Democracy is as Fragile as it is Rare: The Administrative State and Columbus Day

On Monday, October 10, 2022, Columbus Day, Kim Monson examined the fragility of American self-governance with author Richard C. Lyons on how a century of federal expansion has centralized power, Roots Medical’s Dr. Rachel Corbett on California’s new law silencing physicians, and Discovery Institute fellow Scott S. Powell on Christopher Columbus’s Christian faith and legacy.

A Century of Federal Overreach and the Administrative State

Start listening at 30:43 – Hour 1

Richard C. Lyons, author and critically acclaimed screenwriter, traces a century of federal power consolidation in his new book Shadows of the Acropolis. Lyons explains how Woodrow Wilson laid the foundation for the administrative state, believing mankind was progressing toward a humanity that didn’t need constitutional checks. Franklin D. Roosevelt, who served as Wilson’s Secretary of the Navy, continued this expansion, creating agency upon agency during the Depression.

The numbers are staggering: during Obama’s eight-year presidency, over 20,000 rules with the effect of law were created through executive agencies, while Congress passed only 400 laws, most of them housekeeping measures. Lyons describes this parallel government as a “Leviathan,” a self-interested bureaucracy where over 400 agencies each seek expanded budgets, more employees, and greater territory. The EPA’s reach now extends from the Great Lakes to Wyoming puddles.

The recent Supreme Court ruling in West Virginia v. EPA offers hope, but Lyons warns the fix will take 100 years and generations devoted to reforming government through elections.

“So most of the law these days is not made by persons who were elected. The persons who are elected, they have, as you say, abdicated their role. And it’s not the role they were supposed to have per the Constitution.”

Richard C. Lyons, Author

California’s Law Silencing Physicians Threatens Medical Freedom Nationwide

Start listening at 61:10 – Hour 2

Dr. Rachel Corbett of Roots Medical sounds the alarm on California’s AB 2098, a bill signed by Governor Gavin Newsom that punishes physicians for expressing doubt or opinions about public health matters. The bill represents what Corbett calls “one of the scariest things” she has seen in her career, as it strikes at the sacred principle of free speech in medicine.

Corbett draws parallels between the silencing of physicians and the muzzling of journalists, noting that former New York Times journalist Bari Weiss has spoken out about similar pressures in media. The result is a loss of checks and balances. When the FDA receives 40 percent of its financing from the Prescription Drug User Act, when drug companies can fund politicians’ campaigns, and when physicians cannot speak freely, integrity is compromised at every level.

COVID was the wake-up call that ended Corbett’s political apathy. The use of fear to motivate compliance with unstudied interventions, combined with the languaging techniques she recognized from her neuro-linguistic programming training, sparked her activism. She now calls on listeners to help identify open-minded providers through Colorado Health Care Providers for Freedom.

“And that ability, the loss of ability to talk about things and to discuss things, that is science. And so when you lose the true essence of science, then we’re in big trouble.”

Dr. Rachel Corbett, Roots Medical

Christopher Columbus: Christian Evangelist and Navigator

Start listening at 73:10 – Hour 2

Scott S. Powell, senior fellow at the Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth, Poverty, and Morality, reveals a Columbus that modern critics ignore. Far from the villain portrayed by the left, Columbus was a profound Christian evangelist whose four voyages were driven by a vision he believed God revealed to him in prayer. Seven years of rejection from Portugal, Spain, Britain, and France could not shake his certainty.

Powell dispels myths about the peoples Columbus encountered. The Caribbean Sea takes its name from the Carib tribe, cannibals who went from island to island killing and eating the men, enslaving the women. The Incas, Mayas, and Aztecs practiced child sacrifice. While some Spanish crew members acted brutally, Columbus himself was a builder and preserver who erected crosses on every island he visited.

The irony, Powell notes, is that Columbus never set foot on territory that would become the United States. His expeditions focused on the Bahamas, Caribbean, and Latin America. Yet his discovery opened the door for Protestant groups transformed by the Reformation, the Pilgrims and Puritans who ultimately established the 13 colonies founded on Christian principles.

“America has an amazing story, and the richness of America is largely in the spiritual foundation of our country. And we’re losing that. And I think that the hope of the future is that we have a third great awakening, a fourth great awakening.”

Scott S. Powell, Discovery Institute

A Caller’s Perspective on Russia-Ukraine

Start listening at 102:32 – Hour 2

Mark from Black Forest called in to provide historical context on the Russia-Ukraine conflict that mainstream media has largely ignored. He traced the tensions back 14 years to NATO’s 2008 summit announcement to bring Ukraine and Georgia into the alliance, which enraged Russian leaders. The U.S. supported a 2014 regime change in Ukraine and began training 10,000 Ukrainian troops annually.

In December 2021, Putin sent letters to NATO and the U.S. requesting guarantees that Ukraine not join NATO and that weapons be removed from Eastern Europe. Secretary Blinken responded that there would be no change, and Russia invaded two days later. Mark argues that the collective West crossed a red line that Russia had been warning about for years.