YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Education and American Politics | Larry P. Arnn

Education and American Politics | Larry P. Arnn — Transcript

by Hillsdale Digital · 8,271 words · 1,435 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00i first met our next speaker and his
0:01lovely lovely wife penny
0:04when i went out to claremont many years
0:05ago to graduate school
0:08he was the president at the time of the
0:10claremont institute
0:12and uh what i quickly learned about him
0:14is that
0:16you know he's a teacher it's something
0:17that hillsdale students learn about him
0:19today
0:20he's a teacher he's always teaching he
0:23didn't teach formal classes back then as
0:25he does now
0:26but we graduate students certainly
0:28learned a lot from him
0:30and he always took the time to talk to
0:31us when we had
0:33questions back in those days when we
0:36were younger
0:37and sillier we used to kid him that he
0:39was a college professor trapped in a
0:40think tank president's body
0:44now i guess he's a college professor in
0:45a college president's body
0:48well if you come to see us on the
0:49hillsdale campus and we hope you do
0:52you'll see that he hasn't changed a bit
0:54he's still teaching and he's now
0:55offering formal classes on a variety of
0:57subjects
0:59those subjects include aristotle the
1:00constitution
1:02and c.s lewis and just last fall he
1:04taught a course on
1:05totalitarian novels some of you may have
1:07seen his essay in the december
1:092020 issue of in primus where he
1:11discussed one of those novels george
1:12orwell's
1:131984. well he's still pushing his
1:16students to defend their opinions
1:19as he did with us and think them through
1:21more more clearly and deeply
1:24because the goal of an education uh
1:26worthy of the name is discovering the
1:28truth about things
1:30and that's not easy it's been my
1:32privilege and honor to work with him
1:34at hillsdale my alma mater for now more
1:37than 20 years
1:38please welcome him back to the podium
1:40the 12th president of hillsdale college
1:42larry p yarn
1:55thank you tim how are you
1:59so i want to begin with two personal
2:00things uh
2:02one is show the picture
2:10now we're not behind in our capital
2:13campaign but if we were i would auction
2:14that baby off right now
2:16[Laughter]
2:19except my wife sits back there and she
2:21told me i mustn't that's charlotte
2:23theresa
2:24and everybody thinks she's just like her
2:26grandfather
2:28thank you okay that's enough of her
2:31nobody wants to look at me
2:32um i want to tell you some stories about
2:35rush limbaugh
2:43because i've led a weird life
2:47for different reasons i've known mark
2:50levin and hugh hewitt since a long time
2:51before they got into radio
2:53and i've met rush limbaugh for the first
2:55time in 1984 the year his cr his career
2:58was just taking off
2:59he was in sacramento california and i
3:02had business up there i'd go
3:03and the cab drivers were all listening
3:05to him and talking about how great he
3:06was
3:07and then i ran across him in a hotel and
3:09i looked walked up and shook his hand
3:11and i said
3:12you're dynamite he said well yes i am
3:19i i know him often well i've you know
3:21i've known him that's 36 years ago
3:23uh he uh
3:26would come and speak for things that i
3:29was hosting at the claremont student
3:31here and i found out about him so
3:34i know him personally pretty well he's
3:37shy
3:38can you believe that he's very shy and
3:41he once came to washington dc to speak
3:44at a dinner
3:45where newt gingrich was speaking and he
3:48asked us to
3:49drape off a little area behind the stage
3:51where he could drink diet coke
3:53and wait to give his speech and he
3:56he sat back there and there were like
3:58600 people there
4:00and i walked back there and i said rush
4:02there's 600 people out there who would
4:03just love to see you
4:05why don't you come have some dinner he
4:07said no i'm drinking my diet coke
4:10and he gave his speech and he walked
4:12back in that room and he went to his
4:14airplane and he went home
4:16and i i said next time i saw him i said
4:19you're a really weird guy
4:22and he said i am am i not uh
4:27he got to talking about the college and
4:30this was you know when this was
4:3212 years ago and he something about him
4:36about it you know he likes the college
4:37and he knew a lot about it but he
4:39struck his fancy and we got this huge
4:42response
4:43every time he mentions on the radio the
4:45phones would
4:46get jammed up and then he
4:50he called one day and he said i want you
4:52to advertise on my show
4:56and you know he had a big wait list of
4:58people to advertise on his show so and i
5:00happen to know that so i knew it was
5:01kind of an honor but i thought it was an
5:03odd idea
5:04let's advertise at college on the rush
5:06limbaugh show
5:08and i said okay i'll think about it and
5:10then he sent craig
5:12kitchen who's his number one producer
5:14will be grieving today
5:16out to hillsdale twice and both times
5:20he sat all afternoon through an
5:22aristotle class
5:24he said i was teaching it he said i want
5:26to get a sense of what this college is
5:28about and i said okay well
5:29come with me and he just you know he he
5:32i thought that was a remarkable
5:34demonstration of patience on the man
5:37and you know i didn't do anything about
5:39it and then uh
5:42in this first week that obama was
5:43elected president
5:45he said to a bunch of people you've got
5:47to stop listening to rush limbaugh
5:51and so i came to the monday morning
5:53staff meeting and i said
5:54uh we're going to examine this week
5:57whether to advertise on rush limbaugh
6:00and john cevini back there said so the
6:02president made you mad didn't he and i
6:04said yeah
6:05because you know that's the specific
6:07thing that the president united states
6:09is supposed to protect
6:11us listening to and saying what we want
6:13to right
6:14it's our rights and he's an agent of
6:16those rights
6:18except not and that did tick me off
6:22and that's why we decided to do that and
6:25then of course it went wild
6:26uh over the years i would uh
