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This is an outstanding, one-hour video lecture advocating limited representative government presented by Hillsdale College president Dr. Larry P. Arnnand serves as a companion video to Arnn’s book “The Founders' Key” by Dr. Larry Arn, president, Hillsdale College. W strongly recommend "The Founders' Key" to all our readers.
The Right Website For Our Times and a Staunch Advocate of Essential Liberty
Here at The Franklin Independent Journal” (FIJ) we are steadfast and loyal readers of “The Patriot Post” and we would like to introduce our readers to this outstanding website which to a great degree mirrors our goals at FIJ. If you like the content at FIJ we believe that you too, will soon become a regular reader of “The Patriot Post.”
In a world rife with moral confusion and corrupt, arbitrary and unlimited government, America's Founding Principles still remain our best access to permanent truths and the best ground from which to question the current direction of our nation. In this video, join Matt Spalding, author of “We Still Hold These Truths” and an authority on American political thought and religious liberty at The Heritage Foundation, as he highlights some everyday Americans on a journey to reclaim our future.
We The People - The Last Line of Defense
We, as citizens, are ultimately responsible for the survival of our republic.
The Future of Democracy in America
The Founding Fathers knew well the kind of government they were trying to avoid, but could only project what their own experiment in government would become. They based this projection on their analysis of governments in the past, on principles derived from natural rights, and on an assessment of the nature of man. Thomas Jefferson always maintained a great faith in the American people and their capacity for self-government. The success of the Founding Fathers' experiment certainly attests to their wisdom and genius.
"[When] corruption... has prevailed in those offices (of) government and (has) so familiarized itself as those men otherwise honest could look on it without horror... (then we must) be alive to the suppression of their odious practice and ...bring punishment and brand with eternal disgrace every man guilty of it, whatever his station."—Thomas Jefferson in a letter to W.C.C. Claiborne, 1804.
DO YOU STILL HOLD THESE TRUTHS? THE TIME TO CHOOSE IS AT HAND.
With the RNC now concluded, we find this quote by Foundng Father and second President of The United States of America John Adams, particularly appropriate considering the tone and messages presented during the convention about returning to America's Founding Principles.
"But what do we mean by the American Revolution? Do we mean the American war? The Revolution was effected [sic] before the war commenced. The Revolution was in the minds and hearts of the people; a change in their religious sentiments, of their duties and obligations... This radical change in the principles, opinions, sentiments, and affections of the people was the real American Revolution."
This short interview with George Romney was originally published here on June 20, 2012. We thought it deserved a second look as the RNC ramps up tonight in Tampa.
George W. Romney is the father of Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and was an auto industry executive who became a three-term Governor of Michigan, a Republican Presidential candidate and a member of the Nixon Cabinet. George Romney died in 1995. He was 88.
Romney was chairman and president of the American Motors Corporation when he resigned in 1962 to run, successfully, for Governor. He ran for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1968 but dropped out of the race just before the New Hampshire primary. He then served as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in President Richard M. Nixon's first term.
George Romney represented the liberal wing of the Republican Party, supporting civil rights initiatives and Government social programs and opposing the war in Vietnam. His politics proved successful in Michigan, where he was elected Governor three times, by increasingly large margins.
We found this 1992 interview of the elder Romney rather profound considering the current political and economic state of affairs the United States is facing some 20-years later.
It makes one wonder what our leaders in Washinton have been doing over the past two decades , lending greater credence to the claim that "All politicians are the same."
At approximately the one minute mark of this interview, Mr. Romney mentioned Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville and how this French visitor viewed the early Americans and how they dealt with their individual problems.
U.S. Constitution - Amendment 10
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Our nation’s founders left us numerous warnings concerning what would happen if we violated the principles that they had put in place. They warned that our nation's future depended on its citizens acknowledging God and submitting to His principles. To do otherwise would result in rampant immorality and deteriorating political prosperity. Finally, they warned this would ultimately lead to a national denial of God's headship and bring with it God's judgment on America and her people.
Here is what Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence andthird President of the United States had to say on God's judgment of America:
And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever."—Thomas Jefferson
Last month it was reported widely that Reverend Billy Graham had penned a new prayer letter to America in which he shares his concern and dismay with America’s declining morality. Here is an article pertaining to this letter which was published in the Huffington Post.
Following is an overview for the seventh installment of our 10-part/day The Founders’ Key webinar series:
The separation of powers helps to ensure good government at the same time it guards against tyranny. Independent in function but coordinated in the pursuit of justice, the three branches of government—legislative, executive, and judicial—must each have enough power to resist the encroachment of the others, and yet not so much that the liberty of the people is lost.
