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- [00:05]
Scott Bertram
Every week, Hillsdale College President Larry Arne joins Hugh Hewitt to discuss great books, great men and great ideas. This is Hillsdale Dialogues, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More episodes at podcast. Hillsdale. Edu or wherever you find your audio.
- [00:30]
Hugh Hewitt
Morning Glory and Evening Grace America. HUGH I'm Hugh Hewitt. Welcome to the Hillsdale Dialogue. It's a special Hillsdale Dialogue. They're all kind of special. I think highly of them. Many people do. We're glad to have the following that we have all things hillsdalerelsdale.edu. all the dialogues are collected@hugh4hillsdale.com and if you go over to hillsdale. Edu, you'll find them all sorted out there and arranged for you to pick the subject matter and go deep. But as we approach the 250th anniversary of the vote on the Declaration of Independence, I thought we would devote a program to the genius of America with Dr. Lurian, President of Hillsdale College. He is also the author of a book called the Founder's Key. He has made it part of his life's work to understand the Declaration, to understand Lincoln's reliance upon the Declaration, as well as a great half American, Winston Churchill. So let's go way back to the founder's key. Dr. Arn, to start this off, you studied that era. Why? Why were you attracted to that era and write that book and study with Harry Joppa?
- [01:37]
Dr. Larry Arnn
Well, I'm an American and I grew up on stories of the American Revolution. I love the Lexington and Concord story where we took on the mighty British, very well told in this movie we've been talking about. And you know, how we use different tactics than the British had ever encountered before, and they were the tactics of a free people spontaneously organizing themselves. And that's always been the strength of the American military. So I love those stories. And then, you know, I grew up in the, in the 60s and 70s and everything is controversial. Not as controversial as right now, but everything is controversial. And the question is, is this a good country or not? And to identify what the country is, you have to figure out. The first thing you have to figure out is what is its final cause for what does it stand? And the answer to that is in the Declaration of Independence. And Professor Jaffa, you know, I grew up in New York, Jewish man, he fell in love with it through reading a book, a publication of the Lincoln Douglas debates. And he watched Lincoln put that document to motion to deal with the crisis of the Civil War, which is our worst crisis, except for the Revolution. And you know, I I think the crisis in which we are today approaches those crises. So, of course, if you want to understand America, that's where you start, because that's where America started. And then it's a very unusual document because it gives the reasons for the country. It does the. It's two. It has three purposes, and it's divided into three sections. It's about 1400 words long. The first section is some universal principles applying to everyone, everyone who ever lived any place. And then in the name of those principles, at the end, the third section, they do the formal act of forming a country, an act of treason against the former rulers in the name of those principles, God appears four times. Always in the discussion of those principles at the very beginning and the very end is where they're located. First, God is the maker of the laws of nature, and nature's God. Then he's the Creator, like a founder. Then he's the supreme judge of the world, kind of fellow before him, whom lawyer Hewitt would argue. And finally, he's Divine Providence, that is the executive. And so God appears four times as all of the branches of government and the founder. And then the middle section describes the form of government that would be right. It is the form we have today. And. And it describes them negatively in describing. These are the bad things the king has done. And what they mount to is he's interfered with representation. That. That's the constitutional way of saying government by consent. They can't do anything to you unless you elect them to do it. And they've interfered with separation of powers. The uniqueness of the American Constitution is that it manages rights, medicine, to draw all its authority from the great body of the people. But it does it in different ways at different times so that the three branches of government can be divided. And that way they all have an equal standing. The president is elected one way and the Congress in two different bodies a second and a third way. And then the courts are appointed by them, and they have tenure in office during good behavior. And so that's the offenses of the king. There are some particular things he's done, like quartering troops and. And, you know, failing to defend the country. But the core offenses are all against those principles of government representation, separation of powers, which includes the independent judiciary. And so what they're thinking, because they remember they are the first people to work out these principles and put them into action, never happened before, see. And by the time of the Declaration of Independence, their thinking is far advanced. They're already looking ahead to the Constitution, which is passed 11 years later. And so it is a marvelous encapsulation of the purpose and the manner of the government of the United States.
- [06:21]
Hugh Hewitt
What I try and teach, what I try and teach my law students when I do the Declaration. And most con law classes begin in 1803 with Marbury versus Madison. Mine begins in 1770 because you've got to understand the Declaration, understand the Constitution. You got to understand the Constitution to get to Marbury versus Madison and the extension of the court's authority. But in that section wherein are detailed George III's crime, there is a particular line that sings to me. He has sent out great armies of officials to eat up our wealth and our freedom. And I'm paraphrasing it from memory, but it's idea bureaucrats. He sent bureaucrats everywhere. This has been forgotten. You didn't mention. I just want to make a note that the Declaration specifically invade against bureaucracy.
