Harvey Mansfield on the Neil Gorsuch Confirmation Hearings

Conversations with Bill Kristol

Government, News, Politics, Society & Culture

4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2017

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

In his twelfth Conversation with Bill Kristol, Harvey Mansfield discusses the Senate’s confirmation hearings for Neil Gorsuch. This event, says Mansfield, “turned out to be a lesson in politics. You were learning from people actually in politics about the issue: What’s the relationship between law and politics?” Beginning from the arguments of Senate Democrats and Republicans, Mansfield explains how the hearings captured the opinions of each party about the proper relationship of politics and law. Mansfield and Kristol also discuss how Aristotle’s reflection on the limits of politics and law might inform our own understanding of politics, law, and the Constitution.

Transcript

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0:00.0	And the Hi, I'm Bill Crystal.
0:15.0	Welcome to Conversations.
0:18.0	I'm joined by Harvey Mansfield, from Harvard Professor.
0:21.0	And Arthur...
0:22.0	Good to be here, good to be here again. And Arthur. Good to be here.
0:23.0	Good to be here again.
0:24.0	Good to have you back.
0:25.0	So we're speaking in early April.
0:27.6	Judge Korsuch is about to be confirmed by the United States Senate as the Supreme Court
0:31.4	Justice.
0:32.4	And you were, you, I'm supposed to watch. United States Senate as the Supreme Court Justice.
0:32.6	And you were, I'm supposed to watch the hearings
0:35.5	and comment on these things on TV,
0:36.8	but of course I didn't just depend on some reason.
0:39.2	But you actually went to the trouble of watching?
0:40.8	Yes, I went to the trouble of watching and very glad for it too. It was a real drama and if someone wanted to study American politics I don't think you could find a better thing to look at event done as this was.
0:57.0	So it was a hearing and each senator spoke in alternation, Republicans and Democrats, and they at the end of it had worked up a
1:08.9	very good case each for its own party in its own position. These people are not
1:15.4	intellectuals, they're not professors, they're not experts, but they did a very good
1:20.6	job of presenting each party's view on the level that most people who are
1:29.5	in politics or interested in politics can understand.
1:35.0	So it was really impressive.
	...

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