Founderism

{{short description|Reverence for the founders of the United States}}

Founderism (being a Founderist){{cite web|url=http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/09/american-liberty-the-shortcomings-of-conservative-founderism|author=Carl Scott|date=September 10, 2013|title=American Liberty #2: The Shortcomings of Conservative Founderism|publisher=First Things}} is an intellectual outlook that has a strong "reverence for the founders"{{cite journal|url=http://www.vindicatingthefounders.com/reviews/ceaser.html|title=The Founders' Friend: Thomas West Argues for 1776|author=James Ceaser|journal=The Weekly Standard|date=November 10, 1997|pages=36–37}} of the United States. The term is viewed as a pejorative epithet,{{cite book|title=Reconstructing America: The Symbol of America in Modern Thought|author= James W. Ceaser|page=252|year=1997|publisher=Yale University}} accusing those so labeled as having a worldview that sacrifices historical accuracy for turning the "founding into a fetish".{{cite web|url=http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2009/10/some-anti-straussophian-answers|author=Peter Lawler|date=October 1, 2009|title=Some Anti-Straussophobic Answers|publisher=First Things}}

The antonym "anti-founderism" is applied to those who "seem convinced that there was something profoundly wrong with the origins" of the state.