The Real American Founding, Ep. 3: Rights and Consent

On this episode of The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast, Kyle and Juan discuss how far we've strayed from the Founder's understanding of rights before introducing David Azerrad and Thomas West.

In this course, Thomas West, one of the leading scholars on the American Founding, is joined by David Azerrad, his former student and now colleague, to examine the principles of the Founders, explore the urgent political questions they faced, and reveal the choices they made to secure free government in America.

The goal of their conversation is to move beyond a simple recitation of the abstract principles of the Founding and bring their political theory to life so we can see how the Founders approached the perennial problems of politics.

Two new categories of rights predominate today that conflict with the natural rights of the Founding. The first is a right to positive goods like housing and healthcare; the second is a right to be honored, or at least not to be criticized. The former erodes the property rights of citizens, while the latter restricts freedom of speech.

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