For the second time in the Trump presidency, the Right is debating the concept of the common good and how that concept fits within the American political tradition.

During Donald Trump's first term, the "common good" debate raged because the unorthodox president's nationalist instincts and policy prescriptions on issues such as trade and immigration clashed with the more globalist preferences of the Republican Party establishment. The debate is now raging once again; it seems, because JD Vance, the odds-on favorite to become the 2028 GOP presidential nominee, is seen as sympathetic to what might be called "common good conservatism" or "post-liberalism."

And that impression of Vance is correct. I would know, because I have long traveled in many of these same circles. I weighed in heavily during these debates the first time around; even proposing a novel theory of constitutional interpretation called "common good originalism."

But this second round of the "common good" debate has been less than edifying. On the anti-"common good" side, there have been way too many intellectual arsonists razing fields of straw men of their own making. And on the pro-"common good" side, there has been way too much........

© Townhall