6:31go see him once a year down in palm
6:33beach
6:34he lived right on the coast in palm
6:36beach but the
6:38as you if you've ever been there you
6:39know it's a very precious place
6:42and now they wouldn't let him do his pro
6:44radio program out of his house
6:46violated the zoning so about
6:50five blocks away sort of in the more
6:52more office area he bought a
6:54three-story building four-story building
6:57and kept it empty
6:58he was the only one in it and uh
7:01you go see him and uh you'd arrive
7:04always on friday
7:05as he was finishing his show 3 30 i
7:08think
7:09and uh you go up and then you go through
7:11you know
7:12there weren't very many people there
7:13there were like three people helping him
7:15do the show and craig kitchen was always
7:17there
7:18and we would sit and talk for an hour
7:20and it was just a hoot
7:22and he would always make fun of me the
7:24next
7:25monday so
7:28one day he said the best conversation he
7:30said
7:32what do you want me to say about the
7:34college and i said i want you to say
7:36it's hard
7:38and he said hard and he looked at craig
7:40kitchen he said you know we've been in
7:42radio for 40 years
7:44anybody ever asked us to say that before
7:47i said yeah say it's hard and he said
7:48how hard is it and i said what's hard
7:51he said how many people get above a four
7:54point
7:55and i said we don't do that and he said
7:58how many get a four point i said that
8:00time it was seven
8:02he said seven that's not many i said
8:05rush seven in 15 years
8:07[Laughter]
8:10you know we've got great inflation now
8:12that's up to like 20.
8:15and uh we had two in one year the other
8:18day and we all felt a couple of years
8:19ago we all felt ashamed of ourselves
8:24and he said well why don't they get it
8:27a four point is it chemistry and i said
8:30yeah chemistry's hard
8:31everybody has to take that physics
8:33biology math
8:35everybody has to take all that and i
8:37said probably the hardest department to
8:39get an a in is the
8:40english department and if not that
8:42politics
8:44he said english and politics are hard
8:47i said well russia if you want to
8:49understand them
8:51you know we don't we don't give out many
8:53a's
8:54the average kid coming to hillsdale
8:55college has a 3.92 from high school
8:59and the average freshman gets a 2.87
9:03we call that chart going across the
9:05years shock and
9:06awe
9:10and you know we recruit by frightening
9:12them to death we show them that chart
9:13and the recruiting you know because
9:15they're all
9:15used to making a's and they've got to
9:18they've got to lose that
9:20they've got to not
9:23identify their self-esteem with making
9:25a's
9:26and you know we always have a bunch that
9:28make 3.94
9:30you know there's a lot of them but uh we
9:32don't like them getting all a's all the
9:34way through so the next
9:37uh and he said tell me how you make the
9:40constitution course
9:41hard and i said rush the constitution
9:44united states is according to james
9:46madison
9:47a picture of the human soul also
9:50a picture of the order of nature and
9:54he starts out when he talks about it
9:55early in the federalist papers it's like
9:57a
10:00a mechanism cancel this out right so
10:03nobody gets to dominate and
10:05pursue their own interest but it changes
10:08as it goes and it becomes
10:09simply beautiful and i i
10:13quoted those passages to him in the 49s
10:15and 51st federalists
10:17so then the next monday
10:21you know he's supposed to talk about us
10:22for
10:24i don't know how long i'm in it or
10:25something and he very often went
10:29five minutes six minutes very long time
10:31in radio
10:32this next monday he went 20 minutes
10:36and he just told all about that
10:37conversation and he said at the end
10:41he said for the first time in my life i
10:44wish i had gone to college
10:46and i'm going to go visit hillsdale
10:48college
10:49which she never did but on the other
10:52hand
10:52we were forever i mean how many times
10:54has our call center asked the question
10:56answer the question
10:57when is rush limbaugh coming so
11:01he was a he was a very bright man
11:04he uh whatever he said to me once he
11:07said
11:08how do you manage a college and i have
11:10some opinions about how you manage
11:11things
11:12mostly from churchill the safeguard and
11:15the glory of mankind
11:17is that it is easy to lead and hard to
11:20drive
11:21so you don't want to hire anybody to do
11:22anything they don't want to do
11:24and you don't hire anybody who doesn't
11:26understand the goals
11:28you don't don't hire anybody who isn't
11:29honest and then after that
11:32let them do their work and help them
11:34when you need to
11:36once in a while tell them no but not
11:37often so i told them that
11:41and uh then he said to me he said okay
11:44he said uh le at the end of that
11:47conversation i was about to leave he
11:48said
11:50would you suggest some things that i
11:52should say
11:54and i said russia you haven't been
11:56listening to me
11:58and he said how not and i said
12:01are you the best at this and he said
12:06yeah i said haven't i just told you what
12:08i hope you can help people
12:10understand he said yeah i said
12:13probably you should figure out how to do
12:15that huh
12:19he's a very interesting guy very
12:22he worked you know he was rich as crisis
12:26i don't know what he's doing with the
12:27money i hope he gives it to us but
12:29uh
12:32but he has you know he has a family and
12:34he grew up 50 miles from where i grew up
12:36we played on the same
12:37baseball field in literally a couple
12:39times not at the same time
12:41uh and uh
12:45he he didn't have to work he just
12:48loved to work and he worked uh
12:52probably 12 hours a day
12:56three doing the show nine getting ready
13:00and he studied and he
13:03he would text me and ask me questions
13:06about things going on
13:08anyway he was a great man and
13:12you know in this day and age of course
13:13he's been being painted in the darkest
13:16colors
13:17in the press another thing is
13:21russia is hilarious he could be really
13:24serious but then
13:26mostly it was just hilarious did you
