Harvey Mansfield discusses how we've strayed from the vision of the founding fathers.
Question: Have we veered from the intentions of the founding fathers?
Harvey Mansfield: We've veered away from our founding by, in some cases, ceasing to believe that a founding is possible. Some people think that it's not possible to have permanent principles or semi-permanent principles, but that everything changes with history. And so you would have something called the living Constitution, or a kind of historicized Constitution that the progressives first thought of in the early 19th century. Woodrow Wilson was a great example of that. And I think that ... I think that's a very popular view today. And yet when it comes down to crises, I think people look at our three branches of government, the separation of powers, the fact that we have a representatives for limited terms -- all these fundamental things in our Constitution -- and hold onto them and still ... and still believe them.
Recorded on: 6/13/07
Question: Have we veered from the intentions of the founding fathers?
Harvey Mansfield: We've veered away from our founding by, in some cases, ceasing to believe that a founding is possible. Some people think that it's not possible to have permanent principles or semi-permanent principles, but that everything changes with history. And so you would have something called the living Constitution, or a kind of historicized Constitution that the progressives first thought of in the early 19th century. Woodrow Wilson was a great example of that. And I think that ... I think that's a very popular view today. And yet when it comes down to crises, I think people look at our three branches of government, the separation of powers, the fact that we have a representatives for limited terms -- all these fundamental things in our Constitution -- and hold onto them and still ... and still believe them.
Recorded on: 6/13/07
