Jun 30, 2026 · 25 min · 12 segments
Today in our continued exploration of why the US is the way it is, we get to Article I. Why did the framers design Congress the way they did? Why did the small states come out so far ahead? And what…
Jack RakoveGuestNick CapodiceHostHannah McCarthyHostYeah, but they're called Mad Men 'cause the ad agencies were on Madison Avenue.
[whimsical music] [laughs] Uh, but in addition to his books, mostly on Madison, Jack has contributed to myriad briefs for the United States Supreme Court, notably in Trump v.
Uh, we have a link to an entire episode on this in the show notes, but in brief, the articles were our first constitution.
So right after the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five to write the Declaration of Independence, they also appointed a committee of 13 to draft the articles.
[laughs] Uh, every state for itself, barely any centralized government whatsoever, no executive power to speak of, and they were nigh impossible to amend.
So when we were creating a new constitution, our goal was, in part, to fix our mistakes.
For starters, [sighs] one has to assume, and particularly if you look at things from James Madison's vantage point, what you wanted to do in the wake of the effective collapse, uh, the framers would've said the imbecility of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation was you wanted to create a national government that would be fully empowered to enact, execute, and adjudicate its own laws.
And once you get to the matter of legislation, the conventional wisdom was you need to have a bicameral legislature.
Well, first off, the vast majority of colonies, now states, they already operated under a bicameral legislature, which by the way, is two chambers of Congress.
Yeah, but they're called Mad Men 'cause the ad agencies were on Madison Avenue.
[whimsical music] [laughs] Uh, but in addition to his books, mostly on Madison, Jack has contributed to myriad briefs for the United States Supreme Court, notably in Trump v.
Uh, we have a link to an entire episode on this in the show notes, but in brief, the articles were our first constitution.
So right after the Continental Congress appointed a committee of five to write the Declaration of Independence, they also appointed a committee of 13 to draft the articles.
[laughs] Uh, every state for itself, barely any centralized government whatsoever, no executive power to speak of, and they were nigh impossible to amend.
So when we were creating a new constitution, our goal was, in part, to fix our mistakes.
For starters, [sighs] one has to assume, and particularly if you look at things from James Madison's vantage point, what you wanted to do in the wake of the effective collapse, uh, the framers would've said the imbecility of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation was you wanted to create a national government that would be fully empowered to enact, execute, and adjudicate its own laws.
And once you get to the matter of legislation, the conventional wisdom was you need to have a bicameral legislature.
Well, first off, the vast majority of colonies, now states, they already operated under a bicameral legislature, which by the way, is two chambers of Congress.
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