- [07:08]
Dr. Larry Arnn
He has sent among us swarms of officials. Swarms harass our people and eat up their substance.
- [07:16]
Hugh Hewitt
That's. And if that is not true today about the administrative state, California.
- [07:23]
Dr. Larry Arnn
Oh yeah, no, that's right. And that's, you know, that's a technique of rule, Right. If you ever, if people ever watch the great movie the Lives of Others, one of the best totalitarian movies ever made was Bill Buckley's favorite movie at the end of his life.
- [07:42]
Hugh Hewitt
Oh, I didn't know that.
- [07:43]
Dr. Larry Arnn
It's about, it's about a Stasi official in East Germany. And at the end, after it's over, it has a nice ending. It's, it's not a gloomy movie. Words come up on the screen to say that in East Germany and before communism fell, one citizen in six was a member of the secret police. And that meant every time you went out to dinner, you were surrounded by them. If you had guests over for dinner in your home, you couldn't be sure unless you knew them extremely well whether they were or not. And maybe not even then.
- [08:23]
Hugh Hewitt
Not even then.
- [08:23]
Dr. Larry Arnn
And so the point is there the five are working to pay so that the one can spy on them, interest them. And the movie, I will tell you opens. And see this is. And remember when somebody says that without representing you or being elected, we can govern you in all cases whatsoever. And that was a shameful moment in the British House of Commons when they passed that law regard regarding America. Right. Once you do that, then the next thing you know they can do whatever they want, right. And they'll have some reason for it that they think is, you know, they will say is good for everybody. And. But that's where you're going. That's, that's what can happen. See, you said a week ago when we were talking about current affairs that the public employee unions are very influential in California, correct? Well, they have an interest, don't they? And they deploy enormous resources in politics to get their way and influence elections. And, you know, if you just count everything up together, they've got something like that. The modern administrative state has half the resources of the country at its disposal.
- [09:41]
Hugh Hewitt
And I would argue in California, it probably has more. And in a somewhat sinister fashion, it has the youth because of the vastness of the California education system and the fact that it operates out of Sacramento and it operates poorly out of Sacramento, and the teachers unions come ahead of the kids. And therefore, it's a very difficult cycle to break when you get there. But there's hope.
- [10:09]
Jeremiah Regan
Hello, this is Jeremiah Regan, executive director of Online learning here at Hillsdale College, and I have some great news. We've brought Hillsdale's incredibly popular free online course to the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. And our next series is the American Left From Liberalism to Despotism, a course taught by Associate professor of Politics Kevin Slack and Hillsdale President Larry P. Arn. After listening to all 11 episodes, you'll have a deeper understanding of what has happened to America in the past 60 years and what we can do about it today. The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast, hosted by Online Learning Marketing director Juan Davalos and me, expands Hillsdale's mission to provide all who wish to learn the education necessary to increase happiness and to preserve the civil and religious liberties of America. We want you to be a part of it at Podcast Hillsdale. Edu. Subscribe now to the Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast to hear new episodes every week with additional commentary and insights from our team. Go to Podcast Hillsdale to learn more. That's Podcast Hillsdale. Edu.
- [11:22]
Scott Bertram
Hey there, it's Scott Bertram, host of the Radio Free Hillsdiggle Hour. Can you feel it? We're almost there. To America 250. This week on the show, we talk with Dr. Brad Birzer, professor of History Russell Amos Kirk, Chair in American Studies here at Hillsdale College. He has a brand new book, the Declaration of a Radical Experiment in Liberty. We talk about those years leading up to 1776. We talk about the importance of the common law tradition to the American founders and much more. Brad Birser this week and the Declaration of a Radical Experiment in Liberty on the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour. Find it at Podcast Hillsdale Edu or wherever you get your audio.