13:29ever hear
13:29i didn't listen to his show very much i
13:31talked to him more and i listened to his
13:32show but
13:33i listen sometimes once it was a became
13:36a famous one
13:38he was talking about his life in his
13:40apartment complex in
13:42new york before he moved to palm beach
13:45he said he'd uh he'd go there and he'd
13:47uh
13:49get settled down for a long evening's
13:51work and he'd order takeout from like
13:53five places
13:55he lost a lot of weight before he died i
13:57mean
13:58years before he died but he was kind of
14:00tubby
14:01and he said that it became very
14:04inconvenient
14:05because the takeout guys were forbidden
14:09to come upstairs
14:11because they would go all over the
14:12apartment complex or the condo complex
14:15and put
14:15menus under everybody's door and people
14:18thought that was tanky
14:20truck rush didn't mind so
14:23it's causing him you know because he
14:24says you know i'm in my boxer shorts
14:26and i got to put on my trousers and go
14:28down and get my food that's just
14:30terrible until one day i figured it out
14:36he called the the uh what he called the
14:39porter
14:40he said would you please admit my dinner
14:43jess
14:44my dinner guest role
14:46[Laughter]
14:50[Music]
14:53okay i liked russia
14:57yeah you know i i can't even remember
14:59what it is now and of course that
15:01will be that's because i'm a racist but
15:03or something
15:04but he did something that brought a
15:06storm down on him
15:08and uh i can't remember what it was but
15:12uh you know of course media matters is
15:15an outfit that
15:17hassles conservatives in the media
15:21and they managed to break into our
15:22server
15:24and get the email addresses of the
15:26students and the faculty and the staff
15:28and send everybody an email about how
15:30shameful
15:30it was that hillsdale college would
15:32advertise on rush limbaugh
15:35and you know we that's a little
15:37inconvenient
15:39and it didn't cause much trouble oddly
15:41enough
15:42but then i got a call from a journalist
15:44from the huffington post
15:47and i took it and i said what do you
15:48want she said
15:50are you going to cancel your
15:52advertisements on rush limbaugh and i
15:54said no
15:54not going to do that and she said why
15:57not i said because you're the one asking
15:59[Laughter]
16:03[Applause]
16:07one of the most serious things he ever
16:09said he learned of that
16:12and uh one of them you know he lost a
16:14couple of advertisers
16:15over that window blinds or something and
16:18uh he looked at me and he said
16:22you know that was very noble and i said
16:24what and he said
16:26you didn't run away and i said you know
16:30rush if i was we were the kind of people
16:33to do that
16:34would we have been here in the first
16:35place you know
16:37it's a crazy thing to do but it was a
16:38good thing to do um
16:41because it how it works right we
16:44we think we have some beautiful things
16:46to teach
16:47we think they're world-saving we think
16:49they're soul-saving
16:51whether they serve the world or not and
16:54we want to teach as many people as we
16:56can
16:57that's in the original articles all who
17:00wish
17:00without regard to race sex or national
17:03origin
17:04and that's what the college was in the
17:06civil war days when it was a very
17:08influential thing and it's an
17:09influential thing again and so we want
17:11to talk to a lot of people
17:13and you know we don't advertise on the
17:15huffington post because
17:18cnn is not a good field for us and
17:21because why because it's not so much
17:25just that people are conservative that
17:27helps it's that they're conservative
17:29people who are interesting to know
17:31interested to know serious things and so
17:35because of rush limbaugh but because of
17:36all of the other things we do
17:39i'm proud to have before me the best
17:40audience in america
17:42thank you
17:48[Applause]
17:50okay i'm uh back on my kathy grammer
17:52task now
17:54raheem helped with that didn't he you
17:55feel better kathy
17:57yeah yeah well i have to say some bad
18:00stuff and then you'll feel better after
18:02that
18:03um kathy likes
18:06for me us to manage her mood
18:12by the way i don't think your
18:13grandchildren are as handsome as mine
18:15what do you think
18:17wrong wrong yeah we're not going to
18:19reach agreement on that
18:21um so here's the bad stuff
18:25uh what has happened is revolutionary
18:28and why it has happened is revolutionary
18:31and exceedingly dangerous
18:34uh the wad is the electoral system
18:38of the country is at least in part
18:40compromised
18:44and the electoral system is the fulcrum
18:47of everything
18:49it's it's a simple relationship
18:52we are the sovereign and we are outside
18:54the government
18:56and the government has all the power to
18:58act we don't do anything ourselves we're
18:59not the legislature we're not the
19:01executive we don't judge
19:03we elect people who do it and that means
19:06and
19:06when that those arrangements were set up
19:08they were sublimely
19:10effective and madison describes in
19:12another beautiful place in the
19:13federalist papers
19:14the effect of that because every human
19:17use of power
19:20should never be absolute or unchecked
19:22and that includes
19:23even by us the sovereign so we can do
19:27anything we want to do
19:29but it's going to take some time and
19:31that means that we have to think before
19:33we act
19:34in that mood james madison is like your
19:36mom think before you act
19:38you know all the rules by the way that
19:40are are worth making
19:43they're all stuff your mom and dad would
19:44have told you when you're a kid
19:46and any other rules can never be
19:48remembered
19:50but so that's the thing right
19:53the first step in the constitution is
19:56it delays our direct control of the
19:59government
20:01and it's not that way in athens where
20:04the people got an amphitheater and
20:06voted and then next week got an
20:08amphitheater and boarded something else
20:11and it's not like the monarchies where
20:13the
20:14king or queen is the executive branch
20:17we're just the sovereign and
