He argues thaw failures and reinventions we use the constitution as a tool to create our modern core values. The Smithsonian Associates hosted the event. Good evening, everyone. Can you all hear me in the back . My name is ruth robbins and it is a pleasure to welcome you to our program, before we start a couple of quick things. If you have electronic devices, now is a good time to turn them off. As usual in our programs, there is no photography and no filming. Also, if youre wondering what our equipment is in the back of the room, its cspan. So make show your nicest smile, brush your hair, in case you get a cameo and when we get to the q and a part, there is a meeker phone in the back of the room that will let you know when its time for that and youll get time to ask your questions. In the rest of times it is always worthwhile to visit the documents that set us apart from british rule and created the framework of the government. Today our guest speaker Kermit Roosevelt explains these documents and shares their interpretation of meaning and relevance. Professor roosevelt teaches constitutional law at the university of pennsylvania law school. He was born and raised in d. C. And attended Harvard University and yale law. Before joining the pen faculty, he served as a law clerk to Supreme CourtJustice David suitor. His book, making sense of Supreme Court decisions, sets out standards by which citizens can determine whether the Supreme Court is abusing its authority to interpret the constitution. He also teaches creative writing and is the author of two novels. In the shadow of the law and allegiance so please join me in a warm welcome for professor roosevelt and enjoy the program. [ applause ] thank you. Thank you all for coming and happy super tuesday. Its super tuesday. The democrats are in the process of choosing their nominee. Later on well have the general election and we will choose the election and that choice will reflect who we are as a nation and thats what i want to talk about tonight. Who we are, how we decide who we are and what our sense of ourselves means for our relationship with the constitution and for our sense of ourselves as a country and as a people. So who are we . Were americans. This is the most american slide i could find, but what does it mean to be an american and how do we decide that in what gives us a sense of what america means. The first point i want to make is stories do that. Stories tell us who we are. They organized world for us and this is true of individuals. When people think about their lives they tend to think of them in narrative form. They find meaning in experience and find heros andvilleance. James said this is the artists task, transforming the daily bread of experience into the radiant body of everlasting life. In that sense, were all artists and authors of our own stories. Not because we decide what happens. We dont actually get to decide that, but because we decide what it means. We decide how its interet prettied and usually we pick interpretations that flatter ourselves. We end up being the heroes of our own stories so this is true for individuals and its also true for nations. People have a sense of National Identity that come from stories about the nations history ask thats what im going to talk about tonight and ill talk about different stories of america, where they come from, how they relate to each other, but before i do that i want to say one more thing about stories which is theyre powerful. As you heard, im a law professor before that i was a lawyer doing appellate litigation. It was my job, in some ways its still my job to make people agree with me about the correct understanding of the law, and i learned something while i was working as a lawyer which has been reinforced by my experiences with legal scholarship which is that sometimes on some issues you can present a strong, logical argument and people will change their minds. Sometimes the voice that pervades is an analytical voice, but thats not true all the time and in particular, its not true if youre dealing with an issue that relates to peoples identitieses to their sense of self. In those kinds of situations you can make the best and most logical argument in the world and it wont have any effect because logic doesnt make people change their minds about who they are. There have been social Psychology Research on this ask it shows people are incredibly resistance to reasonable logical argument if it conflicts with their narrative about the world. If it conflicts with the story that they tell themselves to make sense of the world. So they did a study where they took people with certain beliefs in this study. It was beliefs about Climate Change. So they took Climate Change skeptics and Climate Change believers and they took each group and exposed them to facts that suggested their beliefs were wrong. So the groups got different information in each case, they got information that challenged their beliefs. You would have thought this would make them less confident and the result is the people on both sides express greater confidence in those beliefs because they felt a threat to their identity and they basically respobed by reaffirming it. Those beliefs were not just f t factual beliefs about the world and because of that they were part of the story and the story that people told themselves about themselves. So heres an ordinary factual question. Is it raining out or not . Your belief about that didnt relate to identity at all and with questions like that, people do change their mind if theyre presented with contrary evidence, but with other things, with beliefs that are connected to identity, you cant dislodge those beliefs by facts or by logical argument. The analytical voice just doesnt persuade. So what does . Well, this is another thing that i learned as a lawyer. I think it is the most important thing that i learned as a lawyer and its what i try to teach my students that i teach at the law school. If youre wondering why is there a creative writing seminar at the law