- [12:12]
Hugh Hewitt
Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh hewitt, joined by Dr. Larry Ahron. The Hillsdale Dialogue Special Edition commemorating our 250th birthday. Dr. Arn When I was last at Monticello, I had arranged to go early and be met by the director. And because I was running the Nixon Museum at the time, there was a fraternity there. And so I got to see the upstairs room. I got to see the restoration that David Rubenstein had paid for. It was a fabulous thing. And I learned then that they assert that the Declaration is the model for the so called Declaration of Independence of more than 80 other countries around the nation, around the world. And the United nations backed that up. If you look it up in the, in any AI engine that more than 80, more than half of the countries in the world look to our Declaration as their model for their Declaration. Though their governance is not always constitutional governance. What was Jefferson working from? Or if you want to be more expansive in your credit everyone at the convention, but especially Adams and Franklin, what were they working from? What was the legacy that they were using to craft their art argument?
- [13:22]
Dr. Larry Arnn
Well, there are two answers to that question. One is Jefferson was an extremely well read man. I've been to Montesquieu's chateau and the claim that they make there is that Montesquieu owned and had read every book. You can't do that anymore. But too many books now. But he had read everything they say. Well, Jefferson could make that claim. So he, he's in Paris and during the time of the writing of the Constitution and his friend James Madison wrote and said, send me some books to get ready for the Constitutional Convention. And the number that he spent sent was over 175. And Madison apparently read them. So you know, they were very well read men. If you read the Federalist Papers you will see that, right. They have reflected on the classics and the medievals and their figures in the Renaissance. So that's one answer. The second answer is Jefferson writes a letter about how he went about it and he said he consulted no book or pamphlet. He said, I was expressing the harmonizing sentiments of the day. Now where were they to be found? They were to be found. First of all, there were two books that most any household had in it, if they had any books in the from the American Revolution at least through the Lincoln Douglas debates. One was the King James Bible. Correct. And one was the works of William Shakespeare.
- [15:00]
Hugh Hewitt
Yep.
- [15:01]
Dr. Larry Arnn
And so, you know, and, and there are a lot of books around. Right. Montesquieu Montesquieu was particularly heavily read. He was the great separation of powers philosopher. And they argue about him in particular in the Federalist Papers because the antifelists are saying that he favors small republics. And the Federalists say, okay, that proves too much because the smallest state is bigger than the largest republic that Montesquieu indicated would be good. Big old country, you know, couldn't get bigger. They hoped so. They were very well read people. But then they had these town halls, right? I mean self government had by the time, by 1763. So the American America starts in 1609. Is that the right day? 1607, one of those two in Jamestown. The English immigration begins then. And from then until 1763 we were pretty much left to our own devices. Our film tells about that salutary, revolutionary America.
- [16:11]
Hugh Hewitt
The name of the film is Revolutionary America. It may be in theaters still and it will be on some streaming platforms. Go ahead.
- [16:19]
Dr. Larry Arnn
And what did we do? We built this very elaborate system of representative government starting from the bottom up. As the Constitution indicates, government should work, although it's now centralized in ways that I think are not good. I mean hugely. And so town hall halls get together and argue and you know, if you go in a faneuil hall in Boston, a historic place where the first arguments that led to the Declaration of Independence were mostly intensely waged, most intensely waged. It's a two story thing, you know, there's a balcony, right? And so on the floor level and up on the balcony there are people standing up and talking and everybody could hear. And the people place was packed and they're arguing about, you know, everything from picking up the rubbish to the water supply to the tea part and the American Revolution. And so we were used to that and we had more of that than anywhere in the world. And that's, you know, that's. So when Jefferson sat down to write this, he was talking to a populist that was thinking about stuff like this, understood that they had rights, had no experience of any kind of government except by people they had elected and a
- [17:41]
Hugh Hewitt
population that was a frontier population. I know that there are developed cities like Philadelphia and Boston and to a lesser extent Williamsburg, but it's still a frontier, it's still a dangerous country. It's an adventure to live in America until well into the 19th century. I think that animates Jefferson somewhat. To be a Virginian is to live a long distance from your neighbor. You have to run your own farm, your own.
