Is the American Regime in Crisis?

Aspecter haunts Charles Kesler’s Crisis of the Two Constitutions: the specter of Trumpism. It is right there in the subtitle: “The Rise, Decline, and Recovery of American Greatness.” Even though only two of 18 chapters of the book deal directly with Donald Trump, the reader senses the work build­ing toward an apologia for the former president. Yet, much as he did during the Trump administration, Kesler remains just a touch aloof from Trumpism: clearly for it but writing as a bemused analyst rather than a participant.