Latest / Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast / Constitutions, Republics and Costs

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Constitutions, Republics and Costs · Plausibly Live - The Dave Bowman Show Podcast

0:06
From the On Air Across America newsroom.
0:08
I'm Alex Ross and this is your Morning News update.
0:12
The Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate range by
0:15
1/4 point on Wednesday to 3 3/4 to 4%.
0:20
The vote was unanimous. the Fed said inflation remains elevated
0:24
while economic activity continues to expand.
0:27
The House passed a Russia and Iran sanctions bill by a vote of
0:31
262 to 159. It now goes to President Trump
0:36
and had not become law as of Wednesday evening.
0:38
The House also voted 417 to 3 for a measure requiring state
0:43
utility regulators to consider whether large electricity users
0:47
should bear infrastructure costs incurred to serve them.
0:50
A Pentagon Inspector General report says United States
0:53
Central Command continue to adjust the mission in Iran after
0:57
operations began. The report covers the period
1:00
through June and says the full mission statement is classified.
1:03
The Department of Veterans Affairs says eligible veterans
1:07
group life insurance policy holders will pay no premiums for
1:10
three months beginning in November while keeping their
1:13
coverage in the NFL. Seahawks coach Mike McDonald
1:16
says Sam Darnold will miss Sunday's game at Arizona.
1:20
Drew Lock will start for the On Air Across America network.
1:23
I'm Alex Ross. The world is a complicated
1:35
place. Fortunately, Dave Bowman has
1:37
opinions, some informed, some inconvenient, and a few that may
1:42
require supporting documentation, history,
1:45
politics, and the absurdity of modern life.
1:48
This is the Dave Bowman Show. Well, good morning, good evening
1:55
or good afternoon, wherever you are, whatever you do, a lot of
1:58
things happening in the world. Today, most of them are far
2:00
beyond our. Control, you might say.
2:01
So perhaps it's time we took a pause and thought about life.
2:06
How about the laws of gravity? Frustration.
2:10
The Constitution. Of the United States of America.
2:14
17th Amendment and the 17th of. September, don't touch that
2:19
dial. Just try to hear me out for a
2:20
little while. Telephone and text 209565 Dave.
2:25
It's 209-5653. 283. E-mail Dave at the Dave
2:30
bowmanshow.com And of course, we're on the.
2:31
Web just look for plausibly live or the Dave.
2:35
Bowman Show on Facebook and the Internet.
2:40
And you can get the podcast everywhere, Spotify, iTunes and
2:44
the places. So unlike yesterday, today I
2:48
actually know. But I can't.
2:50
Say nothing. So that's all I got to say about
2:53
that. I had a terrible day yesterday.
2:56
Very stressful, very angry, Very.
3:03
Maybe one of these days I'll get into it.
3:04
I don't want to do it now because.
3:07
I think I have a. Solution, but I don't know,
3:09
won't know until. 2:00 this afternoon, let's see what
3:14
happens. But today is not.
3:16
Really about Mitch McConnell? Serious.
3:20
We're not really talking about Mitch McConnell.
3:23
We're not even talking about Dianne Feinstein.
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Even though their names. Will enter into this.
3:27
Discussion. It really isn't just about old
3:29
people. Serving in Congress.
3:31
It's about what happens when the political.
3:33
Value of a Senate seat becomes more important.
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Than the cognitive. Abilities of the person.
3:38
Occupying it to represent the people.
3:41
Of their state, McConnell returned to the Senate this week
3:45
after roughly. Three months away following a.
3:49
Fall. That's what we were told.
3:51
A hospitalization, rehabilitation, and about a
3:55
bazillion memes. At 84 years of age.
3:59
He has acknowledged that he has not completely recovered and may
4:01
still miss votes. His absence, of course, had a.
4:05
Practical effect for the Republican efforts.
4:08
To move legislation through. Committees and reporters asked
4:12
him whether he would complete. His term?
4:15
He did not answer. Per Reuters, his office had
4:20
previously released a written. Statement attributed to him
4:25
saying that he intended to finish his term.
