1 00:00:06,200 --> 00:00:08,879 Speaker 1: I'm Joshammer and this is the Josh Shammer Show. So 2 00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:12,120 Speaker 1: I'm off today for the final day of the Passover Holiday, 3 00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:14,920 Speaker 1: but the show, of course must go on. I'm thinking 4 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:17,440 Speaker 1: here a lot about the themes of the Passover holiday, 5 00:00:17,520 --> 00:00:20,160 Speaker 1: and of course in this upcoming year of America's two 6 00:00:20,239 --> 00:00:24,320 Speaker 1: and fiftieth anniversary, which will happen this July fourth. Through 7 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:27,560 Speaker 1: fifty years hard to believe, a quarter of a millennium 8 00:00:28,200 --> 00:00:30,800 Speaker 1: from July fourth to seventy seventy six until July fourth, 9 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:34,000 Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, crazy crazy stuff. I want to see 10 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 1: if I can try to tie all these trends together 11 00:00:37,080 --> 00:00:40,400 Speaker 1: for you talk a little bit about what America is, 12 00:00:41,200 --> 00:00:45,599 Speaker 1: who Americans are, and what America ought to be in 13 00:00:45,640 --> 00:00:48,080 Speaker 1: this twenty first century and beyond. Those are the themes 14 00:00:48,159 --> 00:00:51,120 Speaker 1: of today's show. So this is the final day of 15 00:00:51,320 --> 00:00:54,080 Speaker 1: the Passover holiday, one of the better known of the 16 00:00:54,120 --> 00:00:56,840 Speaker 1: Jewish holidays. It is a holiday that is ultimately about 17 00:00:56,880 --> 00:01:02,560 Speaker 1: the Exodus, about the exodus from Egypt from oppression under Pharaoh, 18 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:06,240 Speaker 1: the bondage, the enslavement of the ancient Israelites. There you're 19 00:01:06,319 --> 00:01:09,360 Speaker 1: likely familiar with the tale by now, but in brief, 20 00:01:09,480 --> 00:01:12,880 Speaker 1: if you are not. Moses, who is the great prophet 21 00:01:13,319 --> 00:01:17,319 Speaker 1: of the Israelites at this time, ultimately pleads with Pharaoh 22 00:01:17,440 --> 00:01:20,760 Speaker 1: to let his people go. And then there are ten 23 00:01:20,800 --> 00:01:24,280 Speaker 1: plagues that are famously sent from God to Pharaoh and 24 00:01:24,319 --> 00:01:28,480 Speaker 1: the Egyptians. They're ultimately culminating in Pharaoh sending the Israelites 25 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:31,400 Speaker 1: out of Egypt, then changing his mind, and then at 26 00:01:31,400 --> 00:01:34,080 Speaker 1: the banks of the Red Sea, when the Israelites are 27 00:01:35,080 --> 00:01:37,000 Speaker 1: surrounded in all size by either the sea on one 28 00:01:37,040 --> 00:01:39,679 Speaker 1: side or the approaching Egyptians on the other side, that's 29 00:01:39,680 --> 00:01:43,080 Speaker 1: when Moses famously raises his staff upon the commandment of 30 00:01:43,400 --> 00:01:47,160 Speaker 1: God and parts the sea. In fact, these final two 31 00:01:47,240 --> 00:01:49,560 Speaker 1: days of the Passover holiday I was all ful on 32 00:01:49,640 --> 00:01:53,400 Speaker 1: yesterday and today are actually in direct commemoration of this 33 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:57,520 Speaker 1: particular climax of the Exodus story, which is the parting 34 00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:01,520 Speaker 1: of the Red Sea. So what does that have anything 35 00:02:01,520 --> 00:02:04,440 Speaker 1: to do, you might ask, and reasonably ask for that matter, 36 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:07,280 Speaker 1: with the United States of America. Well, the short answer 37 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:12,400 Speaker 1: actually is a lot. In fact, the Exodus story was 38 00:02:12,440 --> 00:02:15,720 Speaker 1: one of the most ubiquitous stories that was told. The 39 00:02:15,760 --> 00:02:19,760 Speaker 1: imagery symbolism what was passed around from town to down, 40 00:02:19,880 --> 00:02:23,080 Speaker 1: from town square to town Square from church pulpit the 41 00:02:23,120 --> 00:02:27,120 Speaker 1: church pulplit back in revolutionary era America, around the time 42 00:02:27,160 --> 00:02:31,400 Speaker 1: that Americans were trying to stir up their revolutionary sentiment, 43 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:34,840 Speaker 1: ultimately culminating in a Lexington and conquered and the decoration 44 00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:38,760 Speaker 1: of Independent itself, and the Revolutionary War culminating in the 45 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:42,840 Speaker 1: surrender of General Cornwallis at Yorktown in Virginia and then 46 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:44,840 Speaker 1: the signing of the Treaty of Paris to end the 47 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:49,240 Speaker 1: conflict in seventeen eighty three. The Exits story was for 48 00:02:49,440 --> 00:02:53,160 Speaker 1: these colonial Americans and for these early Republic Americans, a 49 00:02:53,280 --> 00:02:56,359 Speaker 1: symbol as to who they were and frankly who they 50 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:58,639 Speaker 1: had been. You might actually go back even as far 51 00:02:58,800 --> 00:03:02,320 Speaker 1: as the sailing on the Mayflower itself, going back to 52 00:03:02,400 --> 00:03:05,200 Speaker 1: the early seventeenth century, when you had men like Sir 53 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:08,640 Speaker 1: William Bradford who got on the actual littoral made flower. 54 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:13,360 Speaker 1: They were fleeing religious persecution in England. The Church of 55 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:16,360 Speaker 1: England had started to discriminate against the Puritandts due to 56 00:03:16,480 --> 00:03:20,800 Speaker 1: their conflicting views on prositism and a biblical interpretation and 57 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:24,119 Speaker 1: lifestyle and so forth. There and they viewed themselves as 58 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:29,680 Speaker 1: modern day Israelites fleeing their form of Pharaoh's oppression over 59 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:33,600 Speaker 1: in Egypt. For them, of course, it was England. And 60 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:36,360 Speaker 1: if you looked back at the early laws of the 61 00:03:36,400 --> 00:03:40,920 Speaker 1: Massachusetts Bay Colony, which ultimately is founded after the landing 62 00:03:40,960 --> 00:03:44,400 Speaker 1: of the Mayflower in Massachusetts, a lot of their early laws, 63 00:03:44,520 --> 00:03:45,920 Speaker 1: all of them, but a lot of them were actually 64 00:03:46,080 --> 00:03:50,040 Speaker 1: essentially copy and pasted. They were largely aped from the 65 00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:54,160 Speaker 1: Mosaic law, from the law of the Torah, the first 66 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:56,520 Speaker 1: five books of the Bible, the five Books of Moses. 67 00:03:57,360 --> 00:03:59,040 Speaker 1: You could confest out a little bit also to the 68 00:03:59,040 --> 00:04:04,120 Speaker 1: Revolutionary era, the imagery, this notion of a fleeing persecution, 69 00:04:04,200 --> 00:04:07,720 Speaker 1: of establishing a new nation, a new people, a new 70 00:04:07,760 --> 00:04:10,760 Speaker 1: birth of freedom, as Abraham Lincoln had famously put it 71 00:04:11,360 --> 00:04:18,320 Speaker 1: about eight to nine decades later, this notion was heavily embodied. Indeed, 72 00:04:18,360 --> 00:04:22,000 Speaker 1: it was rooted undergirded by the Exodus story. Men like 73 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:25,560 Speaker 1: Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, And those two men, perhaps 74 00:04:25,600 --> 00:04:28,320 Speaker 1: above all, though others did as well, proposed actually that 75 00:04:28,400 --> 00:04:31,520 Speaker 1: the National seal of the United States actually be Moses 76 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:34,480 Speaker 1: standing there on the banks of the Red Sea, parting 77 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:38,160 Speaker 1: the Red Sea with the Israelites trailing behind, and the 78 00:04:38,279 --> 00:04:43,080 Speaker 1: national motto, as proposed by Ben Franklin, was death to tyrants. 79 00:04:43,200 --> 00:04:46,240 Speaker 1: It was actually in Latin, but that was the actual mota. Now, 80 00:04:46,360 --> 00:04:48,960 Speaker 1: ultimately the national seal went in a different direction. But 81 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:55,400 Speaker 1: this notion of exodus of fleeing persecution was deeply poigning 82 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:57,480 Speaker 1: at the time of the founding. Frankly, for the matter, 83 00:04:57,560 --> 00:05:01,000 Speaker 1: so was scripture and the Hebrew Bible above all itself, 84 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:04,679 Speaker 1: a fact according to numerous studies on this. Numerous studies 85 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:08,480 Speaker 1: on this, they show that the number one most frequently 86 00:05:08,640 --> 00:05:13,760 Speaker 1: cited work or document or treatise or book of any 87 00:05:13,839 --> 00:05:21,320 Speaker 1: kind in public publicly documented literature, from church pulpits and 88 00:05:21,400 --> 00:05:26,240 Speaker 1: sermons to newspapers to essays and newspaper columns so forth. 