WEBVTT - Challenges & a Touch of Nihilism 0:00:02.800 --> 0:00:07.120 Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George 0:00:07.160 --> 0:00:12.480 Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, Armstrong and Getty 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:27.560 and Key Armstrong and Getty, a handful of America hate 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:32.560 and socialists one congressional primaries yesterday, which will factor into 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:34.640 some of my questions for our next guest. If you 0:00:34.720 --> 0:00:39.440 read one book about the founding of this great country 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:42.479 leading up to the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary on 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:47.800 July fourth, it should be Timothy Sanderfer's Proclaiming Liberty, John Adams, 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.960 Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence. Absolutely fantastic, and 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:55.400 we welcome back who we used to call Tim the lawyer, 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:58.680 Tim Sanderford to the Armstrong and Getty Show hate Tim. Hey, Jack, 0:00:58.720 --> 0:01:01.800 thanks for having me back. I'm a mood for a 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:04.919 variety of reasons. My son was complaining about some things 0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:08.480 they had been teaching him in school. You know, we 0:01:08.520 --> 0:01:10.360 had If you're of a certain age. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:16.480 You kind of just assumed the the the American exceptionalism, 0:01:16.520 --> 0:01:19.120 the wonder of the founding, all the great things that 0:01:19.240 --> 0:01:22.520 came out of establishing this this. 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:26.640 Project two hundred and fift year. 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:28.800 Sorry, Jack, do you think that would be taught in 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:31.440 a California public school. What in the world made you 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:33.959 think that would be taught in the schools of California. 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:36.160 I used to think that, and then and then I 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:39.680 became aware that, you know, whether it's neo Marxist or 0:01:39.720 --> 0:01:42.240 whatever's going on. And then, you know, the sixteen nineteen 0:01:42.280 --> 0:01:44.399 project comes along, and the fact that at the two 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:48.160 hundred and fiftieth birthday of our country. I'm old, So 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.600 I was eleven during the bi centennial, and at least 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:53.200 for my you know, I wasn't reading the op ed 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:55.520 pages of the New York Times, but I don't remember 0:01:55.640 --> 0:02:00.880 anything but happiness and gratitude. Now, well, it's as if 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:03.840 the whole idea of America is up for debate in 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:07.320 the op ed sections of all your major newspapers about 0:02:07.360 --> 0:02:09.040 the founding of this country, and I'd like you to 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:10.000 push back on that lot. 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:13.240 Well, you know, I think part of that was maybe 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:16.160 you were seeing nineteen seventy six through a child's lenses. 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:17.760 Remember this is the post. 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:21.360 Watergate era, and you know, the other people who are 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:23.120 around at the time have told me that it was 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:25.320 not as fun as it should have been, and that 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:30.400 there was a lingering sense of disappointment and even some 0:02:30.560 --> 0:02:32.960 nihilism over the end of the Vietnam War and. 0:02:32.960 --> 0:02:33.600 Things like that. 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.160 So, you know, Americans have always faced these kinds of challenges, 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:39.360 and some of them have been even much worse than 0:02:39.360 --> 0:02:41.560 what we're facing right now. I mean, it's hard to 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.880 imagine that today we're worse off than the country was 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.120 in eighteen sixty one, for example. So you know, we've 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.800 seen tough times. We've seen times when America's enemies have 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.000 been on the ascent, and we've fought back against that. Now, 0:02:55.040 --> 0:02:57.519 the problem that we face that I think is unique 0:02:57.639 --> 0:03:01.480 is that we've fought back against that a group of 0:03:01.520 --> 0:03:05.400 people who really understood and appreciated America's ideals, and I 0:03:05.440 --> 0:03:08.840 think that is missing on the right today, and that's 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:11.160 why the left is succeeding through default. 0:03:11.680 --> 0:03:16.040 Ah that's interesting. Yeah, well everything you said there is true. 0:03:16.080 --> 0:03:19.520 But I also don't remember ever being told that we 0:03:19.520 --> 0:03:21.919 were a bad country at any point through my K 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.800 through twelve schooling, which my kids do get sometimes. 