Liberty and Learning - Part Nine: Decoding the Declaration: A Journey Through America's Founding Document

Liberty and Learning - Part Nine: Decoding the Declaration: A Journey Through America's Founding Document

Released Thursday, 24th April 2025
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Liberty and Learning - Part Nine: Decoding the Declaration: A Journey Through America's Founding Document

Liberty and Learning - Part Nine: Decoding the Declaration: A Journey Through America's Founding Document

Liberty and Learning - Part Nine: Decoding the Declaration: A Journey Through America's Founding Document

Liberty and Learning - Part Nine: Decoding the Declaration: A Journey Through America's Founding Document

Thursday, 24th April 2025
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0:00

economics, the meaning of the US

0:02

Constitution. Did you study these things

0:04

in school? Maybe it's time for

0:06

a refresher. Hillsdale College. is offering

0:08

more than 40 free online courses.

0:10

Learn about the works of C .S.

0:13

Lewis, the stories in the book

0:15

of Genesis, the history of the

0:17

ancient Christian church, even more. World

0:19

War II and on and on

0:21

with Hillsdale College's free online courses.

0:23

Go right now to LevinforHillsdale.com to

0:25

enroll. There's no cost. It's easy

0:27

to get started. That's LevinforHillsdale.com to

0:29

register for free. L -E

0:31

-V -I -N for

0:33

Hillsdale.com. You're

0:37

invited to take a deep dive into

0:39

the founding principles of the United States.

0:41

Join Mark Levin and

0:44

Larry Arne, the president of Hillsdale

0:46

College, as they present Liberty

0:48

and Learning. Hello,

0:55

America. I'm Mark Levin and we're

0:57

here with the president of the

0:59

Great Hillsdale College, Dr. Larry Arne.

1:01

Dr. Arne, how are you? I'm

1:03

well. This is our joint podcast,

1:05

Westwood One Hillsdale College Network. This

1:07

is Liberty and Learning Episode 9.

1:09

Wow, it goes fast. You

1:11

want to know why it goes fast, America? Because I

1:13

ask a question and keep my mouth shut and listen

1:15

to Dr. Ryan. That's why it goes fast. And

1:18

by the way, if you want to learn a lot more

1:20

about Hillsdale and you really should, go to

1:22

Hillsdale .edu. Hillsdale .edu. They've

1:24

got all kinds of good

1:26

stuff there. They've got

1:28

free courses there. They've got...

1:30

Really, it's like America's College, if you

1:32

want to know the truth. And today I'm

1:34

very excited to talk about... We're going

1:36

to go through the declaration, why the wording

1:38

in the declaration matters, where the wording

1:40

comes from, sort of where

1:42

we left off on episode 8. And

1:45

then we're going to

1:47

get into also those who

1:50

oppose it. You know, the early

1:52

progressives, I refuse to call them that

1:54

anymore, I call them American Marxists, but that's

1:56

what they are, the so -called early

1:58

progressives, self -identified. And what

2:01

it is that they hate about the

2:03

declaration and why, and no better, Person

2:05

and dr. Larry Arn and dr. Arn.

2:07

Let's get started this declaration of independence

2:09

Right at the beginning when the course

2:11

of human events, why do they feel

2:13

there's a need? To open

2:16

up this document when in the course

2:18

of human events, you know, basically they're saying

2:20

we feel an obligation to tell the

2:22

whole world what we're up to the first

2:24

thing of its kind in human history

2:26

and still the most beautiful thing of its

2:28

kind and Partly it's a product of

2:30

a situation the situation is They

2:32

are subjects of the strongest monarch

2:34

in the world, and they've decided

2:36

not to be that anymore. And

2:39

so they need to appeal to

2:41

something that's high enough to justify

2:44

what they're going to do, and

2:46

it turns out what they pick

2:48

is something universal and eternal. It

2:51

begins in the most general way

2:53

possible, and it ends up

2:55

in the most particular way possible,

2:57

and the Declaration is a movement

3:00

that connects those two things,

3:02

something universal with something

3:04

immediate and particular and actually

3:06

lethal. So it's

3:08

a very beautiful document and it's

3:10

1320 words long and it's 250th

3:13

birthday is next year and people

3:15

could do no worse than read

3:17

it every week between now and

3:19

then and learn what it says.

