Yawper

“Here, sir, the people govern,” bellowed Alexander Hamilton at the New York convention to ratify the Constitution.  It is ironic that I once attended a dinner to honor Hamilton where the keynote speaker was Michael Bloomberg.  The diminutive mayor seems not to know much about Hamilton, or the law, or the Constitution, or modesty, or […]

This weekend an MSNBC host made one of the more staggeringly dumb statements you will hear all campaign season.  In doing so, Melissa Harris-Perry embarrassed herself, the esteemed universities that bestowed a degree on her, and the proud university where she currently teaches. The standard of reasoned discourse at MSNBC is, like its ratings, decidedly […]

May 22 could have become an important day in American history.  Colonel Lewis Nicola could have become a famous – or infamous – figure.  But neither of those things did happen, and we have George Washington to thank.  Instead we have what I call the Nicola test (I already discussed my Madison test, and will […]

Had I the power to create one national holiday, it would be James Madison Day, to be observed annually on his birthday, the 16th of March.  Such a day may help us remember the only test that matters for any elected official. While George Washington holds title as the father of our country, James Madison […]

In Federalist #10 James Madison wrote of the peculiar nature of the federal republic he was proposing.  A student of history, Madison learned the foremost lesson of history, a lesson that eludes most people to this very day.  What Madison learned was the answer to the question of why we should study history. This question […]