Dr. Ronald Pestritto

hey, the time of the founding is past and we gotta get some new ideas here, traces that into what they did then to institutions in the 1930s and how the law changed and how we ended up here, you and I today talking about, why can't the president go ahead, he's elected after all by majority of the country, why can't he go ahead and control other people in the executive branch? How did we get here?

hey, the time of the founding is past and we gotta get some new ideas here, traces that into what they did then to institutions in the 1930s and how the law changed and how we ended up here, you and I today talking about, why can't the president go ahead, he's elected after all by majority of the country, why can't he go ahead and control other people in the executive branch? How did we get here?

And so the short version is the book tries to tell that story.

And so the short version is the book tries to tell that story.

Well, what they did, Charlie, was they imported a philosophy of government that was a real novelty to America. American government, as you know very well, was founded on the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The point of government is to secure the God-given rights that individuals have. And government by consent of the governed is the only legitimate form of government. Well,

Well, what they did, Charlie, was they imported a philosophy of government that was a real novelty to America. American government, as you know very well, was founded on the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The point of government is to secure the God-given rights that individuals have. And government by consent of the governed is the only legitimate form of government. Well,

What the progressives argued was that that was perhaps an appropriate way of thinking for the late 18th century, but that we had now been presented with a whole new host of problems, economic problems, social problems. The old principles were inadequate for the crisis that they faced when they came on the scene in the latter part of the 19th century.

What the progressives argued was that that was perhaps an appropriate way of thinking for the late 18th century, but that we had now been presented with a whole new host of problems, economic problems, social problems. The old principles were inadequate for the crisis that they faced when they came on the scene in the latter part of the 19th century.

And so the dominant philosophy, to get at your question, the dominant philosophy was that of the German state. Woodrow Wilson, for example, wrote very admiringly of the bureaucratic system of government in Bismarck's Prussia and wondered how we might bring that kind of government by expertise, not government by consent, but government by expertise. Consent gets in the way.

And so the dominant philosophy, to get at your question, the dominant philosophy was that of the German state. Woodrow Wilson, for example, wrote very admiringly of the bureaucratic system of government in Bismarck's Prussia and wondered how we might bring that kind of government by expertise, not government by consent, but government by expertise. Consent gets in the way.

Ordinary consent gets in the way. People have different opinions and they want their interests to be respected. Much better, the progressives argued, if we could just bring in a kind of scientific elite. And often when I – I've been doing this for longer than I want to admit –

Ordinary consent gets in the way. People have different opinions and they want their interests to be respected. Much better, the progressives argued, if we could just bring in a kind of scientific elite. And often when I – I've been doing this for longer than I want to admit –

And often when I used to bring it up, people's eyes would kind of glaze over, talking about the Germans and bureaucracy and state theory and so on. Until we got COVID, until we got told basically that, hey, elected people should get out of the way. We need the experts. We need to do whatever Tony Fauci and his minions tell us. And all of a sudden it became very real for people.

And often when I used to bring it up, people's eyes would kind of glaze over, talking about the Germans and bureaucracy and state theory and so on. Until we got COVID, until we got told basically that, hey, elected people should get out of the way. We need the experts. We need to do whatever Tony Fauci and his minions tell us. And all of a sudden it became very real for people.

And so that was a kind of renewed appreciation of what happens when you see too much of government by consent.

And so that was a kind of renewed appreciation of what happens when you see too much of government by consent.

Thanks for having me on, Charlie. Good to see you.

Thanks for having me on, Charlie. Good to see you.

For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.

For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to charliekirk.com.