Defending American Exceptionalism

This episode discusses some key events in the past month or so that have worked to change the political landscape and upend the election. From concerns about President Biden's competence to an assassination attempt against former President and Presidential Candidate, Donald Trump, to important Supreme Court decisions, things have certainly changed since Spring. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode relies primarily on the words of our country's founders to explain why it is so very important to support, defend, and fight for this very exceptional nation and the foundation on which it rests. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode discusses the two party system and the current status of the nominees of each party for the office of President. Never before have there been so many issue related to the law or the candidates' competence and the choice voters have this year is one that offers two starkly different options, but where does that leave America in the long term? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

Where once students young minds could explore all kinds of ideas and debate them with their peers, today's educational environment if one of stilted speech, censorship of ideas, and a failing experiment in indoctrination that will serve only to be the downfall of future generations if we cannot turn the tide very soon. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode considers the instability in the Middle East as just one example of the risks posed to the United States from abroad and why effective border control and immigration policy is critical if we hope to preserve our own freedom and security, at home and elsewhere. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode explores the foreign policy failings of the Biden Administration, especially given recent events in the Middle East. From the attacks on Israel to the unabashed threats being made by the likes of North Korea, the current Administration is on a path of weakness and not strength, risking the national security of the country. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

Why do things seem so hostile, so uncivilized, and so extreme in the world of politics? This episode explores some recent events that appear to be examples of extremism in American politics and then discusses how the term extremism may be being misused in some cases, not others. It also explores how we have exchanged any core ideology in ourselves and our officials - by characterizing any commitment to such principles as extreme - for appearances and power. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode discusses the history of the lack of term limits contained in the original Constitution, how we came to limit Presidents to two terms, and modern pushes for additional term limits on members of Congress and even the Supreme Court. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode provides a brief discussion of some of the recent news stories I have found most interesting, from the absurd to the troubling to the encouraging, these stories shed light on the state of society and remind us how important it is to stay informed. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode is a first real look at the various candidates running for President in 2024, what is at stake in this election, and what considerations voters may want to make when deciding whether to back a particular candidate. The episode also hopes to remind listeners that the President is not in a position to solve all of the nation's problems, nor should he be. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

After every large scale natural disaster, calls are made to reform and fix the agencies and plans of our emergency response. Often the focus is on the federal response, when the primary response for such events rests with those closest to the disaster - state and local officials and organizations. This episode explores how emergency response efforts require coordination among various agencies and departments across jurisdictional lines. Where natural disasters cannot be fully and accurately predicted, it is also time to start considering what risks we take - as individuals and as communities - when we knowingly put ourselves in areas known to be at risk for such disasters. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode explores the due process clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment and the issues created when the courts or legislature attempt to read into the Constitution some implied body of fundamental rights they call substantive due process. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode discusses the history of the U.S. Department of Labor and the laws enacted, primarily beginning in the New Deal and continuing to today, that interfere with the rights of individual employees to bargain for their own labor, under the terms most important to them. Without the ability freely and voluntarily to demand what you think your own labor is worth or to pay what labor is worth to an employer, employment becomes just another area where government interference fails to achieve any purported goals for it, while causing harm to economic freedom. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

Expanding on the prior episode's discussion of property rights and the critical part they play in protecting our liberty, this episode discusses some of the confusion the courts have created in deciding cases where citizens challenge government action related to property. The episode also points out the infringement of our rights to our own labor and the property we acquire through it that occurs with government wealth redistribution programs and other regulatory actions. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode focuses on America's founders' view of the essential place property rights have in any free society. Without the right to both acquire and possess property, we cannot be independent of our government and we cannot truly achieve liberty. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode discusses the history of affirmative action, key Supreme Court decisions addressing racial preferences, and what the most recent case involving racially-based admissions decisions at Harvard College and the University of North Carolina means for our chance to achieve a truly color blind society. Where the actual realities of racial preferences prove they harm everyone involved, why are so many so determined that these programs continue? --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

The truth is out there, but how do we find it. And, how will we know when we do find it. Media has evolved over centuries and no longer are town criers or regularly published newspapers primary sources of information and news. As more ways to get and share information emerge, it becomes harder to know what sources to trust and how to ensure the information you are receiving is accurate. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

It seems today our federal government spends a lot more time talking about issues that shouldn't concern it and not much time informing us how it is responding to, or addressing, threats and concerns that fall within its constitutional purview. This episode scratches the surface of discussing how ours is now a government with the wrong priorities, a situation that puts at risk our national security and stability. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