20:22the government works for us but it does
20:25all the work
20:27now when those relationships were set up
20:28they were amazingly stable for a long
20:30time until the civil war
20:32and then they were restored by the very
20:34great abraham lincoln
20:36but that part of the reason for that was
20:38the government was about ten percent of
20:40the economic activity in the country
20:42eight or ten and most of that was
20:44federal and local
20:46the federal government was one or two
20:47percent
20:49well now it's put it all together and
20:51it's pretty much a top-down system now
20:53kind of unified
20:55although not fully unified which is an
20:57important strategic fact for the future
21:00um it's now over 50
21:05so you wonder why are all these fortune
21:08500 companies so politically correct
21:12partly the cause is their bosses all
21:14went to the best colleges by which i
21:16mean the worst
21:19and part of it is explained by the fact
21:21that
21:22the force that can stand up to them if
21:24there is any in the world
21:26is the government and the government is
21:27staffed now by a major bureaucracy
21:31the actual work of the american
21:32government is done by in the
21:34at the federal level about two and a
21:35half million civilian employees
21:37at the state level 20 some million
21:41but they all follow rules that are made
21:44inside the agencies not laws anymore
21:46made in the congress
21:48so the point is there's this system and
21:51it's
21:51because it's so big it's a mighty weight
21:55in the election process and that's been
21:57a creeping problem
21:58you know big problem and creeping bigger
22:01for decades now
22:03and i've been railing against it well
22:04now h.r one
22:08first bill nancy pelosi has put
22:12in is going to put dc in the senate
22:15and it's going to impose a national
22:17system of vote harvesting
22:20and that means this stuff that happens
22:21right where you don't know where the
22:23ballots come from
22:25of bells lots of ballots it's just
22:27something wrong with not knowing where
22:28they come from
22:30and and uh you know i i don't know if
22:33donald trump won or not
22:35i don't myself know but i know that
22:38how michigan was stolen because i have
22:40the misfortune sometimes to live there
22:44and that gets me to the cause first of
22:47all
22:48you know and look at the thing what are
22:50the things to mess with the electoral
22:52system ballot harvesting dc
22:53statehood a new interpretation of voting
22:57rights
22:58what voting rights you know that's the
23:0015th amendment what was passed was
23:01everybody gets to vote
23:04well that's much embellished now so that
23:07districts are
23:08arranged to figure out who wins
23:12on race and other identity group lines
23:15now
23:16and so you could get a kind of a uh a
23:22nationally politically correct
23:24constituency
23:28you know what 19 or 20 million illegals
23:31about to be legal probably by executive
23:35order
23:36which is an interesting phenomenon
23:38because uh
23:40one of the causes of the of the
23:43revolutionary war
23:44in the causes against the king in the
23:47declaration of independence is
23:49that he had expanded the territory of
23:51quebec
23:53southwards and he did that because he
23:56gave quebec
23:57a new constitution and they didn't kick
23:59about it
24:00and it was the constitution he liked
24:02where he could control it and then he
24:04moved some
24:04american colonists into that canadian
24:07colony in other words
24:09now it's not the people truly choosing
24:12the rulers
24:13it's the rulers choosing the people
24:16so that too that illegal immigration
24:18stuff that just reverses the
24:20relationship perfectly
24:22and i think that's its object um
24:26and then anybody tries to strike that
24:29down
24:30the supreme court is living now under a
24:32threat of being packed
24:34and that's exactly like the threat that
24:36franklin roosevelt made in 1936
24:39and he probably would have done it
24:41except the court
24:42changed his mind about all his programs
24:44and started authorizing them
24:47so that means a massive political force
24:51which amounts to a rearrangement of the
24:53constitutional authority and the
24:55direction that power flows
24:57out rather than in
25:00that is far advanced and maybe complete
25:04i don't know
25:06i'll tell you what happened in michigan
25:10we know them and my general counsel has
25:14spent uh
25:16his hair is gray he's been spending time
25:17with him and he gives him advice for
25:19nothing
25:20he doesn't act for them uh he's also
25:23given advice he just told me yesterday
25:24the
25:25the recalcitrant spingles restaurant in
25:27jonesville
25:29michigan six miles from the campus
25:32has refused to close and
25:35bob has been helping him out and i told
25:37bob i said that's controversial
25:39please do it but try to stay out of the
25:41paper
25:43and then the next night mr spingler
25:46was on fox news wearing a hillsdale
25:49college sweatshirt
25:54and thanking bob norton for the help
25:59now here's an interesting thing about
26:00presidential elections
26:02uh to understand the constitutional
26:05system
26:06it's it is as much it is both it's two
26:09things
26:10it is a system of concentrating power
26:13more than was possible under the
26:14articles of confederation
26:17but also it's a elaborate system of
26:19distributing power
26:21out across the land so first of all
26:24the federal government has a list of 17
26:27things in article 1 section 8 that it's
26:29supposed to be able to do
26:30states are not constrained that way
26:33they can do whatever is in the police
26:35power which is an old common law of
26:37power to act for the general welfare
26:40so the federal government is meant to be
26:42about certain things
26:44and supreme only on those an interesting
26:47fact by the way is that
26:49education is not listed in those 17
26:51things
26:54so the way
26:57elections run are
27:00radically decentralized so
27:04the state's control and just they
27:06controlled their own elections
27:08except now there are court cases and
27:10stuff that got the federal government
27:11intervening all the time
