The Future of the Republic | Lawrence W. Reed

What is the most important issue facing America today? According to economist and historian Lawrence W. (“Larry”) Reed, it has always been the same thing: character.

In this conversation, Reed—President Emeritus of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), former president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and longtime college professor—explains why a nation that gets character wrong is on the road to extinction. He connects the national debt (now approaching $40 trillion passed on to future generations) directly to a decline in national character, and he argues that getting character right is the foundation for everything else.

He also makes a crucial distinction the Founders understood but many Americans have forgotten: the United States was established as a republic with democratic elements, not a pure democracy. Pure democracy, Reed notes, is both impractical and tyrannical because it does not protect the natural rights individuals possess at birth. A republic protects minority rights and individual liberty from the majority—or the mob.

To learn more, grab a copy of Larry’s book: Born of Ideas: How Principles, Faith, and Courage Forged America