Professor Maurizio Viroli says that “Italians have never been good at defending their own liberties because Italians are extremely hostile to the rule of law and to the idea of civic duties. They think those are only good for fools and idiots” (A Moment With, Feb. 8). There’s a lesson there for Americans. For at least the last couple of decades, there’s been an incessant assault on the concept of civic duties, on American talk radio and cable TV. It bodes ill.
