For what turns out to be the 300th Power Line podcast as well as the last episode of 2021, we decided to revert to full three-whisky mode with a live audience on Zoom, and an extended conversation with historian Richard Samuelson about the left’s distorted and impoverished understanding of democracy. Steve had his usual Islay peat bombs and Lucretia polished off a bottle of Glenfiddich, while Richard, who is under quarantine with an actual case of the Omigod variant, had a soothing toddy.

In between recalling what the Founders thought about democracy (and especially John Adams’s contributions, since Richard is an Adams expert), Steve offered up his lexicon of what certain terms mean for liberals:

Populism: When the wrong person or cause wins a free election. (Think Brexit and Trump.)

Racism: Any opposition to the agenda of the left.

Democracy: When the left gets what it wants.

This explains the left’s tantrums when they don’t get what they want, and their demands to change the rules until they do.

Richard also reviews for listeners the defects of the stage play Hamilton, even as it is coming under fresh attack from the left.

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There are 14 comments.

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  1. Dr.Guido Member
    Dr.Guido
    @DrGuido

    So…I took my advice from last night. I took advantage of 6-for $25 and, lo and behold, I won!

    Details are obviously up to you two but I’ll bring 3 excellent red wines and leave the rest up to your ministrations.

    I look forward to our dinner sometime in 2022!

    Cheers!

    • #1
  2. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Happy new year to your wonderful listeners? But what about the rest of us?

    • #2
  3. Leslie Watkins Inactive
    Leslie Watkins
    @LeslieWatkins

    I’ve been away from active membership for the past year-and-a-half (too much whining by Jonah Goldberg for me), but I admit to having listened to this podcast (and a couple others) for a good while, and I felt guilty about no longer having skin in the game I was still partially playing. But after this week of the Three Whiskey Happy Hour I just had to renew my membership so I could comment here on how much I like this podcast—despite getting annoyed at times by Lucretia’s rapid-fire interruptions (though, to be fair, Steve doesn’t really seem to mind them and often asks her to continue rather than pick up the thread of what he had been saying). So …

    It’s fun fun fun as well as intellectually stimulating. (I enjoy hearing Lucretia wax lovingly about Jaffa, whom I like learning about.) As a duo, you remind me of George and Gracie meet Nick and Nora. Or, maybe, an academic version of Sonny and Cher? I suspect the chemistry comes from a history that includes a bit more than friendship. Whatever it is, it works for me.

    Finally there’s this. Treating your appreciative listeners to new-content episodes during the last week of 2021? Priceless.

    • #3
  4. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    Leslie Watkins (View Comment):

    I’ve been away from active membership for the past year-and-a-half (too much whining by Jonah Goldberg for me), but I admit to having listened to this podcast (and a couple others) for a good while, and I felt guilty about no longer having skin in the game I was still partially playing. But after this week of the Three Whiskey Happy Hour I just had to renew my membership so I could comment here on how much I like this podcast—despite getting annoyed at times by Lucretia’s rapid-fire interruptions (though, to be fair, Steve doesn’t really seem to mind them and often asks her to continue rather than pick up the thread of what he had been saying). So …

    It’s fun fun fun as well as intellectually stimulating. (I enjoy hearing Lucretia wax lovingly about Jaffa, whom I like learning about.) As a duo, you remind me of George and Gracie meet Nick and Nora. Or, maybe, an academic version of Sonny and Cher? I suspect the chemistry comes from a history that includes a bit more than friendship. Whatever it is, it works for me.

    Finally there’s this. Treating your appreciative listeners to new-content episodes during the last week of 2021? Priceless.

    Leslie, glad you’re still here and listening to one of the best podcasts we got! (Maybe the best, but I wouldn’t know, and wouldn’t know how to decide, and don’t have time to think about it anyway!)

    If you find Jonah Goldberg does too much whining, may I suggest you try some more time in the Member Feed?  I think there are many, many others there who agree with you on that point.

    • #4
  5. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    I might listen to this one three times. I’m not kidding. Very educational.

    • #5
  6. Steven Hayward Podcaster
    Steven Hayward
    @StevenHayward

    Saint Augustine (View Comment):

    Happy new year to your wonderful listeners? But what about the rest of us?

    Okay, happy new year to the haters and hecklers, too!

    • #6
  7. Ausonius Member
    Ausonius
    @

    The Hamilton discussion deserves a full show – maybe they already did one in the past and I can’t remember.  I just re-read Richard’s excellent CRB essay about it which I highly recommend:

    https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/hamilton-versus-history/

    A couple days before listening to this podcast a not-so-bright girl from the Post Millennial was on Fox News with Ben Domenech.  She declared Hamilton to be the greatest American musical ever because, among other things, it showed that “anyone can be a George Washington”.  Domenech didn’t really comment but he must have been cringing.  There is so much wrong with such a statement one doesn’t know where to begin, but it’s emblematic of how shallow and un-thinking modern America has become and how much in need it is of podcasts like The Three Whiskey Happy Hour and NOT any with Jonah Goldberg. :)

    • #7
  8. Lucretia Member
    Lucretia
    @Lucretia

    Ausonius (View Comment):

    The Hamilton discussion deserves a full show – maybe they already did one in the past and I can’t remember. I just re-read Richard’s excellent CRB essay about it which I highly recommend:

    https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/hamilton-versus-history/

    A couple days before listening to this podcast a not-so-bright girl from the Post Millennial was on Fox News with Ben Domenech. She declared Hamilton to be the greatest American musical ever because, among other things, it showed that “anyone can be a George Washington”. Domenech didn’t really comment but he must have been cringing. There is so much wrong with such a statement one doesn’t know where to begin, but it’s emblematic of how shallow and un-thinking modern America has become and how much in need it is of podcasts like The Three Whiskey Happy Hour and NOT any with Jonah Goldberg. :)

    I’m to understand that Jonah Goldberg deleted this tweet once it was pointed out to him that Glenn Youngkin is not yet governor of Virginia, and is now whining that he is still being made fun of even though he admitted his error.  It utterly amazes (and even a bit saddens) me how pathetically corrupt he has become.

