the common "good"

There's a nice essay (http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10279 ) in the October 15 America on the importance of recovering the concept of the common good in our contemporary American political discourse and practice.  Not moral values, not pluralism, not rights, not dignity -- the "common good" at the center, those other concepts taking their place in service of achieving the common good (and the individual goods that it includes).  Hats off to the authors, Kelley and Gehring.