3:21

So here's the beginning. One of

3:23

the course of human events becomes

3:26

necessary for one people to dissolve

3:28

the political bands which connected them

3:30

with another, and to assume

3:32

among the powers of the earth the

3:34

separate and equal station at which

3:36

the laws of nature and nature's God

3:38

entitle them a decent respect to

3:40

the opinions of mankind, requires that they

3:42

should declare the causes which impel

3:44

them to the separation. That is one

3:46

powerful, long sentence. It's got a

3:49

lot in there. And so they decide

3:51

they need to make it public

3:53

for the reason you said. But

3:55

right up front, they're talking about

3:57

the laws of nature and nature's God.

4:00

We talked last time about where they got

4:02

these ideas from. It's one thing

4:04

to get the ideas, it's another to

4:06

embrace them. And they embrace

4:08

them. I mean, everybody at

4:11

that convention, embrace them. What

4:13

do you make at that Congress? Embrace them. What do you make

4:15

of that? Well, they know the

4:17

stakes. There's one of the... Founders from

4:19

Philadelphia, the story goes, is talking to

4:21

his wife the night before and says,

4:23

we're going to vote independence tomorrow. And

4:25

she said, yes. And he said, I'm

4:28

going to sign the document. And she said,

4:30

yes. And he said, we

4:32

live near the sea. And the

4:34

British are going to take our farm. And

4:37

she's supposed to have replied, find

4:39

us somewhere to go. Because at

4:41

the time there was a warrant out

4:43

for the arrest of these people. And

4:45

that warrant was given not to a policeman,

4:47

but to a general. And the

4:50

plan, it's one of the causes of action in the

4:52

middle of the declaration, the plan

4:54

was to remove them to England, not

4:56

to be tried before a jury of

4:58

their peers, but to be tried in

5:00

England. And so they

5:02

understood the stakes very much. And

5:05

that makes it remarkable

5:07

that they begin so universally

5:09

and eternally, when in the course

5:11

of human events means anytime. anytime

5:14

in human history. And

5:17

one people means any people. And

5:20

that means we're going to talk about the

5:22

progressives and their rejection of all this. But

5:24

if they're right, their

5:27

basic claim is that these principles are not

5:29

true anymore. But if you

5:31

just look at the way they're stated, if

5:33

they're not true now, they were not true then.

5:35

And if they were true then, they are

5:38

true now. And they don't leave any room

5:40

for maneuver about that. Natural law

5:42

and natural rights. Again, let's remind people

5:44

what that means and what's the difference between

5:46

the two if there is a difference. Well,

5:49

you wrote a great book and you go

5:51

through a lot of this. I just

5:53

want people to know this and it really

5:55

is a seminal book. It didn't get

5:57

the attention it deserves. It deserves a lot

6:00

of attention and I could see you

6:02

work very, very hard on that book. So

6:05

let's hit this and then tell people

6:07

a little bit about the book because

6:09

it's very important. I wrote the book

6:11

because I love the Declaration of Independence

6:13

and because there's an argument that the

6:15

Declaration Independence and the Constitution

6:18

are at odds. Some of the

6:20

progressives made this argument, some of

6:22

the Confederates earlier made this argument.

6:24

Whereas they can't be at odds because as

6:27

we'll see while we talk about this, the

6:29

Constitution is actually summarized in the

6:32

middle of the Declaration. The Constitution

6:34

is written 11 years later, but

6:36

They're thinking about how to organize a

6:39

government under these principles is evident in

6:41

their claims against the king. Well, you

6:43

know, that doesn't make any sense, by

6:45

the way, because that they're different because

6:47

they were written by people, some of

6:49

the same people wrote both of them.

6:51

By the way, the name of the

6:54

book is the Founder's Key. I just

6:56

want people to know that you can

6:58

still get in on Amazon and you're

7:00

surprised because I. I didn't

7:02

mention to you that I'm going to bring it up, but I'm

7:04

bringing it up because it is a very, very powerful book.

7:06

Go ahead. I love things. I'm

7:08

in the college business, right? And we

7:10

teach undergraduates and graduates. But

7:12

you always start at the beginning. And so

7:15

I love any book that's in the in

7:17

the form of a primer, the

7:19

basic things you need to know about

7:21

something. And this particular something,

7:23

the Declaration Independence, is one

7:25

of the most important some things ever

7:27

made and the consequences of it. are

7:29

enormous. You know, if you think about

7:31

that, there they are in the room.

