“It is safer to try to understand the low in the light of the high than the high in the light of the low. In doing the latter one necessarily distorts the high, whereas in doing the former one does not deprive the low of the freedom to reveal itself fully as what it is.”
—Leo Strauss, Liberalism Ancient and Modern
In accord with Strauss’s helpful dictum, let us understand the low and demoralizing phenomenon of Donald Trump in light of the high and inspiring achievement of the late Antonin Scalia. After all, an appreciation of the life and work of Justice Scalia in no way deprives Mr. Trump of the freedom to reveal himself fully as what he is. Our respect for Scalia’s elevated and demanding constitutionalism in no way distorts our understanding of Trump’s irresponsible and demagogic populism.
Justice Scalia dedicated his very considerable talents to defending and continuing the work of the nation’s Founders. Of course the Founders expected the great democratic and commercial republic they established to produce its share of Donald Trumps. Nino Scalia knew this as well as anyone. The rights that the Founders secured and that Scalia defended allow Americans to seek, even to worship, wealth. The free and open society that the Founders constituted and that Scalia protected liberates Americans to indulge in vulgar pursuits. The constitutional structure and the rule of law to which Scalia was dedicated are intended, after all, not for a mythical people of selfless virtue but for the real people of this boisterous nation. In his sustained critique of an imperial judiciary and the “living Constitution” that was its plaything, Scalia was a great defender of American democracy.
But Nino Scalia, following the Founders, also understood that the preservation of this experiment in self-government requires leaders who can elevate their gaze above the horizon of a Trump and citizens who can, at least most of the time, resist the blandishments of Trumpism. The Founders and Scalia understood that the art of self-government is more than the art of the deal. The Founders and Scalia understood the difference between the enlightened self-interest of a free people and the narrow self-interest of a shortsighted one. The Founders and Scalia understood the difference between the “love of fame, the ruling passion of the noblest minds,” and the “talents for low intrigue and the little arts of popularity” that are the ruling preoccupations of vulgar minds.
The Founders also knew that understanding something doesn’t make it so. They did their best to make their understanding effectual. Their successors over two centuries have continued such efforts, sometimes more effectively, sometimes less. Justice Scalia’s life work was an attempt to make the Founders’ understanding effectual in our times.
No one was more aware than Nino Scalia that understanding something doesn’t make it so. His greatest opinions were dissents. He stood unapologetically against many of the ruling opinions of our age; he was committed to the rule of law rather than the rule of lawyers; he made the case for a constitutional judiciary rather than an imperial one, and he demonstrated moral courage and intellectual probity rather than catering to the prejudices of the elites or flattering the passions of the people. That is why the name of Antonin Scalia will be remembered and honored long after that of Donald Trump is forgotten.
