There seems to be general agreement that liberal democracy in the Western world is in crisis. We can see this in the range of political upheavals over the past few years, from the 2016 election of Donald Trump and the disconcerting reality of an American president expressing open admiration for authoritarian regimes abroad, to the ongoing chaos over England’s Brexit referendum.

In American Catholicism, the crisis finds expression in the traditionalist wing of the church. Some traditionalists are now blaming liberal democracy for a host of problems, including the breakdown of institutions, religious disaffiliation, abortion, and indiscriminate sexuality—all traceable to 1960s and ’70s liberalism emphasizing diversity and the expansion of individual rights.