89 00:05:26,240 --> 00:05:30,200 Speaker 1: There the number one most cited text over the course 90 00:05:30,839 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 1: of the second half of the eighteenth century. In other words, 91 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:39,200 Speaker 1: the Revolutionary period actually was the Hebrew Bible itself. This 92 00:05:39,279 --> 00:05:41,880 Speaker 1: is something that is easily lost there now. To be sure, 93 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:45,080 Speaker 1: the American Founding was very much something of an intellectual 94 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:48,560 Speaker 1: medali and this definitely has some real repercussions in terms 95 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:50,080 Speaker 1: of who we are and what we are today and 96 00:05:50,080 --> 00:05:51,280 Speaker 1: when we get to that just a second. Therefore, I 97 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:54,279 Speaker 1: want to say just about today's show sponsor, which is 98 00:05:54,360 --> 00:05:56,440 Speaker 1: a Bounce of Nature. You know, we talk a lot 99 00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:58,520 Speaker 1: on the show about getting back to basics, faith, family 100 00:05:58,560 --> 00:06:01,320 Speaker 1: foundations that actually worked. 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Bounds of Nature says sponsored you can 118 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:57,080 Speaker 1: check them out at Bounce of nature dot com. So 119 00:06:57,200 --> 00:06:59,520 Speaker 1: to be sure, the American founding was definitely something of 120 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,760 Speaker 1: an intellect actual Medley, as has often been argued over 121 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:05,880 Speaker 1: the years, there the Bible was indeed pressed by far 122 00:07:05,920 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 1: I've been the most frequently sided source. They were well 123 00:07:08,720 --> 00:07:11,120 Speaker 1: studied in all sorts of other areas of law and 124 00:07:11,120 --> 00:07:14,679 Speaker 1: philosophy and literature as well. But I object to the notion, 125 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:16,440 Speaker 1: and I have long judged in the notion that America 126 00:07:16,440 --> 00:07:19,680 Speaker 1: has found that as a classical liberal European Enlightenment bastion. 127 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:22,360 Speaker 1: There are a lot of folks over the years who 128 00:07:22,400 --> 00:07:26,520 Speaker 1: have taken the language of Thomas Jefferson writing in the 129 00:07:26,520 --> 00:07:29,440 Speaker 1: Decoration of Independence and trying to remove it from its 130 00:07:29,480 --> 00:07:32,960 Speaker 1: overarching contexts. Jefferson famously rights and these are the most 131 00:07:32,960 --> 00:07:35,760 Speaker 1: famous words in declaration Who's tune fifth the anniversary we 132 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:38,960 Speaker 1: will celebrate this July fourth. Jefferson and famousy rites that 133 00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:41,440 Speaker 1: we hold these truths to be self evidence, that all 134 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:43,560 Speaker 1: men are created equal, that they are endowed by the Creator, 135 00:07:43,560 --> 00:07:46,920 Speaker 1: which certain inalienable rights. Among them are life, liberty in 136 00:07:46,920 --> 00:07:50,480 Speaker 1: the pursuit of happiness. These are words that just just 137 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:53,960 Speaker 1: ricochet from seed to shining sea. Abraham Lincoln famously referred 138 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:56,240 Speaker 1: to these words and this document, the Decoration were generally 139 00:07:56,840 --> 00:08:00,680 Speaker 1: as the electric cord that binds generations of American from 140 00:08:00,680 --> 00:08:03,920 Speaker 1: one generation to the next. And sure enough, it is 141 00:08:03,960 --> 00:08:06,680 Speaker 1: an electric coord sure enough, as Lincoln put a declaration, 142 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:11,280 Speaker 1: absolutely is this apple of this apple of gold, for 143 00:08:11,320 --> 00:08:14,040 Speaker 1: which the Constitution itself is merely just the surrounding frame 144 00:08:14,080 --> 00:08:17,880 Speaker 1: of silver. But a lot of folks take this Jeffersonian language, 145 00:08:17,920 --> 00:08:21,360 Speaker 1: this notion of all metacrite equal that it's self evidence 146 00:08:21,440 --> 00:08:24,400 Speaker 1: natural rights, and they say, wow, this sounds a lot 147 00:08:24,480 --> 00:08:27,600 Speaker 1: like John Locke writing his Second Treatise in England just 148 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:30,160 Speaker 1: about a century prior to that. This sounds a lot 149 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:34,480 Speaker 1: like perhaps Montesquieu, maybe in a worse form, even a Voltaire, 150 00:08:34,559 --> 00:08:38,880 Speaker 1: or various other European Enlightenment thinkers across the proverbial political spectrum. 151 00:08:39,600 --> 00:08:42,400 Speaker 1: I'm not here telling you that the European Enlightenment played 152 00:08:42,440 --> 00:08:44,520 Speaker 1: no role. Of course it did, and there were certain 153 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:48,000 Speaker 1: American framers, men like Thomas Jefferson, men like Thomas Paine, 154 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:51,480 Speaker 1: who were deeply, deeply inspired by things that are happening, 155 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:54,360 Speaker 1: especially really on the European continent, even more so than 156 00:08:54,520 --> 00:08:58,480 Speaker 1: in England around that time. Jefferson, for instance, was actually 157 00:08:58,480 --> 00:09:02,839 Speaker 1: in revolutionary France during the revolution. He was a true 158 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:08,840 Speaker 1: hardcore revolutionary, perhaps even indiscriminately so. But there were other 159 00:09:08,880 --> 00:09:13,440 Speaker 1: sources as well. It was really revealed religion. It was 160 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:17,520 Speaker 1: the Bible that ultimately girded the American experiment. It was 161 00:09:17,559 --> 00:09:21,679 Speaker 1: the most quoted document during the revolutionary period. It was 162 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:25,760 Speaker 1: the document that America's first two presidents, George Washington John Adams, 163 00:09:26,440 --> 00:09:30,760 Speaker 1: talked about all the time. John Adams famously said that 164 00:09:30,800 --> 00:09:34,440 Speaker 1: the Constitution, of which he was a major component, back 165 00:09:34,440 --> 00:09:37,360 Speaker 1: when it was drafted, he said that the Constitution was 166 00:09:37,400 --> 00:09:39,880 Speaker 1: made only for a religious and immoral people. It is 167 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:44,640 Speaker 1: wholly inadequate for any other. George Washington, in his stirring 168 00:09:44,679 --> 00:09:50,400 Speaker 1: words in his farewell address in seventeen ninety six, famously 169 00:09:50,480 --> 00:09:55,199 Speaker 1: said that the only guarranteur of morality from one generation 170 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:59,920 Speaker 1: to the next is revealed religion, not just a vag 171 00:10:00,000 --> 00:10:04,520 Speaker 1: big ethical abstraction. You claim a loyalty, some sort of 172 00:10:04,520 --> 00:10:07,960 Speaker 1: felty to some sort of ethical value system. Perhaps you 173 00:10:08,000 --> 00:10:11,800 Speaker 1: want to say you are spiritual but now religious, which 174 00:10:11,840 --> 00:10:14,800 Speaker 1: is kind of a twentieth or twenty first century twist 175 00:10:14,880 --> 00:10:19,360 Speaker 1: on this old notion. George Washington was there to say no. 176 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:23,040 Speaker 1: He said known about the clearest language possible in his 177 00:10:23,120 --> 00:10:28,599 Speaker 1: farewell address, only actual revealed Biblical religion is the indispensable 178 00:10:28,600 --> 00:10:32,960 Speaker 1: safeguard morality only that can preserve this country from one 179 00:10:33,160 --> 00:10:37,280 Speaker 1: generation to the next. Now, this has all sort of 180 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:40,679 Speaker 1: implications when it comes to the most foundational question all politics, 181 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:44,960 Speaker 1: namely who we are as a polity. When the men 182 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:47,760 Speaker 1: on the comedian style in the Constitual Convention in seventeen 183 00:10:47,760 --> 00:10:52,200 Speaker 1: to seven drafted the premail the Constitution and they open 184 00:10:52,280 --> 00:10:56,520 Speaker 1: with those famous words we the people. Who are the people? 