History and modern economic data indicate that smaller governments allow for more economic growth. Small, limited government is also the type of government created by our founders, as evidenced by our founding documents. Today, however, government is so large that a return to small government may no longer be feasible - at least not in the short term or even a generation - but some restriction and reduction in size and cost of government is necessary if it is going to be able to focus on its proper duties and if we are not to drown in debt. This episode discusses the affect government growth has on the economy and on viability of our nation. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

Tackling the issue of identity politics and the harm being caused by the Left's insistence that we all be defined and grouped by certain "identities," this episode from early 2021 is just as relevant today, though the number of group identities keeps growing. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

Recorded about 2 years ago from the date of this re-release, discussion of the proper role of our military is never ill-timed. Our service men and women deserve that we recognize its importance and its mission. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

Despite many of the outcries from some segments of society about recent Supreme Court decisions, we all should be thankful for the Court's willingness to step back into its proper role, leaving policy decisions to the political branches and the people. That is what this episode celebrates. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

As this episode from February 2021 explains, judicial activism is dangerous. Judicial activism is dangerous whether it is engaged in by conservative or liberal judges and justices. It is the usurpation of power from the political branches and the people. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

Knowledge of the history of western civilization is a critical part of understanding our world - how it was, how it is, and what we should be seeking to protect and secure in terms of the lessons from our history if we hope to continue the great story of America. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

In January of last year, 2022, this episode tackled the issue of Freedom of Religion, pointing out that we have turned into more of an anti-religious culture than one that truly honors the freedom freely to exercise one's religious beliefs. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode - originally published in April 2021 - focuses on the shift leftward by our educational institutions and the pattern of indoctrination that emerged through the 20th and into the 21st century. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

During the break from new episodes, each week will feature a re-release of a prior episode. This one - only the second episode of this podcast (originally published in early 2021) - discusses Free Speech. Though it is clear our production quality has improved, the substance of this episode is still of utmost importance today. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

The principles that form the underpinning for the creation of the United States are as enduring as they are unique in the world. This episode digs a little more deeply into the founders views on human nature and knowledge of past governments that resulted in the intricately woven system we have today. No matter any personal faults of those who created this nation, efforts to cast aside these founding principles - and the values and morals that instruct them - would be a sure step toward collapse. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode discusses the key cause of any societal decline and collapse and uses that framework to address just a sampling of issues facing America today to stress the need to return to a shared set of principles consistent with our own social contract, the U.S. Constitution. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode takes a quick look at the governmental system of Russia and China to evaluate how the inner workings of these countries sit in direct opposition to true freedom and democracy and how their joint focus on lessening the power of the United States poses not only a national security threat but a threat to freedom everywhere. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode focuses on the current investigation by the Manhattan D.A.'s Office and the grand jury in New York into the money paid to Stormy Daniels by someone tied to Donald Trump. Regardless of one's view of the former President, the way in which criminal prosecutions are being used more to target one's political allies or to score points with a prosecutor's political colleagues is a troubling trend. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode discusses the recent collapses of Silicon Valley and Signature Banks, why these banks failed, what it means for the rest of the banking industry, and what is really going on in today's economy. Where our federal government continues to spend money it doesn't have in the face of any perceived impending crisis, is the real crisis really what will happen when our national debt load finally reaches the point of posing a true national emergency. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode builds on the prior one about the United States' federalist system to highlight some policy areas being discussed at the state and local levels and legislation being adopted. A brief survey of some of the more noteworthy legal enactments in our states will hopefully spark the interest in listeners to pay more attention to what is going on right in their own communities and to play a role in influencing those very important policy decisions. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode addresses the importance of our federalist system. In a time where we seem willingly to have ceded power to the federal government to solve all problems, it may be time to consider the genius of our founders in reserving most power to the states and the people in order to limit the authority and size of the national government. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode briefly discusses the text and history of the Fourth Amendment in order to put in perspective current issues, related to new technologies and other changes in society, to consider how best to protect from government overreach into our lives. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode focuses on some recent headlines to discuss how truly bizarre the current state of our society is. From Chinese spy balloons to harmful school curricula, the absurdity of today's news should be a wake up call for any of us who seek to protect, not only our freedoms, but our place in the world as a society positioned to lead when it comes to our systems and culture. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode discusses recently enacted or proposed gun control measures and the continued failure by gun control advocates to address the real root cause of gun crime, choosing instead the overly simplistic and often unconstitutional option of disarming law abiding citizens in violation of the Second Amendment. The episode also gives hope to protections of our freedom through gun ownership by acknowledging those states that have taken steps to ensure guns are only kept out of the hands of criminals. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