- [18:10]
Dr. Larry Arnn
And see. One of the reasons Jefferson became so prominent was because the revolution really became intense in Boston and to a lesser extent in New York City. Big port cities. Right. Well, the other big state is Virginia, and that's plantations and farms. Right. Lots of commerce with Great Britain, which consumed its agricultural products and sent back manufactured products. Right. So they. So how are you going to unite the country? And John Adams, who's one of the shrewdest Americans who ever lived, he figured out we got to promote Washington and Jefferson and Washington because he never commanded a big bunch of troops. But, gosh, didn't he look like he could? It turned out he finally could. But, but. And he's from Virginia. And then Jefferson could write like a dream. You know, the decoration of pens is very beautiful. After the Declaration, my favorite thing he ever wrote is the last paragraph of something he wrote in 1774 called the Summary view of the Rights of British North America. And the first two sentences are just beautiful, he says, because, you know, they're addressing everybody addresses the king with great respect, especially early when the pimp. When the British start doing things, it gives rise to a pamphlet war and letters to the addresses to the throne and the Parliament pleading and making their case and arguing with each other too. And when Jefferson takes up his pen, it gets harder. And the last paragraph begins, let those flatter who fear, sire, it is not an American art. So,
- [19:56]
Hugh Hewitt
all right, we'll come back. We're going to come back and talk about George. Don't go anywhere, America, because there is an antagonist in all this. He's the last king of America, to quote the title of the book by a mutual friend of Dr. Arne and mine, Lord Andrew Roberts, who's as skilled a craftsman as at work today. And his most recent big book about old things is called the Last Kingdom of America. Talk about what George missed under his nose, you know, miles away across the Atlantic. Stay tuned.
- [20:32]
Scott Bertram
Hey there, it's Scott Bertram, host of the Radio Free Hillsdiggle Hour. Can you feel it? We're almost there. To America 250. This week on the show, we talk with Dr. Brad Birzer, professor of History, Russell Amos Kirk, Chair in American Studies here at Hillsdale College. He has a brand new book, the Declaration of a Radical Experiment in Liberty. We talk about those years leading up to 1776. We talk about the importance of the common law tradition to the American founders and much more. Brad Birser this week and the Declaration of a Radical Experiment in Liberty on the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour. Find it at podcast hillsdale. Edu or wherever you get your audio. This show is a part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. If you like what you hear, please subscribe to your favorite. You'll get brand new episodes of all your favorite shows sent right to your device, and you'll help us know that you're out there listening. Never miss another episode by going to podcast Hillsdale. Edu Subscribe. That's Podcast Hillsdale. Edu subscribe or click the Follow or Subscribe button on Apple podcasts, Spotify or YouTube.
- [22:03]
Hugh Hewitt
Welcome back, America. It's a special Hillfield dialogue celebrating our 250th birthday. More importantly, the ideas that animated it. Dr. Arnold, as I went into the break, I mentioned that our mutual friend Lord Andrew Roberts wrote the Last King of America about George iii. I thought it was a fabulous book. Much more complicated man than is presented in the Broadway musical Hamilton, though the arrogance is there. What do you think he missed about America that made him obtuse or indifferent to what was happening here?
- [22:34]
Dr. Larry Arnn
Well, he. He thought that he was born to rule, and that imposed a duty on him as much as it imposed on his subjects. Remember, they weren't called citizens, they were called subjects. This birthright citizenship controversy where you are wrong, you're wrong as George III was wrong, because they mistake citizens for subjects. If you're born in a place where people are subjects, then the king can lay claim to you. But if you're a citizen, you got to join up. And so that's the difference. That's the distinction. But yeah, he was just wrong about that. And remember, his whole life, right, He's German. The British monarchy is the most stable of all the European monarchies, which means unstable often, but more stable. And so they have a peaceful transition from the heirs of Henry viii. Am I getting that right?
- [23:38]
Hugh Hewitt
Yes. To the stewards, Germans, and then to the Germans.
- [23:42]
Dr. Larry Arnn
Yeah. And. And he's a German aristocrat, and he succeeds by birth, and his son will succeed after him. And did. And so that's the difference. Right. Thomas Jefferson says, no, nobody is born to rule. Another. Just think of the beauty of Abraham Lincoln's, you know, his aphorisms, right? They're Euclidean poems. They're like geometry and they're like poetry. Both as I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. To me, that is the meaning of democracy. And without that, there is no. No democracy.
- [24:25]
Hugh Hewitt
That is beautiful. But what happened to Burke, who was inveighing against Lord north and everybody else who's running?
