Ben Sasse was elected senator from Nebraska last year. He has just given his maiden floor speech: detailing what is wrong with the world’s “greatest deliberative body.” He and Jay talk about this.

Why is the Senate broken? What is the responsibility of the people themselves? What about entitlements? And the “administrative state”? And the new reality of employment? And cyberwar?

D7idMyaSWith Jay, the senator also talks about the explosion of censorship and bullying on campus. (Sasse himself attended several of the best colleges. Moreover, he has been a college professor and college president.)

Jay also asks Sasse about the Republican party and conservatives. And about abortion.

At the end, Sasse sings a beautiful hymn to Coach Tom Osborne and the Nebraska spirit. It’s almost enough to make you want to be a Cornhusker, wherever you live.

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There are 3 comments.

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  1. Big John Member
    Big John
    @AllanRutter

    Goodness, this is a very impressive person–thoughtful, perceptive, articulate. Thanks for offering us an extended conversation with an unconventionally serious elected official.

    • #1
  2. Liz Member
    Liz
    @Liz

    Great q&a. Thanks for this.

    • #2
  3. Peter Murphy Inactive
    Peter Murphy
    @PeterMurphy

    Highly recommended. A superb interview with a gifted Senator who has a rare grasp of the kind of large-scale social and historical change that we are caught up in. His analysis of the new normal of the rapid changing of jobs, the dis-intermediation of business, and the general intensification of economic disruption is brilliant. Ben Sasse’s call last month for a cease-fire in the conflict between economic and social conservatives also makes a lot of sense in a world where (likely) for many people ‘going to work’ in a twentieth-century mode is going to be replaced by household-based self-employment. In this back-to-the-future scenario, the social conservative family emphasis will segue into the economic conservative solopreneur agenda in interesting ways.

    • #3
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