The Brion McClanahan Show

https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://mcclanahanacademy.com http://learntruehistory.com Donald Trump wants Congress to bring back so-called earmarks. This raised concern among some conservatives and libertarians. They believe earmarks lead to more spending and bloated budgets, earmarks are the best path to responsible, transparent government. Thomas Jefferson thought so, as did Madison and Monroe. So does Ron Paul. I give you the historical perspective in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://mcclanahanacademy.com http://learntruehistory.com Was the antebellum South an "oligarchic" society? Many modern scholars seem to think so. One in particular, Forrest Nabors, argues that the South was only saved from itself by the noble Republican Party during Reconstruction. Before that point, the South was not "American" nor did it have "American" institutions. This is pure hogwash, and I explain why in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com The neo-con historians strike again. Should we not expect this from the National Review? Of course, but a recent piece by "conservative" Jay Cost on "The Worst Presidents?" is particularly bad. Eric Foner could not have written it better. In fact, I wonder if Foner guest wrote the column. Cost considers Pierce, Buchanan, and Andrew Johnson to be the worst presidents in American history...after saying that ranking the presidents is impossible. There are so many problems with this piece, so I take it apart in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Podcasting has become an important part of mass media. It has allowed everyone with a voice, a hobby, or an opinion to have an outlet for mass media consumption. It has not always been so. Traditional radio dominated this type of media for decades, and its staying power even in the age of podcasting is undeniable. The "national" talk radio trend of the last thirty years was a result of people moving away from local radio programs. Think locally, act locally took a back seat. But more people want local programming as evidenced in the spike in low power FM radio stations around the United States. I talk about this trend and what it means for "think locally, act locally" in this Episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Urban America has never trusted rural America. That has been the case since the 18th century and it has not changed in 200 years. This dichotomy has created a political, economic, and social fissure in American life and is one of the more important trends in American history. The Wall Street Journal recently ran a piece entitled "One Nation Divisible" explaining the modern differences between rural and urban America. I discuss this within a historical context in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://mcclanahanacademy.com http://learntruehistory.com American politics has become a game of emotion. This is by design. We cannot have rational arguments because people "feel" their vote rather than "think" it. Such is the case with most cultural issues, from immigration to Confederate monuments. Paul Graham's book "Confederaphobia" outlines this nicely, but the problem is bigger than what he describes. Emotivism is a cancer, but killing it will be almost impossible. I discuss this on this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

simplesthttps://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://mcclanahanacademy.com http://learntruehistory.com I hear many people--including "distinguished historians"--suggest that the War for Southern Independence can be explained by one word: slavery. Years ago I had someone tell me this was justified by "Occam's Razor," the idea that the simplest explanation was usually the correct one. That might work for science or theology, though that is debatable, but it does not work for history. I explain why in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Depending on who you ask, now that the dust has settled in the Roy Moore election and Trump has signed a new tax bill, all is either well or awful in the American Empire. It doesn't matter either way. Sure, I want to save money in taxes, doesn't everybody, but the tax bill and the Moore election are two reasons why everyone should be thinking locally and acting locally in 2018. Roy Moore winning or losing would not have changed federal power, and throwing some scraps to the masses in a so-called "massive" tax cut doesn't change the fact that the federal government's revenue collection should never have reached this point. Don't take my word for it, just read what the friends of the Constitution had to say about federal taxes during the ratification process. I discuss all of this in the final 2017 episode of The Brion McClanahan Show. See you in 2018!

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Historians like to keep things neat and tidy and thus often compartmentalize different periods in Western Civilization. The profession's infatuation with monographs has led to a climate where the "longue duree" is often overlooked. That is unfortunate because it misses the conjunction between political, military, economic, and social history. As we reflect on American involvement in World War I, it is important to see that conflict in the "longue duree."

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com A fan of the show emailed me asking what books, websites, etc. should he be reading to determine original intent. Of course my Founding Fathers Guide to the Constitution was designed for that purpose, but there are several other good books and websites that discuss either originalism or provide the primary sources to understand the concept. And of course there were members of the founding generation other than Madison and Hamilton who should be read to understand original intent, most importantly John Dickinson of Delaware/Pennsylvania. I talk about all of these items in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com The ContraKrugman Podcast hosted by Tom Woods and Bob Murphy should be on your podcast rotation. If not, you are missing out. That said, they covered the Thanksgiving column by Paul Krugman on a recent episode that piqued my interest. Krugman, it seems, is a highly fearful man, but not over things that rational people would fear. No. Krugman is afraid of getting his feelings hurt or hurting someone else's feelings. Krugman's "fearful" list would be a laughing stock for most people in the history of the world. I talk about why in this Episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com As I discussed in my podcast episode "Hollywierd," pop culture is in decline in America, but there are a few nuggets that offer redemption. One is the recently concluded television series Longmire. The show reminded me of the classic series the Virginian, so I wanted to dive into the similarities and what makes both shows special. If you are hungry for a show depicting real men acting like real men, both should be on your viewing list.

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://learntruehistory.com Over my vacation last week I received an email chain debating secession. One participant claimed that not only did the Constitution explicitly forbid secession, the founding generation thought it was illegal as well. For evidence, he cited a couple of lines from the Federalist and an incorrectly cited quote from George Washington's letter to the Congress dated September 17, 1787. As they say, the devil is in the details. Both pieces of evidence were taken out of context, and while it could be argued that Hamilton was against secession, his duplicity invalidates almost anything he said on any topic. I wrote an entire book on that. My course on secession at the McClanahan Academy covers much of the arguments against secession, but I thought it would be useful to cover two of the quotes that this individual believes "prove" secession was and is illegal.

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Several people emailed me a link to an article on Mises.org over the Thanksgiving week concerning tariffs and the "civil war" [sic]. The author of the article, Chris Calton, does a nice job with his podcast and is a thoughtful fellow, but he gets several things wrong, most importantly the real reason the North and South were at odds for nearly eighty years before the War in 1861. I correct his mistakes and give you the bigger picture in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Tom Fleming at the Fleming Foundation recently wrote several posts on social media about tradition. This was a Socratic exercise in defining tradition and other political terms with the goal of finding a deeper understanding of the "ism" of tradition. As Dr. Fleming illustrates, tradition and ideology are incompatible, but nevertheless are often lumped together. That said, what is the value of tradition and does a uniquely "American tradition" exist? I discuss these points and more in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.