In this week’s Engaging Democracy podcast, we explore the idea of American Exceptionalism. You’ve heard arguments for and against this idea from opinion leaders, pundits, and the President. Is America exceptional? And if so, why should we be any more exceptional than say, Sweden or France? Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute, and author of the new book, The Battle, joins us to make the case that not only is America exceptional, but there’s a lot at stake if America doesn’t protect the unique values that make us an example for the world. Then, Eric O’Keefe gives the historical perspective on why America is necessarily an exceptional nation.

Eric O’Keefe reminds us that American independence was not, as we sometimes hear, an edict handed down from the Founding Fathers. We interview “American Scripture” author Pauline Maier and hit the streets of Chicago in a quest to get the Founding right.

Magazine publisher and bestselling author Myrna Blyth joins us to discuss her book, “How to Raise an American.” Myrna shares some ideas on things parents can do to teach their children about our country, discuses the importance of knowing your family’s American story, and gives her thoughts on how youth and young adults today understand American history.

In Search of Self-Governance featuring Scott Rasmussen. Eric welcomes pollster Scott Rasmussen of Rasmussen Reports to the podcast to discuss the most recent data on what Americans think, and what they want from their government. They also take a moment to talk about Rasmussen’s latest book, In Search of Self-Governance.

The Fall and Rise of the Income Tax: On May 20, 1895, the Supreme Court ruled the income tax unconstitutional. Eric discusses that case and the history of the federal income tax in the U.S.

Primary season gets into full swing today with elections in North Carolina, Ohio and Indiana. When voters in those states go to the polls, they will participate in a voting tradition that has been extremely favorable to Congressional incumbents in recent years, despite the growing unpopularity of those same representatives. The numbers are staggering. U.S. Congressional incumbents are just as likely to die in office as lose a primary election.

In the latest Engaging Democracy podcast, Eric O’Keefe explains why it doesn’t have to be this way, and why primaries, not general elections, offer voters the best opportunity to throw out unpopular and unrepresentative incumbents from either party.

The passage yesterday of unpopular new health care legislation marks a sharp turning point not just for our health system, but for the future of the American economy.

Despite poll after poll indicating Americans were in strong opposition to the kind of reform up for a vote, not to mention the unmistakable warning sign of a Republican taking Ted Kennedy’s seat, 219 members of Congress voted yesterday to pass the new legislation. They ignored the polls and the warning signs, but most significantly, ignored their constituents.

In the latest Engaging Democracy podcast, Eric O’Keefe addresses the mystery of how the House of Representatives can pass deeply unpopular legislation in an election year. With many focusing on the possibility of Democrats losing their majority in November, Eric discusses why Congress is brazen enough to keep ignoring the wishes of voters in the first place, and how voters can change things in 2010 and beyond.

Reading the Tea Leaves featuring Anne Sorock (video)

Two weeks ago, Sam Adams Alliance released a groundbreaking study on the Tea Party movement. Our report, The Early Adopters: Reading the Tea Leaves offers the first-ever insights into the Tea Party movement that include a survey sample made up entirely of recognized Tea Party leaders.

In this edition of Engaging Democracy, Eric O’Keefe sits down with Anne Sorock, who oversaw the study, to find out what motivates the Tea Party leaders, what issues they care about, and who they would vote for in the 2012 Presidential election.  Some of the results may surprise you.

The Politics of Hollywood featuring Andrew Breitbart (video)

The Oscars are this Sunday, and once again a strong number of not-so-pro-freedom nominees are up for the top awards. We all love the movies, but honoring anti-freedom sentiment is unfortunately what we’ve come to expect from Hollywood’s biggest, loudest annual high five to itself.

In the latest Engaging Democracy, Eric O’Keefe sits down with Andrew Breitbart, founder of BigHollywood.com, to discuss the political culture and history of Hollywood, and ask how did the entertainment industry get to this point? Can it recover? And why haven’t there been more films about  America’s founding?

Is Congress Representative

“Both parties have honorable histories of defending the constitution, and standing for liberty. Both parties have walked away from that.” – Eric O’Keefe

Last week, the 111th U.S. Congress gathered at the Capitol for the president’s State of the Union address. When they did, Americans got a televised look at one of the least popular Congress’s in our history. Despite their election a little more than a year ago, polls and news coverage on this Congress consistently show approval ratings dropping and anger rising among voters from all sides.

In his latest podcast, Eric O’Keefe examines how this is possible in a democracy, discusses whether an unpopular and self-serving Congress can truly be representatives of the people, and offers a solution for how voters can finally elect a Congress of which they approve.

The Great Massachusetts Awakening.

“Tonight the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken.”

Sam Adams, John Hancock, John Adams, or one of many other famous leaders who called Massachusetts home at our country’s founding might have spoken this phrase at Faneuil Hall in 1773. But, of course, these words were spoken at Boston’s Park Plaza Hotel in 2010 by Scott Brown, the winner of yesterday’s special election for U.S. Senate in that same state.

The many ties of Brown’s victory to the nation’s patriotic history are difficult to ignore. Like many of the founders, Brown was a political underdog from Massachusetts, his seat was once held by John Quincy Adams, and his supporters were largely frustrated by an establishment who insisted, through their actions, that holding onto power was more important than the wishes of the people. After what some in the media have called “a new Boston Tea Party,” Brown’s election could be the start of a new kind of revolution in 2010.
And once again, it starts in Massachusetts.

In the latest “Engaging Democracy”, Eric O’Keefe discusses the factors that lead to Brown’s swift rise, the impact of yesterday’s election, and its close ties in political meaning and geography to the critical times and places of our country’s founding.

The Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party.

The resurgence of the term “tea party” represents one of this year’s biggest stories in politics. The roots of the tea party movement in 2009 grew in an environment of government takeovers, financial bailouts, and other federal spending increases. But their principles, and their name, are derived from that famous protest in Boston, which celebrates its 236th anniversary today.

In this edition of “Engaging Democracy,” Eric O’Keefe revisits the story of the Boston tea party, and draws the connection between the participants in that historic event, and those involved in the tea parties of 2009.

NY-23 and the Third Party Temptation.

Engaging Democracy provides context by relating stories from our country’s history to the events we see and hear in today’s news. In this series, Sam Adams chairman and political historian Eric O’Keefe applies his passion and knowledge of American political history to the modern political landscape.

In this first episode: When Doug Hoffman, a Conservative Party candidate in New York’s 23rd congressional district, forced the big-spending Republican candidate to withdraw from the race, many voters thought this was the moment when a third-party candidate could finally go to Washington as a true representative of the people in his district, and not of a party apparatus.

Hoffman’s candidacy, which received a wealth of national grassroots support and media attention, is just one example of how relatively successful third-party candidates have caused a section of the disgruntled electorate to raise their energy and their hope to ask the question: Can a third-party survive in this two-party country?

In his first podcast in a series titled “Engaging Democracy,” Eric O’Keefe, chairman of the Sam Adams Alliance and a former executive director of the Libertarian Party, discusses why third parties may not be the avenue that leads to fielding principled candidates and taking power from the two major parties.