A political regime has three dimensions: the ruling institutions, the rulers, and the way of life of the people. In America, the rulers—the people themselves—and their ruling institutions—staffed by the people’s representatives—aim at securing the Creator-endowed natural rights of all citizens. The Framers did this in two ways. “Vertically” considered, our ruling institutions are defined by federalism, or the division of power between the national, state, and local governments. “Horizontally” considered, the ruling institutions of the federal government itself are separated and co-equal.
In the American regime, the Constitution is the “supreme law of the land.” No one branch is superior to it; all three branches have a duty to abide by it. While each of the three branches plays a unique role in the passage, execution, and interpretation of laws, all of the branches must work together in the governing process.
The legislative branch is closest to the people. It is also the branch in which the danger of majority tyranny lurks. The passions of the people are reflected most in the House of Representatives, where the members are elected for terms of two years. The Senate, with its six year terms, was designed to be a more stable legislative presence than the House.
The defining characteristic of the executive is “energy.” The president can act swiftly and decisively to deal with foreign threats and to enforce the law and can also provide a check on legislative tyranny through the veto.
Members of the judiciary, the third branch of government, must exercise judgment in particular cases to secure individual rights. Through “judicial review,” the judiciary is given the authority to strike down laws that are contrary to the Constitution. But judicial review is not judicial supremacy; even the Supreme Court must rely upon the other branches once it has rendered judgment.
The checks that each branch can exercise against the encroachment of the others ultimately protect the liberties of the people. The separation of powers promotes justice and good government by having each branch perform its proper function. This institutional design allows the sovereign people to observe and to know which branch is responsible for which actions in order to hold each to account. The sense of mutual responsibility built into the separation of powers is a reflection of the moral and civic responsibility all Americans share.
Today’s presenter is Dr. Will Morrisey, the William and Patricia LaMotte Chair in the U.S. Constitution and Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, where he has taught since 2000. He teaches courses in American politics, political philosophy, and comparative politics.
Morrisey is the author of eight books on statesmanship and political philosophy including Self-Government, The American Theme: Presidents of the Founding and Civil War; The Dilemma of Progressivism: How Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson Reshaped the American Regime of Self-Government; Regime Change: What It Is, Why It Matters; Culture in the Commercial Republic; and Reflections on DeGaulle. He is currently working on a study of the geopolitical strategies of Winston Churchill and Charles de Gaulle. He has written for the New York Times, Washington Times, the American Political Science Review, the Claremont Review of Politics, and Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, of which he has served as an editor since 1979. He received his B.A., summa cum laude, from Kenyon College, and his Ph.D. in political science at the New School University.
Following is an overview for the fourth installment of our 10-part/day The Founders'Key webinar series:
David J. Bobb is director of the Hillsdale College Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship, in Washington, D.C., and lecturer in politics. Dr. Bobb teaches courses in American politics and political theory to students participating in the Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program. Through teaching the enduring principles of the American Declaration of Independence and Constitution, the Kirby Center seeks to inspire citizens to live worthy of the blessings of liberty.
From 2001 to 2010 Dr. Bobb served as director of the Hillsdale College Charles R. and Kathleen K. Hoogland Center for Teacher Excellence, a civic education program for high school teachers. Formerly a research associate at the Boston-based Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, he has published reviews and articles in Perspectives on Political Science, the Claremont Review of Books, the American Spectator, and the Washington Times. He blogs regularly for BigGovernment.com, and his book on humility as a political virtue is under review for publication. He received his B.A. from Hillsdale College, summa cum laude, and his Ph.D. in political science from Boston College.
Tomorrow’s webinar is entitled: Separation of Powers: Ensuring Good Government. We hope you will join us.
Following is the overview for the third installment of our 10-part/day The Founders 'Keywebinar series:
The soul of the American founding is located in the enduring political principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence. The meaning of these principles, especially equality, is decisively different than the definition given to those principles by modern progressivism.
Equality means that nature ordains no one to be the ruler of any other person. Each human being is also equal in his natural rights to life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness. These rights are inalienable and possessed simply by virtue of being human.
Equality, liberty, and natural rights require that legitimate government be republican. The truth that all human beings are born free, equal, and independent means that a just government must be based on the consent of the governed—a consent which must be expressed through ongoing elections. The political theory of the Declaration of Independence requires that government secure the natural rights of the citizens through adopting and enforcing criminal laws; adopting and enforcing civil laws regarding property, family, education, and provision for the poor; and providing for national defense.
If the regime fails to operate according to these principles, the people have a right and duty to alter or abolish the government and establish a new government which will secure rights through the consent of the governed.
The people thus play a vital role in protecting their rights. They must be educated in “religion, morality, and knowledge.” A people that are not virtuous will not be able to perpetuate free government.
Modern liberalism uses the same language of “equality” as the Declaration of Independence. Yet modern liberals mean something altogether different than what the Founders meant by those words. For the Progressives, “equality” means that government must redistribute wealth to provide equal access to resources. This idea necessitates government programs that help mankind liberate itself from its “natural limitations.”
