Christopher A. Hollrah joins Kate Delaney on “America Tonight with Kate Delaney” to talk about his book “Four Pillars of Republicanism: Essays on the Foundational Principles of Our Republic and Its Preservation.”
Christopher A. Hollrah recently appeared on the “Author’s Corner” of the syndicated radio program “America Tonight with Kate Delaney,” hosted by Emmy Award-winning broadcaster Kate Delaney, for a sit-down with his book, Four Pillars of Republicanism: Essays on the Foundational Principles of Our Republic and Its Preservation. The book is a compilation of political prose that deals with the different pillars that are the cornerstone of modern liberal republicanism.
The Motivation Behind the Book
Kate Delaney asked essayist Christopher A. Hollrah about his motivation behind the book. Hollrah shared his background as a political science degree holder and how he was inspired by Benjamin Franklin.
One of the reasons that republics exist at all is to remove violence from the political process. And then of course, Ben Franklin is rumored to have warned us when he emerged from the constitutional convention, and a group of people asked him what kind of government they had made for the country. He’s rumored to have replied, ‘A republic! If you can keep it.’ This stays quite clearly that the forces against democracy and republicanism are always at work. That was the motivation.
The Four Pillars of Republicanism
Four Pillars of Republicanism introduces its readers to the four pillars of republicanism. When Kate Delaney asked about the four pillars, Hollrah revealed that his book is in the process of revision and that he updated it to provide not just four but five pillars of republicanism. The author said he would like to update the book title to Pillars of Our Republic. Here, he introduced the five pillars he talks about in the latest version of his book:
- The Marketplace of Ideas
- Freedom of Conscience
- Secularism
- Presumption of Innocence Before the Law
- The Rule of Law
Hollrah also stated that these are the principles illuminated by the political philosophers of the Age of Enlightenment.
The Marketplace of Ideas
The original compilation does not include the chapter about The Marketplace of Ideas. Kate asked Chris about the new essay that will be added to the version of his book.
The Marketplace of Ideas is the original founding principle that [political philosophers] illuminated ‘cause they understood that a truly functioning society must be built upon healthy, open, unrestricted debate, shifting coalitions, and compromise.
The Rule of the Law
An essay that has already been in the book is the one about The Rule of Law. Delaney asked Chris about the rule of the law and what would happen if it disappears.
I state in the book several times that the forces of modern republicanism are always under siege from anti-democratic forces on a global scale. In this country right now, we are under such threat. I define the rule of law more closely in the book. A society adheres to the philosophical proposition of the rule of law. Those people who possess vast amounts of wealth or power are and must be held with the same standards of conduct as all other members of the society, even those who possess no wealth or power.
If this principle disappears, then government will once again flow from those who govern down to those who are governed, instead of the government flows from the bottom up not from the top down. We don’t want that.
The Takeaway
Author Christopher Hollrah mentioned that his book of four essays has 57 pages. With a new essay coming up, the new version would have about 75 pages in total. Even on a short read, Hollrah still hopes that his readers would take away the values of the principles that help shape the government and society.
High-Five Thursday
In line with Hollrah’s book, Kate Delaney relates the book’s theme to real-world politics, focusing on the assassination attempt during the Trump rally on July 13, 2024. Kate Delaney gave a high-five shout-out to Florida lawyer Dan Newlin, who pledged to donate $1 million to the family of the man killed during the rally. The Orlando man, Cory Comperatore, was a fifty-year-old volunteer who died protecting his family from the gunman. The other two attendees, David Dutch and James Copenhaver, were also left wounded and are in stable condition. Newlin offered $100,000 to each of the recovering victims’ families.
Readers can purchase a copy of Four Pillars of Republicanism: Essays on the Foundational Principles of Our Republic and Its Preservation by Christopher A. Hollrah on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.