Latest / The Mark Simone Show / Ken interviews David Bobb, President and CEO of the Bill of Rights Institute.

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Ken interviews David Bobb, President and CEO of the Bill of Rights Institute. · The Mark Simone Show

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  Speaker 1: Bill Mark Simone Show Live from the WR Life Back Studios.
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  Speaker 1: Guest hosting from Mark Today, Here's King Rosato and a.
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  Speaker 2: Happy Independence Say weekend to you seven ten WR the
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  Speaker 2: Voice of New York. This is not only Independence Day weekend,
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  Speaker 2: it is the two hundred and fiftieth celebration of our country.
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  Speaker 2: What a special commemoration. And to talk about the history
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  Speaker 2: of the Declaration of Independence, one of the most powerful
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  Speaker 2: declarations ever made by humans. We welcome David Bob He's
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  Speaker 2: the president of the Bill of Rights Institute. Good morning,
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  Speaker 2: and welcome to the Mark Simone Show. David, It's Ken Rosato.
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  Speaker 2: M though sorry to disappoint.
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  Speaker 3: Great to be with you, Dan, good to be with you.
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  Speaker 2: And David is saying again only because we had we
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  Speaker 2: were blessed to have David on my TV show in
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  Speaker 2: New Jersey this week. So we talked to David about
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  Speaker 2: the declaration and about all the great founding documents of
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  Speaker 2: this country. So let's talk about the prompting of the
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  Speaker 2: writing of the Declaration of Independence. Was it caused by
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  Speaker 2: colonial anger over British taxation without representation and I know
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  Speaker 2: they had the Continental Congress for it. What prompted the Declaration.
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  Speaker 4: The Declaration was prompted by a series of things that
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  Speaker 4: mounted over many years. You know, it's a tribute to
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  Speaker 4: the patients of those who endured those challenges that they
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  Speaker 4: didn't take action sooner. You know, they really didn't want
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  Speaker 4: to end the relationship with the with this island that
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  Speaker 4: had meant so much, that had birthed the colonies. They
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  Speaker 4: went into this with a certain reluctance. But after a while,
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  Speaker 4: as they stated in the document, in the Declaration of
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  Speaker 4: Independence itself, they couldn't wait and they had to take
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  Speaker 4: those twenty seven complaints, which really said, hey, the king
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  Speaker 4: has abused his authority.
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  Speaker 3: He's become both the legislature.
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  Speaker 4: He's taken those executive powers and abused them, and he's
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  Speaker 4: assumed the powers of the judiciary.
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  Speaker 3: And they said, a prince has become a tyrant.
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  Speaker 2: That's fascinating, And just looking at the Continental Congress, there
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  Speaker 2: were five people appointed right to draft the declaration, was
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  Speaker 2: Thomas Jefferson, it was what John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman,
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  Speaker 2: and Robert Livingston. Right, those were the five who were
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  Speaker 2: They were the Continental Congress appointees to do this. But
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  Speaker 2: what's amazing is the difference in their backgrounds and ages.
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  Speaker 2: That's what I love. I mean, you had the young
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  Speaker 2: guy was Robert Livingston. He was only twenty nine, right,
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  Speaker 2: Thomas Jefferson. We think of the old guy with the whig,
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  Speaker 2: We think of him as Tom. He was only thirty
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  Speaker 2: three years old.
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  Speaker 4: He was a kid.
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  Speaker 2: And then you had the old man, of course, was
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  Speaker 2: Benjamin Franklin. He was seventy. A lot of people didn't
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  Speaker 2: even live to be seventy. Sherman was fifty five. So
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  Speaker 2: you had this array of people of different ages. Was
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  Speaker 2: that done intentionally?
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  Speaker 3: You know, the group as a whole.
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  Speaker 4: The eventual signers, I think they're aage age was right
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  Speaker 4: around forty two.
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  Speaker 3: So Benjamin Franklin was an outlier.