school . This is why, because it can make you an effective lawyer because the narrative voice persuades. To change beliefs that are connected to identity to the story that we tell ourselves about the world and the place in it you have to offer a different story that offers up a different way of understanding the world. You can change peoples minds and change their selfperceptions and if you can talk to them about the way your interior voice does. For most people, the interior voice is not giving arguments. Its telling stories. Stories tell us who we are, and stories are powerful. Frequently they cant be dislodged by recent argument or logical analysis. You might have heard some people say it takes a theory to beat a theory. I say, it takes a story to beat a story, and what i want to do now is tell you some of the stories about america about who we are. These different stories say Different Things about the past, but perhaps more important, they have different ideas about the essence of america about what it means to america. So i will compare them. I will analyze them and i will be doing a logical argument. Im a law professor and i cant get away from that and its a better story. It shows us in a better light. Its more inclusive. Its more optimistic. It is, im going to say, more america, but im going to start with what i call the standard story and according to this story, American History, the history of america as a nation starts with the declaration of independence. Here we go. The declaration and the standard story that should be familiar to you, this is sort of what we say in our civic, religion and basic celebrations of america. The standard story says long ago in 1776 our great founders wrote down some wonderful principles. They called these selfevident truths. All men are created equal. They are endowed by their creator with inalienable right, including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and our founders fought a war for those principles and they built a society around them and the constitution was their vehicle for carrying those principles into execution. Hold on. The constitution sets out our fundamental values. What are those fundamental values . Liberty and equality. It tells us what it means to be in america and tells us who we are and for more than 200 years our constitution has served us well because of the wisdom of the founders. Our task as americans is basically to live up to their example and to fulfill their vision of america, to be true to the principles that started in the declaration of independence and were codified in the constitution. Now American History, the standard story admits hasnt always been easy because we havent always lived up to those principles. We had slavery, of course, which is in direct confidence with the principles of declaration with the liberty and equality, but we fought a war with those principles again, the civil war, and that was in the name of the declaration. How do we know that . Well, Abraham Lincoln said so in the gettysburg address. Thats an actual photo of lincoln delivering the gettysburg address and because its an early photo its not a good one, but hes there somewhere. And in the gettysburg address, lincoln looks back to the declaration as the birth of the nation. It takes a little bit of a ri s arithmetic to figure it out and hes getting the gettysburg address in 1863, and subtract four score and seven years from 1863 and what do you get . Not 1787 in the constitution, you get 1776 and the declaration of independence and lincoln, of course, invoked those principles. The nation is conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. So the civil war is a challenge and it is also an opportunity for americans to move forward to more formally realize the promise of a declaration. Being, the standard story concedes even after the civil war the work is not done. Racism persists and the challenge rises up to challenge the darker aspects of American Life and it does so again in the name of the declaration. So the Civil Rights Movement sponsors the march on washington in 1963. Martin luther king gives his i have a dream speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. This you can see is a much better photo than my photo of the gettysburg address. He talks about the founders and the architects of our republic. The people who wrote the magnificent words of the constitution and the declaration of independence. They promised, he says, all men black as well as right will be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Weve fallen short, he says. He points to segregation to racebased denial of the right to vote as breaches of the promise made by the declaration and he dreams of a day when we will rise up and live out the true meaning of all men are created equal and maybe that day hasnt come yet. Again, the standard story concede, but it is getting closer because the story of america is a story of living up to the ideals of our founders, the ideals that startedous this journey. So we move forward, but were guided by the past by the spirit of 1776. We remember as president john f. Kennedy said in his inaugural address that were the heirs of that first revolution and we still carry that banner, the flag of freedom, the flag of equality and were marching in the name of the declaration of independe independence and if theres a picture of the true america its a famous paenting by Archibald Mcneil willard, the spirit of 1776. So here you have the three men marching forward with the fife and a drum and in the back, the betsy ross flag with 13 stars in a circle. This is what we call the standard story and this is what we usually tell ourselveses to explain who we are. Were the heirs of the first revolution and we are the descendants of the drafters of the constitution. American history starts with that declaration. It starts on a high note and basically, were trying to sustain it. Were trying to live up to the ideals of the founders and the signers. Were following that wisdom and for 200 years its pointed