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Preserving Our Country | Larry P. Arnn — Transcript

by Hillsdale Digital · 2,069 words · 362 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00one of the blessings of
0:02employing your students is that they
0:05never seem to grow up
0:08Tim's a father and a Dynamo and runs a
0:11significant part of Hillsdale College
0:13but he's still a kid to me
0:17uh
0:18so I want to start with two facts
0:22um
0:25they are the signal facts and the change
0:27in the American constitutional practices
0:30the first is that we don't make our laws
0:32through elected legislators anymore
0:36and that's the worst No-No that uh if
0:39you just read the article article one
0:41two and three of the Constitution all in
0:44the first sentence this a certain power
0:47in a certain body
0:50legislative executive and judicial
0:53but only Article 1 says all the
0:56legislative power
0:58shall be vested in a congress
1:00but of course congress makes this
1:01minority of our laws now
1:04and that means that there can be so many
1:07of them Congress actually makes about
1:10the same number of laws per year
1:12as it made in 1840
1:16and it's still got that stupid ugly
1:18wonderful process but for making them
1:21that involves compromise and
1:23forever discussion and debate
1:26and the fact that it hamstrings
1:28Expedition is one of its Hallmarks
1:31but not in the bureaucracy
1:34that is complicated but there are I mean
1:37literally there are millions of people
1:39who work in it
1:40and they work night and day well they
1:43don't work very hard but they work night
1:45and day
1:47so that's a change see Madison writes if
1:50the laws be so voluminous and changing
1:54that they it does not matter if they're
1:58made by the right process it's still not
2:00law
2:01because you can't keep up with it
2:03and if Locke you know I can tell you
2:05from managing a college
2:08the first step in a successful
2:09relationship and we take that step with
2:12everybody who enters our college at
2:13every level
2:15is they have to adopt the goals
2:18through an honor code for the students
2:20through code of commitment for the
2:21faculty and the staff
2:23and it's voluntary there are a lot of
2:25places to work you want to work here
2:26this is what this is for
2:29and that means that we're all on the
2:31same page and we that can all help both
2:33make and enforce the law
2:36that's the first change and the second
2:38change is centralized now
2:41uh
2:42things are done remotely
2:45and there's a time in American history
2:47where that had no prestige
2:50tocqueville writes that the principles
2:53of America as regards Administration are
2:56each person is the best judge of the
2:59matters that concern mainly himself
3:01and similarly each locality is the best
3:04judge of the things that concern mainly
3:07itself
3:09and he says that that gives rise to a
3:11spirit
3:13and the spirit is that uh
3:17we think that we should run the society
3:20the government
3:21he says the government is bigger in
3:24America than in France the first big
3:27nation state
3:28but it's local and voluntary in its
3:31nature
3:32if you remove it a distance
3:35then that changes everything it means
3:38that the people who make the law are not
3:40near the scene of action
3:43uh the Constitution United States the
3:46effect of it
3:47was decentralized power in some ways but
3:50also to complicate the powers so that
3:54there could be more elaborate separation
3:56of powers
3:57and it was only the national things
4:00and you know they're in Article 1
4:02Section 8 and they are contained in 1617
4:05paragraphs
4:07and they basically break down into these
4:09groups
4:11National Defense which is half of the
4:1316.
4:15a national system of Commerce
4:19we're all going to trade with each other
4:20all we want without
4:22boundaries of state borders
4:25and I think uh previous speaker made the
4:28point that the founders were not
4:31free Traders
4:33they were kind of but certainly not
4:36purely
4:37uh and then the third thing is the
4:41federal government didn't have any
4:42territory
4:43so it needed the right to operate on
4:47certain lands where it would have post
4:48offices and the nation's capital and
4:51that's the federal government that's all
4:52of it
4:54and that was all of it for the great
4:57you know for the first 175 years of
5:01American history
5:03so if it's
5:05laws are now made by people who do not
5:08directly report to us
5:10and they're made in a centralized way a
5:14long way from the scene of action last
5:16night I gave an example of that
5:18I've become increasingly appalled
5:22by the way Education Works uh if you go
5:26into that line of work you
5:27learn something about it and and
5:30mostly when you look at what's done you
5:32think well that's stupid
5:34that could never work right well uh
5:39since 2000 and this is true by the way
5:42in red States and blue States
5:45the number of students in the public
5:46schools have grown seven and a half
5:48percent the number of teachers has grown
5:50eight and a half percent and the number
5:52of Administrators mostly in school
5:54districts has grown 92 percent
5:58and that's horrific because the nature
6:02of the thing
6:03National Defense has a nature and it is
6:07you got to gather yourself up a whacking
6:09big old army and
6:11resources from all over the country
6:14if you're going to fight China which
6:17might be the next thing
6:19and that's its nature that's what you
6:21have to do
6:23but education it has a nature and the
6:26nature is
6:28each person learns
6:30the main work of learning is in the soul
6:33of the one who learns and that's without
6:36exception
6:37I mean I mean there isn't even even a
6:41moment where that's not true
6:44and so education is decisively a local
6:47thing
6:49also uh
6:51for young children
6:53College age children they're just at
6:55that wonderful age where you can just
6:56beat the hell out of them and their
6:58parents and their parents are nowhere
6:59around
7:01but uh
7:03but little kids you know they have to be
7:07cared for by people who make the
7:10craziest commitment in the world
7:12you know if you if we were bears and had
7:15Bear Cubs or dogs and we had puppies
7:19we'd be with them a few weeks no this is