7:33

The room still exists. You can still

7:35

visit the room in Independence Hall in

7:37

Philadelphia, where they wrote it, which is

7:39

also the room in which they wrote

7:41

the Constitution 11 years later, some of

7:43

the same people. And

7:45

it's amazing because they didn't

7:47

really have a government, and

7:50

they're about to take on

7:52

the greatest, strongest political power

7:54

and military power on Earth.

7:56

And they need a

7:58

big reason to justify that. And

8:01

so they began with these laws of

8:03

nature and nature's God. And

8:05

what that means is

8:07

Thomas Aquinas defines the laws

8:09

of nature as the

8:11

rational creatures' participation in God's

8:13

governance of the universe. And

8:16

all that means is look out

8:18

in the universe and you can

8:20

see that it works in a

8:22

certain way and there's a hierarchy

8:24

in it. That hierarchy is very

8:26

important in the decoration because when

8:29

it says all men are created

8:31

equal, which is in the next

8:33

paragraph, first sentence in the next

8:35

paragraph, all they're saying really is

8:37

that human beings are a kind of thing

8:39

and they all have to be treated

8:41

the same. And other kinds

8:43

of beings are not treated that

8:45

way. You can see this

8:47

because you can see the nature of things.

8:50

In the last important letter he wrote

8:52

a few days before he died on,

8:54

of course, the 50th anniversary exactly of

8:56

the Declaration. Thomas Jefferson writes to a

8:59

man, Roger Whiteman was the

9:01

man. It only means that

9:03

some are not born with settles on their backs

9:05

nor others booted and spurred to ride them

9:07

by the grace of God. That

9:09

means men are not horses. And

9:12

how you govern a horse, you

9:14

could be cruel to a horse and you shouldn't be, but

9:17

you don't consult a

9:19

horse. because horses are not

9:21

rational creatures. Whereas with

9:23

us, we must give our consent

9:25

to be governed, because if you

9:27

just look at the nature of

9:29

things, you can see that we

9:31

are different. And

9:33

that's all the claim means, but

9:35

of course it also means

9:38

a mouthful, because the king is

9:40

saying, I was

9:42

born to rule you, and

9:44

you were born to obey

9:47

me. And that means in

9:49

some way, the king

9:51

regarded the people as we

9:53

might regard a horse or a

9:55

dog. And they're rejecting

9:57

that in the name of laws

9:59

that are eternal and that we

10:01

can all see if we think

10:04

about it. And we

10:06

do see. And one of the

10:08

things I love to talk about,

10:10

the two things we raise in

10:12

my family, which are children and

10:14

boxer dogs, Raising children and raising

10:16

boxer dogs for about two years

10:18

is more or less the same

10:20

kind of problem I like to

10:22

say they live on the floor

10:25

and eat each other's food But

10:27

then sometime before the second years

10:29

is up the children start talking

10:31

and the dogs never do and

10:33

that's because they're different kinds of

10:35

beings and The children mustn't be

10:37

raised the way you raise dogs.

10:39

In fact, it's we spoil our

10:41

dogs We spoil our children too,

10:43

but we have a conscience about it because

10:46

it's not good for them. And

10:48

we care for their good more than we

10:50

care for the good of dogs, even though we

10:52

love the dogs. So, you know,

10:54

you're a big dog lover yourself

10:56

there, Mark Levin. And you know the

10:58

point. The different

11:00

beings have different natures.

11:02

And our nature is that

11:04

you may not rule

11:07

us except after we give

11:09

our consent. which is

11:11

what the declaration says. Well,

11:13

folks, we're going to take a short break.

11:15

You're listening to Liberty and Learning. He's

11:17

Dr. Larry Yarn, the great president of

11:19

Hillsdale College. I'm Mark Levin,

11:21

little old talk show host of Westwood

11:23

One here. We hope you're

11:25

enjoying our podcast series. This is episode

11:27

number nine, and if you want to

11:29

learn more about Hillsdale College, I encourage

11:32

you to do it. Go to hillsdale

11:34

.edu. That's hillsdale .edu. We'll be right

11:36

back. History,

11:42

economics, the great works of literature,

11:44

the meaning of the U .S.