185 00:10:57,400 --> 00:11:00,880 Speaker 1: What does it take to actually become a member of 186 00:11:00,920 --> 00:11:04,200 Speaker 1: the people. If we actually believe in a lower case 187 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:07,240 Speaker 1: our republican self governance, we believe in popular sovereignty, If 188 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:10,520 Speaker 1: we believe that we are here to chart our own 189 00:11:10,559 --> 00:11:15,240 Speaker 1: course and to take us on our own destiny, then 190 00:11:15,280 --> 00:11:18,440 Speaker 1: certainly these are the most important questions to ask to 191 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:20,920 Speaker 1: take us back. Just to yesterday's conversation with Mike Davis 192 00:11:20,960 --> 00:11:25,199 Speaker 1: about birthrightsistionship, the notion that you can come here illegally 193 00:11:26,040 --> 00:11:27,600 Speaker 1: have a baby, and then that baby is part of 194 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:32,080 Speaker 1: we the people. That doesn't square very well with philosophical 195 00:11:32,080 --> 00:11:36,280 Speaker 1: notions of popular sovereignty of lower case our republican self governance, 196 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:40,520 Speaker 1: does it. But this is what they believed, and frankly, 197 00:11:40,559 --> 00:11:43,960 Speaker 1: even more so than the European Lightenment. They rooted these principles, 198 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:47,800 Speaker 1: including such things as the consent of the government, really 199 00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:50,400 Speaker 1: actually in the Bible, which is the very first place 200 00:11:50,760 --> 00:11:58,360 Speaker 1: that had appeared. So we spent some time here laying 201 00:11:58,360 --> 00:12:02,480 Speaker 1: the foundation as to what inspired America, ultimately commenting in 202 00:12:02,520 --> 00:12:05,600 Speaker 1: these shots being fired there at less than conquerred, and 203 00:12:05,679 --> 00:12:08,679 Speaker 1: the Treaty of Paris and the failed Articles Confederation and 204 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:11,839 Speaker 1: the signing of the Constitution. A lot that's predicated on 205 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:15,559 Speaker 1: this nation's Declaration of Independence, which was written in seventy 206 00:12:15,640 --> 00:12:17,640 Speaker 1: seventy six, and for which we celebrate the two to 207 00:12:17,640 --> 00:12:21,079 Speaker 1: fifthy anniversary this July fourth. I know that I cannot 208 00:12:21,120 --> 00:12:23,880 Speaker 1: wait for that. What a show President Donald Trump is 209 00:12:23,880 --> 00:12:25,920 Speaker 1: going to put on a tremendous show of that, I 210 00:12:25,960 --> 00:12:29,800 Speaker 1: have no doubt whatsoever. Frankly, I cannot wait to see 211 00:12:29,840 --> 00:12:32,880 Speaker 1: all that that entails. The only regreted very personal notes, 212 00:12:33,400 --> 00:12:37,000 Speaker 1: is that my favorite now tragically late country music art 213 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:40,480 Speaker 1: is the amazing, amazing, red white and blue blooded patriot. 214 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:43,439 Speaker 1: Toby Keith is going to be un he won't be here. 215 00:12:43,679 --> 00:12:46,040 Speaker 1: He's not alive, and that is just a shame because 216 00:12:46,040 --> 00:12:48,960 Speaker 1: I cannot even imagine what that performances look like. But 217 00:12:49,000 --> 00:12:53,280 Speaker 1: alas I digress now, the Declaration of Independence, which is 218 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:58,719 Speaker 1: indeed premise upon Lockeyan natural rights theory, is something of 219 00:12:59,440 --> 00:13:04,120 Speaker 1: a phyllis abstraction. The point, though, that I was beginning 220 00:13:04,160 --> 00:13:06,920 Speaker 1: to making, which I will finish now, is that this 221 00:13:06,960 --> 00:13:10,680 Speaker 1: philosophical abstract is notion of holding truths to be self evident, 222 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:13,360 Speaker 1: that natural rights theory, that all men are created equal. 223 00:13:13,600 --> 00:13:17,440 Speaker 1: This doesn't happen in a vacuum. Men can only say 224 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:20,800 Speaker 1: such things when they are speaking and writing and pontificating, 225 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:24,680 Speaker 1: disseminating their thoughts in a certain overarching civilizational milu. An 226 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:26,400 Speaker 1: example that I like to make when we talk about 227 00:13:26,440 --> 00:13:30,599 Speaker 1: this on college campuses is I say, as follows, imagine 228 00:13:30,679 --> 00:13:34,640 Speaker 1: that you are the Taliban. Imagine you ut don't want 229 00:13:34,640 --> 00:13:37,200 Speaker 1: to imagine that. It sounds terrible, I know, just do it. 230 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:39,679 Speaker 1: Indulge me for a second, imagine that you are the Taliban. 231 00:13:39,679 --> 00:13:42,520 Speaker 1: Imagine that you are hiding in the mountains of Afghanistan, 232 00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:45,600 Speaker 1: that you are a goat herder, et cetera, et cetera. 233 00:13:45,760 --> 00:13:48,360 Speaker 1: Do you think that you would find it self evident 234 00:13:49,240 --> 00:13:51,880 Speaker 1: that all men are created equal? The answer is, of 235 00:13:51,880 --> 00:13:55,560 Speaker 1: course no. The answer would be no. Similarly for sub 236 00:13:55,559 --> 00:13:59,079 Speaker 1: Saharan tribal African warlords, et cetera. It was evident to 237 00:13:59,160 --> 00:14:01,280 Speaker 1: men like John Locke Common Jerson because they were thinking 238 00:14:01,280 --> 00:14:04,800 Speaker 1: and writing in a certain civilizational milu. And this is 239 00:14:04,880 --> 00:14:09,520 Speaker 1: the mileu of the broader Anglo American tradition that America inherited. 240 00:14:10,559 --> 00:14:13,240 Speaker 1: When John Jay writes in the Federals Number two about 241 00:14:13,280 --> 00:14:16,120 Speaker 1: how all Americans who have this revolutionary fervor come from 242 00:14:16,200 --> 00:14:18,800 Speaker 1: a common stock and in a similar religious background and 243 00:14:18,840 --> 00:14:21,320 Speaker 1: so forth, there, that's what he's getting at. This is 244 00:14:21,360 --> 00:14:27,120 Speaker 1: a similar background. Now America's Constitution. I did just say 245 00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:29,040 Speaker 1: earlier in the show that it is only the surrounding 246 00:14:29,080 --> 00:14:31,680 Speaker 1: frame of silver for the apple of gold that is decoration. 247 00:14:32,160 --> 00:14:35,680 Speaker 1: The Constitution is a simply magisterial document, though it is 248 00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:39,360 Speaker 1: the greatest charter for self governance that man has ever created, 249 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:44,240 Speaker 1: has ever written, has ever developed. Perhaps you think you 250 00:14:44,240 --> 00:14:46,920 Speaker 1: could do better in the year twenty twenty six. I'm 251 00:14:46,920 --> 00:14:48,960 Speaker 1: sure a lot of leftists think that a lot of 252 00:14:49,000 --> 00:14:52,240 Speaker 1: these intersectional folk idiots who think that that's just a 253 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:57,479 Speaker 1: bunch of dead white male slaveholders wrote some things about rights. 254 00:14:58,360 --> 00:14:59,640 Speaker 1: I don't think you can do a whole lot better 255 00:14:59,640 --> 00:15:04,280 Speaker 1: than that. Now, America's constitutional structure, as again we explained 256 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:07,360 Speaker 1: the essay show, has this basic tripartite separation of powers 257 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:10,360 Speaker 1: structure article in the Congress article two, to the executive 258 00:15:10,360 --> 00:15:14,520 Speaker 1: branch Article three the judiciary. This notion of a tripartite 259 00:15:14,520 --> 00:15:19,960 Speaker 1: separation of powers was partially predicated upon Montesque and Continental 260 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:23,000 Speaker 1: europe writing in France, Montuscue being one one of the 261 00:15:23,040 --> 00:15:27,080 Speaker 1: more conservative leaning of the French Lightman philosophers, and in 262 00:15:27,120 --> 00:15:30,800 Speaker 1: contrast to Voltaire, who was a radical liberal, atheist leftist. 263 00:15:31,240 --> 00:15:32,840 Speaker 1: And it was also partially inspired that as to say, 264 00:15:32,840 --> 00:15:37,640 Speaker 1: America's separate power structure from England itself. England had something 265 00:15:37,720 --> 00:15:41,440 Speaker 1: resembling a separation of powers between the monarch, the king 266 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:45,480 Speaker 1: in Parliament and the judiciary, which is to say, the 267 00:15:45,480 --> 00:15:49,120 Speaker 1: common law tradition. This goes back in England at least 268 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:52,760 Speaker 1: as far as Magneticarta when King John signed Magna Carta, 269 00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:56,080 Speaker 1: ensuring that the king was not absolute, did not have 270 00:15:56,280 --> 00:16:00,840 Speaker 1: clenary on a whim's notice, control over the entire higher population. 