The Brion McClanahan Show

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Is history a social science? No. In fact, the social sciences are the enemy of both history and tradition. I explain in this episode of The Brion McClanahan Show, the last of 2018.

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com I get this all the time: "Okay, Lincoln didn't go to war to free the slaves, but without slavery, the South wouldn't have seceded and therefore Lincoln would not have gone to war to prevent secession. No slavery, no war." This is an important and nuanced argument, but one that misses several important pie...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com December 11, 2018, a date which will go down as one of the single greatest examples of modern political stupidity but perhaps the best example of political theatre in the modern age, the Donald, Nancy, Chuck, and Mike Show. This episode episod of the Brion McClanahan SHow covers the glorious meeting, incl...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Heavy metal music was invented by Western Civilization. I know to some people this might be sacrilege, but it's true. It could not have been made without it, and it embodies urban white working class society. It also was a hearty reaction to the Cold War and the prospect of mutual assured destruction. I d...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Former Representative John Dingall recently wrote an op-ed for The Atlantic in which he proposed to, among other idiotic measures, abolish the Electoral College and the Senate. Yes, because Progressives really believe in "minority" rights. But this is instructive. We should know who these people are and w...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com George H.W. Bush is dead, long live George H.W. Bush. Might as well say it. We have an elected king. The overkill in our public mourning proves it. This was created and now perpetuated by the Republican Party, and we have strayed so far from our republican principles the founding generation would be spinn...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Was John F. Kennedy a conservative? I get this question a lot, and I have been asked several times to do an episode on JFK. The wait is over. Short answer, yes Kennedy would be a modern "establishment conservative," but that isn't saying much. It is, in fact, a criticism. I take on Kennedy the president,...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com It has become a cottage industry to compare Donald Trump with the "worst" presidents in American history, among them Andrew Johnson. The comparison is apparently easy. Both men were and are, in the words of a recent op-ed, "unpopular and unfit." Is this true? More importantly, was Johnson any different fr...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Dust off your black cockle hat and buckle shoes and get ready to celebrate the first Thanksgiving in Pilgrim style! Or not, because the Pilgrim event in 1621 wasn't close to the first Thanksgiving. That honor would go to the Spanish in Florida and the English in Virginia. What happened? If the glorious Pi...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Remember when children's television had a fairly traditional message? Me neither, at least not in the last decade. Everyone's a princess, and the "princes" are all bad guys. It hasn't always been this way, and there is at least one modern film that bucks this trend. I discuss modern children's entertainme...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Nationalism presents a real problem in American politics. The razor thing majorities in federal elections means that half the population will use the power of government to abuse the other half of the population. Winner take all and elections have consequences. The founding generation designed a system th...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Donald Trump is a Confederate and Alexander Hamilton invented America. I learned both last week while sorting through my email. Several people sent me a piece from the Guardian that claims Trump is nothing more than a reincarnation of the Confederacy while Prager U. published a short video on how we live...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Did you survive the most important election of our lifetime? I thought that was two years ago, or perhaps ten years ago. Regardless, one thing is certain: big government was going to win no matter which party controlled the general government. But what about thinking locally and acting locally? There were...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Nationalism has become the new political pejorative. According to such geniuses like Alyssa Milano and Sarah Silverman, nationalism equals Nazi. And the young minds of mush believe it. This is a strange development but par for the course in the age of social media. If they'll eat Tide Pods....Regardless,...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Donald Trump is the most important political figure of the early 21st century. No one else has been able to turn the political discussion on a dime like Trump, and that discussion quickly turned to immigration and the 14th Amendment on October 30, just days after everyone was talking about political viole...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Does the general government have the authority to get involved in the horrible mass murder in PA? Short answer: No. Had the founding generation thought otherwise, the Constitution would not have been ratified. There are countless examples from the early federal period that point to opposition to federal o...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Hillary Clinton tweeted that the progressives need to start using the States to protect their citizens. Sounds a lot like nullification. Is Hillary a closet "neo-confederate?" The progressives have become more interested in real federalism since Trump won the 2016 election. Their dedication may be fleetin...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com We've all been told by the "actual historians" that Confederate monuments were erected to perpetuate "white supremacy." Unfortunately for these "actual historians," they have no evidence. In fact, the primary documents point to an entirely different conclusion. The Oak Woods monument in Chicago proves the...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://learntruehistory.com The progressives want to kill the Electoral College. This isn't really new, but why is the bizarre part. They say it is a vestige of slavery. This is one of the more idiotic positions in a list of idiotic positions. The Electoral College had nothing to do with slavery, nor is it "racist." I discuss in th...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com Kanye West stirred the pot recently with his visit to the White House and an earlier social media post calling for the "repeal of the 13th Amendment." The progressives haven't been this upset with an African-American visiting the White House since Booker T. Washington dined with Teddy Roosvelt in the earl...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com I find tradition to be a fascinating topic, and no modern show better explores the subject than the British hit Downton Abbey. There are so many areas to discuss--paternalism, class, economics, manners, sport--that a quick podcast does not do it justice, but I wanted to whet your appetite and get you to b...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support https://learntruehistory.com Should we admire Andrew Jackson? Brad Birzer of Hillsdale College says yes, and I generally agree. I have written two chapters on Jackson, once in my Politically Incorrect Guide to Real American Heroes, and once in my 9 Presidents Who Screwed Up America. Brad has done a service to Jackson's reputation an...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com I have argued that repealing the 17th Amendment would be a step in the right direction for restoring federalism in America, but would it be sufficient? Some "conservatives" stop there, thinking that once the 17th is gone, the States would wrest control of the government from the bureaucrats and bring some...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com What did the founding generation want and expect from the executive branch? Did they desire an elected king? And did Americans following that generation think the American presidency should have the powers of a monarch? The answer is unequivocally no. The Congress was designed to be the most powerful bran...

https://mcclanahanacademy.com https://brionmcclanahan.com/support http://learntruehistory.com John McCain's death and Donald Trump's subsequent snub have sparked a moderate debate over how to properly remember a political adversary. I believe no one did this better than Daniel Webster after John C. Calhoun's death in 1850, but of course the circumstances were different as was the character and leg...