Dr. Brion McClanahan speaking the Florida Liberty Summit, August 14, 2010

Maybe you think you know a lot about the Founding Fathers. Maybe you’ve been watching Glenn Beck’s chalkboard lessons or reading “The Real George Washington” – well, you need to meet Dr. Brion McClanahan.

The author of the PIG (Politically Incorrect Guide) to The Founding Fathers would turn your world upside down and inside out.

McClanahan correctly proclaims how we all know the “Big 6″ Founders like a recitation of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: You know Adams and Franklin, Jefferson and Madison, Washington and Hamilton, but do you know…these other founders…

George Mason, Patrick Henry or John Dickinson?

Most people play a yearly NCAA Basketball bracket, so a “Go Patriots” shout from a crowded room at this point,could easily just be an enthusiastic George Mason alum and not a response to the Virginian delegate.

McClanahan proclaimed how most Americans only know six of “these dead white guys” and if they know any of the other founders, it’s one quote or fact at best.

Agreed.

Dr. Brion McClanahan and Brandon Jones at the 2010 Florida Liberty Summit

“Patrick Henry is more than one speech. The “Give me liberty or Give me Death” quote is what people remember of Patrick Henry” he told me.
“Henry was influential to Virginia politics. He ran the state. He (Henry) was an outspoken critic of the Constitution arguing that it granted too much power to a central government.”

During his Liberty Summit speech McClanahan continued this theme: “We often forget about these anti-Federalists, but they were right.”

You have to have a quick hand to keep pace with McClanahan as he rattled off dates, places, names and events without notes of his own. Several decades of Constitutional history were covered quickly teasing enthusiasts and leaving them hungry for more.

McClanahan joked that he’d take the pro- Big government “Alexander Hamilton over Barack Obama any day of the week” as his respect and honor for these men bled through every fact or quote he spouted.

“If you talk about or like the founding generation, then you probably support limited government.”

As I talked to Dr. McClanahan separately he was clearly leading a mission to “talk about them, talk about their principles, and divorce their slave ownership from their principles on government.”

If his book is 227 pages of the enthusiasm I witnessed, I can tell you that it couldn’t possibly disappoint.

So I’ll leave you with the same quote Dr. McClanahan left me to chew on:

“Let experience be our guide, because reason may mislead us.” – John Dickinson

How much can we learn from the “other” Founding Fathers?

http://brionmcclanahan.com/

http://www.politicallyincorrectguidetothefoundingfathers.com/offers/offer.php?id=PIGFF001

The Desk of Brian recommends:

Ron Paul headlines Florida Liberty Summit 2011 lineupPhotos from the 2010 Florida Liberty Summit featuring Ron PaulFormer Assc. Deputy Attorney General Bruce Fein to speak in OrlandoInterview with Andrew Nappi from the Florida Tenth Amendment CenterHow have you changed? Hope & Change ‘Changed’ MeRon Paul agrees with Americans: Two party system is brokenA small collection of interviews with constitutional scholar Kevin GutzmanBoba Fett: fighting for the “Right to Bear Arms”