271 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:04,960 Speaker 1: The King actually, at English common law, was himself subject 272 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:08,560 Speaker 1: to the law. So America inherited this structure from England. 273 00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:12,960 Speaker 1: But we certainly improved upon it, and in many coherent ways. Congress, 274 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:14,360 Speaker 1: as were respaining us A show was to be the 275 00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:17,080 Speaker 1: most powerful of the branches. The Executive was to have 276 00:16:17,120 --> 00:16:20,320 Speaker 1: control primarily over foreign affairs and the United States military, 277 00:16:20,520 --> 00:16:23,200 Speaker 1: but to have some other discretionary control as well. And 278 00:16:23,240 --> 00:16:25,640 Speaker 1: the judiciary was to be the least dangers of the branches, 279 00:16:25,680 --> 00:16:29,840 Speaker 1: confined to proper case or controversies before its legitimate jurisdiction 280 00:16:30,320 --> 00:16:34,440 Speaker 1: suing out. Though the grand purpose, the ultimate purpose of 281 00:16:34,480 --> 00:16:39,760 Speaker 1: the system of separation of powers is to secure liberty 282 00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:45,920 Speaker 1: on the one hand and substantive justice on the other hand. Liberty, 283 00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:48,000 Speaker 1: has been explained in many cases over the years, is 284 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:51,720 Speaker 1: preserved by sheer dint to the fact that each branch 285 00:16:51,880 --> 00:16:54,920 Speaker 1: has limited powers and that there are checks and balances 286 00:16:54,960 --> 00:16:58,520 Speaker 1: from one branch unto the other. This is how we 287 00:16:58,800 --> 00:17:03,000 Speaker 1: can connect the dots of the Jeffersonian Declaration to the Constitution. 288 00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:05,440 Speaker 1: That's got to draft that eleven years after the declaration. 289 00:17:05,880 --> 00:17:09,320 Speaker 1: So the decoration famously speaks of natural rights, life, liberty, 290 00:17:09,359 --> 00:17:12,240 Speaker 1: and the pituite of happiness. Well, the Framers asked then 291 00:17:12,280 --> 00:17:14,600 Speaker 1: eleven years later. Jefferson was not there at the convention. 292 00:17:14,640 --> 00:17:17,560 Speaker 1: He was in pre revolutionary France. But the Framers, then 293 00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:20,720 Speaker 1: in Philadelphia, and that's sweltering summer of seventeen to seven, 294 00:17:20,920 --> 00:17:24,280 Speaker 1: ask themselves, how can we establish a government that, among 295 00:17:24,280 --> 00:17:28,000 Speaker 1: other things, will secure these rights and also allow legitimate 296 00:17:28,080 --> 00:17:31,920 Speaker 1: room to pursue substantive justice. Separation of powers was perhaps 297 00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:34,880 Speaker 1: the number one answer here as to what they had 298 00:17:34,960 --> 00:17:39,000 Speaker 1: in mind. By diffusing power, you therefore are able to 299 00:17:39,440 --> 00:17:43,960 Speaker 1: limit the vicissitudes inherent in human nature that on a 300 00:17:44,040 --> 00:17:47,840 Speaker 1: day and day a basis will have people naturally trying 301 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:52,760 Speaker 1: to agglomerate power to stomp on other constitutional actors and 302 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:55,840 Speaker 1: we the people themselves, and ultimately just trying to trample 303 00:17:56,359 --> 00:17:58,639 Speaker 1: on all the weirs here to do, which is to 304 00:17:58,720 --> 00:18:01,840 Speaker 1: preserve and to pass on this great tradition in order 305 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:04,040 Speaker 1: to brief from one generation to the next. As James 306 00:18:04,119 --> 00:18:06,960 Speaker 1: Madison puts in Fidel's fifty one and a paraphrase Mean's 307 00:18:07,000 --> 00:18:10,720 Speaker 1: close paraphrase. If all men are angels, government, of course 308 00:18:10,760 --> 00:18:15,040 Speaker 1: would be unnecessary. But the duty of a constitutional draftsman 309 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:19,440 Speaker 1: is to devise a constitutional structure and system that will 310 00:18:19,560 --> 00:18:24,640 Speaker 1: chain men's appetites to be wholly unangelic. Dare i say 311 00:18:24,720 --> 00:18:29,639 Speaker 1: even demonic to stomp on others, to intrude on the 312 00:18:29,720 --> 00:18:33,680 Speaker 1: rights of others, there to undermine liberty, and to undermine 313 00:18:33,760 --> 00:18:36,840 Speaker 1: substant of justice. And the challenge, furthermore, is to do 314 00:18:36,920 --> 00:18:40,200 Speaker 1: this while, as Madison writes in another Faro's paper, fails 315 00:18:40,240 --> 00:18:46,320 Speaker 1: in fifty seven, while establishing and securing ample leeway and 316 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:49,159 Speaker 1: lay room. You might say for the political branches to 317 00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:52,639 Speaker 1: pursue the common good or the pre m refers to 318 00:18:52,720 --> 00:18:56,480 Speaker 1: the general welfare, which is the ultimate goal of any constitution. 319 00:18:57,359 --> 00:19:01,320 Speaker 1: Separation powers is perhaps the clearest way of actually going 320 00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:04,320 Speaker 1: ahead to do that. Federalism is another way of doing 321 00:19:04,320 --> 00:19:07,040 Speaker 1: that as well. Now, much like separation of powers, America 322 00:19:07,119 --> 00:19:09,840 Speaker 1: did not create federalism out of hull cloth. There was 323 00:19:09,960 --> 00:19:13,480 Speaker 1: something of a federalism like system that had developed at 324 00:19:13,560 --> 00:19:17,320 Speaker 1: common law, especially in the century prior to the American Revolution. 325 00:19:17,440 --> 00:19:19,080 Speaker 1: So in the early eighteenth century. This is when you 326 00:19:19,119 --> 00:19:24,520 Speaker 1: had the formal union of England and Scotland. So there 327 00:19:24,520 --> 00:19:27,760 Speaker 1: were already the beginnings of some form of devolution of 328 00:19:27,880 --> 00:19:32,840 Speaker 1: power from Westminster in London to Scotland and nowadays also 329 00:19:33,080 --> 00:19:36,640 Speaker 1: to Wales and Northern Ireland as well. So the antecedents 330 00:19:36,760 --> 00:19:40,040 Speaker 1: of some form of federalism were there. Frankly, going back 331 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:41,480 Speaker 1: to the Bible, that we might actually say that they 332 00:19:41,520 --> 00:19:45,119 Speaker 1: were even back then. The prophet Jeremiah, of course, in 333 00:19:45,200 --> 00:19:48,840 Speaker 1: chapter twenty nine famously exhorts that you are to seek 334 00:19:48,880 --> 00:19:51,359 Speaker 1: the welfare in your own city, because there you should 335 00:19:51,400 --> 00:19:54,280 Speaker 1: find welfare. So these are ancient principles there, but America 336 00:19:54,320 --> 00:19:56,760 Speaker 1: really did take it to the whole next level. The 337 00:19:56,880 --> 00:20:01,280 Speaker 1: federalist notion of dual spears of sovereignty is indeed a 338 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 1: unique contribution to Western political theory. Even more unique, i 339 00:20:05,680 --> 00:20:08,440 Speaker 1: would argue, than separation of powers, which is more similar 340 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:11,879 Speaker 1: to other Western democracies as well. Federalism is fairly unique. 341 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:15,440 Speaker 1: It is a dramatic departure from the much more limited 342 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:18,520 Speaker 1: form of devolution of powers that was happening around that 343 00:20:18,560 --> 00:20:23,840 Speaker 1: time in Great Britain. Federalism in America means at what 344 00:20:23,920 --> 00:20:27,520 Speaker 1: it says that both the states and the federal government 345 00:20:27,560 --> 00:20:33,280 Speaker 1: are sovereign in their own legitimate spheres of influence. Frankly, actually, 346 00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:37,720 Speaker 1: as it turns out, the states are sovereign a lot 347 00:20:37,800 --> 00:20:40,880 Speaker 1: more of them. As Madison put it in yet another 348 00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:43,399 Speaker 1: Federal's paper on frealsm for forty five, he said that 349 00:20:43,440 --> 00:20:46,600 Speaker 1: the powers for the federal government, the national government, are 350 00:20:46,600 --> 00:20:49,919 Speaker 1: few and defined. Those for the states are numerous and indefinite. 