11:46

Constitution. Did you study these things

11:48

in school? Probably not. Or even

11:50

if you did, maybe it's time

11:52

for a refresher. Hillsdale College is

11:55

offering more than 40 free online

11:57

courses. Learn about the works of

11:59

C .S. Lewis. The stories in the

12:01

book of Genesis are the history

12:03

of the ancient Christian church with

12:05

Hillsdale College's free online courses. I'm

12:07

personally enjoying Hillsdale's course, The Second

12:09

World Wars, taught by Victor Davis

12:11

Hansen and Hillsdale's P. R. Doesn't

12:13

get any better than that. This

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free seven lecture course will give

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you a clear picture of why

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the war was fought, how the

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Allied powers ultimately triumphed in order

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to save the West from a

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new form of tyranny. The course

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is self -paced, so you can

12:29

start whenever you want. Go right

12:32

now to Levinforhillsdale.com to enroll. That's

12:34

L -E -V -I -N for Hillsdale.com. No

12:36

cost, it's easy to get started.

12:38

That's Levinforhillsdale.com to register for free.

12:40

L -E -V -I -N. Welcome

12:48

back America to Liberty and Learning,

12:50

our podcast Westwood One Hillsdale College

12:52

with Dr. Larry Arndt, the president

12:54

of Hillsdale and me, I'm

12:57

Mark Levin. And by the way, I

12:59

want to encourage you to get a copy

13:01

of Dr. Arndt's book. We're not hawking

13:03

it or anything of that sort, but if

13:05

you're listening to this podcast, you're going

13:07

to love his book. It's called the Founder's

13:09

Key, the divine and natural connection between

13:12

the Declaration and the Constitution, and what we

13:14

risk by losing it. And he's 100 %

13:16

right. I see it right

13:18

now. I mean, I think you can

13:20

get it for less than five bucks,

13:22

but that's not the point. If you're

13:24

interested in what we're talking about, going

13:26

deeply into the Declaration, into the Constitution,

13:28

into Western civilization, into the Renaissance, the

13:30

Reformation, all these different things, you're going

13:32

to love this book. Now,

13:35

there's a sentence here that to

13:37

secure these rights, governments are instituted

13:39

among men, deriving their just powers

13:41

from the consent of the government, that

13:43

whatever any form of government becomes

13:46

destructive and it goes on, is that

13:48

what you're talking about an explicit

13:50

link to what would come, the Constitution?

13:53

That's right. A suggestion of that. The

13:55

first thing, because consent of the

13:57

governed, if you translate that

13:59

into constitutional terms, it

14:01

means representation. It

14:03

means that the people who rule

14:05

us are our representatives and

14:07

we get to pick them. And

14:10

if we don't like what they do, we can pick others. So

14:13

that's the first step in

14:15

constitutionalism. It's not just

14:17

that I must give my consent

14:19

for you to rule me. In

14:22

addition, there must be some

14:24

ongoing practical way for that

14:26

consent to be sustained. And

14:29

that's why you get representative

14:31

institutions. That's the first

14:33

suggestion of it, but

14:35

it becomes very explicit.

14:38

So, the decroyso dependence is

14:40

in three broad sections.

14:42

The first section begins simply

14:44

universally, and it's the

14:46

famous words, right? I suggest everybody

14:48

should memorize the first two paragraphs

14:50

of the decroyso dependence. It's not

14:52

really organized in paragraphs, but the

14:54

style is to present it that

14:56

way. And that ends

14:59

with the first part, you know,

15:01

it begins with the eternal

15:03

history, all people, laws of

15:05

nature and nature's God. And

15:07

then the second thing is they apply the

15:09

law of nature to people when they say

15:11

we hold these truths to be self -evident,

15:13

all created equal. Cannot

15:15

be governed except by our consent,

15:18

that our rights, our life,

15:20

liberty and the pursuit of

15:22

happiness, those are all universal,

15:24

applying to all men as

15:26

regards law and politics.

15:30

Then it says you have a right

15:32

of revolution because if you have

15:34

this right and somebody takes it away

15:36

and they prove that they're doing

15:39

that over time because you don't do

15:41

that lightly, the Declaration Independence

15:43

it took. The conflicts that led

15:45

to the Declaration Independence began

15:47

in 1763 and the Declaration

15:50

Independence is 13 years later.

