Law & Liberty Talk is one of my favorite podcasts and particularly when Daniel Mahoney is a guest. It’s a superb podcast if you are looking for a clear defense of America’s constitutional founding and worldview. If you want a greater understanding of what is happening in American, or even Western society right now, it’s essential to listen to (or read) the latest interview of Mahoney by host Richard Reinsch. There is also an important interview from June titled, “A Revolutionary Moment?” That interview adds greater context and Mahoney was quite early in calling out the national looting and rioting many of us witnessed on social media or television screens. We saw it some in North Carolina, mostly in downtown Raleigh. Gov. Roy Cooper even seemed to defend the destruction of property in the streets. A lot of other conservative leaders and politicians were afraid to speak out in fear of the media and mob. Mahoney calls the violence and mayhem not social justice but rather a “fully totalitarian logic.”
What he means is that the rule of law, America’s founding principles, and the ordered society are trying to be overthrown from forces within. Of course, he’s skilled at distilling all of what is going on much better than I ever could. He calls out the dangerous implications and the ugly side of critical race theory and the attempts at replacing the principles of 1776 with “woke” nihilistic mayhem. Many propagating the 1619 Project believe that America’s founding and its principles are only for white America, a view Mahoney easily crushes. Still, they want to tear down the fabric of the nation and replace it with something wholly different.
I think it needs to be said that we live in an age of deceit. We are witnessing attempts to dismantle long-established truths and norms about America’s founding purpose. Readers know that and Mahoney delves into it all brilliantly. Additionally, he has put forward an important document and statement titled, “Liberty and Justice for All.”
A portion of that statement reads:
Those who attack these American institutions insist that their foundations have been corrupt from the beginning. They insist that racism, injustice, and oppression are inextricably linked to our national identity, and therefore everything born of the American experiment is tainted by sin. In their revolutionary fervor, they wish to sweep aside everything identified with our history and establish a new social and political order on novel and untainted foundations. They show no humility or self-restraint. They display limitless contempt for opposing views. They sympathize with vile tyrannies, disdain the rule of law, attack market commerce, hide behind the privilege their university indoctrination has authorized, excoriate the family, and attack those very religious traditions which have produced a moral horizon transcending tribalism and given rise to the concern for justice and equality for all. Their philosophy of pure negation cannot sustain a political order that affirms liberty, human dignity, and moral and civic equality, rightly and humanely understood.
Delve into what Mahoney is putting forward here. It’s essential reading or listening, and if nothing else, readers will better understand what is happening in our nation today. I know I’ve learned a lot from his words and analysis of our current predicament.
