Month: August 2020

It seems like every election cycle people can’t wait to have all manner of pointless debates, where two factions engage in politics as team sport. Competing to see which team can talk the most while substantively saying the least and competing to see who can actively & most thoroughly dismiss their opponent’s arguments Prima Facie. I am speaking of the controversy over whether we are a Democracy or a Constitutional Republic.
I want to end this whole debate by proving that anyone who presents you with this choice is trying to sell you a false bill of goods… This holds true both when being discussed in the parlance of our times and then through an Originalist argument based directly on the arguments made by those who drafted and ratified the Constitution.
I will be doing this by re-enacting that Great Debate between the Federalists and Anti-Federalists over what our system of government should operate in alignment with our Nation’s founding moral philosophy, that is known as American Constitutional Republicanism

►00:00 Introduction
►02:35 Constitutional Republic or Democracy
►12:40 Historical Evidence
►17:58 Montesquieu’s Political taxonomy
►27:50 American Constitutional Republicanism
►30:30 The Great Debate – Advocates and Opponents of the Constitution

Articles by Eugene Volokh
https://reason.com/2015/05/13/is-the-united-states-of-americ/
https://reason.com/2016/11/14/the-united-states-is-both-a-re/
https://reason.com/2016/12/16/is-america-a-republic-or-a-dem/

“A Republic, Not A Democracy? Initiative, Referendum, and the Constitution’s Guarantee Clause” By: Robert Natelson https://works.bepress.com/robert_natelson/24/

“How the U.S. Election Process Has Changed” By: Sam Jacobs https://www.silverdoctors.com/headlines/world-news/constitutional-republic-vs-pure-democracy-how-the-u-s-election-process-has-changed/

Baron de Montesquieu,
Complete Works, vol. 1: https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/montesquieu-complete-works-vol-1-the-spirit-of-laws
The Spirit of the Laws (1748) https://thefederalistpapers.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/The-Spirit-of-The-Laws.pdf

The Federalist Papers: https://www.thefederalistpapers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/The-Complete-Federalist-Papers.pdf

Collected works of Greco-Roman philosophers and historians of Classical Republicanism
Thucydides – https://oll.libertyfund.org/people/thucydides
Aristotle – https://oll.libertyfund.org/people/Aristotle
Tacitus – https://oll.libertyfund.org/people/publius-cornelius-tacitus
Plutarch – https://oll.libertyfund.org/people/plutarch
Livy – https://oll.libertyfund.org/people/titus-livius-livy
Cicero – https://oll.libertyfund.org/people/marcus-tullius-cicero

Today on Categorical Imperatives we contemplate how we as individual citizens can advocate on our own behalf when we are up against the long arm of the law. For centuries Habeas Corpus has been known by Jurists and civil libertarians alike as “The Great Writ”. And indeed it is. Where does it come from? What role has it played in the formation of Jury Nullification, in bringing an end to slavery, in exposing our 16th and 43rd Presidents as tyrants, and what can it do for citizens to help ensure against unlawful arrest arrest and detention. All this and more will be answered on the show!