No Questions Asked
00:06 Welcome to First Principles and Last Things on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM, where we follow the news below the headline and consider it constitutionally. I'm your host Andrew Schofield and when you can't ask a question, that's the beginning of tyranny. That's a quote from Congressman Ralph Norman and he said it while defending members of the House Freedom Caucus from a familiar label. Disruptor. But maybe disruption isn't a always a failure of our political system. Maybe it's part of the design. In an August interview with Fitznews, Norman was asked whether the Freedom Caucus had become a disruptive force in Washington, and he pushed back. When he questions a budget, a line item, or whether congressional leadership is doing its job, Norman asked, how does that make him a disruptor? His argument was simple. Politicians should not just go along to get along. They should ask questions, including questions their own side might prefer they didn't. Norman was talking about one political faction here, but the principle is much older than just the Freedom Caucus. James Madison,
01:17 for example, did not believe a free people would think alike. In Federalist 10, he wrote that as long as human reason remains fallible and people remain free to use it, different opinions will be formed. The causes of faction, Madison said, are sewn into the nature of man. That's a remarkable premise for a political system. The founders didn't begin by asking, how do we get everybody to agree? Instead, they asked, how do we govern when they don't? The Constitution's answer was not to eliminate conflict, but to channel it through a house and a Senate, through a president and a Congress, through federal and state governments,
01:57 separate branches with different interests, different powers, or different incentives to push back on one another. In other words, friction wasn't necessarily a defect. It could also be a safeguard. A bill that has to survive two chambers, a president, and perhaps the courts will move more slowly than one imposed by a single authority. But that slowness can force argument, compromise, and second thoughts. The system makes it harder for one person or one faction to simply get everything at once. But the founders also understood the danger on the other side. George Washington warned in his farewell address that the spirit of party could inflame Americans against one another and allow partisan loyalty to overwhelm the public good. So there is a tension here.
02:46 Disagreements is inevitable. Partisan obedience can be dangerous, but constant opposition can become its own kind of faction. The Constitution doesn't tell us that the person disagreeing is always right and it certainly doesn't make contrarianism of virtue, saying no to everything. is an independent judgment any more than saying yes to everything is. It tells us something more modest instead. Power should expect to be questioned. In a political culture organized so heavily around two parties, that distinction matters because a representative can agree with his party most of the time
03:22 and still believe that loyalty to a principal, a constituent, or the Constitution, requires saying no. And the same standard has to apply, regardless of which party, is in power. Descent is not virtuous simply because it is dissent. A disruptor can be wrong, but neither should disagreement itself be treated as disloyalty. Because representative government requires something more difficult than team loyalty. It requires judgment. And judgment sometimes means having to tell your own side what it doesn't want to hear. Because the moment the question becomes, are you on our side? Instead of, is this actually right, party has begun to replace
04:02 judgment. And so James Madison expected Americans to argue. Washington expected political parties to tempt us into blind loyalty, and the Constitution expects power to meet resistance. So maybe the question isn't whether disagreement disrupts politics. Of course it does. The better question is whether free government could survive without it. After all, America was designed to disagree. Thank you for listening to First Principles and Last Things. I'm Andrew Schofield. If you want to follow the news below the headline, be sure to follow along on Spotify or Apple Podcasts. I hope to see you next time when we dive into the next.
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