The Brion McClanahan Show Podcast

Over my vacation last week I received an email chain debating secession. One participant claimed that not only did the Constitution explicitly forbid secession, the founding generation thought it was illegal as well. For evidence, he cited a couple of lines from the Federalist and an incorrectly cited quote from George Washington’s letter to the Congress dated September 17, 1787. As they say, the devil is …more

Several people emailed me a link to an article on Mises.org over the Thanksgiving week concerning tariffs and the “civil war” [sic]. The author of the article, Chris Carlton, does a nice job with his podcast and is a thoughtful fellow, but he gets several things wrong, most importantly the real reason the North and South were at odds for nearly eighty years before the …more

Tom Fleming at the Fleming Foundation recently wrote several posts on social media about tradition. This was a Socratic exercise in defining tradition and other political terms with the goal of finding a deeper understanding of the “ism” of tradition. As Dr. Fleming illustrates, tradition and ideology are incompatible, but nevertheless are often lumped together. That said, what is the value of tradition and does …more

Tariffs are one of the more contentious issues in American history. The debate over their necessity and constitutionality begins in the period leading to the American War for Independence and has continued unabated since. They were a key ingredient in the “sectional conflict” and men both North and South questioned whether they were necessary or constitutional. I provide two examples in this episode of the …more

One common critique of Southern secession centers on the argument that it was a rich man’s effort without any support from the rest of the South, or that less wealthy Southerners were duped into supporting a war for “rich men.” Both of these arguments are false, and I explain why in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

Kirkpatrick Sale is the leading authority on the discussion and study of size and scale in government. His 1980 book “Human Scale” is, in many respects, the basis of the “Think locally, Act locally” message. I discuss his conclusions, a new edition of his book, and the importance of small is beautiful on this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show.

This show is a little different because I discuss a historical subject without any contemporary commentary. This is all history, but I do approach it from a decidedly different perspective. There are some misconceptions about the Indian Removal Act and the several “Trail of Tears” that followed along with a misunderstanding of John Marshall’s motives in separate SCOTUS decisions. This one is chock full of …more

Establishment historians have a new reason to throw a temper tantrum: General John Kelly. Kelly was the first guest on the new Laura Ingraham Angle on Fox News and according to these “actual historians,” he stepped in it. Kelly had the audacity to call Robert E. Lee a great man and to opine that the War could have been avoided. This led to a Washington …more

The Radical Republicans were fond of a constitutional theory known as “state suicide.” Essentially, they believed that when the Southern States seceded from the Union, the State committed suicide and thus reverted to territorial status. This leads to several interesting legal and philosophical questions, not the least of which is what is an American State? I discuss this in detail in this episode of The …more

With all of the attention Hollywood has been getting in recent weeks, I thought it would be good to do a show on the problems of Hollywierd and what they represent in modern America. It is not just about Harvey Weinstein or a “lack of creativity,” it is part and parcel of the culture war taking place in America today. It is a lack of …more