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:30.040 Yeah. I do think that there's a a more militant 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:33.640 left today, and I think part of that is that, 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.800 you know, the teachers of today are the were the 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:40.520 students of the previous generation, and so they've learned from 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:43.000 people who were already on the left, and the left 0:03:43.000 --> 0:03:45.839 has gotten much more intensified, and the same is true 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:48.560 on the right. And also I think what's happening is 0:03:48.560 --> 0:03:53.400 that the broad middle of common sense people are abandoning 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:58.080 the typical left right dimension and as a result, those 0:03:58.120 --> 0:04:00.400 who remain in those categories, the people who's stay in 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.640 the democratic and Republican parties, I think they're getting more 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.680 and more ideologically intense, precisely because their numbers are shrinking 0:04:07.720 --> 0:04:09.640 as the number of independence expands. 0:04:09.960 --> 0:04:13.520 Well, this move towards socialism by by part of the 0:04:13.600 --> 0:04:17.039 crowd and the what did zoron mom Donnie say, the 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:21.719 warm embrace of collectivism? That is there something to human 0:04:21.839 --> 0:04:26.919 nature where we don't want freedom and want to be 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.840 taken care of that we need to push back against. Yeah, Oh, 0:04:30.920 --> 0:04:31.479 my goodness. 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:35.040 Even I sometimes long for the days of my childhood 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:36.919 when all of my bills were paid for by my 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.679 parents and I didn't have to worry about responsibility. Of course, 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.880 everybody and everybody feels envy from time to time, and 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.479 you combine those two things, the fear of responsibility and envy, 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:47.960 and you put those together, and what do you have. 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:48.919 You have socialism. 0:04:49.200 --> 0:04:50.839 So of course people are attracted to that. 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:53.960 And the problem is, you. 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:58.400 Know, maturity means paying your own bills, and nobody wants 0:04:58.480 --> 0:05:02.240 to face that. And so as our culture rewards immaturity 0:05:02.360 --> 0:05:06.080 intellectual as well as personal immaturity, more and more you're 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:08.359 going to see things like this. But once again, I 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.279 have to say, it's not worse today than it was 0:05:11.480 --> 0:05:15.719 in say, nineteen thirty two. In the nineteen thirties, there 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:20.200 was a socialist governor of Minnesota, and socialism was viewed 0:05:20.279 --> 0:05:23.520 as the way of the future, both by right and 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:27.400 left because you know, the reality of the Soviet experience 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:29.800 and things had not really been publicized very much and 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:30.240 things like that. 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:32.000 So you know, it. 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.720 Is true that you can be pessimistic about the current 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:37.760 environment or you can say we're going through a pendulum 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.760 swing right now. And I think the pendulum is going 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.960 to swing back eventually as people have enough of this 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:47.320 anti intellectual nonsense that's been controlling our politics for a 0:05:47.360 --> 0:05:47.880 decade now. 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.680 Sure, we've had presidential candidates get more traction as socialists 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:53.600 one hundred years ago, one hundred and twenty years ago 0:05:53.600 --> 0:05:56.400 than we are getting now. So that is a good point, 0:05:57.640 --> 0:05:59.000 although we jailed them at the time. 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:04.400 Yes, so i'm, by the way, in favor of jailing 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:06.240 presidential candidates on principle. 0:06:06.800 --> 0:06:09.840 Yeah, anybody who wants to be president you should look 0:06:10.440 --> 0:06:14.720 side eyed at what are they up to your book 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:19.839 proclaiming liberty? So the Founding Fathers were not worried about Well, 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:24.479 certainly the term socialism wasn't Marx wasn't born yet, or 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.919 was he born, He hadn't written yet. What were the 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:30.880 Founding fathers pushing back against. 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:33.279 Well, you know, it's funny because it's true that the 0:06:33.360 --> 0:06:36.400 term socialism wasn't around. It's true Karl Marx wasn't around, 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.080 but socialist ideas had been around since the days of 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:41.600 ancient Greece, right, you find it in the writings of Plato, 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:45.159 for example. And the Founding Fathers were horrified by it, 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:48.520 and they thought it was very obviously ridiculous that if 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:51.159 you took wealth from people who earned it and gave 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:53.640 it to people who do not thinking that what you're 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:56.320 doing is justice, what you're actually doing is committing injustice 0:06:56.360 --> 0:07:00.000 and destroying people's will to work hard and improve the world. 