351 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:53,040 Speaker 1: It's true that the fourteen Amendment, which we discussed at 352 00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:55,760 Speaker 1: length yesterday with Mike Davis, when it comes superclacelationship, is 353 00:20:55,800 --> 00:20:59,600 Speaker 1: true that the fourteenth Amendment definitely tends to not whole 354 00:20:59,640 --> 00:21:04,320 Speaker 1: the invert, but to complicate this notion of a less 355 00:21:04,320 --> 00:21:07,800 Speaker 1: powerful national government to a more powerful state government. Still, 356 00:21:08,520 --> 00:21:12,320 Speaker 1: that is the basic baseline, the presumption off of which 357 00:21:12,359 --> 00:21:15,760 Speaker 1: we are operating, and the Roberts course, the contemporary Spree 358 00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:17,200 Speaker 1: Court has done a lot of frank that you restore 359 00:21:17,240 --> 00:21:20,760 Speaker 1: this original notion of federalism. We have a long ways 360 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:22,840 Speaker 1: to go, but it's been very good at that all 361 00:21:22,880 --> 00:21:25,320 Speaker 1: of us again is intended to, on the one hand, 362 00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:28,520 Speaker 1: secure liberty, on the other hand, to provide for we, 363 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:34,119 Speaker 1: the people's duly elected officials enough leeway, enough runway to 364 00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:39,359 Speaker 1: pursue the common good. As for what exactly is the 365 00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:42,120 Speaker 1: common good and who's outly are we determinant and who 366 00:21:42,160 --> 00:21:43,440 Speaker 1: are being in the first way there? But these are 367 00:21:43,600 --> 00:21:45,239 Speaker 1: some of the questions that we will address for the 368 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:47,000 Speaker 1: rest of today's show. So stay with this, folks, just 369 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:48,879 Speaker 1: another commercial break. Will be right back with more on 370 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:58,520 Speaker 1: the other side. Welcome back. So, with America's conscercial structure defined, 371 00:21:59,080 --> 00:22:03,200 Speaker 1: this notion of separate powers and federalism, is important to 372 00:22:03,240 --> 00:22:08,240 Speaker 1: ask who is at the task with deciding these issues. 373 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:11,879 Speaker 1: And this raises perhaps the all important question as to 374 00:22:12,400 --> 00:22:16,600 Speaker 1: who is an American? What is an American? For that matter, 375 00:22:17,800 --> 00:22:20,679 Speaker 1: if a question that was increasingly on the mind of 376 00:22:20,800 --> 00:22:24,680 Speaker 1: my late friend Charlie Kirk in what traviy proves to 377 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:28,520 Speaker 1: me the final year of his life, the now infamous 378 00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:31,800 Speaker 1: Hampton's Retreat, This retreat that happened in the Hampton's for 379 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:33,880 Speaker 1: about thirty five to forty people that I was at 380 00:22:33,960 --> 00:22:37,560 Speaker 1: in early August, the same one that people like Kennon 381 00:22:37,600 --> 00:22:40,080 Speaker 1: Solness and others have been lying about for nearly a 382 00:22:40,160 --> 00:22:43,359 Speaker 1: year now. I vitally recall Charlie asking whether or not 383 00:22:43,480 --> 00:22:47,560 Speaker 1: Zori Mamdani actually was an American. And you might raise 384 00:22:47,560 --> 00:22:51,040 Speaker 1: an eyebrow and scoff or chortle perhaps, and you might say, 385 00:22:51,080 --> 00:22:52,960 Speaker 1: what are you talking about. Of course he is. He's 386 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:56,040 Speaker 1: the mayor of New York City, for God's sake. But 387 00:22:56,880 --> 00:23:01,240 Speaker 1: there's a difference here between what is the legalistic definition 388 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:04,240 Speaker 1: of who is an American or who can become American 389 00:23:04,240 --> 00:23:09,080 Speaker 1: on the one hand, versus the more philosophical, deeper meaning 390 00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:13,120 Speaker 1: of who or perhaps even what is an American on 391 00:23:13,200 --> 00:23:16,879 Speaker 1: the other hand. Now, to be sure, religious freedom is 392 00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:20,960 Speaker 1: codified into the Constitution, there is no doubt about that whatsoever. 393 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:23,000 Speaker 1: In fact, it is the very first two clauses in 394 00:23:23,040 --> 00:23:25,199 Speaker 1: the very first Amendment. You have the assasinan clause and 395 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,679 Speaker 1: the free exercise Clause that very clearly says the Congress 396 00:23:28,680 --> 00:23:31,560 Speaker 1: shall make no law respecting the assasgin of religion, nor 397 00:23:31,680 --> 00:23:39,080 Speaker 1: prohibiting the free exercise thereof. And this was clearly an 398 00:23:39,119 --> 00:23:42,760 Speaker 1: overwhelmingly majority pros and country it's time American founding. But 399 00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:46,320 Speaker 1: there were Jews, there were Catholics, and to a much 400 00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:49,080 Speaker 1: lesser exent, there actually were some Muslims. The Muslims were 401 00:23:49,080 --> 00:23:51,560 Speaker 1: not exactly practicing there were not really mosques. They were 402 00:23:51,640 --> 00:23:54,760 Speaker 1: kind of just the Muslim descendants of some African slaves 403 00:23:54,800 --> 00:23:57,639 Speaker 1: who could come over from Western Africa over the seventeenth 404 00:23:57,680 --> 00:24:00,840 Speaker 1: into the eighteenth century. But religious freedom is clearly there 405 00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:04,359 Speaker 1: in the American Constitution, no doubt about that. And this 406 00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:08,199 Speaker 1: crin spreen Court has been amazing, frankly, at affirming the 407 00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:12,080 Speaker 1: First Amendments when it comes to religious liberty, and actually 408 00:24:12,160 --> 00:24:14,560 Speaker 1: both halves of that, both the Assausginan clause half and 409 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:18,720 Speaker 1: the free exercise half. But America always was a Protestant 410 00:24:18,760 --> 00:24:24,760 Speaker 1: majority culture, a Protestant majority nation. I'm reading this wonderful 411 00:24:24,920 --> 00:24:28,840 Speaker 1: book that goes into extraordinary detail about some of the 412 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:34,040 Speaker 1: theological foundations of America, from Puritan Massachusetts in the seventeenth 413 00:24:34,080 --> 00:24:38,560 Speaker 1: century through the American founding. It is difficult to describe 414 00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:45,840 Speaker 1: in distilled form just how important Protestant conceptions of humanity, 415 00:24:46,160 --> 00:24:50,680 Speaker 1: of individualism, of nationhood, of covenant. A lot of this, 416 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:54,360 Speaker 1: of course, borrowed from the Hebrew scriptures, which these seventeenth 417 00:24:54,400 --> 00:24:58,280 Speaker 1: and eighteenth century Protestants were deeply, deeply familiar with. Its 418 00:24:58,320 --> 00:25:02,879 Speaker 1: difficult to overstate the extent to which these concepts, and frankly, 419 00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:06,840 Speaker 1: these lifestyles and ways of life ultimately affected what is 420 00:25:06,920 --> 00:25:10,880 Speaker 1: now we now know as America. For instance, just give 421 00:25:10,920 --> 00:25:14,639 Speaker 1: a common, ubiguous example, the very notion of the Protestant 422 00:25:14,640 --> 00:25:19,840 Speaker 1: work ethic. America has built incredible things, incredible things. We 423 00:25:19,840 --> 00:25:22,719 Speaker 1: have won more Nobel prizes than any other country. We 424 00:25:22,760 --> 00:25:27,960 Speaker 1: have invented remarkable, remarkable things. Think about the light bulb 425 00:25:28,760 --> 00:25:32,760 Speaker 1: right there, that's Thomas Edison, all sorts of vaccines, the 426 00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:38,399 Speaker 1: discovery of the DNA gene code with Watson and Crick, 427 00:25:39,400 --> 00:25:42,800 Speaker 1: the Internet developed here in the United States. Wasn't really 428 00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:44,600 Speaker 1: just al Gore contrad to what he might have said 429 00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:48,280 Speaker 1: a quarter century ago. There's so much that we have 430 00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:52,119 Speaker 1: here that ultimately, really in many ways is downstream of 431 00:25:52,160 --> 00:25:57,679 Speaker 1: that Protestant work ethic. In some ways, even some American 432 00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:00,720 Speaker 1: Jews are in this respect, perhaps even a little more 433 00:26:00,880 --> 00:26:05,640 Speaker 1: Protestant like American Catholics. The Catholic Church is definitely known 434 00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:10,120 Speaker 1: for its hierarchy in contrast to Prostism, but even many 435 00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:13,960 Speaker 1: American Catholics are a lot more Protestant like, at least 436 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:17,760 Speaker 1: when it comes to this emphasis on individualism. I'm not 437 00:26:17,800 --> 00:26:20,679 Speaker 1: just submitting to authority. I'm questioning authority on challenging the 438 00:26:20,680 --> 00:26:26,240 Speaker 1: status quo. All these notions were tied into America's Protestant 439 00:26:26,320 --> 00:26:30,679 Speaker 1: majority identity. Again, I'm off today for a passover. I 440 00:26:30,720 --> 00:26:33,879 Speaker 1: am an observant Jew. I am the last one to 441 00:26:33,880 --> 00:26:36,360 Speaker 1: hear to say that you have to be a Protestant 442 00:26:36,400 --> 00:26:38,760 Speaker 1: in order to be a good American. That is obviously 443 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:43,040 Speaker 1: not my stance, nor is it merely a sectarian Jewish dance. 