4:29
He didn't. Actually say that it was
4:32
attributed to him. That's a big difference.
4:37
We don't know who. Physically wrote that statement.
4:40
And I'm not going to claim that I do.
4:43
But I. Bet you it wasn't Mitch
4:46
McConnell. Fact if I could use.
4:48
Kalci in the state of Washington.
4:50
I'd take that bet in a heartbeat.
4:53
In July of 2023, during a Senate Appropriations Committee vote.
4:57
You may remember this. Dianne Feinstein began
4:59
delivering remarks when she was supposed to just.
5:01
Vote How do you vote? She began to deliver remarks.
5:07
Senator Patty Murray. Our senator up here Who?
5:11
Is complaining about. Medicaid cuts that haven't.
5:14
Happened yet had an aide had to prompt Dianne Feinstein until.
5:20
Murray just finally said to her quote.
5:22
Just say. I UN quote she.
5:26
Literally had to tell. Dianne Feinstein How to vote.
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And that should. Bother you?
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I don't care if you're a Republican, Democrat, whatever.
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If that if that didn't bother you, you're not a good American.
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The issue isn't whether. Feinstein is a Democrat or
5:45
McConnell's a Republican. The issue is whether political
5:47
institutions have incentives. To preserve a senator's vote.
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Even when legitimate questions exist.
5:55
About the senator's capacity to actually do the job.
6:00
And actually, strangely enough. That takes us all the way back
6:03
to. Philadelphia in 1787.
6:08
The framers as they sign the Constitution on this day.
6:13
Had created 2 very different. Houses of Congress The House
6:17
represented the. People directly.
6:20
You know this the Senate was intended to represent.
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The states as political entities and originally Article 1
6:28
provided that senators. Would be chosen.
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By the state legislatures for six year terms.
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Only one third coming up for. Selection every two years.
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The Senate. Historical Office notes.
6:38
That the legislative selection. Was intended to both strengthen
6:41
the connection between the state governments and the federal
6:43
government and to insulate. Senators from rapidly changing
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popular. Opinion.
6:51
This was the architecture. At least in part of what we know
6:56
as federalism. The house was.
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Designed to say what? Do the.
7:00
People want the Senate. Was there to say what do the
7:03
states. Want and the.
7:05
President's purpose was to say what?
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Does the nation want and the framers had made it
7:11
intentionally difficult to change the.
7:13
Senate very quickly. Remember the house?
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Could change every two years, but the.
7:17
Senate, it was difficult to move those things in 1913.
7:23
We changed the system with the 17th Amendment.
7:27
The question you have to ask is did we merely change the method
7:29
of election of a senator, or did we fundamentally change whom
7:33
the. Senators were politically
7:34
accountable. To look, don't romanticize that
7:39
original system. It's easy to do.
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And indeed, I've done it myself. I I was a big fan when he was on
7:46
the air of Neil Bortz. Neil Bortz would lecture about
7:48
this quite quite. Commonly how the 17th Amendment.
7:53
Is really what? Led to debt and federal
7:57
overspending and federal. Overreach, and in a lot of ways
7:59
is right, but the old. System had genuine problems just
8:03
as. Well, state legislatures became.
8:06
Hopelessly, and I mean hopelessly, deadlocked over
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Senate elections between 1891 and 19 O 5.
8:14
There were 46. And remember, we only had. 48
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States legislative deadlocks. The legislatures ultimately
8:21
failed to elect a senator 14. Times with the.
8:26
State of Delaware going. 4. Years without a senator.
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In Washington now what you may not.
8:32
Realize is that's a. Violation of your
8:34
constitutional. Rights that is a you are
8:38
guaranteed. No state shall be.
8:40
Deprived as suffrage except by its.
8:42
Consent and now I'm. Pretty sure the state of
8:46
Delaware, the people of state of.
8:47
Delaware did not consent to that.
8:50
There was. Corruption as well 9.
8:52
Bribery cases reached the Senate.
8:54
Between 1866 and 19 O 69, the William Lorimore scandal in
9:01
Illinois, we don't have time to go into it, became particularly
9:04
damaging to the old system and progressive reformers.