- [24:33]
Dr. Larry Arnn
Because there is a friend, Andrew. Our friend Andrew is a member of the House of lords. And if he had been a member of the house of lords in. In 1776, he would probably be edmund burke, who was a friend of the american revolution and a friend of the monarchy, as was the greatest statesman of the age who just turned out not to be in the cabinet that george III picked. But both pitt, father and son, the pits, were both understood the claims of the american revolution and thought that they should be accommodated. Right. And, you know, winston churchill succeeds. Now, winston churchill, of course, knew well and served with george v and george vi, named after george iii and George I and second. And so he was. And Churchill says on the 4th of July 1918 in a speech in london, when we're allies in this first world war. The declaration of independence, he says, is not only an american document, it grew up on the banks of the thames, the river that runs through london into oxford. He would repeat this, by the way, in his great iron curtain speech in 1946 with Harry Truman there that announced the beginning of the cold war. And he says by it, the declaration of Churchill says, we lost an empire, but by learning its lessons, we have now preserved an empire. And that means that britain was not claiming anymore after the american revolution that because the king was born to rule, the subjects have to do what he says. And they had stopped saying that extensively, at least inside britain, but they thought they could say that to the colonists. You know, was it grenville or townshend, One of those two idiots who were key advisors to the king. And lord north was a third. He says to ben franklin, you are the children and we are the mother country, and you must do what we say. And ben franklin, who, you know, could get along with nearly anybody, wrote back to the parliament and said he was wrote back to the continental congress. He was representing us then in london as this run up to the revolutionary war. He writes back and says, well, it's going to be a war we're never going to agree about. That's the point. If no one may be rightly governed except by his consent, then that's dispositive.
- [27:17]
Hugh Hewitt
And that made the revolution inevitable. When we come back, we talk about the man who made it possible. Washington. Stay tuned, america. I'm Hugh Hewitt with Dr. Larry Arnold on a special Hilltale dialogue about our 250th birthday. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh Hewitt with Dr. Larry Orn a special edition of the hilltale dialogue devoted to our 250th birthday. Dr. Arne I want to remind everyone, revolutionary america is the movie that hillsdale made that begins in 1763 and goes all the way through the framing of the Constitution. You can find it on streaming platforms, you can find it in theaters, perhaps even on this weekend. It is magnificent. You ought to do it. It ought to be seen by every student in America and their parents and teachers. George Washington was not present when the Declaration was voted on July 4th or signed on August 2nd. I don't know if you know this, Dr. Orland. There's a big celebration of signing day in Put In Bay in Ohio because the war with the Brits really end up being finished off at the battle of LAKE Erie in 1813. And it's a 40 years war. But Washington was not there for the Declaration of Independence. He was in the field. But had there been no Washington, there would have been no tenth anniversary, no fiftieth, hundredth, one hundred fiftieth, no bicentennial, no 250th. Why was Washington the indispensable man?
- [28:38]
Dr. Larry Arnn
Well, it because he performed right. He was picked because he looked like he might, you know, and who else did? He's a very good looking man, you know, big tall man. Wore his uniform to the Continental Congress on the day he was picked. But then what did he prove in the war? First of all, he was personally extremely brave. He left brave people open mouthed. Things he did on the battlefield, sometimes with his amazing calmness, under direct fire, sometimes with his energy and loud voice. And he whipped the troops to turn around and fight. At the battle of Monmouth, at the battle of Princeton, he led them, not knowing, according to his adjutant, whether anybody was following him or not, right into the British. And they, it was amazing, right? So he had courage. The second thing was he had moderation. George Washington, we, we could not stand toe to toe with the British for most of the Revolutionary War. We were not drilled. And so what he did was figure out a strategy, you know, step by step because he learned them while he went of using the fact of the land and that we were at home and they were not to consume time and the British Army. Another quality he had was because he was so self restrained. What I think is Washington, if you put all the stories, you know, together about Washington, he was a very explosive individual and he kept it under control. And people would see flashes of it and think there's a volcano in there. But it only got out when he wanted it to. And they trusted him because of that. They watched him suffer alongside them. He had amazing endurance at Valley Forge in our revolutionary America film. That's very well Told it's comparable what the troops did at Valley Forge because they. They didn't have any. Some of them were just living with a spare blanket around them. And it was a hard winter and they were freezing and they didn't have food. They're starving, right. And George Washington and Martha Washington came to the camp and brought food, passed it out. And. And Washington is constantly. He was a man of immense dignity, but also, he was constantly pleading with the Congress on behalf of the troops. And we weren't very well organized. We didn't feed them properly or support them properly until long after the war. And so he had that right. And then finally, at the end, he was bold. He was bold from time to time, but especially in the Battle of Yorktown, because the only time in the war he did this, he got the French navy off the coast of Virginia, Yorktown, where in Virginia. And he could never rely on them. They were allies, but they'd run off down to the West Indies and deck stuff down there that the French had down there. And he never knew for sure whether they're going to show up or not. And you had a French army that would come and go. And so he got Cornwallis bottled up at Yorktown, and the French navy won a battle and the British navy couldn't relieve them. And then he had. And he put every resource at his disposal, he put every man, he put all his diplomatic arts, and he besieged Cornwallis in Yorktown and starved him out and repelled many attempts to break out. And that's the one place where he risked everything, and that's the final important battle, because that's where he won the Revolutionary War.