27:13they control their own but then for the
27:15federal elections
27:17each house the senate in the house gets
27:21his name to be the judge of the con
27:23conventions credentials of its own
27:25members and that means if a state sends
27:27a rep and they think he's fraudulently
27:29elected they can
27:30eject him and ask for another one they
27:32can't name the other one they can ask
27:33for another one
27:34that rarely happens but it does happen
27:38presidential elections now that means by
27:40the way that
27:42laws were passed they're old in michigan
27:44and they're
27:45similar to the way election laws work in
27:47america and they're mostly pretty good
27:49but they were passed by the legislature
27:51and signed by the governor
27:53and that means that only another law
27:56passed by the legislature and signed by
27:58the governor could
27:59overturn it except this summer
28:03the attorney general and the secretary
28:04of state and the governor
28:06began to negotiate changes in the
28:09election laws
28:11this is the basic michigan election loss
28:14and they can't do that by themselves but
28:16they did and the legislature
28:18a republican majority which increased in
28:20the last election in both houses
28:25did nothing uh
28:31urged them to didn't
28:35the presidential election is a special
28:37case
28:39because the and there's a big debate
28:41about this in the constitutional
28:42convention
28:43and of all of the provisions in the
28:45constitution this is one of the more
28:46clear
28:48because what they wanted was they wanted
28:49to
28:51generalize the process of selecting the
28:54president
28:54and distribute it all over the country
28:57so the first idea was national popular
28:59vote
29:00james madison and governor clinton of
29:02new york strange bedfellows they didn't
29:04get along very much mostly
29:07that didn't go anywhere
29:10so then they said the governors in the
29:12states should pick
29:14but the trouble is there aren't very
29:15many governors and so
29:18one could make deals to get something in
29:21exchange for his vote
29:23so they argued that through and then the
29:25next stage was
29:27state legislatures they're numerous
29:31enough of them that it's hard to make
29:32individual deals
29:38and then they added a refinement on top
29:40of that and the refinement is exactly
29:42parallel to the ratification process
29:44where
29:45the constitution was ratified by
29:47conventions by people
29:49elected on a ticket yes or no to the
29:51constitution
29:52and they serve that one function and
29:54then they disappeared forever
29:56which is one of the reasons the
29:57constitution is not constantly being
29:58amended
30:01well this they said no the legislators
30:04shall be in control of the manner of
30:07choosing electors state
30:10legislatures that means not the governor
30:12and not the courts
30:13state legislatures have control of that
30:18and the only time the federal government
30:21can intervene
30:22in that is if the states send
30:25conflicting slates of legislators
30:28and that did not happen this time from
30:29any of the five republican
30:32controlled battleground states where
30:34they accepted the results
30:36however in most of those states michigan
30:39for sure also pennsylvania
30:40also wisconsin probably the others
30:44or two more they had watched their
30:46procedures being changed
30:49and not done anything about it what
30:52we thought they should do in the summer
30:54was
30:58announced that they have soul control
31:01over the selection of the electors
31:05and you're changing it we reserve the
31:06right to pick our own slate
31:09now that would have been a firestorm all
31:11the national press
31:13somebody who runs google would have said
31:15something bad about them
31:17and now the nbc news would be displeased
31:19right
31:20in other words their life would be very
31:22intense
31:23because they actually have the power to
31:26do that
31:27and to do it when to do it was august
31:31before the ballot started coming in and
31:34they didn't
31:36and i think i know i know
31:39them many of them i think i know why
31:42they didn't
31:44uh
31:47it's something you learn if you go to
31:48the right college
31:51what you are depends on how you live
31:54your life
31:56and they needed to do two things that
31:58they didn't do
32:00because and it's not just they neglected
32:02two things
32:03these things would only come if they
32:05live their lives in a certain way
32:08first of all they would need to know
32:11deeply
32:12their responsibilities and authorities
32:15they take an oath to pursue them you
32:18know
32:19on the 1776 commission i took an oath to
32:22the constitution
32:23first time i've ever done it and you
32:25know
32:26i'm obliged to that now it doesn't end
32:29because i got fired
32:32you know in the past i was that
32:37this alone is denied even to god to make
32:39what has been not to have been
32:42so uh and you know all this cancel stuff
32:45by the way
32:47it is just the most obvious truth in the
32:49world that that cannot be done
32:53and that means you know i i fear it
32:56because if they start doing it to me in
32:58their various ways they could
33:00then you know i would have a world of
33:03turmoil
33:04but i wouldn't have the fear that that
33:06could be ultimately successful
33:09because it happened or it didn't
33:13they didn't live their lives in a way to
33:15understand deeply things like the fact
33:17that they
33:18are in sole control of the manner of
33:21choosing the electors
33:23what a tremendous responsibility what a
33:25tremendous power
33:28and they were unaware of it one member
33:31of the leadership
33:32didn't know that the legislature had the
33:34subpoena power
33:36another one uh opined that uh
33:40the governor was the leader of the
33:42legislature
33:44and uh see isn't that funny everybody
33:46knows everybody here knows better than
33:47that right
33:48and his argument was well she has the
33:50veto power which basically
33:52gives her one third of the votes she's
33:54the senior legislator
33:57and so there then ensued a sophomore
33:59high school
34:00lesson in separation of powers and