15:52

And so they had 13

15:54

years of debate and discussion

15:56

and deliberation and gaining of

15:58

knowledge that produced this document

16:00

and You know it takes

16:02

they say a long train

16:04

of abuses That's the second

16:06

paragraph right and then it

16:08

says to prove this long

16:10

train of abuses Let facts

16:12

be submitted to a candid

16:14

world in other words. We're

16:16

reasoning with you now. We're

16:18

gonna give you our reasons And

16:21

it's in the middle section of

16:23

the Declaration of Independence that you see

16:26

an outline of what a constitution

16:28

has to be like. Because it's kind

16:30

of like a photographic negative or

16:32

looking in a mirror. It's

16:34

all put in negative terms. These are

16:36

the bad things the king has

16:38

done. But of course that

16:40

means that whenever anybody does it, they're

16:43

bad. They must not be done. And

16:45

what has he done? The first

16:47

is he refused his assent to

16:49

laws, the most wholesome and necessary

16:51

for the public good. We

16:54

have to have laws, right?

16:57

The first three are

16:59

about refusal of laws. And

17:02

that means, you know, we got

17:04

to have laws made by our

17:06

representatives with our consent and he's

17:08

messed with that. The

17:10

next one is the first one

17:12

that involves separation of powers. He

17:15

has dissolved representative

17:17

houses and Stop them from

17:19

passing laws that is to

17:21

say he's interfered with representation,

17:24

which is the expression of

17:26

consent of the governed Can't

17:28

do that and then he's

17:30

the executive branch he appoints

17:32

the governor generals in the

17:34

colonies at that time But

17:37

he's messing with the legislature

17:39

Now it's good to stop

17:41

here and say because we've

17:43

got under separation of powers

17:46

that God comes up four times

17:48

in the natural race independence.

17:50

It's actually a cosmic document in

17:52

this sense as well. Because

17:54

God is named first as the

17:56

maker of the laws of

17:58

nature in nature's God. That's the

18:00

legislative branch. The

18:02

second time he's named as

18:04

a creator. That's like

18:07

a founder of a community

18:09

of everything, right? The

18:11

third time he comes

18:13

up as divine providence. That's

18:16

the executive branch. And

18:19

the fourth time it comes up

18:21

as the supreme judge of the

18:23

world, the judicial branch. And

18:25

because we're talking about separation of powers

18:27

and the king having invaded them, and

18:30

there's several claims of that in the

18:32

middle of the Declaration Independence, the

18:34

message here is that only

18:36

in the hands of God

18:39

would one place all the

18:41

powers of government for people

18:43

they cannot hold all those

18:46

powers because they're not angels,

18:48

as Madison writes famously in

18:50

the 51st Federalist. So

18:52

when they say, all men

18:54

are created equal, that's

18:56

actually another way of saying the

18:58

king is not God and

19:00

yet he is irrigating unto himself

19:03

powers that you would only

19:05

trust in the hands of God.

19:08

And the first one he names

19:10

that's such a breach is

19:12

he's He messed with the legislatures

19:14

that we have elected. He's

19:16

made it hard for them to

19:18

get together and meet. He has

19:20

obstructed the laws that they pass.

19:23

And so he's acting like he's

19:25

both the executive and the legislative

19:27

branch. The next

19:29

phase of things is he's

19:32

messed with the courts. He

19:34

hasn't allowed the legislatures

19:36

to establish independent judicial bodies.

19:38

The independence of the

19:40

judiciary is vital. because the

19:43

legislature makes the laws, the

19:46

executive executes the laws, and

19:48

when the laws have an

19:50

effect on a particular individual,

19:52

they go up before an

19:54

independent judge to decide, in

19:57

his particular case only, by

19:59

the way, whether the law is

20:01

rightly applied. That's separation

20:03

of powers. And

20:05

so in the beginning, In this list,

20:07

I think there are 18 clauses

20:10

in this middle section of the declaration.

