Are You a Defender of Liberal Democracy?

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I think one of the most worrying elements of this culture is, you know, things like people getting into trouble for liking a tweed. And when in an even more extreme circumstance of a sort of idea of silence being violence. The fact that you did not actively speak out on this particular issue makes you somehow morally open to a question. That's absolutely right. Ordinary authoritarians are content to forbid people from saying things they believe to be true. Totalitarians aren't content with that. They take the additional step of forcing people to say things they don't believe. We have moved from that authoritarian impulse to the totalitarian impulse in too many sectors.

Robert P. George is an American legal scholar and political philosopher. The McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University, George is considered one of the foremost conservative intellectuals in America, and advocates a theory of natural law consistent with Catholic belief. With Cornel West, he authored a statement on “Truth Seeking, Democracy, and Freedom of Thought and Expression.”

In this week’s conversation, Yascha Mounk and Robert P. George discuss the political philosophy of John Rawls, why democratic republics can’t function without free speech, and what relevance the first principles of conservatism do or don't retain today.

This transcript has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

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