The 118th Congress convened this week, on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023. But the Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives has failed to show even a semblance of proper function. No business has been conducted for the last three days, because we have no Speaker of the House. And as of this recording, the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6th attack on Congress, Mr. Kevin McCarthy has Failed to win the Speakership after 11 rounds of voting.

Hopefully, by the time you listen to this podcast, our country will have a Speaker of the House so that U.S. Representatives can be sworn in, so they can legislate so that they can finally conduct the people's business.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, a Republican supporter of McCarthy described the opposition to McCarthy's speakership as a "temper tantrum." The Republican opposition to McCarthy's speakership, composed of some 20 Representatives, consider themselves "conservative purists". But the New York Times explains that their agenda "is mostly to defund, disrupt and dismantle government, not to participate in it". 

"conservative purists"… the historical question that comes to mind when I hear that term is what are the historical roots of the Republican Party, of conservatism, and what are their founding principles. 

To get answers to these questions, I spoke with Prof Joel Richard Paul, who is a legal scholar and historian and he teaches Constitutional Law and other subjects at UC Hastings College of the Law. In this episode, he also tells us why the name of his law school has changed and also speaks about cancel culture. 

To learn more about Prof. Paul, you can visit his academic homepage.

Here is an Amazon link to his latest book, Indivisible - Daniel Webster And the Birth of American Nationalism, which we discuss in this episode. 

In addition, below is a link to my conversation with Prof. Gerhardt, in which he compares Mr. Trump's attempt at a comeback in 2024 to prior US presidents. He also tells us what it's like to testify before the U.S. Congress. 

S2E41: History of Presidential Comebacks, Prof. Michael Gerhardt

I hope you enjoy these episodes. 

Adel

Host of the History Behind News podcast

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