As America approaches its 250th anniversary, Ron and Ed examine three essays that converge on a single question: What actually sustains a free society?
Drawing on Dan McLaughlin’s warning to “Resist the Temptation of Woodrow Wilson” , they explore the perennial allure of concentrated executive power and the dangers of confusing “solidarity” with strongman governance. From there, they turn to Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s argument that religious liberty was not an afterthought but the Founders’ first freedom, a theological inheritance that constrained power long before modern political theory attempted to. Finally, they consider Yuval Levin’s case for America’s extraordinary institutional durability, a constitutional system designed to frustrate ambition, balance factions, and outlast the apocalyptic mood of any given generation.
Together, these essays raise an uncomfortable but vital tension: liberty requires limits; power must be restrained; and durability depends less on innovation than on fidelity to first principles.
Ron and Ed ask whether America’s strength lies not in bold executive action, nor in nostalgic lament, but in a constitutional architecture sturdy enough to survive our worst instincts — including our periodic desire to abandon it.
SHOW NOTES
Segment one
We opened the show today with a reference to this book by Cal Thomas: “America's Expiration Date: The Fall of Empires and Superpowers . . . and the Future of the United States” https://www.amazon.com/Americas-Expiration-Date-Empires-Superpowers/dp/0310357535
We also touched on The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon https://www.amazon.com/History-Decline-Fall-Roman-Empire/dp/0140433937
Also mentioned: Men Have Forgotten God by Alexander Solzhenitsyn https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2024/08/men-forgotten-god-alexander-solzhenitsyn.html
Also mentioned: A World Split Apart by Alexander Solzhenitsyn — his 1978 commencement address at Harvard https://www.solzhenitsyncenter.org/a-world-split-apart
“America the Durable” by Yuval Levin in the National Review: https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2026/03/america-the-durable/
Segment two
Today I learned that the Swiss have had three constitutions since 1798 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Federal_Constitution
“The American national anthem, for instance, is not a celebration of the beauty or glory of our country; it is a song about barely surviving the night. We all implicitly share the wonder it expresses at the improbable fact that our flag is still there.” —By Yuval Levin in “America the Durable” https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2026/03/america-the-durable/
“[The architects of the American republic] created a system that kept itself in balance by frustrating Wilsonian political scientists — that is, by preferring legitimacy to efficiency and sustaining simultaneous competing centers of power.” From https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2026/03/america-the-durable/
Segment three
“To be legitimate, such a government requires our consent, which, because we are all equals, it can obtain only by answering to the will of the majority. But when majorities threaten the rights of minorities or individuals, our government must remember that its fundamental purpose is the protection of those rights. So government action cannot be legitimate if it lacks the consent of the majority, and it cannot be legitimate if it attacks the rights of a minority.” also from https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2026/03/america-the-durable/
Sabermetrics: The Past, the Present, and the Future by Jim Albert https://ww2.amstat.org/mam/2010/essays/AlbertSabermetrics.pdf
Will Olympics 3-on-3 overtime change after rising criticism? https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/2026/02/26/olympic-overtime-format-3-on-3/88842666007/
Segment four
“The Five Greatest Words” in the Declaration by Gordon S. Wood https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2026/03/the-five-greatest-words-in-the-declaration/
So what are the five greatest words? “All men are created equal” https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2026/03/the-five-greatest-words-in-the-declaration/
Children will see and learn. Children may not obey, but children will listen. Children will look to you for which way to turn — From Stephen Sondheim: "Children Will Listen" https://www.ayearofbeinghere.com/2013/10/stephen-sondheim-children-will-listen.html
“This idea that everyone was born equal was also conventional wisdom for most educated people in the late 18th-century English-speaking world.” From Gordon S. Wood https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2026/03/the-five-greatest-words-in-the-declaration/
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