00:00:02.000We dive into the beauty and the exceptionalism of the United States Constitution.
00:00:08.000Before we get into that, I want to tell you guys about thinker.org slash Charlie.
00:00:12.000You are able to consume big ideas quickly at thinker.org slash Charlie.
00:00:17.000So I want to talk about the thinker.org book of the week.
00:00:20.000The one that we want to talk about is the Federalist Papers.
00:00:23.000The Federalist Papers were anonymously written articles that were done after the Constitutional Convention written by Madison, Hamilton, and Jay.
00:00:33.000Now, I encourage you to read the actual Federalist Papers, but you guys can get the big ideas very quickly at thinker.org slash Charlie.
00:00:42.000For the sake of the common good, decisions should follow from evidence rather than emotions or personal interest, Madison wrote.
00:00:49.000One of the biggest advantages to a union is its ability to deal well with factions.
00:00:53.000This idea of factionalism is a big deal in the Federalist Papers.
00:00:57.000A republic is the only form of government worthy of the American people, but will we remain worthy of them?
00:01:04.000And a system of checks and balances harness human natural tendencies to hold on to power in ways that protect citizens from tyranny.
00:01:13.000You can learn that and more at thinker.org.
00:01:51.000Send this episode to your children and grandchildren, to your friends and family, and say, take a moment to be thankful that we live in the republic, not a democracy that we live in.
00:02:25.000We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
00:03:07.000Today is a day that every single child in school should take pause and be led through and told the great American story of how we got here.
00:03:20.000There's a lot wrong with our country right now.
00:03:22.000And I want to take a pause to remember what happened on this day in 1787.
00:03:31.000September 17th, 1787 was one of the most significant days in human history.
00:03:42.000It was definitely one of the most significant days in political history.
00:03:48.000Almost never before had this idea of self-government been tried.
00:03:53.000The Romans tried it in Some capacity and failed and eventually became an empire.
00:04:00.000The Greeks tried it in city-states, but never before did a people attempt to embark on a form of government where the people were the sovereign, with an idea of self-government, independent judiciary.
00:04:16.000The ideas of freedom and equality and the rule of law that are the ultimate principles to build that society.
00:04:25.000In today's time, it's easy to feel disconnected to the brilliance or the clairvoyance or the wisdom of our founding fathers or the framers.
00:04:36.000September 17th, 1787 was the last day of a heated constitutional convention that lasted almost the entire summer.
00:04:46.000It went from May 25th to September 17th, 1787.
00:04:53.000George Washington presided over the chair as the chair of the Constitutional Convention.
00:04:59.000Now, we have some notes from the Constitutional Convention, but most of the back and forth, the debate and the commentary, we will never know exactly what was said.
00:05:09.000Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison, they were going at it.
00:05:14.000You see, the articles in Confederation, at Articles of Confederation, which were written after the successful revolution or separation from the British, were posing problems.
00:05:27.000There was Shay's rebellion, there was inability to do commerce between states, to mint currency.
00:05:32.000It became more and more clear that some form of a federal government was necessary.
00:05:38.000The question is, what kind of government do we want to form?
00:05:41.000Now, a sloppy way to talk about the American story is to say we had two foundings, one in 1776 and one in 1787.
00:05:53.000There is a divine connection between the truths of the Declaration of Independence and the laws of the Constitution of the United States.
00:06:04.000In the Declaration of Independence, written by Thomas Jefferson, it starts with when in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature's God entitle them.
00:06:24.000A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to separation.
00:06:34.000The founding fathers and framers built a civilization on eternal truths.
00:06:40.000This is one of the most significant developments in the history of our species, in the history of human beings.
00:06:47.000Now, the founders before the American Revolution, before the French Indian War, what did the pilgrims bring with them to the shores of America?
00:06:57.000They brought a civilization with them, the beginnings of Western society.
00:07:01.000They brought faith, knowledge of the classic Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, Aquinas, Augustine.
00:07:06.000The whole meaning of a civilization, they brought almost everything except the aristocracy.
00:07:14.000Thomas Jefferson continued by saying, We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.