9:08
Argued that senators had become creatures of the.
9:10
Party bosses, corporations and wealthy interests, even in the
9:16
home states. You just buy off a state
9:19
legislature and get the. Guy you want in.
9:23
The proposal to solve this. Problem was was simple.
9:28
Let the people elect the senators directly, OK?
9:34
But there is an important. Part of the story that
9:35
occasionally disappears. There were numerous.
9:38
States that were already. Doing.
9:40
This that were already. Experimenting in ways with.
9:43
Popular. Selection of the Senators Oregon
9:46
had developed a system under which legislative candidates.
9:49
To the state legislature had to pledge.
9:52
To support the Senate candidate that had been chosen by the
9:55
voters, they couldn't elect the. Senator, but they could tell the
9:59
the state legislature. Who they wanted and if you.
10:01
Wanted to by law. In Oregon, you.
10:04
Had to support that. Candidate By 1911, more than
10:08
half the states in the country were using some form of popular
10:13
input, and by 1912 as many as 29.
10:18
States effectively were. Electing their senators through.
10:21
Primaries or flat out general elections.
10:25
Was already kind of happening, folks.
10:28
The 17th Amendment was then ratified in 1913, and it
10:32
unquestionably solved some of those.
10:36
Problems. Legislative deadlocks.
10:39
Over choosing senators disappeared.
10:42
But the. Corruption did not.
10:45
The Senate Historical Office. Notice notes that after
10:49
ratification, disputes simply shifted.
10:52
From where they were towards. Campaign expenditures election.
10:56
Irregularities, frauds and recounts.
10:59
Nowadays we hardly even hear about that at all.
11:01
We hear about for the president. But, but not much else, right?
11:06
So did we eliminate the corruption from the Senate
11:08
elections? Or did.
11:09
We just change the form. Here's the constitutional trade
11:16
off before 1913. Imagine a senator voting.
11:20
Repeatedly for federal programs that stripped authority.
11:24
Away from his state government, eventually he would have to go
11:28
home to a state government and answer to that legislature.
11:30
What the heck are you doing anytime?
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He would vote for something that didn't or didn't benefit his
11:38
state. Or or hurt his state.
11:40
He would have to explain to the people that sent him there, what
11:44
are you doing after the 17th Amendment?
11:47
He did not have to answer. To the state legislature, his.
11:52
Political survival depended on voters campaign.
11:55
Organizers, donors, interest groups.
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And political machine parties, now that doesn't establish for
12:03
certain that direct. Election of the Senators.
12:05
Was a mistake. It establishes that the.
12:08
Amendment The 17th Amendment changed the incentive structure
12:11
and something. Else disappeared as well.
12:15
State governments lost their institutional representative
12:19
inside. The federal government no longer
12:23
does. The state have any?
12:24
Represented whatsoever. We yeah, we have two senators
12:28
from. Washington 2 from California, 2
12:29
from Florida 2. Kentucky 2 from Wyoming.
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Every other state but those. Senators do not represent.
12:36
The state. Of Washington or the.
12:38
State of Florida, they represent the people that elected.
12:42
Them in those states in the constitutional sense and vision
12:47
in 1787, we've completely changed what the Senate.
12:51
Actually represents So who? Represents the state of
12:55
Washington today. Well, the governor can lobby
12:59
state attendant. Attorney generals can sue.
13:01
Boy it is. Ours.
13:02
Ours has ours. Constantly reminds sending out a
13:05
press. Release every week.
13:06
For the 27th. Time we've sued the Trump
13:08
administration. And of course, Governor Bob.
13:12
Is is busy? Complaining about Trump all the
13:15
time. Legislators can pass
13:18
resolutions. Oh.
13:19
Boy. Got another another resolution.
13:21
We have resolved that we don't like, I don't know.
13:25
The color orange that OK, None of those things have any vote in
13:31
Congress. Whatsoever.
13:33
None. It leads to questions though
13:37
about term. Limits the.
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Problem that we're having now. Is that we have people who are.
13:46
Not. Just old.