34:04you see that that person ran for office
34:08got elected is a good person with
34:11broadly correct political opinions
34:13according to my lights
34:16he didn't know basic stuff
34:19right it's like a carpenter don't know
34:22how to
34:23build with wood and you know the very
34:26best carpenters
34:30they live their lives in a way so they
34:31get really good at that and it takes a
34:34commitment
34:35more than the normal you see
34:38and they haven't made that and then the
34:41second thing is
34:46to do bold and courageous things you
34:48have to practice
34:50you have to practice in your mind you
34:53know
34:53that that's uh another word for that is
34:56worry
34:57you uh you know you think i don't have
35:02everybody who everybody who works for me
35:04every all the vice presidents here all
35:06the ones who are not here
35:08we basically live our jobs it's kind of
35:11weird
35:12and we like each other and we love our
35:14jobs and we know how to relax
35:17but uh we practice all the time
35:20what if they do this what will we do
35:23what if we do that
35:24what we do every big step we take is
35:28calculated
35:30uh in in light of its effects upon the
35:32dangers that might come
35:34across upon the college and that's why
35:35the college is the one
35:37independent one we care about it
35:41we give ourselves to it we study it all
35:43the time
35:44and then we think how will we comport
35:47ourselves
35:48when terrible things happen to us as
35:50they will
35:52right and you have to get your mind
35:54around that
35:55and you have to get your mind around
35:56that in advance
35:59if you want to see how that works uh in
36:01book two of aristotle's ethics
36:03there's the riveting discussion of
36:05courage
36:07and in there he explains what makes a
36:08courageous act and he says that if you
36:10want to see him look at the battlefield
36:11because there's a lot of them happen
36:13there
36:14because everybody has good reason to be
36:15afraid
36:17and the point is if you do that if you
36:19think about that
36:20what would i do right then
36:23when it comes it's not new to you
36:27what would i do if the
36:31governor and the secretary of the state
36:33and the attorney general
36:35set out to alter the electoral laws
36:38including the ones for the presidency
36:40without consulting us what if
36:44doing that which they did
36:48they also refused to answer any
36:50questions from us
36:53what if the governor in michigan we have
36:56two
36:57uh emergency laws and uh
37:01i'm coming to think now that we passed
37:03bad laws right after great wars
37:06one of them was passed in 1946 and it
37:09basically lets the governor declare an
37:11emergency and sustain it for a long time
37:12long doesn't say when it ends and then
37:15in the 70s they passed a
37:19more sane emergency law the more recent
37:23law then
37:24and in the 70s it says that she she can
37:26declare an emergency
37:28within 30 days she's got to go to the
37:30legislature and get them to agree
37:32and then they can extend for 30 days but
37:34every 30 days she's got to talk to him
37:37that's the way they work in all the good
37:39states and that's most of the states
37:40right but no
37:42she started out by the way when the
37:43pandemic hit
37:45under the 1975 law the one where she had
37:48to consult
37:50and then she got her extension and then
37:52they refused an extension
37:54so she immediately went to the 1945 law
37:57which proves by the way that she knew
38:00about the 1975 law
38:03and they just she just ran over them
38:07for months and they you know and they
38:10sue her in the courts right what if
38:13instead they just
38:14didn't vote any money she can't spend
38:17money without him appropriating it
38:20they did the other day in an act of
38:22great boldness
38:24uh say that they're not going to
38:27act on any of her appointments to
38:30commissions
38:32if she doesn't straighten up you know
38:34and
38:35you know i happen to know as of two
38:37weeks ago
38:40from election day until two weeks ago
38:44the governor and the attorney general
38:46and the secretary of state
38:47had not answered a single question from
38:50the legislature
38:51not in writing and not in verbally right
38:55and they won't come and testify they
38:57just they just
38:59flout them now we
39:02what they should have got if they'd just
39:05done this thing that we're going to
39:07see she couldn't stop that constitution
39:09is a very clever thing if you know how
39:11it works
39:12she they could send a second slate of
39:15electors
39:16to washington because this slate wasn't
39:18chosen according to the law
39:21and there's no power on earth that could
39:22stop them doing that
39:24and all the presidents say that when
39:26that happens then the senate has got to
39:27make it a senate and the house have got
39:29to make a decision
39:31and they didn't do that they didn't
39:32threaten it and if they
39:34threatened it or later done it but
39:36threatening it would be way better
39:38then they'd say but i'll tell you why
39:41if we can devise some procedures to make
39:43sure that these ballots are held in
39:46custody
39:47and protected and that everybody gets to
39:50vote
39:51and everybody gets to vote once and
39:53nobody gets to vote for them
39:55right and those requests would have had
39:58wide public support
40:00they would have been operating during a
40:02firestorm
40:03but the only way you're going to survive
40:04that and get any changes if you use
40:06something that
40:07constitutes a real power and they have a
40:10real power and that's what it's for
40:14and they don't have an absolute power
40:16that would be wrong
40:17and the governor doesn't have an
40:18absolute power that would be wrong and
40:21wrong for her to pretend that she does
40:24so that means that first of all it's
40:27very hard to know
40:28if the ballots were fair we know that
40:31there were millions
40:32stored in warehouses the location of
40:35only the one of the warehouses is known
40:38it was said once by the secretary of
40:39state state there was nine of them
40:42scattered around the state and the one
40:45that's known
