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This week's episode is a Biden-free zone, so if you're looking to avoid the Biden-Afghan collapse story, this is the show for you.
Instead we decided to circle back return to an argument Steve was losing badly at the end of last week's episode with Michael Anton, and go into greater depth on the meaning of equality in American political thought. To recap, Steve argued that the critics of "all men are created equal" in the Declaration of Independence—from Tocqueville to today's "paleoconservatives"—have a point, at least historically considered, and that the simple and laudatory instinct of Americans that "you are not the boss of me" is insufficient and prone to the defects of cognitive dissonance.
So Steve decided to enlist a witness on his behalf—the voice of Harry Jaffa himself. Using some excerpts from an audio recording of a lecture Jaffa gave in 1972 on "What Is Equality? The Declaration of Independence Revisited" (you can find the full audio recording here) Steve and Lucretia work through some of the complications of the idea of equality and especially its directly related principle—the "consent of the governed." Bottom line: this matter is complicated. As Jaffa wrote elsewhere: “Free government would be an absurdity did it require citizens all like Abraham Lincoln; yet it would be an impossibility if it could not from time to time find leaders with something of his understanding.” The trouble is, our entire education system, from K-12 through college, is today now determined to convey only anti-democratic principles, in service of a totalitarian misunderstanding of equality. We have work to do.
Maybe we just need to screen The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance more often. It's how this episode opens.
(P.S. The fine article "Why Are Elites So Hostile to Merit-Based Hiring" by our young friend Deion Kathawa that we mention at the end of the episode can be found here.)
Hosted by Steve Hayward, with guest "Lucretia"
Discussion (9)
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Trans-Siberian Orchestra ringtone, eh? That's good.
Well, Lucretia, I agree that we'll never know some things about the election, like Biden's true popular vote total. (Perhaps, in the eschaton, G-d will find that we still care enough to be curious and will let us see the rest of the story.)
But can we know whether illegally cast or counted votes exceeded the Biden margin of victory in multiple swing states? Yes. I think we already do know that.
Can we know whether electronic fraud happened? I don't know (yet), but I think it's possible to know. I hope to know; I intend to know, inshallah.
Can we know with certainty? No. This doesn't meet Descartes' standard for knowledge. But we can have good probabilistic evidence. That's good enough knowledge for science and religion, so I reckon it's good enough for politics and history.
And we can definitely know that electronic voting machine reform is desperately needed. G. K. Chesterton was right, as usual.
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I thought were weren’t getting any Burke, but thanks Lucretia for the mention at the end. Stealing from Steve
Listening to the two of you is an excellent education. I took 30 years ago the University of Chicago Basic Program, and you remind me of those excellent classes.
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As long as the probability confirms a preponderance of the evidence, it's sufficient for civil litigation. The problem is how to award damages. In breach of real estate contracts, the measure of damages is (understandably) specific performance - the property must be surrendered to the successful plaintiff. If only there were such a remedy available to voters - or more particularly to states whose electors were cheated, in some cases (e.g., Pennsylvania) by blatantly, publicly unconstitutional actions.
What Richard Easton said - and I'm highly envious of that shout-out from "Lucretia." I'm pleased to be one of the 12 subscribers, by Steve's estimation - I'm in pretty good company. An impressive Dirty Dozen, by my lights.
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Impeachment, as far as I know, is all there is at this point.
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With an nom de plume like "LibertyDefender" you deserve and will get a shoutout! We have already taped this coming week's podcast, so be patient! And thanks for listening!
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