The Federalist: The Senate
The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast
Hillsdale College
4.6 • 621 Ratings
🗓️ 6 August 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
On this episode of The Hillsdale College Online Courses Podcast, Jeremiah and Juan discuss the role that the Senate used to play in our republic before introducing Dr. Ronald J. Pestritto.
In a republic, every citizen has a duty to understand their government. The Federalist is the greatest exposition of representative government and the institutional structure of the Constitution. It explains how the Constitution established a government strong enough to secure the rights of citizens and safe enough to wield that power. This course will examine how Publius understood human nature and good government, and why he argued that the only true safeguard of liberty lies in the vigilance of the American people.
The Senate provides stability to the government and accountability for the far-reaching effects of laws, which contribute to our national character in the eyes of foreign nations.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Hillsdale College Online Courses podcast. I'm Jeremiah Regan. |
| 0:13.3 | And I'm Juan Dabalos. We are back with The Federalist, Lecture Number 8, The Senate. |
| 0:18.1 | This is a really fun lecture, and the Federalist has very interesting |
| 0:22.3 | teachings about the Senate and why it exists, at least the way it existed when it was originally |
| 0:26.8 | constituted, because we have all this talk early in the book about how the will of the people |
| 0:32.0 | needs to come through in laws and in the policies of the government. And then we get this kind of about face, |
| 0:38.7 | which is the Senate and the president to an extent are supposed to sort of stand in the way of the |
| 0:43.9 | will of the people. What is that about? That's right. So a couple of lectures ago, we talked about |
| 0:48.3 | the House of Representatives and how it has to be much, it's one of the most democratic |
| 0:52.9 | institutions that we have in government because it's closer to the people, it's one of the most democratic institutions that we have in government because it's |
| 0:55.6 | closer to the people, to the, to the passions of the people. |
| 0:59.4 | Yeah, short two-year terms, so you can elect, you can re-elect a guy you approve of or elect |
| 1:04.2 | someone different if you don't approve of him. It's the broadest pool of voters, directly elected |
| 1:08.5 | by the people. Yeah, so while that is closer to the passions of the |
| 1:12.4 | people, the Senate was designed to be closer to the reason of the people. And so it's like making a |
| 1:19.4 | big decision and you want to sleep on it. You know, we've all been there. That's right. So the way |
| 1:24.8 | Publius, and Dr. Pastrido brings us out in the lecture, the way Publius describes the role of the Senate is one to inject wisdom by creating some time for the cool and deliberate sense of the community. |
| 1:37.8 | And Publius is clear, the people will get what they want in the end, but we can think of the Senate as someone, kind of that friend when you're |
| 1:44.1 | about to make a rash decision. Maybe you want to make an impulse purchase or maybe you're mad at |
| 1:48.8 | someone and want to lash out on social media. And your friend says, hey, you know, why don't you |
| 1:54.0 | sleep on that? And then allow you to come back to your senses. The Senate performs that role with |
| 1:59.2 | the House of Representatives. That's part of the |
... |
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