Show Summary: This week, it’s about rediscovering America, with Scott Powell, who authored the book, Rediscovering America: How the National Holidays Tell an Amazing Story about Who We Are.
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Original Air Dates: February 12th & 13th, 2022 | Guests: Scott Powell
This show looks at how we got to America’s present condition (hint: Marxists) and a look at how we start to climb out of this (hint #2: we need to remember why America is worth fighting for). Scott Powell has been a fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution and is currently senior fellow at Discovery Institute.
We discuss how America has fallen — and how we do we get it back? Would the Founders recognize the chaos of today? After all, they fought off their own tyranny. Although that was the King, an ocean away; not right here in the halls of our own government.
David Horowitz: “Scott Powell has made a major contribution in the research and writing of Rediscovering America, providing substantive reason for hope and confidence in the midst of troubled times. It may be the first book written in the history genre that lays out the progressive and redemptive course that is America’s greatest legacy.”
Why has America Lost Its Way?
We also talk with him about how our rapid material success as a country was not equaled by a similar and equal rapid progress in spiritual or social progress. This is very much a spiritual war we are going through, not just one of laws and regulations and elections.
And why aren’t the checks and balances—so carefully crafted by our Founding Fathers—not working right now?
“This book was written to defeat the enemies of our republic by equipping readers from all walks of life to get connected to the character and accomplishments of their forebears and the arc of redemption that defines our history. Prior generations of Americans who shared a similar greatness of moral vision and believed in the beauty of freedom and equality sacrificed their all that this nation might be protected, guided, and healed. We are called to do no less.”
We also talk corruption and abuse of power rather than institutional or constitutional failure, are the chief causes of decline in America today, and what you can do to help fix this.
Be sure to tune in — it was such an interesting discussion that we plan to have him back around Easter.
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Links & Info
Be sure to order Scott Powell’s book, Rediscovering America. It is available March 8th, 2022, but you can pre-order it today.
Annual 4th of July Show! Getting to the Declaration, It’s Signers
Show Summary: The Declaration of Independence was the third, this-time-we-mean it appeal to the King. We look at the others and why they failed. We often talk about the Founding Fathers but we don’t often talk about the Founding Fathers. What led them to be there? Did you know some weren’t supposed to be there? Join us for this special look into the Signers’ lives, sacred honor, and fortunes—before and after they signed.
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Original Air Dates: June 26 & 27 and July 3rd & 4th, 2021 | Greg Leo
This week: It’s our 11th Annual Fourth of July Show! In the past, our shows focused on celebrating the Fourth of July down through the years and what those celebrations looked like. In the then-frontier of the Midwest. On the Oregon Trail at Independence Rock. The big 50th Anniversary. And, among other things, we’ve looked at the Declaration of Independence itself. The key phrases and the history behind them.
Our guest every year for these annual shows is Greg Leo, a political and business consultant by day but his true love is American history. Especially our early history and the events of our founding.
This year, our special focus is on the previous appeals that led to the final, bold statement: The Declaration of Independence.
Leading up to the Declaration: The Olive Branch Petition
Did you know that the Declaration of Independence was not the first appeal to the King? There were two others that could be considered forerunners to the Declaration. We focus on the Olive Branch Petition.
And we take a look at the First Continental Congress and their two main accomplishments. Do you know whose idea a continental congress was in the first place?
The Second Continental Congress, the same one that sent the Declaration of Independence, sent the Olive Branch Petition to the King, in an attempt to avert war. By then, there had been shots fired and people killed at the battles of Lexington and Concord.
Thomas Jefferson did a first draft but Congress considered it too inflammatory. So they turned to John Dickinson, known as the “penman of the revolution” to soften the tone.
Tune in to hear why it didn’t work. Was it inadvertently sabotaged by one of the Declaration’s signers?
“United”? Not Quite
There were some 65 delegates to the 2nd Continental Congress. But a quick count shows only 56 signers. What happened there?
Well. While we often see the Founding Fathers as a united front, getting there wasn’t easy. And it definitely wasn’t always united. We talk to Greg Leo about the divisions and some delegates who had to be replaced to get to that united.
The Signers of the Declaration of Independence
This year we focus on some of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. We hear about them pledging their lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor. And they really meant it. All of them were truly putting everything on the line.
But what led them to be there?
And did you know that some of them weren’t even supposed to be there? One was a substitute for the serving President of the Second Continental Congress but played a key role in the Declaration itself.
With 56 signers, and only a one-hour show, we couldn’t focus on all of them. But we do focus on:
John Hancock – you know him for his signature. Why so big? But how did this late arrival end up being the President of the Second Continental Congress? Did you know that in many ways he was the Donald Trump of the Revolution?
John Morton – I know. Who? You’ve probably never heard of him but he was the key vote. He was also the first signer to die.
Button Gwinnett — The second signer to die but not from what you might think. This signer embodied the idea of sacred honor.
Samuel Adams — Most people think of him for beer. Except he wasn’t a brewer. What else don’t you know about him? He was
John Adams — A creature of politics and a rival to many. Most famously to Thomas Jefferson over states’ rights vs. powerful federal government. Hear about his intercepted letter.
Thomas Jefferson — The workhorse who wrote most of the Declaration. A complicated and conflicted man for sure but how’d he get to the 2nd Continental Congress in the first place?
Charles Carroll – the very last of the signers of the Declaration of Independence to die. Imagine the changes he saw in the 56 years after the signing.
The I Spy Radio Show Podcast Version
Trapped under a heavy object? Missed the show? Don’t worry—catch the podcast version. I Spy Radio is now available on your favorite platform, or you can grab it right here. See the full list of podcast options.
Links and Info on the Signers of the Declaration
Two terrific sources for more information about the signers:
Learn about the Signers or their wives (via dsdi1776.com)
Joseph Hewes – A successful Businessman who put it all on the line. He was a merchant and had quite a few ships and was the “go-to expert” in Congress for maritime issues. He placed his ships at the service of the Continental Armed Forces. And he served Congress as the Secretary of the Naval Affairs Committee until 1779, when he fell ill.
Thomas Lynch Jr. – He was commissioned a company commander in the South Carolina regiment in 1775. … He fell ill shortly after signing the Declaration and retired from the Congress. At the close of 1776 he and his wife sailed for the West Indies. The ship disappeared and there is no record of his life after.
Richard Stockton – He was captured and tortured: “New Jersey was overrun by the British in November of ’76, when he was returning from the mission. He managed to move his family to safety, but was captured and imprisoned by the British. Originally, he was taken to Perth Amboy where he was jailed. Stockton was then moved to Provost Prison in New York where he was intentionally starved and subjected to freezing cold weather. Died of lip cancer before the war was finished
George Taylor – A bit of a quirky story. He actually arrived too late to vote for independence but signed the Declaration.
John Witherspoon – One of two ministers to sign, though the other (Lyman Hall) was also a physician