40:46neighbors report people went in and out
40:48all the time
40:49what were they doing you know they
40:52weren't
40:52observers there weren't you know as far
40:54as we know
40:56so you see what that means is that's a
41:00raw assertion of power
41:04over the people
41:07you see and i must say
41:10that was not pointed out by her
41:13opposition in the legislature
41:15so and that's what i say is the worst
41:18thing
41:19i say that
41:22we didn't stop this because we weren't
41:24ready to
41:26and we weren't ready to because we don't
41:27live right
41:30but that also turns to the a good thing
41:34and that is isn't it true
41:37that if you get slaughtered it's better
41:39if the fault is in you
41:42because then maybe you can do something
41:44about it
41:46how we doing kathy you feeling better
41:47yeah right in other words
41:49i mean we don't have to be abraham
41:53lincoln
41:54we just have to get better than these
41:55guys to do better
41:57and and so i actually take
42:01heart from that although this is a
42:04power grab of the very first order
42:08and where is it going to go i'll say my
42:11last gloomy thing
42:14did i tell you about this spanish
42:16professor i hired did i talk about that
42:18last night
42:19it's my favorite subject right now
42:21there's a guy named carano and he's
42:23going to teach spanish at hillsdale
42:24college
42:26and you know if you if you apply for a
42:28job at hillsdale college
42:30you won't be applying for a better job
42:32because there isn't one
42:33because it's got all the features right
42:35everybody's smart everybody works
42:37everybody's nice to each other the kids
42:39are naughty in just the right amount
42:43um or sometimes a little more but
42:48this guy was a full professor
42:52in his 40s at venezuela
42:55and a prominent academic figure there
42:59and he had to run for his life he
43:02he he left his property behind he left
43:04his job behind
43:07and he got to america because they were
43:10inflating his salary around
43:12away and he lived under constant threat
43:14about whatever he might say
43:17and so now he's here and he needs a job
43:19because he can't stay if he doesn't get
43:21a really good job
43:23it has to be a permanent job to look
43:24right on the visa
43:26so what it effectively means is he needs
43:28this job
43:30and there are two others who are also
43:33very good and i drew all that out of him
43:37i i get him to tell me i try to find out
43:39what do they love
43:41you can always predict people's behavior
43:42if you know what they love
43:44and so i got into all that and he told
43:47me all about it
43:49and of course my heart went out to him
43:51and i said
43:52you know i don't know if you're going to
43:54get this job or not
43:56and see i have the power to give it to
43:58him by myself but i don't do that
44:00because
44:01my colleagues are so good and they have
44:02more time to think about it and i do
44:04and so i do overrule them once in a
44:06while but not often
44:09and never before i find out what they're
44:10going to do anyway
44:12i said i don't know what's going to
44:13happen but i'll make you a promise
44:16i've been running a one-man immigration
44:18service for 40 years
44:20if i see somebody really worthy i try to
44:22help them become citizens in the united
44:24states
44:24i will do that for you and he cried
44:29in my office right and my point is
44:34that's what it's like when your country
44:36sinks into despotism
44:40it is not a happy thing
44:43so we have to stop that
44:46how my last point
44:52come find out i know a little bit about
44:53winston churchill and uh
44:55he he is just the man for right now
44:59what happened to him in his life he has
45:02spent his life for seeing and trying to
45:05prevent
45:05the great world wars instead it was his
45:09fate to fight them he spent his life
45:13warning about socialism in the mornings
45:17he said
45:20it'll it'll end the freedom of the
45:22british people
45:23it will also end our ability to feed
45:25ourselves
45:27there'll be a collapse we'll have to
45:29depopulate partly the island
45:32those kind of warnings all his life
45:33beginning in 1898
45:35when he was 26 years old and continuing
45:39right through to his death in 65 but
45:43in the 1945 election they just simply
45:47swept
45:47the socialists for the first time they
45:50beat him or his party the war hero
45:53right and he was devastated do you see
45:56he's in exactly our position except
45:58worse
46:00because i've been warning about all this
46:02all my life warning that they're going
46:04to
46:05rig the electoral system so you can't
46:07get them out
46:08oh and now it's happened right probably
46:12and i think about him and see
46:15he had laid the ground he was also how
46:18old was he 45
46:2026. so he was 60
46:2472. he you know he'd won
46:28glory everybody thought he was the
46:31greatest man in the world even his
46:33enemies
46:34and so of course the reliable times of
46:36london
46:38worse now but bad then they called it
46:41it's time for him to retire
46:43he can be the great world statesman
46:44which he did become by the way
46:48but uh now the conservative party needs
46:50new blood
46:52and the socialists are going to get
46:53their chance
46:55and you know he was devastated by that
46:57election took him two or three weeks to
46:59get his daughter up
47:02and then he says i stayed till the pub
47:05closes
47:06and i fight for my corner and then he
47:09launched a whole strategy and it's the
47:11one we have to launch today
47:14he said we've been warning about these
47:17things that they're going to do
47:19for decades now they're going to do them
47:24now they will be visible beyond
47:27mistake and so we are going to oppose
47:31them
47:32we're going to call out what they do
47:34we're going to use that
47:36to persuade the people that we have to
47:38change
47:40now it took seven years
47:43because they'd won a huge majority and
47:45couldn't get them out but he beat him
47:47soon and then he gets to be prime
47:49minister again
47:50and i'll give you one of his arguments
47:52this is the very best
47:55and you know it's hard by the way to get
47:57arguments out these days