The Declaration of Independence and modern Progressivism are fundamentally opposed to each other. The modern misunderstanding of “equality” threatens the whole of the American constitutional and moral order.
Thomas G. West is the Paul and Dawn Potter Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, where he has taught since 2011. Dr. West teaches courses in American politics, with a focus on the U.S. Constitution, civil rights, foreign policy, and the political thought of the American founding. He also teaches courses in political philosophy, with particular emphasis on Thomas Aquinas,Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke.
Prior to joining the faculty at Hillsdale, Dr. West was Professor of Politics at the University of Dallas, where he taught from 1974 to 2011. Formerly a visiting scholar at the Heritage Foundation and at Claremont McKenna College, Dr. West is a senior fellow of the Claremont Institute, where he teaches in the Institute’s Publius and Lincoln Fellows summer programs. He is the author of the best-selling Vindicating the Founders: Race, Sex, Class, and Justice in the Origins of America, and co-translator of Four Texts on Socrates: Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, and Aristophanes’ Clouds, of which there are more than 180,000 copies in print. He received his B.A. from Cornell University and his Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate University.
Like many Americans we believe that America is at a crossroads and that this November’s election will be one of the most important in our nation’s 220 year existence. Over the next 10 days we will present Hillsdale College’s 10-part lecture series presented by Dr. Larry P. Arnn at The Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship of Hillsdale College. This lecture took place on December 2, 2011 at The Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center in Washington D.C.
Dr. Arnn believes historians today commonly claim that the Constitution of 1787 marked a break with the Declaration of Independence of 1776, even speaking of two foundlings. Arnn contends this is both false and destructive of liberty. In fact, the principles of the Declaration command the arrangements of the Constitution, and the arrangements of the Constitution embody the principles of the Declaration. It is critical today to regain an understanding and love of the unity of these two grand documents.
We hope you will join us over the next 10-days and watch these very important lectures, reacquaint yourself with the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution and strongly consider what you learn when choosing a candidate to represent your interests in November and other elections between now and then. Here is “The Founders' Key" - Larry P. Arnn, the first lecture in this series.
A friend and long-time reader recommended Conservative commentator Bill Whittle’s FIREWALL YouTube video channel to us. We liked it so much that we decided to make it a regular feature.
Look for Whittle’s conservative, common sense videos here in the future.
In this first video Whittle points out that before you can build a political house, you have to know what materials you have on hand. In 'The Battle of Big Ideas," Whittle looks at the two visions of Mankind that Thomas Sowell has labeled "Constrained" and "Unconstrained," and the examples of their twin Revolutions: the Constrained American Revolution and the Unconstrained French Revolution.
This weekly Saturday lecture series entitled Introduction to the Constitution begins tomorrow and runs for the next six Saturdays and can be easily found by clicking Introduction to the U.S. Constitution on the topbar just below our banner. The series was presented by Hillsdale College as part of its Constitution Day celebration. The series consists of five lectures, introductory remarks from Dr. Larry Arnn, Hillsdale College President, and a panel Discussion of “American Federalism in Theory and Practice.”
We believe you will learn a lot of things you were never taught in school about the greatest document on government ever created by man. We hope you will find this lecture series interesting and eye-opening and that it will spark you to learn more about the First Principles of the founding of the United States of America. We can't think of a better time to present this important series, especially as we face a Presidential election in 2012.
Please give us your feedback on this education initiative as you complete each lecture or program.
The misguided anti-capitalism “Occupy" demonstrations” being orchestrated on Wall Street and in other cities (including Milwaukee) in America, by special interests has moved THE FRANKLIN INDEPENDENT JOURNAL to take a stand against this movement by presenting a seven week online “webinar” called Introduction to the Constitution. The series was produced by Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, MI as part of its Second Annual Constitution Day Celebration on September 15, 2011. As far as we're concerned, these demonstrators reflect values that are dangerously out of touch with the broad mass of the American people.
The first webinar will be available at 1:00pm this Saturday, October 22 and every Saturday thereafter for the next six weeks. We believe you will learn a lot of things you were never taught in school about the greatest document on government ever created by man. We hope you will find this lecture series interesting and eye-opening and that it will spark you to learn more about the First Principles of the founding of the United States of America. We can't think of a better time for this important series, especially as we face a Presidential election in 2012.
Monday, January 14, 2013 at 12:00 PM 
This is an outstanding, one-hour video lecture advocating limited representative government presented by Hillsdale College president Dr. Larry P. Arnn and serves as a companion video to Arnn’s book “The Founders' Key” by Dr. Larry Arn, president, Hillsdale College. W strongly recommend "The Founders' Key" to all our readers.