    Thanks for the kind words, all!

    • #8
  9. Ausonius Member
    Ausonius
    @

    Lucretia (View Comment):

    Ausonius (View Comment):

    The Hamilton discussion deserves a full show – maybe they already did one in the past and I can’t remember. I just re-read Richard’s excellent CRB essay about it which I highly recommend:

    https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/hamilton-versus-history/

    A couple days before listening to this podcast a not-so-bright girl from the Post Millennial was on Fox News with Ben Domenech. She declared Hamilton to be the greatest American musical ever because, among other things, it showed that “anyone can be a George Washington”. Domenech didn’t really comment but he must have been cringing. There is so much wrong with such a statement one doesn’t know where to begin, but it’s emblematic of how shallow and un-thinking modern America has become and how much in need it is of podcasts like The Three Whiskey Happy Hour and NOT any with Jonah Goldberg. :)

    I’m to understand that Jonah Goldberg deleted this tweet once it was pointed out to him that Glenn Youngkin is not yet governor of Virginia, and is now whining that he is still being made fun of even though he admitted his error. It utterly amazes (and even a bit saddens) me how pathetically corrupt he has become.

    Thanks for the kind words, all!

    Don’t be too sorry for him.  He is now collecting fees as an MSNBC contributor though apparently he said he never would.  The establishment always take care of their own and they never have to apologize. :)

    https://twitter.com/julie_kelly2/status/1479497208256991238?cxt=HBwWjMC4hem3nYgpAAAA&cn=ZmxleGlibGVfcmVjcw%3D%3D&refsrc=email

     

    • #9
  10. RufusRJones Member
    RufusRJones
    @RufusRJones

    You have to be realistic about where the impulse for Socialism and populism is coming from and what to do about it. 

    • #10
  11. LibertyDefender Member
    LibertyDefender
    @LibertyDefender

    There are transcripts of these podcasts, right?  RIGHT?

    Is Lucretia’s mention of the Aristoi transcribed in English, or in its native Greek (ἄριστοι)?  Both? Is Aριστοι properly capitalized? Perhaps a classicist, e.g., Victor Davis Hanson, would know.

    Speaking of VDH, he has spoken quite a bit about the decline of reading ability among college students over the past 30 years or so.  He tells the story of how he began teaching an undergraduate course at Fresno State with 6 books in Greek and Latin, and by the end of his tenure there twenty-odd years later, he was only assigning 2 books for the same course.

     

    • #11
  12. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    LibertyDefender (View Comment):

    Is Lucretia’s mention of the Aristoi transcribed in English, or in its native Greek (ἄριστοι)?  Both? Is Aριστοι properly capitalized? Perhaps a classicist, e.g., Victor Davis Hanson, would know.

    I forget the context. Are we just referring to a particular group of people?  We should probably follow modern English convention, or adopt our own convention for whatever conversation we’re having. More or less, I’d say capitalize it if you’d capitalize  something like “Upper Class,” but not otherwise.

    In the original biblical Greek, often enough everything was in caps, and sometimes without vowels or punctuation marks.  Biblical Greek editions for translating or scholarship capitalize names and first words in sentences, use lowercase everywhere else, add punctuation marks, and have all the vowels.

    • #12
  13. LibertyDefender Member
    LibertyDefender
    @LibertyDefender

    When my brothers and I were quite small, and we had just moved to a small Connecticut town during wintertime, we came down with colds while trapped by a snowstorm.  My mother called the local country doctor, who told her how to make a batch of homemade cough syrup with honey, lemon, and a teaspoon of bourbon. A classic recipe.

    Lucretia‘s remedy is definitely the way to go.  These days, when I feel any illness approaching, I take a triple shot of Advil PM, Benadryl, and NyQuil.  Pretty much guarantees me 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep, which is especially effective if a sore throat is one of the symptoms.

    • #13
  14. Saint Augustine Member
    Saint Augustine
    @SaintAugustine

    LibertyDefender (View Comment):

    When my brothers and I were quite small, and we had just moved to a small Connecticut town during wintertime, we came down with colds while trapped by a snowstorm. My mother called the local country doctor, who told her how to make a batch of homemade cough syrup with honey, lemon, and a teaspoon of bourbon. A classic recipe.

    Lucretia‘s remedy is definitely the way to go. These days, when I feel any illness approaching, I take a triple shot of Advil PM, Benadryl, and NyQuil. Pretty much guarantees me 9 hours of uninterrupted sleep, which is especially effective if a sore throat is one of the symptoms.

    And extra tea in the morning.

    • #14
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