It’s 1787 and you are a delegate to the Constitutional Convention.  You represent a midsize state and arriving 3 days late, you encounter James Madison’s Virginia Plan to allocate representation among the states proportionally.  You realize how this would be a detriment to smaller states who are needed to ratify the Constitution.  What do you do?  You are Roger Sherman from Connecticut and you draft the Connecticut Compromise which allocates representation in the lower chamber based on population but guarantees equal state representation in the upper chamber.  Why was this necessary and what other provisions did it entail?  To answer these questions, we are pleased welcome Mark David Hall, Professor in the Robertson School of Government at Regent University and scholar on early America.

He was an actor, governor and our 40th president.  Today, we are discussing the presidency of Ronald Reagan.  Though now a modern icon of conservatives, Reagan’s political leanings were originally democrat as a supporter of FDR and Truman.  During his presidential term, through what lens did Reagan approach the limitations placed on government?  In what way was he a Constitutional originalist?  How did this belief factor into navigating a constitutional crisis like the Iran Contra Affair?  To guide us in this chat, we are pleased to welcome back an alumni of the Reagan White House and current Senior Fellow in the Center for American Prosperity at the America First Policy Institute., Jim Pinkerton, for our weekly constitutional chat.

Today, we are discussing our country’s 34th President, Dwight Eisenhower.  A Texan by birth but raised in Kansas, Eisenhower graduated from West Point and during World War II served as the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe and was promoted to 5-star General of the US Army. Twice elected President, Eisenhower notably led our country as we entered the Cold War. In what ways did Eisenhower’s military experience shape his views on domestic and foreign policy?  What civil rights advancements were made during his tenure?  What was his overall sense of duty?  To help us in this discussion, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Elizabeth Spalding, Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation for this informative chat.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt served as the 32nd US President and was our longest serving president, having run for and won four elections to the presidency.  FDR was President during two tumultuous events in US history, the Great Depression and the outbreak of World War II.  Pulling a page from the Woodrow Wilson playbook, FDR expanded the administrative state even further.  In what ways did FDR expand the scope and size of the federal government?  Why did the American people elect him four times to the office of the presidency? What did he mean when he spoke of “bold, persistent experimentation?”  To chat with our student panel on FDR, we are delighted to welcome Jim Pinkerton this week.  Jim is an alumni of the Reagan and George H. W. Bush administrations and is currently a Senior Fellow in the Center for American Prosperity at the American First Policy Institute.

In our chat today, we are focusing on our 31st President, Herbert Hoover.  Born poor to a Quaker family in Iowa in 1874, Hoover was one of the first graduates of Stanford University in 1895.  He earned a fortune as a mining engineer and had business interests on 6 of 7 continents.  He rose to public prominence during World War I and joined the Woodrow Wilson administration as the leader of the Food Administration.  He successfully ran for President in 1928 but his administration was quickly stained by Prohibition (which he inherited from the previous administration) and the stock market crash and Great Depression.  He was soundly defeated in 1932.  To help our student panel grasp the policies and worldview that shaped President Hoover, we are happy to welcome Stephen Tootle, Professor of History at the College of the Sequoias, for this informative discussion.

The administrative state, the professional bureaucracy in our federal government, has not always been such a feature in how government functions.  Did you know President Woodrow Wilson helped  precipitate the rapid rise in that bureaucracy? How did this happen and why? What did Wilson mean when he spoke of an elastic constitution, and how does it threaten our freedom? To walk our student panel  through this topic, we are delighted to have William Morrissey, Professor Emeritus at Hillsdale College, as our special guest constitutional expert.

In 1831, a 26 year-old French member of the aristocracy arrived in New York City to examine our prison system.  Alexis de Tocqueville would do that and so much more.  Over 9 months, he and his travel companion, Gustave de Beaumont, traveled extensively and in 1835, he published “Democracy in America.”  De Tocqueville studied and answered what it took to perpetuate our political institutions, what the “habits of the American heart” are and what it means to be an American.  In fact, it was De Tocqueville who coined the term American Exceptionalism.  To guide our student panel as we discuss this seminal work, we are pleased to welcome Dr. Dorothea Wolfson, program director and senior lecturer in the MA in Government Program at Johns Hopkins University.   

Perhaps no Founding Father exemplifies the ideal of a citizen-legislator quite like John Adams.  Never a wealthy man, Adams dedicated his life and contributed greatly to our country in its infancy: as a lawyer, as a delegate to the Continental Congress, as our first Vice President and as our second President.  What was the basis for Adam’s beliefs in how our country should be structured and why does our guest today argue John Adams was the greatest of our Founding Fathers?  Join our student panel as we welcome C. Bradley Thompson, Professor of Political Science at Clemson University, for this informative discussion.

He was a city mayor, state representative and state senator.  He was a lieutenant governor and governor.  And he was a vice president and president.  Today, we are discussing the accomplishments of Calvin Coolidge.  He was an ardent defender of the US Constitution and fought the trend to alter and reinterpret the provisions in the Constitution.  He was also a dedicated “Toquevillian.” To guide our student panel in this discussion, we are thrilled to welcome Amity Shlaes as a guest.  She is the author of “Coolidge” (2013) and is the chair board of the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation.

He was a solider, general, President and statesman.  George Washington is one of those few historical figures whose real-life accomplishments live up to the legend of the man. But what was Washington’s role in crafting the document that ultimately made him President?  What were his thoughts on the role of a federal government in our new country?  To help us understand Washington’s mindset during this pivotal era, we are delighted to welcome Stewart McLaurin, president of the White House Historical Association for this informative chat with our student panel.