Difficulty 1: Many groups critique liberalism; but only some are dangerously anti-democratic. For example:

• Emmanuel Levinas critiques liberalism– but he is not anti-democratic;
• Some communitarians are religious nationalists in waiting; some are not;
• Some Marxists are violent revolutionaries, some are not;
• Etc.

Buzzwords are often not enough to help us figure out if a group is dangerous or anti-democratic.

Difficulty 2: Some anti-democracy groups are religious and some are anti-religious.

Difficulty 3: Just because some religious groups are anti-democracy, that does not mean we get to malign religious people or silence religion. Liberal democracies (and the US in particular) support Freedom of Religion. Which means:

WE NEED TO FIGHT LIKE HELL FOR OUR NEIGHBORS’ RIGHT TO DAMN US TO HELL. EVEN AS WE ALSO NEED TO FIGHT RELIGIOUS NATIONALISM FROM ERODING DEMOCRACY.”

-from my book-in-progress on ‘uncomfortable virtues’