The Republican Professor

The Republican Professor

Striving to seek the truth in all matters because truth is freedom.

  1. 27 APR

    250th Anniversary of the USA Ep. 3: Dr. Charles C. Thach, Ph.D. on The Creation of The Presidency II

    Episode 3 in the series marking the 250th Anniversary of the USA in this second quarter 2026. When the Founders signed their names onto the Declaration of Independence, they were committing a capital crime, and they were signing their own death warrants if they were caught. They took themselves not to be looking for a fight, but rather, refusing any longer to duck the fight that in fact had come to them. And they sought to ground their cause, their reaction, to right reason in the natural law, consistent with Revelation and the Scriptures. They sought to articulate such an argument for their cause in such a way that would be rightly persuasive to any future reader and any of the nations which may inquire as to the source of their actions. Of course, their cause was initially, in large measure, a reaction against Executive Power. But such a war require itself strong Executive Power. Therein lies the rub: how can Executive Power be strong yet consistent with the principles of Liberty ? We're making a fair use, transformative reading and discussion of Charles C. Thach's doctoral dissertation at Johns Hopkins in 1922 called "The Creation of the Presidency, 1775-1789 made available by Liberty Fund INC in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2007. Go out and get your physical copy today. Follow along. We'd like to thank Liberty Fund for making this material available, and we'd like to thank Charles C. Thach for writing it. We are discussing in this second episode of Thach's thought the first third of his second chapter, entitled "State Executive Experience 1776 to 1787," through the top of his page 23. This material was required reading in my Ph.D. program in Public Law and American Politics at The Claremont Colleges. It was used on the 6 hour comprehensive exams (6 hours each) and in a course called The Presidency and the Constitution taught by Joseph M. Bessette, who also served on my dissertation committee many years later. The Republican Professor is a pro-correctly-understanding-the-American-Presidency, anti-grade-inflation-plantation podcast. The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

    1hr 17min
  2. 22 APR

    250th Anniversary of the USA Ep. 2: Dr. Charles C. Thach, Ph.D. on The Creation of The Presidency I

    Episode 2 in the series marking the 250th Anniversary of the USA in this second quarter 2026. When the Founders signed their names onto the Declaration of Independence, they were committing a capital crime, and they were signing their own death warrants if they were caught. They took themselves not to be looking for a fight, but rather, refusing any longer to duck the fight that in fact had come to them. And they sought to ground their cause, their reaction, to right reason in the natural law, consistent with Revelation and the Scriptures. They sought to articulate such an argument for their cause in such a way that would be rightly persuasive to any future reader and any of the nations which may inquire as to the source of their actions. Of course, their cause was initially, in large measure, a reaction against Executive Power. But such a war require itself strong Executive Power. Therein lies the rub: how can Executive Power be strong yet consistent with the principles of Liberty ? We're making a fair use, transformative reading and discussion of Charles C. Thach's doctoral dissertation at Johns Hopkins in 1922 called "The Creation of the Presidency, 1775-1789 made available by Liberty Fund INC in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2007. Go out and get your physical copy today. Follow along. We'd like to thank Liberty Fund for making this material available, and we'd like to thank Charles C. Thach for writing it. This material was required reading in my Ph.D. program in Public Law and American Politics at The Claremont Colleges. It was used on the 6 hour comprehensive exams (6 hours each) and in a course called The Presidency and the Constitution taught by Joseph M. Bessette, who also served on my dissertation committee many years later. The Republican Professor is a pro-correctly-understanding-the-American-Presidency, anti-grade-inflation-plantation podcast. The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

    1hr 13min
  3. 15 APR

    250th Anniversary of the USA Ep. 1: Dr. Martin Diamond, Ph.D. on Reading in an Empire of Mediocrity

    Episode 1 in the series marking the 250th Anniversary of the USA in this second quarter 2026. Martin Diamond channels Alexis de Tocqueville in raging against the grade-inflation machine back before IA, before much of the grade inflation crap got off the ground. We're making a fair use, transformative reading and discussion of Martin Diamond's 1970 "Reading in an Age of Mass Democracy", which is in a section called "'Enclaves of Excellence' and the Study of Politics" as essay number 16, made available by AEI in Washington DC in 1992 in a volume they called "As Far as Republican Principles Will Admit: Essays by Martin Diamond, " edited by William A. Schambra. Diamond would be another one of my intellectual grandfathers, as he mentored, among others, the Chair of my dissertation committee at The Claremont Colleges, Ralph Rossum, who was on the podcast back in 2022 and was the Salvatori Professor of American Constitutionalism at Claremont McKenna College (where Diamond had taught when it was called Claremont Men's College). Diamond had been a product of the University of Chicago as had been Rossum and another one of my committee members, Joseph M. Bessette. Martin Diamond never finished college but talked his way into a masters and Ph.D. at the University of Chicago by his post war-time self-education. Amazing. The Republican Professor is a pro-as-far-as-Republican-Principles-will-admit, anti-age-of-mediocrity, anti-grade-inflation-plantation podcast. The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

    1hr 12min
  4. 11 APR

    Basic Political Philosophy 5: ARISTOTLE on Sparta, Carthage and Citizenship acc. to Harry V. Jaffa

    We continue Jaffa's discussion of Aristotle's Politics, this time finishing his take on Aristotle's Book II and beginning with his take on Aristotle's Book III, in our discussion of an entry in the 1963 Rand McNally publication, edited by Leonard Strauss and Joseph Cropsey, called "History of Political Philosophy." This episode contains discussion of pages 89 thru the top of page 97 covering the first part of Book II of the Politics. That entry on Aristotle is by Harry V. Jaffa, who famously applied his understanding of Political Philosophy to the history of the Republican Party in American politics, and who, as such, influenced me profoundly through my mentors, who were mentored by him. He is thus one of my intellectual grandfathers. We continue our discussion of Harry Jaffa on Aristotle, pp. 89 thru the top of page 97 covering the rest of Book II and beginning his section on Book III of Aristotle's Politics, discussing an entry published the year before the author wrote one of the most infamous (or famous, depending) Aristotelean speeches for 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater (R, AZ). Jaffa also wrote one of the most influential phenomenological comparisons of the Democratic and the Republican parties using classical political philosophy for the political phenomenology in "Crisis of the House Divided" (University of Chicago Press) The Republican Professor is a pro-getting-political-philosophy right podcast. The Republican Professor is produced and hosted by Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D. Warmly, Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D. The Republican Professor Podcast The Republican Professor Newsletter on Substack https://therepublicanprofessor.substack.com/ https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/podcast/ https://www.therepublicanprofessor.com/articles/ YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheRepublicanProfessor Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheRepublicanProfessor Twitter: @RepublicanProf Instagram: @the_republican_professor

    1hr 8min

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Striving to seek the truth in all matters because truth is freedom.

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