444 00:26:43,119 --> 00:26:45,560 Speaker 1: The matter. I live in Florida. We have the best 445 00:26:45,560 --> 00:26:48,400 Speaker 1: government country. His name is Ronda Standis. He is a Catholic, 446 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:53,399 Speaker 1: and he is an amazing, an amazing American patriot. So 447 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,120 Speaker 1: you obviously don't have to be a Protestant in order 448 00:26:56,160 --> 00:26:59,320 Speaker 1: to be a great American or be an American patriot. Rather, 449 00:26:59,400 --> 00:27:01,679 Speaker 1: what I am saying here is that there is the 450 00:27:01,840 --> 00:27:07,480 Speaker 1: overarching ethos hovering in the backgrounds of what cultural Anglo 451 00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:12,520 Speaker 1: American prosism has done and continues to God in shape 452 00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:16,800 Speaker 1: us in this country. In fact, without that overarching Anglo 453 00:27:16,840 --> 00:27:19,359 Speaker 1: American pros and ethos, I am not entirely sure. In fact, 454 00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:21,560 Speaker 1: I doubt the America will be the country that it 455 00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:25,560 Speaker 1: is today. So in terms of who or what is 456 00:27:25,560 --> 00:27:29,280 Speaker 1: an American, the answer is that you don't necessarily have 457 00:27:29,359 --> 00:27:32,000 Speaker 1: to be God forbid of a certain race or anything 458 00:27:32,080 --> 00:27:34,720 Speaker 1: like that, and you don't have to be of a 459 00:27:34,720 --> 00:27:39,520 Speaker 1: certain religious background, but you definitely have to culturally and 460 00:27:39,600 --> 00:27:44,200 Speaker 1: a civic sense, also assimilate into the inherited and God 461 00:27:44,240 --> 00:27:48,359 Speaker 1: willing of impertuity, prostant majority culture. That's a culture that 462 00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:52,520 Speaker 1: is inextricable from what it means to be America. And 463 00:27:52,560 --> 00:27:54,200 Speaker 1: that is something I think that is worth dwelling a 464 00:27:54,280 --> 00:27:56,879 Speaker 1: bit upon as we approach this nation's two to fiftieth 465 00:27:56,920 --> 00:28:00,520 Speaker 1: aniversary this July fourth as well. Now I kind of 466 00:28:00,520 --> 00:28:03,560 Speaker 1: glossed over the Bill of Rights I mentioned the first moment, 467 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:06,200 Speaker 1: there are plenty of other amendments there in those first 468 00:28:06,320 --> 00:28:10,080 Speaker 1: ten amendments that are profoundly important as well. We of 469 00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:12,600 Speaker 1: course have the second Amendment, your right to keep in 470 00:28:12,640 --> 00:28:15,920 Speaker 1: bare arms. We had the formidable victory in two thousand 471 00:28:15,920 --> 00:28:17,920 Speaker 1: and eight of a DC versus Heller won the great 472 00:28:17,920 --> 00:28:22,640 Speaker 1: majority opinions from Justice Anthony Scalia, which finally finally affirmed 473 00:28:23,280 --> 00:28:25,680 Speaker 1: that the text that the right to keep in bear 474 00:28:25,760 --> 00:28:28,879 Speaker 1: arms shall not be infringed actually means what it says. 475 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:31,399 Speaker 1: You have the fourth moment, rights to be free of 476 00:28:31,560 --> 00:28:34,960 Speaker 1: unreasonable searchers and seizures. This was drafted in direct response 477 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:39,400 Speaker 1: to the abhorrent seventeen sixties seventeen seventies era practice of 478 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:43,600 Speaker 1: the colonial Red Coast, the British Army intruding upon the 479 00:28:43,640 --> 00:28:47,680 Speaker 1: homes of the colonists with what courtsferred to as general warrants. 480 00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:51,800 Speaker 1: Ray Warrens did not have to be reasonable or specified. 481 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:54,760 Speaker 1: It was just there to tell you that you had 482 00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,120 Speaker 1: a place to go, and you could go and rummage 483 00:28:57,360 --> 00:28:59,959 Speaker 1: to your heart's content and discern the people in all 484 00:29:00,160 --> 00:29:03,959 Speaker 1: belongs there, the colonists. We're not having that. The Fifth Amendment, 485 00:29:04,640 --> 00:29:09,680 Speaker 1: with its avowed protection for due process of law, speedy trial, 486 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:13,600 Speaker 1: Sixth Amendment, eighth Amendments, the prohibition against cool unusual punishments. 487 00:29:13,720 --> 00:29:17,240 Speaker 1: This is deeply, deeply important stuff. I only glossed over 488 00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:20,760 Speaker 1: lol of it there because much like the Anthony Scalia 489 00:29:20,920 --> 00:29:24,280 Speaker 1: himself once said, you could have all the beautiful bill 490 00:29:24,280 --> 00:29:27,640 Speaker 1: of rights that you want, as Scuolia often known. Actually, 491 00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:31,320 Speaker 1: the Soviet Union itself had its own bill of rights. Yes, 492 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:33,800 Speaker 1: that's right. Joseph Stalin had his version of a bill 493 00:29:33,840 --> 00:29:37,720 Speaker 1: of rights. Perhaps even the Third Right did. I don't 494 00:29:37,760 --> 00:29:40,720 Speaker 1: think they did, but at one point. They may they preferred, 495 00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:44,360 Speaker 1: maybe they proffered to prove something that they called Bill 496 00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:48,000 Speaker 1: of Rights or something like it there, But ultimately the only, 497 00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:51,720 Speaker 1: the only guarantee of liberty for one generation the next 498 00:29:52,720 --> 00:29:56,120 Speaker 1: is constitutional structure when it comes to this also in 499 00:29:56,200 --> 00:30:00,400 Speaker 1: terms of cultural prosiism and religion more generally, the taking 500 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:03,280 Speaker 1: this back to Washington's farewell address, these are the nuts 501 00:30:03,320 --> 00:30:07,400 Speaker 1: and bolts of what will mean to prolong America's experiments 502 00:30:07,400 --> 00:30:09,640 Speaker 1: of liberty and justice into the twenty first century. And 503 00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,920 Speaker 1: beyond nuts and bolts, is that we are going to 504 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:17,240 Speaker 1: have to have a majority Protestant culture, and non Protestants, 505 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,880 Speaker 1: and I am among them, have to culturally and civically 506 00:30:20,960 --> 00:30:25,480 Speaker 1: assimilate into that Protestant majority culture. We're going to have 507 00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:28,800 Speaker 1: to have a firm separation of powers, not a separation 508 00:30:28,840 --> 00:30:32,480 Speaker 1: of powers that permits the judiciary to be supreme, which 509 00:30:32,520 --> 00:30:35,720 Speaker 1: it has been ever since a somewhat obscure Supreme Court 510 00:30:35,720 --> 00:30:38,320 Speaker 1: case in the late nineteen fifties referred to as Cooper 511 00:30:38,400 --> 00:30:42,240 Speaker 1: versus Aaron the foundations of modern judicial supremacy in America. 