Various people have asked for a video of my debate this week at the Virginia Military Institute over the question of whether “the U.S. is experiencing a constitutional crisis.” I want to thank again the Steamboat Institute and our moderator, Kaylee McGhee White, for facilitating this important debate. I also want to express my gratitude to Professor Daniel Farbman, the McHale Faculty Research Scholar at Boston College Law School, who offered a substantive and civil case for the existence of a constitutional crisis. I have great respect for him and his academic work.
One of the bonuses of participating in the debate was the appearance of our blog editor, Kristin Oren, her husband, Brandon, and their friends. Kristin showed great restraint in not doing a live edit of my remarks during the debate. She also took some snaps of VMI and Washington & Lee that I wanted to share with you in case you have not visited the historic town of Lexington.
I could not recommend a visit to Lexington more highly. It is a wonderful town filled with friendly people and historic sites. It proved the perfect place for the debate.
While negative position prevailed in the initial (54%) and final vote (70%) in the debate, Professor Farbman offered a spirited case for a crisis. Here are the results of the vote:
The Washington Examiner’s Kaelan Deese covered the event.
Here is the video: The VMI Debate
Thank you for sharing the video of your debate.
You might be interested to know that there is an award-winning books for young readers that is set at the VMI during the Civil War. See especially the author’s postscript on her research at the Institute.
https://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Cadet-Paperbacks-Elaine-Alphin/dp/0590452444
“While spending his summer vacation at his grandmother’s old Virginia home, Benjy Stark meets the ghost of a Virginia Military Institute cadet who died at the Battle of New Market during the Civil War.” Reprint.
Yeah, sure, we’ve got masked paramilitaries snatching people off the street. But we’ve always had that. Haven’t we..??
The guy lost me when he started talking about speedboats with three large engines. Fishing boats don’t need to go fifty miles an hour. Fishing boats also have iced holds where the catch is stored to illuminate spoilage. It’s only cocaine from Venezuela they say. Tell it to the families of loved ones whose lives have been ruined by cocaine addiction. Innocent fisherman he says. How can such an educated man be so naive. Then again, it could be just another nefarious argument.