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GoodFellows: Conversations on Economics, History & Geopolitics

GoodFellows LIVE: The US Constitution and A Republic - If You Can Keep It | Hoover Institution

GoodFellows: Conversations on Economics, History & Geopolitics

Hoover Institution

News, News Commentary, News:news Commentary, Politics, Government

4.6 • 717 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2026

⏱️ 78 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As part of the Hoover Institution’s ongoing USA@250 celebration of the founding of the American republic, a live GoodFellows episode recorded on the campus of Stanford University focusing on the US Constitution – in tech terms, America’s “operating system”. Goodfellows regulars Sir Niall Ferguson, John Cochrane and Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster discuss the root causes of the American Revolution (taxation without representation, though the Scottish-born panelist contends the colonists in fact had a “fantastic deal”), the Constitution’s underlying principles (recognizing but not granting rights), why a document that’s more “machinery” than “visionary” in its design has stood the test of time, plus whether several provisions within the original framework and its 27 amendments (presidential eligibility, gun rights, “birthright citizenship”) need updating a world the Founding Fathers couldn’t imagine. Subscribe to GoodFellows for clarity on today’s biggest social, economic, and geostrategic shifts — only on GoodFellows.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Today we're doing something a little different for Goodfellows.

0:20.6

We're going to talk a little about current events, but we're going to talk about past events

0:24.1

as well, specifically the founding of the Republic.

0:27.1

And we're going to focus on the United States Constitution.

0:29.6

So gentlemen, let me first throw a little constitutional trivia at you.

0:33.6

So the Constitution, how long do we think the Constitution, not the amendments, but

0:38.1

the Constitution itself? How many words do you think it is, Neil?

0:42.2

You're asking me?

0:43.2

5,000, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, 20,000?

0:46.8

Including the amendments or excluding the amendments? Excluding. Excluding the amendments.

0:52.3

2,000?

0:55.0

4,500.

0:56.0

I was off.

0:57.0

Declaration of Independence.

0:58.0

You see, we don't prep for this...

1:00.0

We don't prep for this show at all.

1:02.0

How many times has been amended?

1:05.0

Like, come on, you know that.

1:07.0

Come on, guys.

1:08.0

How many times?

1:10.0

You don't know

1:12.9

I'm just a simple immigrant

...

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