and avoid large mistakes.  And it forces us to act together even when we do not think alike” (299-300).

Politicial theorist Yuval Levin’s American Covenant is an important and timely book.  If you are wondering what is wrong with American politics and our government’s ongoing failure to address and attempt to solve pressing political and societal issues, Levin has your answer—our Congress is failing to fulfill its proper function according to the Constitution.  Once that domino falls, so too come the downstream consequences which seriously impact both the executive office (Congress has ceded far too much power to the President—hence the constant stream of executive orders) and the judicial branch of government (the federal courts and the Supreme Court) has far too often become a determinative body in disputes over legislative matters which should be addressed and debated in the Congress, but which are not.  

Levin calls our attention to something quite easy to overlook but vital to understand.  The Constitution was never designed to secure complete national unity and full agreement of the citizens.  The Constitution was intended to give America a political framework from which to work through our inevitable disagreements by forcing elected officials (Congress) to negotiate over legislation and then compromise to get such legislation enacted.  As Levin puts it, “a more unified society would not disagree less, but would disagree better” (3.)

Levin’s purpose statement is clear and capably unpacked in subsequent chapters.  He writes, 

I begin from the premises that the self-evident truths to which our country has been often imperfectly dedicated from the start remain as true as ever.

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