the way to a better america and a more per ekt union. Im going to tell you a couple of other story, too, but first i want to say a little bit about this one. The first thing to note is its a backwardlooking story. It tells us our ideals has their origin in the past at the very beginning. The declaration is the central document in the story. Its maybe more important, maybe more Truly American than even the constitution, but the founders constitution, and the original constitution, that is important, too. The constitution has the answers to our current problems. America seems to be adrift, people think. Maybe we have lost our way. What is the solution . Go back to the wisdom of the founders and focus on the constitution. Focus may be on the original understanding of the constitution. Live up to the ideals of the founders and be more like them and the way forward is by recovering the greatness of the past. So first, backwardlooking story. Second thing is this is a Success Story and basically if you look back america always succeeds and we always triumph and why is that . Its because of the wisdom of the founders and the ideals of the declaration ask the civil war is probably the best example of that. Its a terrible war, yes, and the ideals of the declaration triumph and we improve. We take a big step forward toward realizing those ideals. So backward looking, success and the third thing is a story of continuity and it tells us there is a line that goes from the signers of the declaration of independence through to the drafters of the constitution to us in the present day. We are the heirs of that first revolution and this is related to the fact that its a Success Story because its telling us, basically, we are the same people weve always been ask weir the same nation. We are the signers, and the drafters of the constitution and we got it right. Were fighting for the ideals that they championed. So this is a nice story in a lot of ways and you can see why it appeals to people, i think. It says were basically good, we americans. We start out with good ideals and we dont always live up to them, but were Getting Better and were succeeding and a sense of inevitable progress. Theres authority in the past. In a moment of unity that everyone can rally around and everyone can share in. Everyone feels a connection to the founding and the story emphasizes that. The problem, though, one problem is that its really not true. Now, i know ive said logical arguments dont dislodge story, but now im going to give you a bit of a logical analysis of the story which, of course, might not change your mind, but i hope that it will provoke you to question the story a bit and ill present you with claims that you will find surprising that you dont hear in the standard story, that you dont hear very much at all, actually. And heres the first one. The declaration of independence does not actually set out our modern values of liberty and equality. In fact, its consistent with slavery. So this should be a surprise, right . I dont think anyone else says this and often if youre the only person saying something its crazy and youre wrong, but hear me out. Ive become quite convince of this. Generally speaking, of course, theres an obvious contradiction between the declaration of independence and slavery, but lets look at the declaration and think about what its values are and heres the preamble and heres what people usually Pay Attention to. Thats appropriate. After the preamble and a bit of political philosophy, we get grievances against king george and bad things that hes done and those are not as important and thats evidence that the founders are figuring out in support of the argument. The declaration of independence is an argument of political philosophy and theres an argument that the governments are justified in throwing off the authority of the British Empire and to understand the crucial desperation is to understand how that argument works and the use that it makes of these fundamental principles. And im going to talk about the argument that the declaration makes in a second, but first i want to talk about the argument that it doesnt make which is the argument against slavery. Why do people think the declaration is consistent with slavery because of these selfevident truths, all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights including the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. People will go like this. People are created equal therefore no one is entitled by birth to demand that someone else be his slave. Someone might have the power to enslave someone else, doing so could actually be considered a form of liberty. That is just doing what you want to do and it conflicts with the slaves natural right to liberty so its prima facie wrong. The declaration does get you that far, but theres another step you need which is that this infringement isnt justified because in the political world there are lots of infringements on peoples natural liberty. If you use your liberty to steal someone elses property well lock you up and take away your liberty. If you commit a serious enough crime well take your life, and thats what well do even to our own citizens and members to our own community because theyre justified and in fact, the hallmark of Civil Society is that when people come together to form a society they surrender aspects of their natural liberty. Their natural liberty is to some extent taken away from them. This is true of the people who form a community, of the insiders and its even more true perhaps of people outside our Political Community. So how does our nation relate to noncitizens . Sometimes quite harshly. If youre an enemy soldier well take your right without worrying about your rights and thats justified because were protect tekti teprotecting our Political Community. The argument gets even more complicated and its even more complicated if were talking about a system where slavery exists already and the question is not should we start slavery and it this end slave reand its impossible