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.680 So they ridiculed the idea. Adams and Jefferson alike and 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.760 all their colleagues. What they were pushing back against in 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:12.600 the seventeen seventies, however, was somewhat different. Beginning in about 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:17.400 seventeen sixty four, Parliament came up with this notion that 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:22.240 it had the authority to control the colonies, that it 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:25.000 could legislate for the colonies, not just tax, but also 0:07:25.040 --> 0:07:27.160 impose other kinds of laws in the colonies. And to 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:29.400 the Americans, this was crazy. They had lived for one 0:07:29.520 --> 0:07:32.800 hundred and fifty years in the American colonies with the 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:36.000 view that their laws were written by their local legislatures, 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.160 by their colonial legislatures. Everybody agreed that you look up 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:40.840 to the king. The king is kind of like what 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:42.920 we had with our president today. The king was their 0:07:43.000 --> 0:07:47.160 executive branch, but their legislative branch was their local legislature. 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:49.920 And all of a sudden, Parliament says, no, No, Parliament, 0:07:50.640 --> 0:07:54.560 this is a quote supreme, absolute, unlimited authority to do 0:07:54.640 --> 0:07:58.800 everything that is not naturally impossible, which means that they 0:07:58.840 --> 0:08:01.840 have absolute power. And the Americans said, this is a 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:05.440 terrible idea, and they opposed it for you know, a 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.880 decade or a dozen years, and they did that through 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:13.360 debate and political protest and legal machinations and politics, until 0:08:13.400 --> 0:08:16.120 finally it became clear that the King was siding with 0:08:16.160 --> 0:08:19.960 Parliament in that dispute. And it was that moment in 0:08:20.000 --> 0:08:22.800 the beginning, at the beginning of seventeen seventy six, that 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:25.800 the Americans finally said, fine, then we don't want to 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:28.600 have any part of the British Empire anymore. We are 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:32.400 abandoning our claims to the traditional rights of Englishmen in 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:35.720 the British Constitution, and we are asserting our rights on 0:08:35.760 --> 0:08:38.280 the basis of the laws of nature and of Nature's God. 0:08:38.559 --> 0:08:40.240 What do you think would have happened if we lost 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:43.160 the Revolutionary War? Uh? 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:47.400 You know, I think the war was inevitable. I think 0:08:47.440 --> 0:08:50.200 a lot of people thought it was inevitable. Thomas Paine says, 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.520 in common sense, Look, we all agree that America will 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.880 be independent someday. The question is just when, you know? So, 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:58.080 I think that it would have happened eventually, but I 0:08:58.120 --> 0:09:01.199 do think there would have been a lot of mess 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:03.760 about it, by which I mean, you know, you look 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:06.800 at British politics today and see how they are torn 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:10.640 between this extreme democracy on one hand, and this anti 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:14.800 democracy on the other hand, And nobody really can definitively 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.040 say what the British Constitution is because it's unwritten, and 0:09:18.080 --> 0:09:21.319 there's these bizarre traditions and hierarchies that you have to 0:09:21.400 --> 0:09:25.120 jump through, and then socialism really becomes a parasite on 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.880 all of that. And I think America would have suffered 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.760 a lot more as a result of those sorts of ideas. 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:34.200 And you know, America today is really the product of 0:09:34.240 --> 0:09:38.080 two other big things, and that's the Western experience and 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:40.679 the Civil War, and both of those would have been 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:44.320 drastically different if the British Empire had controlled America up 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:47.120 any longer. So it's hard to say, but I do 0:09:47.200 --> 0:09:50.840 think we'd be I hate to say it more like Canada. 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:57.160 Wow. I really mean it when I say that, if 0:09:57.200 --> 0:10:00.439 you read one book, or please read at least book 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:03.280 leading up to the Founding or this summer about the 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:07.520 Founding Proclaiming Liberty by Tim Sanderford, just because it helps 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:09.880 you make arguments. If you end up in a backyard 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:13.360 barbecue and somebody starts throwing around some anti American crap, 0:10:13.840 --> 0:10:16.960 you got something to say back, because it's just way 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:22.520 too pervasive in our society right now and apparently comfortable 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:27.000 to say that the Founding is about racism, or that 0:10:27.040 --> 0:10:29.280 the world to be better off without our push you know, 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.760 dominance and all these things, and just drives me crazy. 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:34.560 You know, Jack, I say, I must say, I had 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:37.040 a number of scores to settle in this book, but 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:40.120 I'd been I had been storing them away for decades 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:42.839 whenever I'd read something about the Founding or the Declaration 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.120 or something, and I was like, that's wrong. I was 0:10:45.120 --> 0:10:48.040 making a mental list, and I put that mental list 0:10:48.559 --> 0:10:49.280 into this book. 