Video, lecture at the Commonwealth Club, June 10, 2015.

Charles Murray, W.H. Brady Scholar, American Enterprise Institute; Author, By the People: Rebuilding Liberty Without Permission

David Davenport, Research Fellow, Hoover Institution — Moderator

Part of the American Value Series. Underwritten by the Koret Foundation.

Is American freedom being gutted? Acclaimed social scientist and bestselling author Charles Murray says we can no longer hope to roll back the power of the federal government through the normal political process. By his count, the Constitution is broken in ways that cannot be fixed even by a sympathetic Supreme Court, our legal system is increasingly lawless and unmoored from traditional ideas of “the rule of law,” and the legislative process has become systemically corrupt no matter which party is in control.

By the People’s hopeful message is that rebuilding our traditional freedoms does not require electing a right-thinking Congress or president, nor does it require five right-thinking justices on the Supreme Court. Instead, Murray argues that that rebuilding can be done by the American people, using America’s unique civil society to put government back in its box.

Online:
Commonwealth Club/YouTube