Paradoxically, a turn away from ‘liberal’ and ‘progressive’ values has the potential to defuse some of America’s belligerence Recently, one of America’s most conservative as well as influential newspapers, the Wall Street Journal, ran two intriguing pieces. One observed that “ MAGA is taking back the culture ,” the other – by the well-known academic and public intellectual Walter Russell Mead – argued that “ American exceptionalism is back .” Together they raise important, perhaps vital