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:54.400 That's fantastic. That is fantastic. Well, we need more of that. 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.840 Got you? If you stood up in front of most 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:03.760 public cool history classes in this country and give your 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:06.760 little spiel about your book, the teacher in the back 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:11.000 of the room would would be they'd be rolling their 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:14.160 eyes with horror at what you were saying. How crazy 0:11:14.240 --> 0:11:14.559 is that? 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.880 Yeah, however, I will say when I was in school, 0:11:17.880 --> 0:11:20.520 when I was a kid in school, my teachers were 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:22.920 already rolling their eyes in horror at the things that 0:11:23.000 --> 0:11:26.560 I said, because I was already committed to freedom and 0:11:26.600 --> 0:11:27.560 they didn't like that much. 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:29.719 Look, so what I wanted to do in the book is. 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:32.640 I wanted to go through the declaration line by line 0:11:32.640 --> 0:11:35.240 and say what all of it really means, because you know, 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:38.240 we're very familiar with the opening paragraphs about life, liberty, 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:40.600 and the pursuit of happiness, but there's the list of 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:43.920 grievances against what Britain was doing to us, and a 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.760 lot of Americans today don't know what specifically it refers 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:48.600 to because it's written in broad general terms. 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:50.840 So I wanted to let's touch on that when we 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:52.520 come back after the break, if we can, because I 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:55.000 want to get into that part of the proclaiming liberty 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:58.080 Tim's book, because I think this is so dang important. First, 0:11:58.120 --> 0:12:00.320 I want to tell you about Incogniti, with which is 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:04.080 also important. If you get calls on your phone or 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:07.000 text or emails like who is this from? Is this real? 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:09.600 This looks fake? Yeah, a lot of times it is fake, 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:12.840 or it's a scam or somebody trying to just hack 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:16.440 into your phone, whatever it is, And Cogniti is a 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.079 way to stop that. It works quietly in the background 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:22.840 to wipe your personal data from people search sites, those 0:12:22.840 --> 0:12:26.360 things scare me, data brokers, hidden databases that you probably 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:29.839 don't even know exist. Incognitia is busy removing my name 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:32.240 in info from hundreds of databases, and they don't stop there. 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:34.600 They keep sending follow up requests with the law on 0:12:34.640 --> 0:12:37.520 their side saying, you gotta get that stuff out of there. 0:12:37.800 --> 0:12:39.640 They can't scam you if they can't find you. Take 0:12:39.640 --> 0:12:43.679 your personal data back within cognity. It's like Incognito without 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:48.160 all the letters I N. Cogni is how it's spelled. 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.320 Get sixty percent off the regular price when you use 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.560 the code armstrong at incognity dot com slash armstrong. That's 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:55.720 sixty percent off when you use the code armstrong and 0:12:55.760 --> 0:12:59.000 in cognity dot com slash armstrong in cognity dot com 0:12:59.000 --> 0:13:02.600 slash armstrong. This is important stuff. Be able to argue 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.640 with your college kid when they come back home, or 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.520 your neighbors who are socialists or whatever it is. Learn 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:13.000 a little from Tim sanderfer in his book Proclaiming Liberty 0:13:13.040 --> 0:13:23.040 a little more when we come back for this summer, 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:25.679 or actually any time in our history, but with the 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.240 two hundred and fiftieth anniversary coming up. The book is 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.000 Proclaiming Liberty by Timothy Sander for Tim joins us. We're 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.440 talking about the repainting of the the reflecting pool today. No, No, 0:13:34.559 --> 0:13:37.600 that's not what we're talking about that. We're talking about 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:40.520 his book and the Founding and why it's important to 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:43.000 understand it in a way that they don't teach you 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:46.120 in school necessarily as looking at the dedication, though you 0:13:46.240 --> 0:13:49.440 got for Harry Jaffa, who I'm aware of, I'm not 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:54.440 aware of Roger Pilon, Yes, but he's at the Cato Institute. Okay, cool, great, 0:13:54.559 --> 0:13:57.000 But then what is that foreign language thing you got 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:57.640 underneath there? 0:13:57.920 --> 0:13:58.079 Oh? 0:13:58.240 --> 0:13:58.320 So? 