Republicans vs. the Fourteenth Amendment
6/10/20261 hr 1 min
In this episode of “The David Frum Show,” The Atlantic’s David Frum opens with his thoughts on the Brexit vote, which was cast 10 years ago this month. David explains why Brexit has not only been a failure but has led to years of political instability in the U.K. in the decade following the British vote to leave the European Union. Then, David is joined by professor David W. Blight to discuss the blood-soaked aftermath of the Civil War and the stumbling project to bring freedom to the former slaves of the South through the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. David and Blight discuss Trump’s project to gut the Fourteenth Amendment to say that some people born on American soil will no longer be Americans. Finally, David ends the episode with a discussion of “1873” by Liaquat Ahamed. David reflects on the financial crisis of that year and the long price depression that followed. Sign up for David Frum’s newsletter alert. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Atlantic subscribers also get access to exclusive subscriber audio in Apple Podcasts. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/Listener. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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First 90 secondsKarla Lavey0:00
I'm Karla Lavey, cookbook author and snack enthusiast. Do you have a sweet tooth? Check out Sweets Unwrapped, a podcast from Ferrero and Atlantic Rethink, The Atlantic's creative marketing studio. Together, we're celebrating the traditions that make life sweet. Tune in now.
David Frum· Host0:17
[on-hold music] Hello, and welcome to The David Frum Show. I'm David Frum, a staff writer at The Atlantic. My guest this week will be David Blight, Professor of History at Yale, biographer of Fre-Frederick Douglass, and expert on post-Civil War American history. We will be discussing the Fourteenth Amendment, which passed through Congress in June of eighteen sixty-six, and we'll be talking about what that foundational document tells us about what it means to be an American, who counts as an American, who counted then, who should count now. My book discussion this week will be eighteen seventy-three by Liaquat Ahamed, an economic history of the crisis of that year, the financial crisis of that year, and of the long deflation that followed and that helped to doom the Reconstruction hopes that are encapsulated in the Fourteenth Amendment. Before either the dialogue or the book discussion, some opening thoughts on another anniversary, that of the British vote to quit the European Union, a vote that was cast ten years ago this month in June of twenty sixteen. The Brexit vote