48:00because social media and all that but
48:02the truth is
48:04the alternatives are also easy and cheap
48:08and you know they don't they don't have
48:10a monopoly on the internet
48:12uh here's a great thing do you know
48:14about the browser brave
48:18yeah get that yeah and they've done
48:21something that i think is really awesome
48:24uh there's a protocol i'm about to get
48:26to be a tanki here for a minute
48:28there's a protocol called called uh
48:34interplanetary file system
48:37ipfs
48:40and the guy who who uh invented it is
48:43from stanford he's a young guy
48:45and you can find on youtube him giving a
48:47talk about it at sanford
48:49and this file system is incorporated
48:52into the brave browser now now here's
48:55what it does
48:57the way the internet works is
49:00to find any piece of information on it
49:02you you find the domain where it is
49:05and then you find the thing in the
49:06domain and it's the fact that the
49:09that you get to all the files through a
49:11particular domain
49:13that lets facebook own everything on it
49:16for example whereas what this does
49:19is it replicates the file
49:23around the internet in various places
49:25and the file address is just
49:27to the file and he says
49:31because he's not stupid this guy he's
49:33very smart he's a nerdy kind of engineer
49:35guy
49:36but what he says is that will make the
49:39internet
49:40freer and harder to censor
49:44and it doesn't take infrastructure so
49:47uh right now uh you know these huge
49:51server farms
49:53that you know they're you know they they
49:55deal with half a continent
49:58well those belong to about five
50:00companies
50:01if you distribute this way you can just
50:03go through and around them both
50:06now it's an interesting thing to me
50:10because that guy gave a very clever talk
50:13you know because he's dealing with
50:14things that are very sensitive
50:17like google the big the big guerrilla
50:20thrown off parlor and throwing off trump
50:22and throwing off everybody right
50:24and and amazon doing the same and all of
50:27an apple doing the same
50:29those guys are bad and uh
50:32and he is giving a talk about how you
50:35could get around that
50:37and he does it very gently i think he
50:38ought to go into politics
50:40but you but you can tell what he's
50:41saying and then
50:43our commencement speaker is tim allen
50:45this year
50:51i said to him mr allen you're the most
50:54requested
50:56commencement speaker after clarence
50:58thomas and he said
50:59clarence thomas i can kick his ass
51:02[Laughter]
51:06commencement's going to be fun this year
51:09but he says he knows a bunch of people
51:10who are big up in the tech world
51:13and that they are very disturbed by
51:15what's going on in there
51:16and they want to find a way out of it
51:20now that brings me that's churchill's
51:22point right
51:23his point is they're going to do these
51:27things now
51:28and they will be less able to pretend
51:30that they're not what they seem
51:33and people will be
51:37persuaded or else by the way
51:41the american people are ready to be
51:44desperatized
51:46and that means we're the walking dead
51:47already
51:49but i don't think that and i'm just
51:52going to close with this this is one of
51:53the prettiest things about winston
51:54churchill
51:57i had a lifelong friend a violet bottom
52:00carter beautiful woman grandmother of
52:03helena
52:04carter the actress
52:07and they were sweet on each other for a
52:08little while when they were young
52:11and it was before churchill figured out
52:12how to court a woman
52:14so he would take her out and they'd
52:16memorize
52:17noble speeches and poems that's
52:20he got better when clemmy came along
52:24but he he memorized with violet the poem
52:27i'm going to read to you
52:31and that was in 1904
52:341903 got married in 1908
52:40but now it's april 27 1941
52:44and britain is alone russia and germany
52:48are together
52:49america is aloof overwhelming power
52:54being brought to bear on the island
52:57and you know two months later it would
52:59change because hitler attacked
53:01stalin then that
53:04was a strategic mistake he made
53:07but left us with the cold war afterwards
53:11and so in this darkest it's the lowest
53:13point right now
53:17he recites this poem on the radio
53:20this is by arthur hugh clough say not
53:23the struggle not available
53:25the labor and the wounds are vain the
53:28enemy faints not nor faileth
53:30and as things have been they remain
53:35if hopes were dupes fears may be liars
53:39it may be in the smoke concealed your
53:42comrades chase
53:43even now the flyers and but for you
53:46possess the field
53:48i'll interrupt to say when you're in a
53:51fight
53:52the pattern is always the same at the
53:54beginning there's a
53:56number of the enemy and then there's a
53:57larger number and then there's a larger
53:59number
53:59that's always how it starts right and of
54:01course of course the mind
54:05full fear of course imagines that the
54:08number is infinite
54:10what this poem is about is we don't know
54:13the number
54:15we can only hope and we must hope he
54:17goes on
54:19for while the tired waves vainly
54:21breaking
54:23seem here no painful inch to gain
54:26far back through creaks and inlets
54:28making comes
54:29silent flooding in the mane
54:33and not by eastern windows only when
54:35daylight comes comes in the light
54:38in front the sun climbs slow how slowly
54:41but westward look the land is bright
54:45that was an appeal to us in the west
54:48right
54:51after he finished that he called violet
54:54bottom carter he didn't talk to her all
54:57that much at that time
54:59and you know he was a very great man and
55:01she was an old woman
55:03and he got her on the phone and violet
55:06and she was balling
55:09and he said did you hear our poem
55:13how close was this that's our poem too
55:26you

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Education and American Politics | Larry P. Arnn by Hillsdale Digital, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 8,271 words across 1,435 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.