7:22a third of Our Lives more we spend on
7:25these kids
7:26and they need us right and then they
7:30need teachers because it's in the nature
7:32of the thing
7:34that
7:35when you have a question
7:38it's better to get it answered right
7:40then
7:41and the process this is what a seminar
7:44is that's why it's the most glorious way
7:46to learn it's really beautiful and the
7:49reason is everything that everybody says
7:53diverts the discussion to something new
7:57and that means everybody is helping to
7:59make the class
8:01so to take the resources and the
8:04authority and move them out of the
8:06school
8:07to a place miles hundreds of miles often
8:11away
8:12and Repose them in the hands of people
8:14who don't go into classrooms and teach
8:19that's just a devastating thing to do
8:22and there's no example of it in American
8:25history until modern times
8:27and it changes things now it it unlocked
8:32the most wonderful possibilities from a
8:34certain point of view
8:35it means that there's this huge
8:37bureaucracy
8:39you know the first big political union
8:41is the teachers union started in
8:43Michigan actually
8:45and uh you know we we're not universally
8:48a blessing to the union
8:52and uh
8:55uh
8:58what is the spirit of those unions
9:01because first of all it's difficult to
9:04know what they do isn't it
9:07what is a district official do in the
9:10school system
9:11if you if you you can look it up if you
9:14want to it's not a hard state budget
9:16I'll always have a list of what the jobs
9:18are
9:20and the jobs titles are obscure
9:23so like history teacher that's not
9:27obscure
9:28school principle that's not obscure
9:32uh
9:35I can't even think of any of the names
9:38they don't appeal to the common sense
9:39but they have words like facilitator and
9:42coordinator
9:44and there's scads of them and they make
9:47up more than half the employees of the
9:50public schools
9:51and I think that it must be the spirit
9:54of them
9:55and the reason I think this the spirit
9:57of them is
9:58they have teacher Envy
10:01because a teacher is a highly respected
10:03thing
10:04my father was a school teacher in
10:06Pocahontas Arkansas and he was a highly
10:10respected man
10:11and he found his happiness in that
10:13little town and people and when he was
10:16dying and died people lectured me about
10:19how important he was and I had better
10:21understood that and I would say well he
10:25was my dad
10:27and they'd say yeah but you're a big
10:28fancy pants academic now you probably
10:30don't understand anymore
10:32if if so you see that that
10:37that's where the prestige is
10:40it's just like in the military by the
10:42way
10:43the one who actually holds the gun
10:46I was on the board of the army war
10:48college and it's for colonels
10:51who are hoping to be generals it's
10:53really cool place George Washington
10:54served in that spot
10:57and I liked all the kernels and some of
11:00the generals
11:03because you know there's a filtering
11:05process right most of the kernels don't
11:07ever get to be generals and a fair
11:10number of the ones who do are good at
11:12politics
11:13whereas anybody who's commanded troops
11:16in the field Under Fire
11:19it doesn't matter if the chief of staff
11:22of the Army is in the conversation
11:24that's the person who has prestige
11:28well what we've done is we've made the
11:30whole thing top heavy and the people up
11:33at the top are resentful I think and
11:35that's one reason why they're so loyal
11:37to their unions and that's another
11:39reason why because their jobs are purely
11:42a creature of Regulation
11:45whereas you know you need School
11:46teachers
11:48somebody's going to have to help the
11:49kids learn you can if you homeschool
11:51that'll take a lot of time
11:54and parents soon enough for forming
11:56co-ops so they can share the load right
11:59because it's work and it's real work and
12:01it's important work
12:03whereas the district facilitator of
12:06whatever the hell they facilitate
12:13now the point is
12:15you can take this these facts about
12:18education that are shocking
12:20oh I mentioned last night Sarah Sanders
12:24Sarah Huckabee
12:26I know her dad and uh we're from
12:29Arkansas which means we're cousins and
12:31and uh
12:39the students at the college have a thing
12:41going now that uh they're demanding that
12:46I put together an Arkansas night
12:48where the governor and her father the
12:51governor and Senator cotton a friend of
12:53mine and I are on a panel so they can
12:57inquire of us how we are in fact related
13:07it's a story of inbreeding
13:10um
13:11but uh
13:14she you know I think she's a ball of
13:16fire several of these Governors are I'm
13:18going to mention them and she
13:22is working I hear from Senator cotton
13:24who talks to her
13:26because you know cousins in public
13:28office
13:29and uh he said that the let many in the
13:33legislature in Arkansas are looking for
13:34a way to curtail the number of people in
13:37the bureaucracy you know in Arkansas
13:40and that's you know that's
13:43God's work and I have never
13:46I've been doing this a long time
13:49the first movement in that direction
13:51that I am seeing in my life of any
13:53significance is now
13:55and that's a very hopeful thing
14:00my friend Doug Jeffrey my longest
14:03serving colleague if you count back in
14:06Claremont John cervini is the longest
14:08serving employee of the college
14:10uh
14:12he he he thinks I'm an incredible weenie
14:16um
14:17but I'm just tough enough that he can
14:19put up with me
14:21and so
14:24he doesn't like all the politicians I
14:26like
14:27whereas I do like all the ones he likes
14:30I think
14:31so I'm going to talk about some
14:34Governors that are not entirely popular
14:35with him I don't think
14:37but the point I'm going to make is very
14:40important point
14:41and that is
14:43there's a new politics
14:45and it may be too late it may be I mean
14:49this is a very bad thing what's going on
14:51here
14:53um
14:54and it's worth wondering why all this
14:57has happened because we could be
14:59overcome by this stuff now we could be
15:01overcome by it in the intermediate term

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