What We Are Thankful For

November 22, 2012 | Filed Under Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Business, Capitalism, Declaration of Independence, Democracy, Founders, Government, History, Holiday, James Madison, Jobs, John Adams, Revolutionary War, Sam Adams, Slavery, Thanksgiving, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Like most conservatives, I felt Election Day was the end of the United States of America. I am not convinced going forward that it isn’t, either. But on this day of giving thanks for what we do have, it would be a mistake not to be grateful for the things with which we have, in our good fortune, been blessed. There are things that we should and must be thankful for.

What are those things? What should we be thankful for? Well, certainly there are all manner of things we should be thankful for as individuals. Our loved ones, friends, perhaps our health and good fortunes. But, as a nation, there are many things to be thankful for, even if those things seem fleeting. Granted, there are many things other than what I list below that we should be thankful for. I have no intention of claiming this list is comprehensive.

So, first and foremost, as a nation we should be thankful for our founders’ vision of a nation created on the premise of self-government, freedom and liberty.
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VIDEO: FreePac Speech of Judge Andrew Napolitano

October 28, 2012 | Filed Under Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Declaration of Independence, Founders, Fox News, FreedomWorks, George Washington, History, Revolutionary War, Sam Adams, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Friday, October 26, I attended Freepac, Chicago held at the Schaumburg Convention Center. The event, sponsored by Freedomworks, had many fine speakers including Judge Andrew Napolitano, former President of Poland Lech Walesa, John Fund, CL Bryant, Deneen Borelli, John Tillman, Congressman Joe Walsh, and Adam Andrzejewski, hosted by Freedmworks CEO Matt Kibbe.

Here is the video I took of Judge Andrew Napolitano.

Atheists Lie And Do So On a Billboard!

October 31, 2011 | Filed Under Abraham Lincoln, Alexander Hamilton, Atheism, Bible, Christianity, Democrats/Leftists, Education, Ethics, Founders, George Washington, History, James Madison, John Adams, Journalism, Liberals, Media, Media Bias, Religion, Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Talk about making a mistake everyone can see! Atheists in California have done a disservice to their own crusade to spread atheism by launching a new billboard campaign that ascribes a false quote to Thomas Jefferson. That’s right, they’ve essentially become liars for atheism.

In Costa Mesa, California a group of atheists calling themselves Backyard Skeptics have unveiled a billboard to sell atheism to the general public that features a quote they claim came from Thomas Jefferson, the Third President of the United States.

“I do not find in Christianity one redeeming feature,” the billboard “quotes” the president as having said. “It is founded on fables and mythology,” this quote concludes.

That would be a stinging rebuke of Christianity, indeed… were it true. Unfortunately for this little atheist group it seems that their quote is a fake quote the group found on the Internet and assumed was real.
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George Washington Said to Avoid ‘Entangling Alliances’… Or Did He?

September 30, 2011 | Filed Under Alexander Hamilton, Anti-Americanism, Congress, Constitution, Ethics, Foreign Countries, Foreign Policy, George Washington, Government, Government, Corruption, House of Representatives, James Madison, President, Security/Safety, Senate, Thomas Jefferson, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

I have been interested these days to hear the left citing George Washington, the father of our country, to support their ideas against the GOP and their hope that Obama will pull out of the Middle East. Specifically they have been citing Washington’s farewell address where he supposedly warned Americans against getting involved with foreign nations and getting caught up in those evil “foreign entanglements.”

It is quite amusing to see lefties in love with a founding father or American history and principles for the first time in their lives, certainly, but it isn’t just the left revealing a sudden respect for a founding father with citation of Washington’s address. Ron Paulites and those of an isolationist bent on foreign policy have also been bandying about Washington’s farewell address as some sort of “proof” that one of our “first principles” was to stay away from foreign nations.

What was Washington really saying, though? Did he warn us against “foreign entanglements”? Did he think the U.S. should steer clear of all political situations from without and simply relegate ourselves only to trade with everyone else?
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‘A Government of Laws, and Not of Men’: The Electoral College

May 11, 2011 | Filed Under Alexander Hamilton, Congress, Constitution, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Federalism, Founders, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, History, House of Representatives, James Madison, Liberals, Nancy Salvato, President, Republicans, Senate | 1 Comment

-By Nancy Salvato

In Federalist 51, James Madison writes,

“In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.”

Madison’s concern is that, even though the people are sovereign, hold the ultimate authority over the government, there need be additional mechanisms to assist in preventing the possibility of power becoming consolidated within a particular faction of those charged with governing on our behalf. Should power become consolidated under one entity, and the faction abuse its authority, the people would be ruled through tyranny, denying them their ultimate sovereignty unless they take drastic measures to remove the authority from power.

Perhaps what Madison is saying here is better understood through an analogy of what can happen when those charged with looking after our best interests give greater concern to selfish motives. Until a child grows into an adult, he or she cannot make all the decisions associated with being grown up. In such a case, all power is vested in one or two parents who are expected to make decisions in the best interest of the child. Sometimes one or both parents make really bad decisions that can cause irreparable damage to a child. This might require a drastic measure, such as a child protective services agency stepping in to remove the child from the situation. James Madison feared that those in a position of power may not always put our rights first. This problem would become much worse, and more drastic measures would need to be taken, when all authority is vested in one entity that is in charge of all decision making, as in the situation of a child with abusive parents.

