David French
David French is an opinion columnist for The New York Times, a political commentator and former constitutional litigator. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a former major in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Liberal Democracy’s Crisis Is Capacity, Not a Superior Rival
At the Aspen Ideas Festival, Francis Fukuyama, Chrystia Freeland, David French and Fareed Zakaria argued that liberal democracy is in a serious internal crisis but has not been displaced by a more viable political model. Fukuyama said no universal successor to liberal democracy has emerged; Freeland pointed to Ukraine as evidence that decentralized democratic societies can still mobilize effectively; and French warned that liberalism’s critics often identify real social failures before turning to authoritarian remedies. Their shared concern was that democracies will keep feeding strongman politics unless they can deliver purpose, competence, representation and trust.
A Shared Civic Gospel Depends on Arguing Over Who Belongs
At the Aspen Ideas Festival, Jane Kamensky, Walter Russell Mead and David French examined whether the Declaration of Independence can still serve as a shared American civic gospel in a religiously plural democracy. Kamensky argued for treating the Declaration as a usable national creed, French said its rights language gives Americans an internal standard for condemning oppression, and Mead cautioned that American identity has always rested on belonging as well as belief. The panel’s central question was not whether Americans can recite “all men are created equal,” but why they assent to it, whom it includes, and how it can be taught without becoming sectarian rule.