512 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:45,520 Speaker 1: Healthy separative powers also does not allow for the rise 513 00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,880 Speaker 1: of an unelected fourth branch garnments, otherwise known as the 514 00:30:48,880 --> 00:30:53,760 Speaker 1: administrative state or the deep state of the bureaucracy. It's garbage, 515 00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:59,080 Speaker 1: it's unconstitutional. Thankfully, we saw a major doctrine called Chevron 516 00:30:59,240 --> 00:31:01,480 Speaker 1: deference over turned to the Supreme Court a couple of 517 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:04,600 Speaker 1: terms ago, God willing, we will have much more in 518 00:31:04,640 --> 00:31:06,280 Speaker 1: the way to come here for the rest of this 519 00:31:06,360 --> 00:31:08,360 Speaker 1: Supreme Court term and inny years to come. Trump is 520 00:31:08,400 --> 00:31:10,600 Speaker 1: definitely fighting very hard on them. But these are the 521 00:31:10,680 --> 00:31:15,160 Speaker 1: nuts and bolts of American democracy. Liberty and justice, separation 522 00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:20,600 Speaker 1: and powers, a renewed vigorous federalism, a religious polity and 523 00:31:20,640 --> 00:31:24,760 Speaker 1: above all a Protestant majority one. And an immigration system 524 00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:27,240 Speaker 1: that reflects that we take this notion of we the 525 00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:30,120 Speaker 1: people very very seriously, and we are going to be 526 00:31:30,360 --> 00:31:33,200 Speaker 1: very very hesitant to let in newcomers unless they can 527 00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,520 Speaker 1: overcome a rebuttal presumption and presumption that they are not 528 00:31:36,720 --> 00:31:41,400 Speaker 1: among us. Make the prospective migrant shoes and demonstrates and 529 00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:44,240 Speaker 1: persuade that he belongs to be part of we the people. 530 00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:51,640 Speaker 1: That is, at least how it ought to go. Foreign 531 00:31:51,640 --> 00:31:54,280 Speaker 1: policy is another part of what it means to being 532 00:31:54,280 --> 00:31:57,320 Speaker 1: an American that is often debated. A lot of folks 533 00:31:57,360 --> 00:32:02,000 Speaker 1: have this conception that the American founders were hard line isolations, 534 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:05,440 Speaker 1: figures they wanted to duck their heads in the sands 535 00:32:05,480 --> 00:32:07,280 Speaker 1: like an Ostrian and have nothing to do with the 536 00:32:07,280 --> 00:32:11,040 Speaker 1: rest of the world. The history belies that for starters. 537 00:32:11,080 --> 00:32:14,080 Speaker 1: The actual war itself that found the Republic Revolutionary War 538 00:32:14,440 --> 00:32:17,640 Speaker 1: was fought against a foreign power. That's probably your very 539 00:32:17,680 --> 00:32:20,680 Speaker 1: first indication that the founders were not so naives as 540 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:22,640 Speaker 1: things they could just duck their heads in the sand 541 00:32:22,760 --> 00:32:26,719 Speaker 1: and get away with it. The second and third Wars 542 00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:32,080 Speaker 1: in the history of the Republic involved Muslim pirates. Yes, 543 00:32:32,200 --> 00:32:35,680 Speaker 1: the Barbary Wars, the Second and third or the first 544 00:32:35,760 --> 00:32:37,640 Speaker 1: Second Barbie Wars, The second and third Wars in the 545 00:32:37,680 --> 00:32:40,520 Speaker 1: history of the United States preceding the War of eighteen twelve, 546 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,920 Speaker 1: essentially a rematch against the British. There are all sorts 547 00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:47,760 Speaker 1: of other colonial or early republic erab examples as well. 548 00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:49,960 Speaker 1: There was the French and Indian War, part of the 549 00:32:49,960 --> 00:32:52,360 Speaker 1: Seven Years War, which the colonists were very familiar with. 550 00:32:52,360 --> 00:32:56,440 Speaker 1: In the seventeen sixties, there was the Xyz affair involving 551 00:32:56,760 --> 00:33:00,280 Speaker 1: the French in the nineties, ere the notion that Americas 552 00:33:00,280 --> 00:33:02,680 Speaker 1: were blind to the rest of the world was ludicrous. 553 00:33:02,840 --> 00:33:05,440 Speaker 1: It's true that George Washington said in his farewell address. 554 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:10,280 Speaker 1: It's true that George Washington said to beware of foreign entanglements, 555 00:33:10,800 --> 00:33:13,560 Speaker 1: no doubt about that, and we should be aware of 556 00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:17,160 Speaker 1: fore entanglements. I actually just argued in my last indicated 557 00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:20,640 Speaker 1: column that NATO is currently an organization in search of 558 00:33:20,640 --> 00:33:24,640 Speaker 1: a purpose, and unless until NATO actually recovers a sense 559 00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:29,280 Speaker 1: of purpose, United States should seriously consider either defunding it 560 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:33,160 Speaker 1: or perhaps even getting out of it completely. But there 561 00:33:33,240 --> 00:33:37,480 Speaker 1: is a prudential middle ground here between ducking around in 562 00:33:37,480 --> 00:33:41,600 Speaker 1: the sand and trying to conquer the world. Be correct 563 00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:45,239 Speaker 1: way to view America's role in the world. It's not 564 00:33:45,280 --> 00:33:49,520 Speaker 1: necessarily that we are the singular nation that can liberate 565 00:33:49,560 --> 00:33:52,720 Speaker 1: the masses of worlds kind of global mankind in the 566 00:33:52,760 --> 00:33:55,120 Speaker 1: whole world. That's not a healthy way to view it. 567 00:33:55,720 --> 00:33:57,160 Speaker 1: But it's definitely not a healthy way to view it 568 00:33:57,160 --> 00:33:59,479 Speaker 1: either that we can just pretend like there are not 569 00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:04,080 Speaker 1: problenged beyond under shores. America was indeed a covenantal nation, 570 00:34:04,840 --> 00:34:06,800 Speaker 1: God willing, It still is and God willing will be 571 00:34:06,840 --> 00:34:10,200 Speaker 1: for a very long time. The Constitution and the Decoration 572 00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:14,799 Speaker 1: with its natural rights undergird is a conception of a 573 00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:18,799 Speaker 1: covenant of the people swearing they are part of this 574 00:34:18,920 --> 00:34:22,560 Speaker 1: great intergenerational compact from one generation to the next, from 575 00:34:22,560 --> 00:34:24,719 Speaker 1: the dead the living to the yet unborn. To paraphrase 576 00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:28,480 Speaker 1: Edmund Burke, America is more than any other country in 577 00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:31,400 Speaker 1: the world stage to day a covenant. That does not 578 00:34:31,520 --> 00:34:36,160 Speaker 1: mean that that covenant extends to all the masses, that 579 00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:38,440 Speaker 1: it should be forced to be exported to all of 580 00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:42,640 Speaker 1: the world. As John Quincy Adams put it prior to 581 00:34:42,719 --> 00:34:45,200 Speaker 1: his stint as president, back when he was a Secretary 582 00:34:45,280 --> 00:34:48,040 Speaker 1: of States to President James Monroe, he had a very 583 00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:51,839 Speaker 1: famous speech in the early eighteen twenties, referred to as 584 00:34:51,920 --> 00:34:55,160 Speaker 1: the Monsters to Destroy speech, where he Fantacy said, and 585 00:34:55,160 --> 00:34:57,960 Speaker 1: I'm paraphrasing, but again a very close paraphrase. He Fancy 586 00:34:58,040 --> 00:35:01,800 Speaker 1: said that America does not go in search and monsters 587 00:35:01,800 --> 00:35:06,040 Speaker 1: to destroy. She is the well wisher of the world's liberties, 588 00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:11,520 Speaker 1: but ultimately the guaranteur only of her own liberties. That 589 00:35:11,640 --> 00:35:14,719 Speaker 1: is essentially my foreign policy on a personal level. And 590 00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:18,080 Speaker 1: I would argue that is the proper conservative way to 591 00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:22,080 Speaker 1: think of foreign policy. We are not here to be 592 00:35:22,239 --> 00:35:25,000 Speaker 1: the Peace Corps. We are not here, as George W. 593 00:35:25,080 --> 00:35:27,239 Speaker 1: Bush put it in his second novel Address, to enact 594 00:35:27,320 --> 00:35:31,040 Speaker 1: a global campaign of a freedom agenda. We're not here 595 00:35:31,440 --> 00:35:33,640 Speaker 1: to tell the Taliban goat her in the mountains of 596 00:35:33,640 --> 00:35:37,640 Speaker 1: Afghanistan that maybe he doesn't but he should, he really 597 00:35:37,760 --> 00:35:42,560 Speaker 1: should think of Lockeian liberal natural rights theory as self evident. 598 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:48,400 Speaker 1: That's not our job. It's just not. We don't have 599 00:35:48,400 --> 00:35:51,880 Speaker 1: the resources. Frankly, we're not very good at it, and 600 00:35:51,920 --> 00:35:57,240 Speaker 1: it is wildly utopian and wholly untethered to the real 601 00:35:57,520 --> 00:36:02,720 Speaker 1: world in which the conservative must here, there and everywhere exist. 