00:07:23.000Human equality is an idea that civilizations today still reject.
00:07:28.000This idea that the type of being that you are, a human being, the speaking being, you are a being rooted in reason, that you desire to be as you are.
00:07:42.000The founders knew this ancient wisdom, and they also knew the developments of the Enlightenment.
00:07:50.000They said, how can we build a system, build a compact, build a contract that will balance all of these things together and allow for self-government, allow for the pursuit of virtue, which is liberty, put licentiousness in check, have a system where tyranny and the potential for tyranny is put aside so that people are able to live quiet and peaceable lives.
00:08:15.000In the United States Constitution, it begins with, we the people.
00:10:28.000The founders realized that any government that is only worried about sending stimulus checks to people now and not worrying about the price tomorrow is not a moral government.
00:10:36.000A government that will print money into obscurity because who cares?
00:10:39.000We're all dead in the long run, as John Maynard Keynes would say, is not a moral government.
00:10:43.000Instead, they said, we must make a contract, a compact, a promise, an obligation to people that are not yet born.
00:10:51.000This idea of looking forward to the unborn, to the future generations, was unique to the American system.
00:10:57.000Not just worrying about sustenance and momentary pleasure.
00:11:02.000Instead, the founding fathers embraced ancient wisdom of denying one self-gratification and having delayed gratification to be able to enjoy something less today so someone in the future can enjoy it more tomorrow.
00:11:35.000So much more I want to get into as we remember this beautiful day.
00:11:40.000We must keep on remembering it because if we yield to the people in charge, it'll soon be forgotten.
00:11:47.000Did you know that if you shop at Nike, they turn around and give your hard-earned dollars to pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood and the Population Council.
00:11:56.000Did you know that Airbnb gave $500,000 to the Marxist BLM Incorporated Organization?
00:12:04.000Your first vote is at the ballot box, but that isn't enough to defend our traditional Judeo-Christian values.
00:12:11.000Left-wing corporations are subverting our nation and our republic by taking money from conservative customers and giving it to radical organizations that support abortion, gun control, and critical race theory.
00:12:25.000You have another vote, a second vote at the checkout line, which is why there's a massively important organization called Second Vote that comes in.
00:14:06.000Go to secondvote.com and subscribe with promo code Charlie today.
00:14:12.000Seven articles to the United States Constitution.
00:14:15.000One of the most significant events ever to happen, and most children in school today are not being taught that this is even Constitution Day, let alone the significance of Constitution Day.
00:14:26.000Well, this was the day when debate ended, when all of a sudden the Constitutional Convention was over and the summer of debate back and forth chaired by George Washington came to completion.
00:14:40.000But that did not ratify the U.S. Constitution.
00:14:43.000Now, famously, at the end of the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was walking the streets and someone came up to him and they said, Mr. Franklin, what do we have?
00:15:20.000Once the debate ended on September 17th, 1787, the ratification debates started.
00:15:26.000These are best articulated in the Federalist versus Anti-Federalist papers, which were a series of newspaper op-eds written in newspapers in New York trying to encourage states to ratify the United States Constitution.
00:15:38.000The Federalist Papers were written anonymously under the name Publius, but we now know that it was Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay, the three major authors of the Federalist Papers.
00:15:48.000And James Madison said in defending the United States Constitution that the most effective thing about the Constitution is its structure, the way it arranges the power between branches.
00:16:04.000James Madison, being the architect of the United States Constitution, realized that if one branch gets too strong, gets too powerful without having an equal or opposite reaction, to having a branch being able to put that in check, then the government will fall apart.
00:16:21.000We must understand as we look to history, unlike what the 1619 Project will say, or Nicole Hanna-Jones, or Iber Mex Kendi, or Tahanisi Coates, that when you look through history, there are peaks and there are valleys in our history.
00:16:35.000There are things where you look backwards and you should just stand in awe.
00:16:41.000That you look at and it almost takes your breath away.
00:16:43.000Similar to going to Yosemite National Park or Grand Canyon, where you look back in your history and you say, how did they do that?
