In this insightful interview, host Doug Apple welcomes Mike Sharman to explore external perspectives on the United States, comparing historical observations with contemporary analysis. The conversation begins by recalling Alexis de Tocqueville, the 19th-century Frenchman whose "Democracy in America" remarkably captured the essence of the nascent nation. De Tocqueville famously observed that America's greatness was tied to its goodness, noting its immersion in a biblical worldview and the self-reliant, armed citizenry that contributed to its early success.

Sharman then introduces the contemporary insights of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, an English Orthodox rabbi and member of the House of Lords, whose 2017 speech offered a similarly potent assessment of America. While de Tocqueville saw America's inherent goodness, Rabbi Sacks pointed to concerning trends that, even in 2017, were emerging: "the politics of anger," "competitive victimhood," "identity politics based on smaller and smaller identities," the "politics of grievance," the "silencing of free speech in our universities," and "public discourse polluted by fake news and the manipulation of social media." These observations, Sharman notes, have only intensified in recent years.

Despite these challenges, Rabbi Sacks, drawing from the "Hebrew Bible" (Old Testament), highlights what he calls America's "Judeo-Christian heritage" as the root of its democratic capitalism. The discussion takes a fascinating turn as Sharman elaborates on Sacks's analogy between the political history of biblical Israel and the United States. Sacks distinguishes between a "contract" and a "covenant." He points to biblical Israel's request for a king as a "social contract" – a willingness to surrender certain rights and freedoms (like property taxes and various other levies described) to a central power for the sake of internal rule of law and external defense, much like modern governmental structures.

Crucially, Rabbi Sacks argues that Israel's first founding document was not a contract but a covenant made with God at Mount Sinai. Unlike a contract, which is an exchange of interests, a covenant is "a bond of loyalty and trust to do together what neither could have done alone," focused on "us" and "identity" rather than individual interests. This, he states, is epitomized by the American ideal of "we the people." Sharman emphasizes Sacks's brilliant observation that the United States possesses this same dual founding: its social covenant in the Declaration of Independence (1776), which speaks of unalienable rights endowed by a Creator and the purpose of government to protect them, and its social contract in the Constitution (1787), which outlines how that government will operate. The interview concludes by underscoring the critical importance of remembering the Declaration of Independence as America's foundational covenant, a document that still legally and spiritually binds the nation.

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