A Critical Choice
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By Hillsdale College Online Courses July 15, 2015
In a Q&A session with John J. Miller, President Larry P. Arnn says that contemporary American government is largely based on progressive theories. However, he argues that the nation has not yet entirely rejected constitutional principles. The progressive attack on limited constitutional government can be stopped, but the American people must rediscover the principles upon which the Constitution is based.
The following video is a clip from Q&A 10 of Hillsdale’s Online Course: “The Federalist Papers,” featuring Larry P. Arnn, President of Hillsdale College, and John J. Miller, Director of the Dow Journalism Program.
Transcript:
John J. Miller:
In this lecture, you said we Americans today in the 21st century, we face a choice between the old, older constitutional way of doing things with our government and the newer way, the post-progressive way of doing things. We face a choice. Have we already made that choice and we are in fact doing things the new way, and the old way really is the old way and we're never going back?
Larry P. Arnn:
No we're doing things both ways now. It still matters who gets elected. We do have the branches of government doing different jobs and sometimes acting arbitrarily but not always, and it matters if the government is divided between the executive and the legislative branches. The old way is not gone. The American people still vote, and it's possible that, finally, they are going to choose. It may be that, some people say this, the influences on [the people], of the government, the temptations of the government, the force that the government deploys now is going to make it impossible for [the people] to choose anything except the government, but I don't think we're there yet. I think it could still be stopped, and [the people] have to stop it if it is to be stopped.