First of all, what do we know about Edmund Burke?
Well, we know he was a hoss. We know that he was the founder of modern conservatism. We know that he was the Nostradamus of the Right, anticipating the success of America, the futility of slavery, the French Reign of Terror (no, not Jerry Lewis, the original one), Indian autonomy, and the rise of Bonapartism, years and years ahead of time. Burke was no ideologue, but he was profoundly rooted in his principles. In other words, he was a man who lived in the real world. He despised abstractions, especially of the French variety. French bleating about “fraternity” was so much “cant and gibberish,” he said. He argued that he himself loved “a manly, moral, regulated liberty as well as any gentleman in France,” but he wouldn’t “stand forward and give praise” to a concept “stripped of all concrete relations” and standing “in all the solitude of a metaphysical idea.”
A more promising guess comes from the line during the trial of the Delta House. Eric "Otter" Stratton says: "The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules, or took a few liberties with our female party guests - we did. [winks at Dean Wormer]...Well, you can do whatever you want to us, but we're not going to sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America!"
This is an excellent suggestion on several points. It shows a deep appreciation of the integral role that institutions play in the social fabric. But it also displays a degree of unquestioning patriotism bordering on jingoism. No, sorry: close but no cigar.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/ ... h-goldberg