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  Speaker 4: He was a statesman of extraordinary standing, and there was
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  Speaker 4: a respect accorded those.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 4: At first it seemed to Jefferson that the task of
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  Speaker 4: drafting the declaration would go to John Adams. But John
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  Speaker 4: had enough humility. He was not known for that virtue.
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  Speaker 4: But he did say, in this case, Jefferson has the
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  Speaker 4: more able pen, Let's give it to him. So think
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  Speaker 4: of that assignment, though you really got I mean, everybody's
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  Speaker 4: done stuff on deadline. Can you imagine you've got to
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  Speaker 4: write this document? You got seventeen days go, right? And
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  Speaker 4: so he hold up in his house which is now
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  Speaker 4: called Declaration House in Philadelphia, and he went to work,
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  Speaker 4: and he did so without a bunch of books at hand.
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  Speaker 4: He had a lifetime of learning that in those young years.
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  Speaker 4: And if I can just really quickly, there's a moment
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  Speaker 4: that I think is remarkable as we think about this legacy.
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  Speaker 4: You know how if you write something and you you
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  Speaker 4: really don't want anybody else to read it, you'll scratch
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  Speaker 4: it out. You scratched over the ink. Well, he did
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  Speaker 4: that with something he'd written down on the parchment. And
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  Speaker 4: the word that he wrote down to describe Americans, we
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  Speaker 4: did not know until twenty ten that word was subjects.
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  Speaker 4: The word he wrote above it on top of.
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  Speaker 3: It was citizens.
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  Speaker 4: That's the movement, right, that's the change, that's the transformation.
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  Speaker 4: We are no longer subjects, we are citizens.
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  Speaker 2: Fascinating and there's our history right there that is absolutely amazing.
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  Speaker 2: And having been born and raised in New Rochelle proudly
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  Speaker 2: I am Thomas Paine and his patholic common sense had
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  Speaker 2: quite a power about shifting public opinion, didn't it?
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  Speaker 4: Common sense was an absolute blockbuster. We have virality today
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  Speaker 4: online and this would be like super virality pamphlets and
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  Speaker 4: you know, kind of booklets like this where the stock
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  Speaker 4: in trade for carrying ideas.
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  Speaker 3: And it's not like.
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  Speaker 4: People sat around in taverns and you know, pulled out
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  Speaker 4: their their their warren copy of Locke's Second Treatise. But
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  Speaker 4: these ideas were in the air, they were in houses
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  Speaker 4: of worship. And what Pain kind of channeled was this
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  Speaker 4: sense that no more, we've had it. And he really
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  Speaker 4: did not like monarchy at all, so he was ready
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  Speaker 4: to do away with all monarchs, all kings, all royal authority.
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  Speaker 4: But what he I think really channeled was that that
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  Speaker 4: that sense that, hey, we've given them enough time, let's
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  Speaker 4: move on. Patience will no longer be a virtue. And
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  Speaker 4: sure enough, that's the kind of momentum that carried it forward.
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  Speaker 2: I love it. And of course, the the incredible influence
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  Speaker 2: that the Declaration of Independence had on the writing of
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  Speaker 2: the Constitution and specifically the Bill of Rights, right, I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it was all that was the the the big explosion,
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  Speaker 2: of course, the Treaty of Paris later after the war
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  Speaker 2: kind of was what would be the official birth point
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  Speaker 2: that when when England accepted the fact that we were
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  Speaker 2: in independent country or would you say that the declaration
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  Speaker 2: is or is it just somewhere in between.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's interesting. There's all these kind of debates that
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  Speaker 4: we really could have. I think it's fair to peg
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  Speaker 4: it right to the July fourth date. You know, the
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  Speaker 4: declaration of what we did telling the world is a
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  Speaker 4: really big deal. But we did have to win the war.
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  Speaker 4: We had been at war for more than a year
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  Speaker 4: at that point, and so it's a remarkable series of events.
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  Speaker 4: It does take another, you know, full seven years before
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  Speaker 4: we get to the treaty, and then you have another
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  Speaker 4: lengthy period of time.
