Dear royalcello,
"The point is that even if American pluralism is preferable to European secularism, neither is ideal."
Ideal government awaits only in Heaven.
Here on earth, we are required to choose between different models, all flawed.
Some are intrinsically evil. Some merely tend to disorder because of original sin. Even the Founders recognized this.
Finally, anyone who makes a totality of any human system of social ordering, whether political or economic, cultural, or otherwise, creates a false idol, and moves toward totalitarianism.
sitetest
That may be, but some of us believe that Catholic monarchy as exemplified by Saints such as Ferdinand III of Spain, Stephen of Hungary, Henry of Germany, Louis IX of France and the recently beatified Karl of Austria-Hungary was a lot closer to the ideal than modern democracy. As long as we're on Earth, why not defend and strive for what we believe is the best possible?