13:49
Not, I mean I'm 60, almost 60. Three, if I were to get elected.
13:54
Senator from the great state of Washington, do I feel like I
13:56
could do it? Cognitively.
13:59
I think I could, although I will be honest with you, I find
14:02
myself almost every month a little bit slower than I used to
14:08
be, forgetting things that. Used to be easy.
14:11
It it can't tell you how many times.
14:14
I got a Rd. Caster with too many buttons on
14:15
it and sometimes. I forget things yesterday's.
14:21
Stream. Was a great example.
14:22
Of that I forgot to plug. In the audio source.
14:26
And so in the middle of the show.
14:28
I'm trying to control paste the the.
14:30
Audio source into the into the video that should have been done
14:34
before. I could have just.
14:35
Stopped and done it again, you know.
14:37
Started over I guess, but little things like.
14:39
That in your head? Could I be a senator?
14:41
Probably. Do I want to be?
14:43
No, although I wouldn't object to the. $174,000 a year, that's
14:48
there, but the question. Again comes up when with people
14:51
like Mitch McConnell, Dianne Feinstein, who has of course
14:54
since passed on, and others, Bernie Sanders, a few others
14:59
along the way. That you could probably pick out
15:01
of a crowd. The age issue.
15:04
Becomes something important, doesn't it?
15:06
And this has led to this constant cry for term.
15:12
Limits now the framers did not forget.
15:17
To include congressional term limits, they already had them,
15:21
the Articles of Confederation. Actually prohibited delegates
15:24
from. Serving more than three.
15:26
Years. In any.
15:27
Six year period, so half of every six years you could serve.
15:32
But the Constitution itself, signed this day in 1787,
15:36
abandoned that mandatory. Rotation.
15:39
The argument that Madison put forward in Federalist. 53 was
15:43
that experienced legislatures acquire.
15:45
Knowledge of complicated public affairs that newly elected
15:49
representatives simply don't possess.
15:52
And for what it's worth, I agree with them.
15:54
Yeah, they they do. They absolutely do.
15:59
They build relationships, They. Build.
16:04
Methodologies, but they're also putting down roots.
16:08
And they're also. Gaining power.
16:12
There's also a powerful Democratic.
16:14
Argument against term limits if the people.
16:16
Of the state. Of Kentucky want to keep
16:19
electing Mitch McConnell. Why should?
16:21
The Constitution prohibit them from doing so.
16:24
Why should the people? Of Wyoming.
16:28
Be able to say. To the people of Kentucky, you
16:30
can't have that guy. He's you know, he's too.
16:33
We don't like him. He's too old.
16:34
He's been here too long. Stop that.
16:36
That's really the strongest. Argument against congressional
16:39
term limits. But it also assumes something
16:42
very important that elections provide meaningful
16:47
accountability. Which brings us back to.
16:51
McConnell and Feinstein in. Particular, there's nothing
16:54
inherently. Wrong with an 80. 4 year old
16:57
Senator. But there's nothing inherently.
17:00
Virtuous about a 45 year old senator either age.
17:05
Isn't the constitutional problem?
17:07
Capacity is. If a senator can serve 30 years
17:11
and remain vigorous, informed and effective.
17:15
How is that's a benefit to the country?
17:17
The. Problem arises when the Senator
17:20
or the congressperson becomes unable to perform substantial
17:23
portions of the office independently.
17:27
Somebody has to hold their hand. Feinstein gave us an unusually.
17:32
Stark. Documented example of that.
17:34
When she had to be told, just say aye.
17:39
Now consider that there's a political incentive here as
17:41
well. A.
17:42
Senator isn't merely one person representing.
17:45
A state that senator also. Votes on judges.
17:52
At every level appellate. Federal bench, Supreme Court.
17:58
Who also represent us? They vote on committees to
18:03
advance. Legislation or kill it?
18:04
They vote for a Majority Leader and they vote on.
18:07
Legislation, they also. Vote on a potential vote to
18:11
determine which. Party could control the Senate.
18:14
Remember, they have to elect. A leader.
18:16
Same in the. House so.