An introduction to what categories of information can be classified and by whom, this episode seeks to serve as a catalyst to further discussion of whether our system of classification needs revision, whether there is a real problem of over-classification of information, and how concerned we should be when classified documents continue to be located in less than secure areas controlled by our former and current officials. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode discusses the history of political parties in the United States, the founders' - particularly James Madisons' - distaste for them, and the inevitability that people will always organize themselves into factions. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

As with the prior episode, but with the other major party, this episode traces the roots of the Democratic Party and follows its evolution toward policies and priorities that may be more socialist than they are truly democratic. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode takes the recent headlines decrying discord among Republicans and presents a different perspective given the history of the party, what it once stood for, and where it may have gone astray. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode continues discussion of individuals who contributed to the greatness of the United States. From explorers to lawmen of the wild west and from abolitionists to inventors, Americans have risen to do the unimaginable in all kinds of ways. This holiday season, I wanted to be sure to discuss just a handful of these people to focus more on the positive than the negative, and to remind us all that though America is not perfect, it is the most perfect union created and one that needs us to come together not divide ourselves if we wish for her to endure. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode explores just a handful of stories of American heroism around the time of the American Revolution. From small acts that had large impacts to men whose greatness far out shadowed any personal flaws to change the course of history, the episode strives to highlight how important it is to give credit to the founding generation, in contrast to so many today who seek to vilify or erase their contributions. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

Acceptance of Socialism is growing. More and more younger Americans view this Marxist economic philosophy in a positive light, without seeming regard for the historical failings and proven errors upon which it is based. This episode discusses what socialism is, the danger of moving more toward this kind of collective economic system, and the seeming ignorance or intentional disregard for the proof - time and time again - that it simply does not work in the real world and leads only to less freedom and government control. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode further explores how our educational system is being used to indoctrinate younger generations in a way that threatens our very future as a powerful nation. From critical race theory to transgenderism to simply focusing more on activism for a favored cause than basic skills, some in control of today's children are more than willing to wield their power to influence them in ways that, with the breakdown of traditional families, could dictate the beliefs of generations to come. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

The results of the 2022 midterm elections highlight that younger generations - both in their large numbers and participation in elections - are key to consistent success. The problem now confronted is that our educational system is dominated by those on one side of the political spectrum, who are determined to ensure that these young voters believe there is only one right idea, only one right opinion, and only one right candidate - the one the Left has preselected for them. We must address this indoctrination, along with the usurpation of power by those in power of our federal government, by increasing local and state participation, which is necessary to get the focus of our schools back on teaching students how to think, not what to think. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This episode provides a down and dirty review of what we know, at this point, happened in the midterm elections of 2022 and what it may mean for the future direction of our local, state, and national governments. The episode also includes some discussion of how certain groups voted and why despite clear shifts to the Republican Party, that party still failed to gain the seats that were predicted at the national level. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

Hardly a day goes by where there is not some new claim that something or someone is threatening our democracy. Most of these claims come from those on the Left, who seem more and more wiling to claim that anyone who believes differently than they do or who dares to question elections or extreme policy agenda items is a threat to our entire nation. While ignoring that we are not a true democracy, this statement is intended only to strike fear in voters in hopes that the Democrats - and particularly the more extreme among them - can continue to grab power away from the people to advance policies that make us less free. And, that truth is the real threat to democracy. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

Every two years - in between presidential elections - we have what are commonly called midterm elections, meaning in the middle of a particular president's term. These midterms are a chance for voters to tell elected officials whether they agree or disagree with the current choices being made by their own officials or by the government as a whole. This episode explores some key races and points out some of the themes each party has been attempting to focus voters upon when making their decisions. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

Polling - or surveying individuals to try to predict outcomes - is not new. When George Gallup attempted to create a scientific method for polling, a new generation of polls appeared and were used to attempt to predict election outcomes. But today, do polls actually provide accurate predictions? Did they ever? And, are they more apt to be used - intentionally or unintentionally - to influence voters rather than merely to gauge a voter's existing opinions? This episode attempts to provide a review of the history of polling and what polling does today. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support

This short episode is an introduction to what is likely to be a controversial issue before too long - whether the United States should launch its own central bank backed digital currency, or CBDC. An Executive Order signed by the President in March directed a number of members of the Administration to look into U.S. digital currency. With the growth of the cryptocurrency market, governments are starting to want a piece of that pie, but with government involvement in digital currency come a lot of risks related to the privacy of individuals. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/solis-veritas/support