00:16:54.000You see, the current project that's happening that has been enacted by George Soros and Bezos and the people, the top levels of American society, is a top-down revolution to suffocate, eliminate, eradicate any form of loyalty, appreciation, or gratitude to America, the United States Constitution.
00:17:16.000And so on this day in 1787, this very day, the founders left that hall, deciding to commit to something that has never been done before.
00:17:27.000A wide-ranging republic granting states rights, giving them permission to come in, and asking the question, are men truly created equal?
00:17:37.000Does man deserve a form of government that allows them to live in liberty?
00:17:44.000We take it for granted because we live amongst it, but it has been and will be one of the most significant, consequential, historic, and meaningful developments in the history of the human species.
00:17:59.000Are you on an elder board of a church?
00:18:02.000Are you overseeing an organization that does a lot of credit card processing?
00:18:06.000Well, if you run a conservative or faith-based nonprofit or business, listen very carefully to this.
00:18:12.000Do not expose yourself to being shut off because of cancel culture.
00:18:16.000J.P. Morgan Chase just canceled Lieutenant General Michael Flynn's credit cards because they didn't like his politics.
00:18:22.000So on the Charlie Kirk show here, we use Cornerstone Payment Systems to provide uninterrupt credit card processing for the work we do here at the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:18:31.000So maybe you run a small business and you need a credit card processor.
00:18:34.000We trust Cornerstone for our processing, and I believe you will benefit from their solutions, their low cost, and most importantly, their commitment to safeguard your transactions.
00:18:43.000Cornerstone provides all types of credit card solutions, including e-commerce, retail, donations, crowdfunding, and text to give.
00:18:50.000Do not get canceled like Lieutenant General Michael Flynn.
00:19:33.000We are very, very blessed to live in a country that still has some semblance of a divinely inspired form of government, of the independent judiciary, rule of law, consent to the govern, checks and balances.
00:19:56.000The United States Constitution, after the seven articles were at least conditionally approved by the Constitutional Convention, they had to go state by state.
00:20:09.000Rhode Island was the last state to ratify and to approve it.
00:20:13.000And there were seven articles to the United States Constitution.
00:20:15.000It wasn't until 1791 that the Bill of Rights was passed and ratified by all the states.
00:20:22.000And that's actually what most people know as their constitutional rights.
00:20:25.000First Amendment, Second Amendment, Third Amendment, Fourth Amendment.
00:20:28.000First Amendment, the right to speech, not to be infringed upon by government.
00:20:32.000Second Amendment, the right to bear arms.
00:20:33.000Third Amendment, that soldiers don't come into your home.
00:20:35.000Fourth Amendment, the government can't spy on you.
00:20:37.000Fifth Amendment, your right against self-incrimination.
00:20:39.000Six, seven, and eight, all about process, speedy and quick jury of your peers, against long imprisonment unfairly.
00:20:49.000Ninth Amendment, which is actually one of my favorite amendments to the Constitution, which says that anything that is not in the Constitution does not mean that it's not protected.
00:20:57.000Tenth Amendment, things that are not in here are then given to the states and to the people.
00:21:03.000That's the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution, but that actually wasn't part of what we're celebrating today.
00:21:09.000If I remember correctly, it was actually in December 1791 that the Bill of Rights was ratified.
00:21:15.000James Madison wrote, It is our reason alone that must be placed in control of the government.
00:21:21.000Our passions must be controlled by it.
00:21:24.000The Constitution spreads power over time and over land.
00:21:32.000It makes it hard to conduct quick revolutions.
00:21:37.000You see, the founding fathers in this Constitution, and this is the best way to defend it, somebody asked me to say, Charlie, what do conservatives actually believe?
00:22:36.000The founders knew this because they decided to study human nature.
00:22:41.000See, the founding fathers studied every single civilization that existed before them, the Romans, the Greeks, the British, the Chinese.
00:22:49.000And they decided to take a pause and they said, what do they have all in common?
00:22:56.000Yeah, there was the Roman Republic that became the empire.
00:22:59.000There were the Greek city-states in Athens and Sparta.
00:23:01.000But they realized that over time, that the forsaking of freedom is a compelling political objective, that people are going to be engaged and involved in the mobilization of grievances.
