The way we live now

Visiting the site of the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program at Yale to watch Professor Donald Kagan’s farewell lecture, I found the video below of George Will’s lecture to the group this past January. The lecture provides a short course in the Constitution and the revolt of the Progressives against it, from Wilson to TR and FDR, to LBJ and to Obama. It is learned and vivid, with some pungent quotes from prominent authorities including the late James Q. Wilson along the way. Charles Kesler provides a tour of the horizon to similar effect in I Am The Change: Barack Obama and the Crisis of Liberalism. I could quibble with a point or two that Will makes, particularly with respect to the Machiavellian roots of the Constitution, but I would prefer to say only that this lecture is well worth your time. It is excellent.

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