Civil Liberties and Endless War

Civil libertarianism was not written into America’s national code. Rather, it has been a strategy of progressives. It often works by denying that it is a strategy, and by claiming merely to serve America’s founding commitments or the incontestable norms of human dignity, without choice or cost. But from time to time, it is worth naming it as a strategy and evaluating how— and what—it is doing.