- [32:44]
Hugh Hewitt
I don't know if it's apocryphal. Is it apocryphal that when George III heard, he laid down his command, went back to his farm, that he declared and that he is the greatest man in the world. Is that apocryphal or is that true?
- [32:57]
Dr. Larry Arnn
Well, it's. So that's a. It's the question. The answer to that is slightly tangled because it's a very old story from the time. And so. And it's a very persistent story, but you can't quite find the source. And that's because he's. George III is said to have said to the prime minister, who said to him, sire, you have to call a peace conference. And it took forever to get that call, but in forever to get the peace concluded, such as it was, as you say, went on until 1813. And George III is reported to have said George Washington will not know how to be a king. He will be a tyrant and they will want me back. So in other words, he's making the deduction from history that conquerors become kings.
- [33:57]
Hugh Hewitt
Yep.
- [33:57]
Dr. Larry Arnn
Right. And the prime minister replies, I understand that General Washington has retired from the army and gone home to his farm. George III is reported to have said, if he did that, he's the greatest man in the world. And he was. He was the greatest man in the world.
- [34:16]
Hugh Hewitt
We'll pause there. We'll be back for one more segment with Dr. Arne on this special. Enjoy this weekend. Coming up, this, this 250th anniversary, they are anniversaries of this significance are few and far between. I hope you have something more planned than hot dogs and fireworks. If you can get out and see Revolutionary America. I hope it's still in the theater, but you'll find it on a streaming platform somewhere. I'll come back with the question for Dr. Will there be a 500th? I don't even know what we call that Quincentennial. We'll find out. Stay tuned. Welcome back, America. I'm Hugh. Hugh. At all things hillsdale@ hillsdale.edu. don't forget Revolutionary America, their movie about from 1763 until the ratification of the Constitution. Therein is the story of our 250th anniversary, of our birthday. Dr. Arne, you and I have lived through the bicentennial and now the 250th. We'll be long gone to our reward, Meet our Maker before, before the 500th, if there is one. Do you think there will be a quincentennial?
- [35:20]
Dr. Larry Arnn
The future, though imminent, is obscure. And so, you know, you can't know the future. You can know a little bit about the present. You can know a lot about the past. And from those you can deduce eternity. So long as there is a nature, the laws of nature and of nature's God will prevail. And that means as long as they're humans, the Declaration of Independence cannot pass away. Might be we'll lose our country. Might be a million things might happen, but that cannot change. And that's, you know, in his greatest speech on the 150th anniversary of the Declaration, Calvin Coolidge in the penultimate paragraph talks about change, how much change there is and how much advance there is in America, you know, in 1926, he says, if all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights, that is final. From those principles, there is no advance possible. There is only going backwards.
- [36:29]
Hugh Hewitt
But we could. Is there another place on the planet poised to succeed with that principle set as we have succeeded with that principle set? I mean, we overcame enslavement, we won the civil war, we won two great world wars, we won the Cold War. We're in the cold War, too. Is there another place on the planet that you think has the stuff of which the declaration was made here and made more perfect here?
- [36:59]
Dr. Larry Arnn
Well, one hopes for Africa, which is growing very much and which is not so well organized as West. But just remember the, the principles are, you know, they're perfect, the principles. We're not in potential anywhere. Right. I mean, right now, if you look at the world, it's a problem, right? China is the most. Well, India. India's a bright spot, I hope. Yes, I pray for him. It has a representative form. You know, it's a massive big old mess of the, of a country, big and most populous country now and also yawning. It's going to keep growing, but it has representative institutions and that's good. And so in, in print. See. But you should remember since we saluting America, America is right now impossible, absent an apocalypse, because there isn't a new world unsettled.
- [38:07]
Hugh Hewitt
That's it. Globe has been settled. We got here just in time. Dr. Larry Aharon, have a happy 250th celebration at Hillsdale. Thank you for this special on our 250th birthday, America. I'll talk to you on Monday on the next New Hewitt Show.
- [38:25]
Scott Bertram
Thanks for listening to the Hillsdale Dialogues, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network. More episodes at Podcast hillsdale. Edu or wherever you find your audio. For more information about Hillsdale College, head to Hillsdale.
- [38:42]
Dr. Larry Arnn
Eduard.