20:13

What has he done? He

20:15

has messed up the separation

20:17

of powers and he's denied

20:19

us consent of the governed

20:21

through representative assemblies. Now, if

20:23

you just step back from

20:25

that for a minute and

20:27

think what would a constitution

20:29

look like that guaranteed that

20:31

those things would be preserved, you

20:34

get the Constitution of the

20:36

United States. And that means

20:38

there's not a difference between

20:40

the Constitution and the Declaration

20:43

Independence. Lincoln called the

20:45

one apples of gold, that's

20:47

the declaration, in

20:49

pictures, which means frames,

20:51

in pictures of silver. So

20:54

if you have a beautiful picture on the wall, it

20:56

needs to have a frame. And

20:59

that's what the Constitution provides to the

21:01

Declaration Independence. That is

21:03

about as good as I've ever heard an

21:05

explanation of this. And, but doesn't

21:07

it just make sense? I mean, why

21:09

would they fight a revolution over certain

21:11

principles and then not put them, trying

21:13

them into the government? It wouldn't

21:15

make any sense to have, it

21:17

would be utterly disjointed, I would think.

21:19

Alright, folks, we're gonna take a

21:22

short break. This is Liberty and Learning

21:24

Episode 9, our joint podcast with

21:26

Westwood One Radio Network and Hillsdale College.

21:29

We'll be right back. History,

21:34

economics, the great works of literature,

21:36

the meaning of the US Constitution.

21:38

Did you study these things in

21:40

school? Probably not. Or even if

21:42

you did, maybe it's time for

21:44

a refresher. Hillsdale College is offering

21:47

more than 40 free online courses.

21:49

Learn about the works of C

21:51

.S. Lewis. The stories in the

21:53

book of Genesis are the history

21:55

of the ancient Christian church with

21:57

Hillsdale College's free online courses. I'm

21:59

personally enjoying Hillsdale's course, The Second

22:01

World Wars, taught by Victor Davis

22:03

Hansen and Hillsdale's President Larry P.

22:05

R. Doesn't get any better than

22:07

that. This free seven lecture course

22:09

will give you a clear picture

22:11

of why the war was fought,

22:13

how the Allied powers ultimately triumphed

22:15

in order to save the West

22:17

from a new form of tyranny.

22:19

The course is self -paced, so you

22:21

can start whenever you want. Go

22:23

right now to levineforhillsdale.com to enroll.

22:25

That's L -E -V -I -N for hillsdale.com.

22:27

No cost, it's easy to get

22:29

started. That's levineforhillsdale.com to register for

22:31

free. L -E -V -I -N. Welcome

22:39

back America. We're here with Dr.

22:41

Larry on the president of Hillsdale College.

22:43

I'm Mark Levin. This is our

22:45

podcast Liberty and learning episode number nine.

22:47

Check out Hillsdale at Hillsdale .edu. You're

22:49

going to love their site. My

22:51

next question to you is this. There

22:53

are people who are very hostile

22:55

to this to the whole notion of

22:57

the declaration. One of them, of

22:59

course, as you all know, Woodrow Wilson

23:02

and You know, he would

23:04

give speeches. He would actually give

23:06

speeches on July 4th at Independence Hall,

23:08

trashing the document, basically. The

23:10

progressives, or what I'll call

23:12

the modern American Marxists, they have

23:14

to, don't they? They have

23:16

to reject the Declaration and the

23:19

Constitution because what they seek

23:21

is this authoritarian, centralized government, which

23:23

neither the Declaration nor the

23:25

Constitution gives any support for, correct?

23:28

That's right. And I think there's

23:30

a larger motive why they

23:32

seek that. What they think is,

23:34

we live in a new

23:37

age and we've come to understand

23:39

that history changes everything. So

23:41

the key problem with the Declaration Independence

23:44

is not what it says,

23:46

except one thing. Because it's

23:48

the right document for that

23:50

time, Woodrow Wilson would say.

23:53

But now is a new

23:55

time. But of course that,

23:57

as I said earlier, that denies the

23:59

whole premise of the thing, right? As

24:01

long as people are people, they have

24:03

to be governed this way. And

24:05

that's what they're denying. And

24:07

they're saying, now it's

24:09

a new age, we've developed, we

24:12

have science, we can

24:14

exercise more mastery over nature.

24:16

And if we use the

24:19

principles of modern science to

24:21

apply to public affairs, we

24:23

can make everything in the

24:25

earth better. And the

24:27

trouble with that argument. And

24:29

see, that's an assertion of power.