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:01.959 It's a line from a play by a playwright named 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.920 Terence Radigan. It's a play called The Browning Version, and 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:09.600 it's a story about a teacher who's having a bad time, 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:13.640 and during the climactic scene of the play, his student 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.320 gives him a book with this line inscribed in it, 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:19.120 which means something to the effect of God looks kindly 0:14:20.200 --> 0:14:23.840 upon a good master, and it is a reward to 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.080 the teacher for all that he's done. And Jaffa and 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:28.560 Palon taught me so much about the Declaration of the 0:14:28.600 --> 0:14:30.200 American Founding that I thought it was an. 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.600 Apt quotation to you. That's awesome. So right before we 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.600 took a break, you were explaining what the Declaration of 0:14:36.600 --> 0:14:39.520 Independence meant, the part that you think most people don't get. 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:43.960 Yeah, well, there's this long list of grievances there, and 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:48.400 then in each one is phrased in broad terms the founders. 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:51.840 By seventeen thirty six, the Founding Fathers were done listing 0:14:51.880 --> 0:14:55.080 their specific objections to what Britain was doing. They had 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:57.160 done that for a dozen years already, and nobody had 0:14:57.200 --> 0:14:59.520 listened to them. So by seventy to twenty six, they're 0:14:59.560 --> 0:15:01.280 just going to say, here's what you've been doing to us. 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:02.680 Boom boom, boom boom. 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.280 And as a result, today we look at things like 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:09.440 he has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:11.960 and necessary for the public good, and we don't know 0:15:12.000 --> 0:15:14.560 what laws specifically they're referring to, And so I wanted 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:16.440 to go through the whole list and explain what each 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:19.520 one is talking about. And there's also other language in 0:15:19.560 --> 0:15:21.920 the declaration that has been overlooked, not only by the 0:15:21.920 --> 0:15:25.120 public but by scholars. For example, then the very end 0:15:25.160 --> 0:15:27.960 of the declaration, it says these United Colonies are and 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:31.480 of right ought to be free and independent states. And 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.960 that phrase of right ought to be is kind of interesting. 0:15:35.040 --> 0:15:36.120 Why is that in there? 0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:36.400 Right? 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:40.080 It turns out that in seventeen sixty six, a decade before, 0:15:40.560 --> 0:15:43.200 Parliament had passed a law called the Declaratory Act, in 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:46.120 which it said that Parliament had complete authority over the 0:15:46.160 --> 0:15:47.160 American colonies. 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:48.880 And the phrase it used. 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:51.520 Was Parliament has and of right ought to have a 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.280 full authority to legislate for the American colonies in all 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:56.520 cases whatsoever. 0:15:57.080 --> 0:15:57.680 And so in the. 0:15:57.640 --> 0:16:01.520 Declaration, the American founders are flapped back at Parliament. They're saying, no, 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:05.720 of right, we are free people, and we don't owe 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.880 you any allegiance. So I wanted to go through all 0:16:08.920 --> 0:16:12.160 these little tidbits that I think are overlooked sometimes both 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:15.520 by scholars and by ordinary Americans who are very familiar 0:16:15.520 --> 0:16:18.440 with the philosophy. I want I do talk about the philosophy. 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:21.080 I think the philosophical aspects of the Declaration are not 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.600 only important, but literally true. It is a literal fact 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:27.120 of the world that all men are created equal. It 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:31.320 is absolutely the truth that they are endowed with inalienable 0:16:31.360 --> 0:16:33.720 rights like life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness. 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:36.520 These are not just, you know, things that we've chosen 0:16:36.560 --> 0:16:39.640 to believe in this society as opposed to some other society, 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:44.920 as many today's of today's relativists like to claim. And 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:46.240 so I do want to go through all that, but 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:48.600 I also didn't want to just be a dry philosophical book. 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:50.920 So I also talk about all of this in the 0:16:50.960 --> 0:16:54.200 context of the friendship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:56.320 as they were working and writing the Declaration. 0:16:57.080 --> 0:16:59.720 Yeah, and so that's the idea that we're all personally 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:04.119 free as opposed to we're subjects of the state, whether 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:07.720 it's a king or a collective us like socialism. 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:11.560 Yeah, well, I mean we are inherently responsible for ourselves. 