Federalist Papers Identified How Democrats Would Destroy Us

May 2, 2011 | Filed Under Alexander Hamilton, Anti-Americanism, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Federalism, GOP, Government, History, House of Representatives, James Madison, Liberals, Nanny State, President, Republicans, Senate, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

Our fourth president, James Madison, has been called the father of the Constitution for not inconsiderable reasons. Madison was highly educated, widely read, and well thought of. He was also a prescient man. Madison was so prescient that in February of 1788 he was able to describe the precise reasons why his beloved Republic would be faring so badly 222 years later in 2010.

Madison’s far-reaching delineation of our current troubles appears in the Federalist Papers, a document that Thomas Jefferson proclaimed “the best commentary on the principles of government ever written.” There in Federalist 62 — his explanation of the senate — we find an amazingly clear prediction of how badly we’ve gone off track in Washington D.C., not to mention our state and local governments.

Student of history that he was, Madison understood that democratic governments often suffer from the malady of unfaithful elected officials. “It is a misfortune incident to republican government,” Madison wrote, “that those who administer it may forget their obligations to their constituents, and prove unfaithful to their important trust.”
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Supreme Court Justice Breyer: Founders Were For Restricting Guns… Why Breyer is Wrong

December 14, 2010 | Filed Under 2nd Amendment, Alexander Hamilton, Anti-Americanism, Ben Franklin, Constitution, Democrats/Leftists, Founders, Government, Government, Corruption, Guns, James Madison, Liberals, Regulation, Sam Adams, Supreme Court, Warner Todd Huston | 1 Comment

-By Warner Todd Huston

On Fox News Sunday, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer spoke of his dissenting decisions in the several Second Amendment cases that he heard as a Justice. He told host Chris Wallace that he thought that James Madison only included the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights as a sop to the states and Breyer insisted that historians agreed. In essence, Breyer was saying that Madison was not interested in an individual’s right to gun ownership and self-protection and for that reason his dissenting opinions against that individual right accorded well with what the founder’s thought on the issue.

But Breyer’s assumption that a citizen’s right to bear arms is not sacrosanct and his following contention that the founders would agree seems to ignore much of the history of the era not to mention the precedents in law and the historical record upon which the founders relied to define their political ideas — including Madison.

Of course, it is a bit ridiculous to take one lone founder’s words and assume that it represents the opinion of all of them. It is quite easy, after all, to find quotes from any particular founder that in no way reflected even a minority opinion of the day. For instance, Thomas Jefferson once advocated that all laws be dumped every few decades so that the next generation could start over with their own ideas unencumbered by past generations. Even Madison thought that idea was absurd. Hamilton found that many of his most dearly held financial ideas left his fellows cold. John Adams thought that we should call the president “your majesty,” an idea that earned him much derision. And Poor Richard himself, Benjamin Franklin, once proposed that each galaxy had it’s own “God” that ruled in his own sphere meaning that there were infinite gods for infinite galaxies. Not every idea the founders had were gems, to be sure.

Still, Madison spoke with most of his contemporaries, not outside them, when he considered the meaning of the Second Amendment.
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Publisher’s Warning Label: That Constitution and Declaration is No Longer Valid Thinking

June 10, 2010 | Filed Under Alexander Hamilton, Books, Capitalism, Congress, Constitution, Democracy, Economy/Finances, Federalism, Founders, Free Speech, George Washington, Government, James Madison, John Adams, Liberals, Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

A Virginia-based publisher has decided that the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and other founding books are likely offensive and they want their readers to understand that these old documents are no longer valid ways of thinking. And so the publisher, Wilder Publications, has put a warning label on its reprints of America’s founding documents and books to shield American’s delicate sensibilities.

The warning label reads, “This book is a product of its time and does not reflect the same values as it would if it were written today. Parents might wish to discuss with their children how views on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and interpersonal relations have changed since this book was written before allowing them to read this classic work.”

The warning labels appear on copies of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, the Articles of Confederation, and the Federalist Papers, as well as other founding books and documents the company reprints.
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Publius Podcast: The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… VERY Poor

March 1, 2010 | Filed Under Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Conservatives, Constitution, Elections, Founders, Freedom, George Washington, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, History, James Madison, John Adams, Podcasting, Publius' Forum, Republicans, Warner Todd Huston | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

The newest Publius Forum podcast: The Mount Vernon Statement doesn’t work as a rallying cry, but here is an idea that might…

The Mount Vernon Statement, A Poor Man’s Manifesto… VERY Poor

February 22, 2010 | Filed Under Alexander Hamilton, Ben Franklin, Budget, Capitalism, Congress, Conservatives, Constitution, Democracy, Democrats/Leftists, Federalism, Founders, Free Trade, George Washington, GOP, Government, Government, Corruption, History, House of Representatives, James Madison, John Adams, Liberals, Patriotism, Republicans, Rights, Senate, Taxes, Tea Party, Thomas Jefferson, Warner Todd Huston, Western Civilization | Comments Off

-By Warner Todd Huston

A group made up of some of the biggest names in contemporary conservatism got together a few days ago and crafted what they are calling the “Mount Vernon Statement,” a manifesto of sorts meant to give direction to today’s conservative movement. Put succinctly, it fails to fill the bill.

Taken as a whole this statement is fine as a short history lesson. It explains pretty clearly what the founders had wrought when their basic work was done with the adoption of the U.S. Constitution. But as a statement of principles that might guide today’s discussion I do not think the letter works.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that this effort is harmful. In fact, I think every young person should read it for its explication of our historically conservative American principles. The problem is that this thing doesn’t seem to speak directly to what we are facing today like a statement that perhaps aims to become boilerplate should.
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