In "Democracy in Chains," Nancy MacLean explores how Buchanan and Calhoun were both deeply troubled by the inability of democracy to safeguard individual freedoms and liberty. They believed that traditional democratic systems, if left unchecked, could threaten property rights and established social hierarchies. Their ideas favored limited government intervention, emphasizing the importance of protecting economic and individual rights from democratic encroachment.
"Both Buchanan and Calhoun{...} were concerned wit the failure of democracy to preserve liberty" highlights their shared desire to develop strategies that would safeguard these rights from what they saw as potential excesses of democratic power. Their intellectual legacy influenced the radical right's covert efforts to reshape American political and economic systems in ways that prioritized liberty for elites while limiting the influence of the broader populace.