18:18
Resignation of a senator has consequences extending beyond.
18:24
Just the individual. And that creates an
18:26
uncomfortable incentive for both.
18:27
Parties. A senator.
18:29
Who is no. Longer, fully capable of.
18:30
Performing the. Office duties may.
18:33
Still possess something of enormous.
18:35
Value he or. She now might.
18:40
Possess the ability. Like Dianne Feinstein to.
18:43
Quote, just vote aye. They still have a vote.
18:47
Look, we don't have to prove. That anyone's.
18:50
Private motives for why they keep.
18:52
McConnell or why they kept Dianne Feinstein there for so
18:55
long, or some of these Congress people for so long.
18:58
We don't have to. Prove that their private.
18:59
Motivation exists to recognize that there's an incentive.
19:04
To do so, there is also a. Constitutional hole Here Suppose
19:10
the president becomes incapable of performing the duties of
19:13
office. The Constitution provides A
19:16
mechanism through the 25th Amendment to to.
19:20
To get rid of them or to. Get rid of them is kind of a
19:23
mean term to you know. Take care of that.
19:27
But there is no such mechanism, no, no equivalent process of
19:31
that in the Senate. The Senate can expel a member.
19:35
With 2/3 votes, but expulsion is a a very rare.
19:41
Thing and it wasn't designed as an incapacity.
19:43
Procedure. Mitch is and plus you wouldn't.
19:46
Get the 2/3 votes anyway, so imagine.
19:50
If you had a senator today, Mitch McConnell, who cannot.
19:53
Reliably participate in debates. Cannot independently understand
19:57
complicated. Legislation.
19:59
Are you seriously? Telling me that Mitch McConnell
20:02
actually understands what's in the SAVE Act.
20:07
What's in? The the stuff on AI requires
20:13
staff. Assistance to conduct.
20:15
Basic official duties, but still refuses to resign.
20:20
What happens, essentially the political system is.
20:24
Stuck. It just waits.
20:26
That's a constitutional problem worth discussing regardless.
20:29
Of which party holds the seat? It's.
20:32
Not. What the people want.
20:37
What can we the people? Actually do.
20:39
About this well, there's several answers and each one has costs
20:46
and issues. We could.
20:50
Pass term limits. Now there's a couple ways they
20:53
could do. That Congress, it's going to.
20:55
Require a constitutional amendment, which means that.
20:58
Congress would have to pass it by 2/3, have to be ratified by
21:01
3/4 of the. State which?
21:02
I don't think would be a problem that that would not be a
21:04
problem. No way to hell.
21:05
You're getting through this. Through Congress.
21:08
Whatever the limit could be, 12 years, 18 years guarantees
21:11
turnover, but it also. Prevents voters from retaining
21:14
an experienced senator. That they actually want if you
21:18
have a good senator. You know a Daniel Webster.
21:22
Maybe you don't want to get rid of.
21:24
Him or maybe we set a mandatory retirement age.
21:27
An effective 82 year old gets removed while an impaired. 62
21:32
year old. Me gets to remain maybe.
21:38
There should be. Some incapacitation mechanism,
21:41
some constitutional procedure analogous in principle, though
21:44
not necessarily structure, to the 25th Amendment, that
21:48
immediately raises another. Difficult question.
21:50
Who? Gets to decide that an elected
21:53
senator. Is incapable of doing the job.
21:57
We have the same problem with the with the president.
22:01
Who gets to who gets to decide that?
22:03
The rest of the Senate doctors? The governor.
22:06
Just don't let the people in. Massachusetts decide to decide.
22:10
Maybe. Even the state legislature.
22:11
And if it. Was the state legislature, See,
22:13
you'd have a. You'd have a solution.
22:15
And how do you prevent that process from becoming a?
22:19
Partisan weapon. We could repeal or modify the.
22:25
17th Amendment restore some role.
22:27
For the state legislatures. And therefore restore an
22:29
institutional check between state governments and their
22:32
senators. But that means confronting the
22:35
same corruption and deadlock. Concerns that helped produce the
22:38
amendment in the first place. Course, we already have the.
