Tag: Jeffrey Rosen

Confused? Seek truth.

The National Constitution Center, a place for citizens to learn and to engage with scholars on American history and constitutional law, is a quiet sunny island in an otherwise turbulent stream of contemporary life.

Clarity and Purpose

When all of us rise to a new day only to open a fire hose of information from our phones, home stations, and television, I turn a lot of that off now. I go to the library and check out David McCullough’s 1776, a gritty and personal record of the people and places, and gestalt of colonial America and 18th Century England. What were they thinking? These are the deep roots of our Constitution. We observe our heroes and heroines just as confused as we are in times of tumult and an uncertain future. It lends some comfort as well as reflection.

RX: Attend a Town Hall at the NCC

Click here to watch the Town Hall debates on relevant topics to the state of U.S. politics and how historians and Constitutional scholars understand short comings in our three branches of governance that are not meeing the needs of today’s Americans and why Originalism can trip us up.

David McCullough brings the Road to Revolution alive!

Capitol Building Rotunda, Photo by Susan Feathers

Another Great American

Jeffrey Rosen, CEO and Executive Director of the National Constitution Center (NCC) and Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School is as enthusiastic a scholar of the American Constitution as any man. His respect and love of the principles embedded in the Constitution’s DNA is infectious.

The National Constitution Center brings together people of all ages and perspectives, across America and around the world, to learn about, debate, and celebrate the greatest vision of human freedom in history, the U.S. Constitution.

https://constitutioncenter.org/about

Here below are links to a podcast and a video on the Constitution Drafting Project in which three scholars – conservative, liberal, and libertarian – draft five new amendments to the Constitution.

For the Podcast go here.

Below is the YouTube video of the full discussion among these scholars. I was struck by the fact that in spite of different viewpoints, their five amendments were very similar which also came as a surprise to them. Their discussion provides citizens with understanding of how a broad range of viewpoints can converge on how to govern ourselves.

David Hume Revisited at the National Constitutional Center

David Hume and the Ideas That Shaped America

See the National Constitution Center site for this discussion. Includes bios of the David Hume scholars and additional resources to explore after the program.

What can modern American citizens and our political leaders learn from Hume? How were the views of our founding fathers shaped by the great philosophers of their time? How do they influence modern understanding of our Republic today? See this link to Federalist Paper 10 which considers the power of a government system to stem the tidal pull of dangerous fractions.

Jeffrey Rosen leads the discussion with three scholars of Hume. Original sources are suggested and links embedded in the chat during the discussion and provided on the wesite link above.

These same ideas are not only alive and well in our current political deliberations but also illuminate what has gone wrong and why. We can all use a dose of Hume and Madison to understand the forces that can threaten or aid the pursuit of happiness, meaning the common good.

Highly recommended to readers on this blog. Please forward to friends, neighbos and teachers and leaders in your communities. It is a non partisan discussion for all political persuasions to consider and for understanding the original thoughts and ideals that influenced the founding of America.

Hats off to the National Constitution Center, its guest scholars, and to Jeffrey Rosen for his able leadership.