It starts with John Witherspoon, the only clergyman and the only college president to sign the Declaration of Independence. He arrived from Scotland in 1768 already a friend of American liberty and became the sixth president of the College of New Jersey, later Princeton, and he saved that college twice: once when he inherited a school that was nearly broke and did not own a library, so he donated his own; and again after the British destroyed part of the campus, when he got every student out of town unharmed and then raised the money to rebuild.
Jenny Beth Martin's response is that every one of the Ivies could use a savior who would remind them of the principles they were founded on, most of them as Christian institutions that would not have tolerated much of what goes on there today.
Then the last question of the hour. So many people at places like Princeton talk about saving democracy. Is that what the founders gave us? Reed's answer is no. The most accurate description is a republic with democratic elements. A one hundred percent democracy would mean everybody votes on everything, which would be awkward, unwieldy, impossible, and would not preserve the rights of minorities.
Some things should not be put to a vote at all: enslaving people is not a justified function of government even if ninety-nine percent voted for it.
What we kept is both halves. Elections are genuinely democratic and the candidate with the most votes wins, but those winners go to Washington as representatives and do the voting, and we decide at the next election whether we liked it.
Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 and tell your senators and your representative you expect them to answer to the people who elected them.
jennybethshow.com | teapartypatriots.org
00:00 — John Witherspoon, the Only Clergyman to Sign
00:37 — A Friend of American Liberty From the Day He Arrived
01:08 — He Saved Princeton Twice
02:02 — What the Ivies Could Use Right Now
02:24 — Was It Really a Democracy?
02:51 — Why One Hundred Percent Democracy Would Not Work
03:35 — Beyond the Reach of Any Majority
#JennyBethShow #LawrenceReed #RepublicNotDemocracy #JohnWitherspoon #BornOfIdeas #FoundingFathers #ConstitutionalLiberty #AmericanHistory #Princeton