22:42
Solution which is elections. This is the method.
22:45
We were given. It's the method the Constitution
22:48
relies. On But elections only work as
22:50
accountability mechanisms if voters are willing to hold their
22:53
own side accountable. And as we already.
22:57
Know we are not the framers actually tried term limits under
23:03
the. Articles of.
23:03
Confederation. They ended up abandoning them
23:06
when they wrote the Constitution in the.
23:08
United States, They. Created the Senate representing
23:11
the state. Governments.
23:13
The Progressive. Change that system because they
23:16
believed it had become corrupt and dysfunctional.
23:18
And in many ways, it happened. But now, more than a century
23:23
after the 17th Amendment, perhaps the question isn't
23:26
whether or not Mitch McConnell or Dianne Feinstein.
23:29
Stayed for too long. The larger question is whether
23:32
the mechanisms that are supposed to tell a senator when it's time
23:34
to. Leave the voters are.
23:37
Actually still functioning. Because if the.
23:40
Only thing Washington still needs from a senator.
23:44
Is the ability to say to just say aye, then we have reduced.
23:49
Representation to something the framers never intended.
24:21
needs protection from them. This is plausibly live.
24:27
Welcome back. I'm Dave, possibly live the
24:30
Dave. Bowman Show you want to join Me
24:31
56. 5 Dave 5653283 It's a two O 9 area code.
24:35
Why do I have a two O 9 area? Code because.
24:37
When this show. Started.
24:40
It was in Modesto, CA. Hence we still have a.
24:45
Two O 9 area code. We've had it for 20 years.
24:48
We're. Going to keep it.
24:50
September 17th is one of those dates that.
24:53
Seems to have acquired. An argument with.
24:56
Itself in the year. 14 of the Common Era Rome was mourning.
25:02
Augustus now he. Had brought a measure.
25:05
Of peace after generations of civil.
25:07
War. The Senate placed him amongst
25:11
the gods, honoring the man who had given Romans.
25:14
Stability, but it's. Important to remember.
25:17
That that stability that. Came with an empire.
25:22
That Augustus established that replaced a Republic, now the
25:28
Republic. Had been weakened long.
25:30
Before Augustus took power. Octavian is the name Hyper.
25:33
Octavian's his real name. Augustus.
25:35
Is his deified name. Anyway, you don't care.
25:38
Civil wars and ambitious generals like Julius Caesar had
25:42
done. Terrible damage before that
25:44
Augustus just. Completed the transformation he
25:47
kept familiar. Offices such as the.
25:50
Senate. But divide decisive power rested
25:54
solely with him. Romans could still.
25:58
See the. Outward forms of their old
26:01
government, but they were living under a new one, and when he
26:06
died, that. Power would be passed.
26:09
To another emperor. Now there's a warning in that
26:12
story. People exhausted by disorder.
26:16
May. Welcome a leader who.
26:17
Promises to end it. They may even be.
26:20
Grateful for the peace that he brings, but peace purchased by
26:24
replacing a Republican's power. In one man's hands can long
26:31
outlive the crisis. That seemed to justify it, which
26:36
of course. Is the problem that the framers
26:37
were facing on September 17th, 1787, when they had gathered in
26:43
Philadelphia and on this day? They had fought a.
26:45
King They had won their independence, and then they
26:48
spent. A few years discovering just how
26:51
hard that was to hold. 13 states together because one of them.
26:55
Was Rhode Island before they left the.
26:58
City On September 17th, 1787, they signed the proposed
27:02
constitution they did not build a throne for George Washington,
27:07
they built the government in which.
27:09
Power would be divided. Elections would recur and even
27:13
the president would be required to answer to the law.
27:16
They understood that liberty. Could not depend upon the virtue
27:19
of a single leader. They needed institutions that
27:22
were capable of restraining. Leaders who lacked virtue
27:25
altogether the Constitution. Was an extraordinary
27:30
achievement. It was also incomplete.
27:34
The delegates protected. A union in which slavery
27:36
remained lawful. Some of them, many of them
27:39
opposed. Slavery's slavery.