00:23:14.000And eventually a smaller and smaller and smaller group of corrupt, unelected people are going to have power, and the people are going to live like serfs and servants and subjects, not as citizens.
00:23:26.000You see, the United States Constitution did something that no other form of government had done, which we remember today.
00:23:41.000The government doesn't have the ability to suppress your rights without your permission.
00:23:46.000The Constitution was not written for the times of 1787.
00:23:50.000It was written to stand the test of time.
00:23:53.000You see, we as conservatives believe that there's a natural harmony to the universe.
00:23:58.000I believe that there's a Christian harmony to the universe, obviously.
00:24:02.000But at the very least, we as conservatives believe that there is a natural law.
00:24:06.000Now, not just natural law in the mathematical or physics way to look at things.
00:24:11.000Not just that force equals mass times acceleration, or an object at rest will stay at rest, or for every action there's an equal and opposite reaction.
00:24:18.000Not just the second law of thermodynamics, the inevitable law of decay.
00:24:22.000We believe those things, not just the heliocentric theory of gravitational pull, gravitational orbit, I should say.
00:24:30.000We believe that there's also a natural law to how human beings operate, who we are.
00:24:34.000And that goes to that question of what is justice.
00:24:37.000If you have a belief in justice, that justice is okay to take from another person because you want it, because it's social justice, then you're rejecting the American and Western view of justice.
00:24:50.000It was widely written about in ancient Greece between Socrates and Plato and Aristotle.
00:24:56.000And of course, the Bible is a document, is a, I believe, the living word of God, but even if you don't believe that, a document that really asks the question of justice.
00:25:06.000And eventually the question is, you're going to get something you don't deserve, which in the Christian world is eternal life, forgiveness, mercy, reconciliation, which is communion with the divine.
00:25:17.000The founders realize that no matter even if you have TikTok and Twitter and cross-country flights, you could put on oculus goggles and with really fast cars, human beings don't change.
00:25:32.000The other side in our country don't believe this.
00:25:34.000They say, wait a second, if we can discover so much using science, if we can vaccinate people, if we can reprogram genetic code, then who's to say we can't change human beings?
00:25:49.000We believe, and the founders believe, that not only are you a mind, not only are you a body, but you are a soul.
00:25:58.000The founding fathers built a government on the earthly belief of a trinity, not the Christian belief of a trinity, of mind, body, and soul.
00:26:12.000What does a properly sold individual look like?
00:26:14.000What kind of government do you want to live in?
00:26:17.000And what is the moral right for government?
00:26:19.000And that's an important thing is the founders, and we as conservatives believe this, made a moral argument for government.
00:26:26.000They said, here's what you deserve as a human being.
00:26:30.000You deserve the ability to pursue virtue.
00:26:32.000You deserve the ability to speak your mind, to come in at least what your view of a commune is or communion, I should say, with your creator.
00:26:42.000And we see existential threats to the Constitution every single day.
00:26:48.000We are seeing existential threats to the Constitution of the promise of the founders on the southern border right now, where there's 8,200 illegals on the southern border from Nicaragua?
00:28:08.000And what I'm being told is border agents on the ground are completely overwhelmed, completely overmanned, and they need a lot of help right now because that situation is getting worse literally by the hour with more migrants streaming in every single minute.
00:28:21.000So I'm told they came from boat to Mexico to then illegally come into America.
00:28:29.000And do you know that many of the illegals that are coming into America are not being forced to get vaccinated?
00:28:34.000But if your child goes to college, they're going to be forced to get vaccinated.
00:28:41.000On this Constitution Day, it's important to remember what James Madison wrote as one of the chief restraints that we must put on Congress and the ruling class.
00:28:53.000James Madison wrote, the vigilant and manly spirit which actuates the people of America is a spirit which nourishes freedom.
00:29:02.000If this spirit shall ever diminish as to tolerate a law not obligatory on the legislature, the people will be prepared to tolerate anything but liberty.
00:29:13.000We live under many laws that do not apply to elected officials.
