Conclusion
599
and economic institutions and venerable traditions and beliefs. Whether
Communist, or Nazi, or ferocious revolutionary of some other persuasion,
the ideologue always has a master plan or utopian scheme, based on ‘‘scientific’’ reasoning, to remake the world. He detests constitutional order
and aspires to erect a domination of his own party upon the ruins of
‘‘bourgeois culture’’ or ‘‘reactionary imperialist powers’’—the United
States in particular. Ideology is what Edmund Burke called ‘‘armed
doctrine’’—false ideas promoted by weapons.
The Framers of the Constitution were no ideologues, but realistic men
keenly aware of the lessons of the past and the limitations of human nature. The political structure they put together was quite free of ideological illusions. Have the Americans of our era enough sound sense to detect the fallacies in such an ideology as Marxism? Would they, like the
Americans of 1776, venture their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred
honor in defense of their inheritance of liberty, order, and justice? Hard
choices lie ahead, even into the twenty-first century.
(10) To sustain a good constitutional order, it is necessary for many
people in a society to participate intelligently and voluntarily, with real
energy, often at expense to themselves, in public affairs at every level.
The Framers took for granted this price that must be paid for the preservation of the commonwealth. What proportion of the American population today takes any active part in practical politics—counting as political activity any action beyond the mere act of voting? Making a small
contribution to a campaign fund, attending a local political meeting, giving a friend a ride to an el