27:41
But others were. Dependent on it, and the
27:45
compromise that allowed a new government to begin left
27:48
millions of people outside. The Liberty.
27:51
That the government was. Supposed to secure 75 years
27:55
later, September. 17th came again.
27:59
In the fields around the place. Called Antietam Creek,
28:02
Sharpsburg, MD Union and Confederate.
28:06
Soldiers fought from. Dawn until night.
28:09
They struggled through a cornfield.
28:11
Along a stone, a sunken Rd. across a stone bridge.
28:15
And on that day, listen. Carefully.
28:18
Almost 23. Thousand men were killed.
28:22
Wounded or missing, September 17th, 1862.
28:28
Is still to this day. The bloodiest single day in
28:32
American history. It's a figure that's so large.
28:38
It can, kind of. Become easy to say 23,000.
28:42
But each one of those was a person who had a life beyond
28:46
that Maryland battlefield. Some went home from there with
28:50
wounds they would carry. For the rest of their lives.
28:52
Others never went home at all. And we speak today, rightly, of
28:57
the liberties. Protected by the Constitution at
28:59
Antietam Creek. We see those liberties.
29:02
Come with a cost. The Republic created in
29:05
Philadelphia was being torn. Apart by a.
29:07
Rebellion undertaken to preserve.
29:09
Slavery. Union soldiers fought to.
29:12
Keep that Republic alive. Many died.
29:15
Before it had fully committed itself.
29:17
To making freedom a. Purpose of the war it's an
29:21
important. Thing to remember, Antietam.
29:24
Stopped. Robert E Lee's invasion of
29:26
Maryland and gave Abraham Lincoln the opening he had been
29:29
waiting for. 5. Days later, on September 22nd,
29:33
he will. Issue the preliminary.
29:34
Emancipation Proclamation If the states in rebellion don't return
29:38
to the union, enslaved people would be.
29:40
Declared free. On January 1st. 1863 the.
29:45
Proclamation did not free everyone at.
29:47
Once its reach was. Limited and freedom.
29:49
Still had to be secured wherever Confederate power.
29:52
Still endured, and it wouldn't happen.
29:54
For many years, enslaved people had already been seeking their
29:58
own liberty through escape and resistance.
30:00
But Lincoln's decision changed the declared.
30:03
Purpose of the Union war effort preserving.
30:06
The nation and ending slavery. We're now bound together.
30:12
That is the weight. Of September 17th in Rome,
30:16
senators declared divine the man whose.
30:18
Empire had replaced the Republic in Philadelphia, delegates tried
30:23
to place. Every ruler beneath the law and
30:25
at Antietam, Americans. Suffered the deadliest.
30:28
Day in our entire. History.
30:30
Defending a Republic that. Still.
30:33
Had to confront the. Greatest denial of its.
30:35
Own principles we should remember the men who signed the
30:39
constitution for. What they built and tell the
30:41
truth about what they. Left unresolved, and we do, we
30:45
should remember the soldiers at Antietam as individuals rather
30:48
than let the enormity. Of the losses disappear.
30:51
Into a number and we should remember the enslaved folk whose
30:55
freedom was at stake and whose own actions help bring
30:59
emancipation about. Liberty does not preserve
31:03
itself. Rome offers one account of how a
31:06
Republic can be lost. Philadelphia records the effort.
31:09
To protect one and antietam shows Americans.
31:13
What we paid to keep ours. Alive and to extend.
31:17
That promise? Happy.
31:21
Constitution Day, my friends. Take the time right now.
31:24
Tell the people that matter in your life you love them very
31:27
much. You'd miss them if they weren't
31:28
there. So don't pass up those
31:29
opportunities you don't want to. Have that regret we'll.
31:34
See you next time. Right here, possibly live dot.
31:37
Com the Dave Bowman show hopefully you'll be able to join
31:40
us in the future and I think the live stream went well enough
31:43
that we'll keep doing that more in the future have.
31:47
A great day everybody. Enjoy Constitution Day.
31:49
Read it again. Remind yourself.
31:52
Of the sacrifice. That was made.
31:54
For us.