The Brion McClanahan Show Podcast

Is the War Powers Act of 1973 unconstitutional? John Bolton thinks so and Tweeted as much. Donald Trump immediately praised the move, and Republicans for several decades have called for its repeal. They are all right, but not for their stated reasons. The War Powers Act of 1973 is unconstitutional because it grants TOO much power to the president, not because it limits his “constitutional …more

Were the antifederalists “antifederalist”? The short answer: no. The long answer, at least according to some historians, it’s complicated. Aaron Coleman had a great book review at Law and Liberty that tackles this question and more, so I decided to cover both his review and the topic in detail. This is the intellectual ammunition you need for “think locally, act locally.”

Donald Trump ordered a drone strike on Iranian General Soleimani in Iraq and in the process created a potential crisis in the Middle East. What was an Iranian general doing in Iraq? The parliament in Iraq subsequently passed a resolution asking the United States to vacate at once which has led to a conflict in the Trump administration. Trump promised to get the United States …more

Dozens of counties in Virginia have declared themselves to be “Second Amendment Sanctuary” zones in anticipation of new gun control restrictions next year. This has led to a potential showdown between the State government and the people of Virginia. Can these counties do this? Is this constitutional? And is there a historic precedent for this? I tackle all of these issues in the last episode …more

Paul Gottfried has edited a new collection of essays on conservatism. It hits the shelves in July. That is all you should need to know before pre-ordering it. Without even cracking open the cover, you know it will be a double-barrelled assault on neoconservatism. That alone makes it worthwhile. David Gordon reviewed the book at LewRockwell.com. I talk Gordon, Gottfried, and neoconservatism in this episode …more

Paul Volcker died recently. Most Americans have never heard of him, but he almost single-highhandedly ended the “stagflation” crisis of the 1970s. How? As Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Volcker jacked up interest rates even though the short term pain would be substantial. It was, but the crisis ended and the dollar stabilized. We are facing a potentially similar crisis in the 2020s, except this …more

If you watched Spielberg’s Lincoln, then you undoubtedly know that the prevailing myth has Lincoln pushing for the 13th Amendment, so much so in fact that he was unwilling to compromise when he secretly met with Southern representatives in Hampton Roads in February 1865. Except this isn’t  true. Paul Escott blew this narrative up before Spielberg produced Lincoln and yet he continued with the myth …more

The nerve of those grassroot Republicans. A recent poll said that a majority of Republicans think Trump is a better president than Honest Abe. You might guess what happened next. Every Lincoln cultist on the Right and Left went nuts. The lefties responded by calling these people idiots who just want to have slaves. The Lincoln worshipers on the right were aghast at the cult-like …more

Adam Schiff released his long awaited report on impeachment, and as expected it is full of hypocritical talking points and short on concrete evidence of any impeachable offenses, at least in regard to foreign policy. I found the report laughable. The next morning, legal scholar Jonathan Turley made available his prepared statements to the House Judiciary Committee. It is a devastating blow to the impeachment …more

The neoconservatives would have you believe that Abraham Lincoln was a conservative. This is blatantly false, but alas the myth persists. A new piece at the Kirk Center doubles down on the narrative. Lincoln, it seems, was not just a conservative, but a Burkean conservative. I discuss this lunacy in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.