I just completed the work: "We the Fallen People; the Founders and the the future of American Democracy" by Wheaton College history professor, Robert Tracy McKenzie.
The book is an insightful reminder about how the founders philosophically viewed the human person - as made in God's image and severely hampered with a fallen nature of original sin. Given this anthropology McKenzie describes how the founders had hope for democracy, but not a faith in it - because Democracy can become tyrannical as much as any other form of government.
McKenzie interacts heavily with Alexis de Tocqueville's work, 'Democracy in America.' He spends a significant amount of time reflecting on the importance of Andrew Jackson's presidency and its importance to today. Three particular Jacksonian events come to the fore front, his lost campaign to JQ Adams, Indigenous re-settlement, and the deconstruction of the bank of the United States.
McKenzie is an integrative and thorough writer - fully aware of lines that may be too easily #hash-tagged and #tweeted as readers plunge in and engage. He does what few historians will do as a point of conclusion, he asserts broad steps that could be made to restore a degree of cordial discourse to our shared public life. You can listen to a presentation he made here: https://www.faithandlaw.org/we-the-fallen-people/
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