00:29:17.000The vaccine mandate does not apply to members of Congress, but it does to your child.
00:29:25.000It might to you work somewhere even in a manufacturing plant, police officer.
00:29:30.000If we have any hope to preserve liberty, we must look to the founders and say they said no special carve-outs, no special exemptions.
00:29:40.000But the genius of the Constitution when it comes to this illegal immigration problem restrained Joe Biden, who tried to overturn the Remain in Mexico policy.
00:29:50.000The states, remember, the states created the federal government.
00:29:53.000The federal government did not create the states, don't have the ability, the courts do not have the ability to overturn it.
00:29:59.000So now we have 10,000 to 12,000 people huddled outside our border, not inside it.
00:30:33.000And they knew that without a moral and religious and righteous people, this idea of a republic, and we are not a democracy, we are a republic, will fall apart.
00:32:43.000They have a whole course on theology 101.
00:32:46.000How about on the Greek wars, Athens and Sparta, Winston, Churchill, and statesmanship?
00:32:51.000These are free of charge, amazingly rigorous courses that will get you to appreciate the country, what it means to be a human being, where our rights come from at k12.hillsdale.edu.
00:33:07.000Hillsdale, we are so honored to partner with them on the Charlie Kirk Show.
00:33:11.000Our children deserve to be taught the truth through a sound curriculum created by teachers, not bureaucrats, and uphold the dignity of each individual.
00:33:21.000So download the 1776 curriculum right now, and you yourself should at least carve out 20 minutes a day to try and learn something new.
00:33:29.000These courses can be downloaded, they could be podcasts, and there's little tests after them to make sure that you are comprehending what you are learning.
00:33:37.000And about after 10 courses, you get your certificate.
00:33:39.000It's one of the coolest feelings in the world.
00:33:41.000You feel like you are retaining that knowledge and you have a better understanding of what's happening in America.
00:33:46.000Download Hillsdale 1776 curriculum for free at k12.hillsdale.edu.
00:34:24.000If teachers teach the opposite, they don't know what they're talking about.
00:34:27.000By their creator with certain unalienable rights by their creator.
00:34:31.000You see, the Founding Fathers understood a naturally ordered hierarchy of rights and rights giver, of people and creator, that are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
00:34:41.000That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.
00:35:10.000Thomas Jefferson is saying it takes permission, and the Constitution answers these questions.
00:35:14.000The Constitution goes into this and says, you know what, you do have these natural rights, and we're going to assemble a government that allows you to do these things because you naturally are able to do these things.
00:35:27.000It's a completely different form of government than you'll find in the European project.
00:35:30.000It's a completely different form of government than you'll find in most other countries.
00:35:39.000Gratitude is something that so many people in our nation are missing.
00:35:45.000Our country would have already been disassembled by now if it wasn't for the founders giving us the tools they gave us in the United States Constitution.
00:35:54.000Still to this day, there is an all-out assault through the bureaucracies, through the progressives, from academia, to the tech companies, to the corporate tyrants to crush the United States Constitution.
00:36:06.000This Constitution is what stands between us and them.
00:36:10.000And the Constitution is only powerful if we decide to use it.
00:36:16.000The Constitution allows the sovereignty of the people to continue and to exist.
00:36:20.000The story of America, as we look back at the peaks and at the summits of American history, we stand in admiration and awe and with gratitude to Hamilton and Madison and Jay and Franklin and Gubiner Morris, too, who's a very interesting founder.
00:36:56.000Spend an hour or two a day reading the Federalist Papers, knowing where our founder stood on these issues, knowing the tools at your disposal, knowing your rights that are not given by the Constitution, not given by government, it's given by God.
00:37:09.000This is just your shield against earthly threats against naturally given rights of expression, of congregation.
00:37:17.000There are threats, both foreign and domestic, against the U.S. Constitution, but I'm here to tell you that the threats against the Constitution are mostly domestic right now.
00:37:27.000We must continue to stand up against them, stand for citizenship, and be thankful.
00:37:32.000So I want to say thank you to the founding fathers who walked out that old Pennsylvania State House on September 17, 1787, for giving us a gift.