In these polarized times and in the wake of a divisive impeachment trial—how can we be a better “We the People?” Host Jeffrey Rosen is joined by Margaret Taylor of Lawfare and Adam White of the American Enterprise Institute to discuss the values that our founders thought were necessary to uphold American government, and whether or not the people and our representatives are living up to them.
The episode centers around the idea of civic virtue: a political philosophy term which describes personal qualities associated with the effective functioning of the civil and political order, or the preservation of its values and principles (per Encyclopedia Britannica.)
Margaret Taylor and Adam White are authors of pieces for The Battle for the Constitution—a partnership between the National Constitution Center and The Atlantic which features essays exploring the constitutional issues at the center of American life. Check out the page here.
FULL PODCAST
This episode was engineered by Dave Stotz, and produced by Jackie McDermott. Research was provided by Anne Corbett, Lana Ulrich, Nicholas Mosvick, and Robert Black.
Participants
Margaret Taylor is a fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor and counsel at "Lawfare." Previously, she was the Democratic Chief Counsel and Deputy Staff Director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where she also served as Deputy Chief Counsel. She was an attorney in the Office of the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State from 2003 to 2013.
Adam White is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and an assistant professor of law and the director of the C. Boyden Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. He was previously a research fellow for Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and an adjunct fellow for the Manhattan Institute. He is also a regular contributor to the Yale Journal on Regulation’s “Notice and Comment” blog.
Jeffrey Rosen is the president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to educating the public about the U.S. Constitution. Rosen is also professor of law at The George Washington University Law School and a contributing editor of The Atlantic.
Additional Resources
- The Battle for the Constitution
- “The Framers Set a High Bar for Impeachment” by Margaret Taylor
- “A Republic, If We Can Keep It” by Adam White
- Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues
- Sen. Mitt Romney’s floor speech on his impeachment vote
- Attorney General William Barr’s speech at University of Notre Dame
Transcript
View Transcript
This transcript may not be in its final form, accuracy may vary, and it may be updated or revised in the future.
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