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John Adams: American Founder
00:05:05
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| I've been discussing with you the National Anthem and how it is not racist in the PragerU video. | |
| It's a perfect segue into my guest, Brad Thompson, who's a professor of political science at Clemson University. | |
| The latest PragerU video was on John Adams. | |
| It's a good example of just learning. | |
| You know, a great many of our videos, like the National Anthem, it is not political. | |
| It's just pure. | |
| Education, even the political or pure education. | |
| Anyway, it's called John Adams, American Founder and Second President. | |
| By the way, Brad Thompson, I just want to tell you, you do a great job presenting your video. | |
| And I don't say that to everybody. | |
| I mean, we're proud of every video, but you're... | |
| You're a good-looking man. | |
| I know it's the last thing you expected me to tell you. | |
| And you've come across great. | |
| I just wanted you to know that. | |
| Well, thank you very much. | |
| It was great fun and a great honor to do. | |
| So how do you know so much about John Adams? | |
| Well, I actually wrote a doctoral dissertation on John Adams at Brown University, and my first book, John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty, is the culmination of many years of research. | |
| Oh, fascinating. | |
| Do you teach American history at Clemson? | |
| Oh, fascinating. | |
| Now, what is the story at Clemson politically? | |
| Well, I think Clemson is one of the few sane universities left in the United States. | |
| So the woke social justice warrior crowd really doesn't have a significant presence at the university. | |
| The university is, I think, still... | |
| A university that's dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and truth. | |
| And so relative to most other universities, it's, I think, one of the very best institutions of higher learning in the country. | |
| God, another reason to move to South Carolina. | |
| Indeed. | |
| And I'm a big fan of your state as it happens. | |
| How do you explain it? | |
| Why is Clemson an outlier? | |
| Well, I think it all begins with the student body. | |
| I mean, I think the student body at Clemson University, which is an international student body and lots of students from around the country, but the majority of students, or close to a majority, would be from South Carolina. | |
| And the way of life here is still dedicated to traditional manners and mores. | |
| And certainly where we are, I would say that most South Carolinians are proud Americans and very proud of America's heritage and tradition. | |
| Wow. | |
| There you go. | |
| That's what I suspected. | |
| Yeah. | |
| And I should also add, by the way, that the university administration at Clemson University is also... | |
| dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and truth. | |
| And I run an institute at the university called the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism. | |
| And you can imagine how that would go over at most universities. | |
| But Clemson may be the only university in America that would not only tolerate, but actually give us a great deal of moral support. | |
| So, you know, I pinch myself every day when I drive into work. | |
| Thinking that I teach at one of the few remaining universities in the United States that is still an intellectually serious place. | |
| It's good to know. | |
| I'm very happy I asked you about that. | |
| So I'm curious about John Adams. | |
| Ironically, I just finished last year a gigantic book, a biography on John Quincy Adams, his son. | |
| Obviously, there's a lot of reference to John Adams in there. | |
| How did John Adams get along with George Washington? | |
| I think there was a great deal of mutual respect between Adams and Jefferson. | |
| You mean Adams and Washington? | |
| Oh, I'm sorry. | |
| Adams, yes. | |
| Adams and Washington. | |
| In many ways, I think my position is that John Adams was... | |
| America's greatest founding father, and this is a demonstrable fact. | |
| Wow, hold on with me. | |
| That's a big deal because I venerate the founders. | |
| That's the latest video. | |