Founding Principles: How to Apply Today

I’d like to begin by reminding you of the animating themes of this conference and this panel. The general theme is, “Can American institutions still be conserved?” and the particular theme is, “What does fidelity to our Founding principles require today?”

If I am being honest, my answer to the first question is “maybe — perhaps — hopefully,” but it is hard to be much more positive than that. To paraphrase that famous line from Hungarian anti-communists in the 1950s: “situation hopeless, not yet bad.”

CB

About the Author

C. Bradley Thompson

C. Bradley Thompson is the director of the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. He is the author of America’s Revolutionary Mind, and he blogs at the Redneck Intellectual.

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Declaration of Independence

I’d like to begin by reminding you of the animating themes of this conference and this panel. The general theme is, “Can American institutions still be conserved?” and the particular theme is, “What does fidelity to our Founding principles require today?”

If I am being honest, my answer to the first question is “maybe — perhaps — hopefully,” but it is hard to be much more positive than that. To paraphrase that famous line from Hungarian anti-communists in the 1950s: “situation hopeless, not yet bad.”