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:15.200 There's nothing we can do about that fact. The existentialists 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:17.119 back in the nineteen sixties used to use this phrase, 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:19.920 used to say we are condemned to be free. Well, 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:24.080 I wouldn't say condemned, but we definitely are inherently free 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.320 because we are self responsible. Nobody else can eat for me, 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:30.880 nobody else can breathe for me, and nobody else can 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.480 think for me. And although I might point a gun 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.640 at somebody's head and force them to pay my bills, 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:38.280 that's not a just thing to do. That's not taking 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:42.920 responsibility for myself, and everybody has this sense of self responsibility, 0:17:43.160 --> 0:17:45.679 and that means everybody has the right to make decisions 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.600 for their own lives. That's what it means when we 0:17:48.640 --> 0:17:50.639 say that all people are equally free. 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:52.720 Hey, we're out of time, Tim, and I just wanted 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:54.680 to mention this. So George will once called you a 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.480 national treasure, which I think is absolutely true. I think 0:17:57.480 --> 0:17:59.320 that you know, like we have a poet laureate, they 0:17:59.320 --> 0:18:03.040 should have spat some sort of founding laureate, and some 0:18:03.119 --> 0:18:06.080 president should make you that person to go around to 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:09.240 universities and high schools and teach them this stuff. That's 0:18:09.240 --> 0:18:11.439 what I think we should do. I would be happy 0:18:11.480 --> 0:18:13.240 to start. Oh and you'd be so good at it. 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:16.399 The book is proclaiming liberty. Timothy Sander for always happy 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:22.960 to have you on, Tim, Thanks for your time today. 0:18:20.600 --> 0:18:24.920 Armstrong and getty, guys hear with this world cup Fans 0:18:24.920 --> 0:18:27.800 are taking bottles of ranch dressing at home as souvenirs, 0:18:28.440 --> 0:18:30.800 and the TSA had to issue a reminder you can't 0:18:30.840 --> 0:18:34.080 pack them in your carry ons. It's touch seeing someone 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:36.920 at security having to quickly chug a bottle of Hidden Valley. 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:44.880 Why does everybody love ranch dressing so much. I don't 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:46.720 think I've ever had ranch dressing, so I don't know 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:48.919 what it tastes like, but I understand what the appeal is. 0:18:50.080 --> 0:18:52.200 People my kids just love it with everything. 0:18:52.760 --> 0:18:54.520 I can't believe you've never had ranch dressing. 0:18:54.560 --> 0:18:55.879 I don't think I have. It doesn't look good to 0:18:55.920 --> 0:19:02.920 me anyway. I got a number of things to say, 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:05.720 but first I want to do this. Did we win 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:08.399 the war with Iran? Or is that undetermined? At this point? 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:10.719 I feel like we lost. Am I just being a 0:19:10.720 --> 0:19:17.320 negative Nelly. I was watching a little clip of what 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.960 Trump said last week about the rockets. What's wrong with 0:19:21.000 --> 0:19:25.320 them having rockets? You know they Israel has rockets, out 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:27.119 of you, Arabia has rockets. Why doesn't Iran get to 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.280 have rockets? That wouldn't be fair, which to me is 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:31.840 one of the craziest things I've ever heard of. Prison say, 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:35.840 I don't get it, and Marco Rubia is watching the 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:39.040 clip again today. Marco Rubio was standing behind him and 0:19:39.200 --> 0:19:45.320 looked so miserable hearing the president do that whole moral 0:19:45.600 --> 0:19:50.920 moral equivalence between Israel, the United States, and Iran. It's 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:54.399 just crazy. It's exactly like, you got a gun who 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:56.480 went a guy who went on a shooting spree with 0:19:56.560 --> 0:20:00.800 a gun, and you've got somebody with a who's never 0:20:00.800 --> 0:20:03.240 committed a crime in their lives and saying, well, why 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.560 does he get a gun and he doesn't. There's a 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:11.639 reason for that, their history, their intentions. It's crazy anyway. 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.320 Marco Rubio said this yesterday. Some people feel like this 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:18.040 was a tell, this particular statement. I mean, he is 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.119 the Secretary of State in the Trump administration, and unless 0:20:21.119 --> 0:20:23.840 he's going to resign, he's there to carry out the 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.760 president's foreign policy and to stand behind him. 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:26.879 It. 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:28.720 I thought this was a bit of a tell yesterday. 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:31.840 If Iran makes a decision, if it's leadership makes a 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:34.240 decision that they want to be a country instead of 0:20:34.240 --> 0:20:37.159 a revolutionary movement that exports terror, they're going to have 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:39.679 an opportunity to do incredible things in Iraq. I'm not 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:41.520 promising you that that's the choice they're going to make. 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:44.440 I'm saying that's the choice that they make, then there 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:45.400 will be opportunity. 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:48.440 That's the Secretary of State holding it out there that 0:20:48.520 --> 0:20:53.080 they might not be a country that wants to be 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.440 a real country as opposed to a revolutionary country. The 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:01.919 jade vance Trump signal is that, oh yeah, these are 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.359