24:31

Right? We want the power. We

24:33

don't want the Constitution in the way.

24:35

We don't want the fixed principles of

24:38

the Declaration Independence in the

24:40

way. We have to cut

24:42

loose and get to work and

24:44

remake things. And the

24:46

problem with that is, according to what

24:48

principles will you do that? Right?

24:50

Because if you don't believe in

24:52

the laws of nature and nature's

24:54

God, what are you left with?

24:56

And the answer is the will. Well,

24:59

just whatever we want and

25:01

they're actually pretty open -ended

25:03

about that there will be

25:05

continuous constant forever adjustments Somebody

25:07

was elected president on the

25:10

platform of hope and change

25:12

and Neither of those gives

25:14

any information about for what

25:16

do we hope? Hope and

25:18

what will the change be

25:20

right? It's just that we

25:22

have to have the power

25:24

to do it and this

25:26

document the Declaration and the

25:28

Constitution are both so very much

25:31

in the way of that, right?

25:33

Because what they're saying is, anytime,

25:37

remember, the founders are

25:39

writing this to establish

25:41

a republic, and it's an

25:43

excellent bet that they're going to be heads

25:45

of it later, which turned out they

25:47

were many of them. But

25:49

they are laying down a standard

25:51

that limits their future power

25:53

if they should be successful. And

25:55

so that's the point. The

25:58

point is, once you

26:00

say, I will tell you, in the

26:02

management of a college, I believe that

26:04

the key to it is that everybody

26:06

is a volunteer. I

26:08

get my authority from the mission

26:10

of the college and from the

26:12

people who work and study here.

26:15

And they have to agree in

26:17

advance when they come to

26:20

the purposes of the college. And

26:22

they obey me. on the

26:24

basis of that agreement. And

26:26

if I violate that agreement, then

26:29

that just sets up in them

26:31

a rebellion that would be bound to

26:33

come. And so I must

26:35

not. And that limits my power. And

26:38

the founders who wrote this, they

26:40

were very aware that they were

26:42

not going to get to beat

26:44

Kings. And George

26:47

Washington in particular got an

26:49

opportunity for that. And he

26:51

eschewed the possibility. He made

26:53

a public speech in a town

26:55

called Newburgh to the army saying, none

26:57

of that. We're not

26:59

doing that here because no

27:01

one is born to

27:03

rule another except by their

27:05

consent. Well, this has been

27:08

fabulous. It really has. He's

27:10

Larry Arnn. I'm Mark Levin. I'm

27:12

listening to and enjoying this very,

27:14

very much this podcast. This is

27:16

episode number nine of Liberty and

27:18

Learning, the joint podcast of Westwood

27:20

One and Hillsdale College. And folks, don't

27:23

forget to check out Hillsdale generally.

27:25

You go to hillsdale .edu. They've got

27:27

a fantastic website with so many

27:29

things available to you, including free

27:32

courses and so forth. No

27:34

college offers anything like this,

27:36

period. And Larry Arn, I

27:38

want to thank you. I look forward to our

27:40

next episode. And God bless you, my brother. Bless

27:43

you, too, Mark. History,

27:51

economics, the great works of literature,

27:53

the meaning of the US Constitution. Did

27:55

you study these things in school?

27:57

Probably not. Or even if you did,

27:59

maybe it's time for a refresher,

28:01

Hillsdale College offering more than 40 free

28:04

courses. Learn about the works of C

28:06

.S. Lewis, the stories in the book

28:08

of Genesis, or the history of

28:10

the ancient Christian church with Hillsdale College's

28:13

free online courses. I'm personally enjoying

28:15

Hillsdale's course, The Second World taught by

28:17

Victor Davis and Hillsdale's President Larry

28:19

P. R. It doesn't get any better

28:21

than that. This free seven course

28:23

will give you a clear picture of

28:26

why the war was fought, how

28:28

the Allied powers ultimately triumphed in order

28:30

to save the West from a

28:32

new form of tyranny. The course is

28:34

self -paced, so you can start whenever

28:36

you want. Go right now to

28:38

LevinforHillsdale.com to That's L -V

28:40

-I -N for.com. No cost.

28:43

It's easy to get started.

28:45

That's Levinforhillsdale.com to register

28:47

for free. L -E -V -I -N

28:49

for Hillsdale .com.

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