good afternoon, everyone. first off, i d like to thank the clermont institute for sponsoring this panel and for sponsoring all of its panels here at the american political science association, and thanks to all of you for coming to hear whether congress is still dysfunctional. i suspect you already know the answer to the question, but maybe we ll provide a fuller background and explanation about what s going on these days on capitol hill. it s no secret to political scientists that congress is a mess. it s no secret to the members of congress that congress is a mess. and nor is it a secret to the american people that congress is a mess. routinely, congress polls very poorly when people are asked whether they approve of the job it s doing, and this trend is bipartisan whether democrats or republicans control congress, most people assign it a failing grade. the trend is also long standing. over the past decade congress has not once achieved an approval rating above 30%. it wa
... captioning performed by vitac and if you re curious, i even have the video to prove it, i m not making this up. this was one of those moments where as a parent i thought, yes, something i said mattered, something i said made a difference. why is it so important to focus on this? why does this matter to me? why do i believe it should matter to all americans? well, as justice scalia used to say justice scalia, by the way, who loved him? [ applause ] we lost him just over three years ago and we miss him very much, but one of the things he used to say is any ten-horned dictator around the world can have a bill of rights, but whether or not it s able to protect you, to protect any individual, depends on the extent to which that system of government constrains those in power and prevents them from accumulating excessive power. now, you ve heard a lot about this accumulation of power in recent days and all of a sudden on the left we see a magical r
2.9 million. things that lean to the right, people just respond to it. twice i think that case could be made. ok, that s i think that case can be made. ok, great. [laughter] i think the point that fred made, let s call a closet conservatives. it is harder sometimes to talk about the many hallways then it is to watch it on your tv. i think that is true. i think that is something that starts unfortunately sometimes with education in this country, slanted in my opinion in a different direction then maybe i would want it, especially in higher education. kind of people grow up afraid to maybe speak out for their values in an open session. it is like family films. frozen just passed $1 billion in the box office. the family films, for the most part, they make a lot of money. if you are a businessman, it would seem to me that that is where you would apply your wares. your finances behind more family films, but they are not there. i think we also see a lot of focused o
marriage? i believe the 13th amendment incorporates the bill of rights to all states and that the freedom of association through marriage, as the supreme court a,s set in loving v. virgini we dealt with this issue with interracial marriage different question. the fact of the color of one s skin is a coincidence. the difference between a male and female a something that is self evident and obvious that we need to deal with. that is part of the human condition. part of liberty is figuring out how we as humans who disagree and have the passions and a governor along ourselves. that is where we have constitutionalism, to figure out how we do this. we don t force people to live the way we want to live. i am suggesting to that the way the federal government what the federal government is doing now, rapidly because of judges, will upend every social institution in this country, and that kind of revelatory change is something the conservatives and libertarians should all be op