R. Tracy McKenzie on the American Founders' View of Human Nature and Democracy

The success and survival of our American republic are never a guarantee. Our country is filled with tension over competing ideas, social movements, political divisions, and a crumbling trust in our institutions. My guest on today’s show argues that we need to take a look at the nature of democratic government in America and why the Founders designed it in such a way. He argues that they were fundamentally driven by a belief in the fallenness of man and how government should curtail that reality. His name is Robert Tracy McKenzie and we discussed his new book We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy.

Robert Tracy McKenzie (Ph.D., Vanderbilt University) is Arthur F. Holmes Chair of Faith and Learning, and professor of history at Wheaton College. His books include Lincolnites and Rebels, A Little Book for New Historians, and The First Thanksgiving: What the Real Story Tells Us About Loving God and Learning from History.

Show Highlights

  • Tracy McKenzie explains the predominant worldview of the Founders and how their view of human nature shaped the government they designed.

  • He argues that a departure from this view of human nature has created or contributed to many of the problems we face in our democracy today.

  • “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” ― Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

Resources

  • Get Tracy McKenzie’s new book We the Fallen People: The Founders and the Future of American Democracy.

  • Visit Tracy’s blog “Faith and History.”

  • Check out Tracy McKenzie’s other books on his Amazon page.

Subscribe and Connect

Support This Podcast

PayPal: https://paypal.me/AaronShamp?locale.x=en_US

Venmo: @AaronShamp

Cash App: $AaronShamp