602 00:36:04,080 --> 00:36:08,839 Speaker 1: But we have threats. There are people that wish us ill, 603 00:36:09,480 --> 00:36:12,680 Speaker 1: there are people that want to injure maime and harm us, 604 00:36:13,320 --> 00:36:15,600 Speaker 1: and God forbid the air people that want to kill us. 605 00:36:16,160 --> 00:36:19,520 Speaker 1: We better take them seriously. And America has always taken 606 00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:22,480 Speaker 1: them seriously, from the Mexican American War to the Spanish 607 00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:25,879 Speaker 1: American War, to World War One. In World War two, 608 00:36:26,960 --> 00:36:29,680 Speaker 1: and all the various post World War II conflicts as well, 609 00:36:30,680 --> 00:36:32,640 Speaker 1: perhaps we should not have gotten involved in all of them. 610 00:36:33,040 --> 00:36:36,560 Speaker 1: I tend to agree. Actually, Iraq was a tremendous mistake. 611 00:36:36,760 --> 00:36:40,840 Speaker 1: The Libya intervention and tremendous mistake. But we have enemies. 612 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:47,560 Speaker 1: Iran is one such enemy. We are now almost, not quite, 613 00:36:47,600 --> 00:36:49,600 Speaker 1: but almost, coming up on a month and a half 614 00:36:49,640 --> 00:36:54,360 Speaker 1: into Operation Epic Fury. How will this actually resolve itself? 615 00:36:54,400 --> 00:36:58,520 Speaker 1: How will the conflict with Iran ultimately resolve? Whether it's 616 00:36:58,520 --> 00:37:01,120 Speaker 1: a ceasefire, there's not a ceasefire, or a cessation of 617 00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:04,600 Speaker 1: hostilities a hudna as the Arabs called, although they speak 618 00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:09,080 Speaker 1: Farsia in Iran not Arabic. What would look like there? 619 00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:12,480 Speaker 1: And is this actually going to be the end of 620 00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:15,759 Speaker 1: this conflict? Well, I don't know. What I can tell 621 00:37:15,800 --> 00:37:18,600 Speaker 1: you is that in this particular case, Donald Trump is 622 00:37:18,680 --> 00:37:25,120 Speaker 1: acting upon the John Quincy Adams insight. He saw that 623 00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:28,160 Speaker 1: we're not going abroad in search of monsters destroy In 624 00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:32,000 Speaker 1: this case, the monster came to us. In this case, 625 00:37:32,040 --> 00:37:35,040 Speaker 1: the monster was birth with revolution. In nineteen seventy nine, 626 00:37:35,640 --> 00:37:40,400 Speaker 1: the monster took over the US embassy in Tehran. That 627 00:37:40,520 --> 00:37:43,640 Speaker 1: same year, in nine seventy nine, the monster murdered two 628 00:37:43,719 --> 00:37:47,200 Speaker 1: hundred and forty one US Marines at the Marines Barrack 629 00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:51,800 Speaker 1: in Bairiry, Lebanon. In nineteen eighty three, the monster slaughtered 630 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:54,080 Speaker 1: sixty to seventy people at the US Embassy and Baby 631 00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,640 Speaker 1: Lebanon that same year. The monster has conducted any number 632 00:37:57,719 --> 00:38:01,800 Speaker 1: of other target assassinations. The monster killed hundreds and hundreds 633 00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:05,759 Speaker 1: of American soldiers with ied roadside bombs placed during the 634 00:38:05,760 --> 00:38:08,759 Speaker 1: Iraq War. The monster even tried to kill Donald J. 635 00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:12,040 Speaker 1: Trump himself. It was just a Pakistan national recently who's 636 00:38:12,040 --> 00:38:16,440 Speaker 1: convicted of transits exactly that, on orders from the IRGC 637 00:38:16,719 --> 00:38:21,560 Speaker 1: and the Iranian military and claricy brass. This is what 638 00:38:21,600 --> 00:38:25,040 Speaker 1: American foreign policy ought to look like. In practice. It 639 00:38:25,120 --> 00:38:28,520 Speaker 1: is to strike, get the job done, and do not 640 00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:31,759 Speaker 1: get involved in a lengthy quagmire approach. A lot of 641 00:38:31,760 --> 00:38:34,359 Speaker 1: folks are saying that this in Iran is turning into 642 00:38:34,400 --> 00:38:36,960 Speaker 1: a lengthy quagmire. I have my doubts. I have not 643 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:40,359 Speaker 1: seen that evidence yet. We are barely over a month 644 00:38:40,360 --> 00:38:45,520 Speaker 1: into this conflict and extending quagmire looks like Vietnam, it 645 00:38:45,560 --> 00:38:49,840 Speaker 1: looks like Afghanistan. To compare those two historical examples to 646 00:38:49,840 --> 00:38:52,560 Speaker 1: what is currently happening in Iran strikes me as a 647 00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:56,799 Speaker 1: tremendous folly, and it should not happen. Donald Trump earns 648 00:38:56,840 --> 00:38:58,360 Speaker 1: our trust, he earns ours back when it comes to 649 00:38:58,400 --> 00:39:01,719 Speaker 1: foreign affairs, and in acting as he's acting right now, 650 00:39:02,360 --> 00:39:05,719 Speaker 1: I would argue he's acting very much in line with 651 00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:08,920 Speaker 1: many of the great foreign policy statesmen in American history, 652 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:15,640 Speaker 1: men like George Washington, men like Dwight Eisenhower, men frankly 653 00:39:15,840 --> 00:39:21,440 Speaker 1: like Ronald Reaken himself. So, folks again, this fourth, seventeen 654 00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:24,200 Speaker 1: sent six is the two and fifteth anniversary of this 655 00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:30,640 Speaker 1: great nation. Many of my favorite memories from childhood are 656 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:35,640 Speaker 1: predicated upon this day on July fourth. That is to say, 657 00:39:35,840 --> 00:39:41,320 Speaker 1: I think back to my childhood, how we would decorate 658 00:39:41,360 --> 00:39:44,040 Speaker 1: our bicycles in red, white and blue, and the high 659 00:39:44,080 --> 00:39:47,640 Speaker 1: school bands were playing Yankee Doodle Dan Dee and the 660 00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:51,839 Speaker 1: Star Spangled Banner and every other form of patriarch song 661 00:39:51,920 --> 00:39:54,840 Speaker 1: or hymn that you can imagine. It was a huge 662 00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:59,640 Speaker 1: part of my childhood, a huge part. I was not 663 00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:02,799 Speaker 1: born for this nation's bi a centennial in nineteen seventy six. 664 00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:06,200 Speaker 1: I was born in nineteen day and nine. This will 665 00:40:06,239 --> 00:40:11,840 Speaker 1: be the first major anniversary of America that I will experience. 666 00:40:11,960 --> 00:40:16,320 Speaker 1: If you define majors, every fifty years, it's a unique 667 00:40:16,400 --> 00:40:18,759 Speaker 1: time to pause, to slow down, to think about all 668 00:40:18,800 --> 00:40:20,760 Speaker 1: that we have and all that we hope to conserve. 669 00:40:22,160 --> 00:40:25,920 Speaker 1: The American Left is an active fifth column subversive force 670 00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:29,239 Speaker 1: seeking to destroy America from within. They are doing the 671 00:40:29,280 --> 00:40:34,000 Speaker 1: wilful bidding of America's geopolitical enemies of the China and 672 00:40:34,040 --> 00:40:39,279 Speaker 1: North Korea, Russia, Iran, et cetera. Access. The goal of 673 00:40:39,280 --> 00:40:42,799 Speaker 1: those of us identify as conservatives is to stop that, 674 00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:48,520 Speaker 1: to conserve and preserve this great experiment in order liberty, 675 00:40:48,640 --> 00:40:55,080 Speaker 1: this amazing, beautiful, exquisite constitutional structure, the amazing constcial innovation 676 00:40:55,120 --> 00:41:01,680 Speaker 1: of federalism, the prostant majority, publicly assimilated culture sure, and 677 00:41:01,760 --> 00:41:05,000 Speaker 1: to preserve this notion that America has long had of 678 00:41:05,080 --> 00:41:08,960 Speaker 1: a pioneering spirit encapsulated by the Artemis two launch to 679 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:11,839 Speaker 1: the moon just this past week. That's who we are. 680 00:41:11,880 --> 00:41:14,560 Speaker 1: We are always searching for the next frontier. We are 681 00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:18,880 Speaker 1: never satisfied, we are never satiated. We are always looking 682 00:41:19,280 --> 00:41:21,520 Speaker 1: for the next great adventure and the next great hope. 683 00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:23,920 Speaker 1: In order to find the next great hope, we must 684 00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:26,400 Speaker 1: be anchored in terms of who we are and appreciate 685 00:41:26,440 --> 00:41:29,560 Speaker 1: above all who we are. I look forward to doing 686 00:41:29,560 --> 00:41:33,920 Speaker 1: exactly that. On July fourth, twenty twenty six, Folks have 687 00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:36,000 Speaker 1: a great Rectory evening there, I'll be back the new 688 00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:38,120 Speaker 1: episode tomorrow. Josh Hammers Hunting Off will be right back 689 00:41:38,120 --> 00:41:38,399 Speaker 1: and then