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  Speaker 3: Really it's a full.
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  Speaker 4: Arc of fifteen years between the declaration and the Bill
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  Speaker 4: of Rights. So think of it between now and twenty
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  Speaker 4: forty one, we're going to have fifteen years of two
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  Speaker 4: hundred and fifties, which is really exciting. But you're right,
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  Speaker 4: can that there's a relationship, and scholars sometimes don't want
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  Speaker 4: to acknowledge this. They want to say something like the
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  Speaker 4: men of seven teen seventy six were not the men
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  Speaker 4: who drafted the Constitution. But to my co author Tony
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  Speaker 4: Williams and I in this book that we've just written,
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  Speaker 4: Divided over the Declaration, we really make the case that
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  Speaker 4: the Declaration and Constitution go together. They are written with
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  Speaker 4: a common argument that says, we need this vision where
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  Speaker 4: all human beings are created equal, government exists to secure
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  Speaker 4: their rights. That's the vision laid out by the Declaration.
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  Speaker 4: The Constitution puts that into effect.
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  Speaker 2: And before we go, we just said about a minute left.
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  Speaker 2: I just want to ask you what for people who
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  Speaker 2: have the opinion that America was flawed from its founding
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  Speaker 2: and not a special a great country, what would you
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  Speaker 2: respond with? What would you tail them?
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  Speaker 4: Human beings are imperfect? The founders recognize this. Think of
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  Speaker 4: what it took to two thirds of them who signed
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  Speaker 4: the Declaration of Independence did own slaves, they owned other
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  Speaker 4: human beings. All of them knew that it was wrong,
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  Speaker 4: even Thomas Jefferson and I think what's remarkable is that
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  Speaker 4: is a contradiction to that principle. But by putting down
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  Speaker 4: the principle, there's a judgment rendered. We need to do
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  Speaker 4: better and were they quick enough to change?
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  Speaker 1: No.
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  Speaker 4: Many of them lamented the speed with which they went
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  Speaker 4: to bring these rights to everybody. But here's something beautiful.
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  Speaker 4: Right after the Declaration was articulated, enslaved people claimed it
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  Speaker 4: for their own. They mounted what came to be known
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  Speaker 4: as freedom suits, and they brought these two judges and said,
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  Speaker 4: look here in your official document, we have freedom. So
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  Speaker 4: what I would say is this corrective mechanism that was
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  Speaker 4: in the declaration. It stood for generations and stands still
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  Speaker 4: to today, and I hope for another two hundred and
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  Speaker 4: fifty years to be a standard that we can live
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  Speaker 4: up to as Americans.
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  Speaker 2: In order to form a more perfect union. Right, That's
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  Speaker 2: what it was about to We knew it wasn't perfect yet,
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  Speaker 2: and it's still not perfect, but it's to form a
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  Speaker 2: more perfect union. That's why we come together with ideas
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  Speaker 2: and we don't have a monarch shutting us down and
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  Speaker 2: putting us in jail for talking about it. I could
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  Speaker 2: talk to you forever about this.
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  Speaker 4: David Bob.
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  Speaker 2: I am just a history buff and I love talking
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  Speaker 2: about it. David Bob is the President of the Bill
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  Speaker 2: of Rights Institute. On this special two hundred and fiftieth
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  Speaker 2: anniversary of the founding of the United States of America,
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  Speaker 2: David Bob, thank you so much for coming on today.
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  Speaker 3: You're welcome. Thank you so much. Happy Independence Day sir
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  Speaker 3: to you too. Thank you all right.
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  Speaker 2: It's Ken Brazatowen for Mark on your Friday. We observe
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  Speaker 2: Independence Day today. On the third tomorrow, of course, is
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  Speaker 2: the actual day when we come back. We'll take more
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  Speaker 2: of your calls if you'd like. Eight hundred three two
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  Speaker 2: one zero seven ten. Eight hundred three two one zero
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  Speaker 2: seven ten for WR