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Political Analysis blog
Eight Myths About the Bill of Rights That Civics Classes Keep Repeating It did not come first, it did not bind the states, Congress sent twelve, and its loudest critics loved liberty. Eight claims tested against the record. Structure Protects Minorities Before the Bill of Rights Ever Does Separation of powers, bicameralism and federalism stop oppression before it becomes law. Written rights step in only after structure fails. The Founders Were Not Just Rich Men Protecting Their Property Charles Beard said the Constitution was written to protect the Framers' bonds. Later historians checked his ledger, and it did not balance. Aristotle Said the Best Republic Rests on a Large Middle Class Twenty-three centuries ago Aristotle argued that stable free government needs citizens of moderate property. His case, his errors and his Founding-era heirs. Calling the Senate Undemocratic Misses Why It Was Built to Represent States Equal Senate votes for Wyoming and California are a deliberate federal design, not a glitch. Here is the critics' best case and the answer. Madison Called It the Very Definition of Tyranny, and Agencies Hold All Three Federalist 47 defines tyranny as all three powers in the same hands. Read it passage by passage, then see which federal agencies hold all three. Why Single-Issue Voters Hold a Coalition Together, and When They Break It Pro-life voters, gun owners and taxpayers each joined the right over one provocation; here is how they got in, why they matter, and what keeps them. Seven Myths About Edmund Burke That His Fans and Critics Both Repeat Burke was a Whig, a reformer, a friend of the colonies and of Irish Catholics, and he never wrote the line about good men doing nothing. Seven claims tested. Myths About the Enlightenment That Get the American Founding Wrong The Founding was not a French import. Seven popular claims about secular reason, Rousseau and Locke, tested against the documents and the Founders' citations. Talking Politics With a Neighbor Who Disagrees, a Persuasion Playbook Most persuasion happens between people who know each other. Seven plain steps for talking politics with a neighbor, with labelled examples. Term Limits Work for Presidents, So Why Not for Members of Congress The 22nd Amendment shows term limits can be written into the Constitution. After Thornton, an amendment is the only route for Congress. Here is the case. Coolidge's 1926 Declaration Speech Is the Best Answer to Progress Talk On July 5, 1926 Calvin Coolidge told Philadelphia that the Declaration's truths are final, so moving beyond them means moving backward. A close reading. Prohibition Proves an Amendment Can Be a Mistake and Can Be Repealed The 18th Amendment wrote a policy preference into the Constitution, failed in plain sight, and was undone by the 21st. Here is the lesson for today. Lincoln's Apple of Gold Fragment Explains the Declaration and Constitution In a private fragment around 1861 Lincoln called liberty the apple of gold and the Constitution its silver frame. A close reading of the passage. Algernon Sidney, the Executed Englishman the Founders Kept Quoting Beheaded in 1683 partly over a manuscript nobody had published, Sidney became one of Jefferson's named sources for the Declaration. His career, trial and ideas. Hume Doubted the Social Contract, and Conservatives Learned From Him Hume argued in 1748 that governments rest on habit and opinion, not a signed agreement. What a natural-rights conservative should take from him, and leave. Roscoe Pound Warned the Bar About Administrative Absolutism in 1938 The Harvard dean and former progressive reformer who became the New Deal agencies' sharpest critic, and how his warning shaped the APA that governs them. Hobbes and Locke Wrote Two Social Contracts, and America Chose One Both start in a state of nature, yet one ends in an absolute sovereign and the other in limited government. A table, then the proof of which the Founders took. Conservatives Are Not Against Government, We Are Against Rule by Bureau The conservative quarrel is with unaccountable administration, not government. Keeping government and bureaucracy distinct makes the argument stronger. Federalists Versus Anti-Federalists on Six Questions, Side by Side The ratification fight turned on six questions. A side-by-side table of each camp's answers, and how the losers won the Bill of Rights. Madison Explained the Republic Versus Democracy Difference in Federalist 14 Madison drew the line between a democracy and a republic in Federalist 14. Read it closely and learn when calling America a democracy misleads. Federalist 10 Explains Why a Large Republic Tames Faction Best Madison argued that faction cannot be cured without killing liberty, so a free country must control its effects through representation and size. Populism and Conservatism Agree on Who Gets Ignored, Not on Every Remedy Populists and conservatives share a cause, the forgotten citizen, but conservatives insist constitutional limits bind friends as well as foes. Madison Kept the Idea of Property in Men Out of the Constitution's Words The Framers bargained with slavery but refused to name it, and that refusal handed abolitionists a Constitution they could stand on. The Three-Fifths Clause Limited Slaveholder Power and Measured No One's Worth The clause was about counting seats, not weighing souls. The slaveholders wanted their slaves counted in full, and the clause stopped them. A Republican Form of Government Is a Promise Article IV Makes to Every State The Guarantee Clause promises every state a republican government. Here is what republican meant in 1787 and why courts leave the promise to Congress. Five Conservative Comebacks Side by Side, and the Ingredient They All Shared Set 1966, 1980, 1994, 2010 and 2014 in one table. The common thread is a clear argument against an overreaching majority, new candidates and volunteers. Hayek Wrote Why I Am Not a Conservative, and He Had a Point Worth Facing Hayek's 1960 postscript charged conservatives with fearing change and lacking principles; an American conservative can answer it, and learn from it. Seven Myths About the Electoral College That Fall Apart Against the Record Seven popular charges against the Electoral College, tested against Madison's notes, Federalist 68 and the text of Article II. None survives. Before the Contract, How Backbench Speeches to an Empty Chamber Built a Majority Years before 1994, a few House Republicans used C-SPAN and late-night speeches in a near-empty chamber to argue over a forty-year majority's head. Burke Versus Paine, the Argument That Defined Left and Right for Good The 1790-1791 clash between Burke's Reflections and Paine's Rights of Man set the terms of the left-right divide. Here they are side by side. Burke's Doctrine of Prescription Says Old Institutions Deserve a Hearing Burke held that institutions which have lasted carry a presumption in their favor, because survival is evidence they solve problems no planner can list. The Ideas Came First, How Magazines and Think Tanks Built the 1980 Landslide Reagan's 1980 win and a Republican Senate were the harvest of ideas planted long before the campaign: magazines, think tanks and ballot measures. Consent of the Governed Was a Precise Idea in Locke, Not a Slogan Locke's consent builds a government limited to the ends people formed it for, and one that takes property without consent breaks its trust.