Vice is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated needs but to be seen; Yet, seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace. In the 1965 decision Griswold v. Connecticut, the Warren Court discovered a constitutional right to privacy and overturned a state law prohibiting the sale of contraceptives. Contraceptives are now handed out to high schoolers and a right to contraception has been written into Obamacare. Abortion and homosexuality used to be scandalous. Now they are constitutional rights and popular social causes, and same-sex marriage is the civil rights cause of the 21st century. As Justice Antonin Scalia noted, if tradition, religious beliefs, or a community animus against conduct is insufficient to restrict private behavior, upon what legal ground do we stand upon to outlaw polygamy, adult incest, or prostitution? Yet traditional America is not rolling over and playing dead. “Abortion rights” face new restrictions in state after state, as a new generation appears more pro-life than its parents. And as the A&E network discovered when it sought to suspend “Duck Dynasty” patriarch Phil Robertson for his biblical reflections, the silent majority remains faithful to the traditional morality. And while a libertarianism of the left appears ascendant, there is also a rising and militant libertarianism of the right. We have seen it manifest in the explosion of “stand your ground” and concealed-carry laws, opposition to federal background checks for gun owners, and ferocious resistance to the outlawing of assault rifles and 30-round magazines. In that Colorado where pot is now legal, state senators have been recalled for insufficient devotion to Second Amendment rights. And there are bubbling secessionist movements in states like Colorado, of folks who would like to separate themselves from places like Denver. The triumph of the sexual revolution has not been without its casualties, e.g., an endless supply of new HIV/AIDS and STD cases and a national illegitimacy rate of over 40 percent of all births. And the correlation between that illegitimacy rate and the dropout rate, drug use rate, delinquency rate, crime rate, and incarceration rate is absolute. Undeniably, the claims of the individual to maximum autonomy and freedom appear triumphant over the claims of community. The clamor of me is prevailing over the claims of us. But in yielding, America has not only tossed overboard the moral compass that guided us for two centuries. We no longer even agree on what is “True North” anymore. ]]>