Has America’s Republic Been Hijacked? | Kevin Dolan & Peter Calfee

In this episode, I sat down with Peter H. Calfee and J. Kevin Dolan, co-authors of Hijacked: Our Republic, Unless We Can Save It, for a wide-ranging conversation about whether the American republic is being slowly redirected by a loss of critical thinking, historical understanding, and moral clarity. We talked about the core pillars of their book—critical thinking, education, religion/faith/values, history, political systems, and economic systems—and why they believe societies unravel gradually when citizens stop questioning what they are told. From Thomas Paine and the Founding era to Rousseau, Orwell, Thomas Sowell, and Ray Dalio, this discussion kept returning to one central idea: a free people have to think for themselves if they expect to remain free. We also dug into education, parental responsibility, competition in schooling, the corruption of history, the dangers of dependency on government, and the difference between systems that create liberty versus systems that centralize control. What stayed with me most was the reminder that protecting a republic is not somebody else’s job. It starts with ordinary citizens who are willing to read, question, debate honestly, and stay engaged rather than surrender their judgment to institutions, experts, or political tribes. Whether you agree with every conclusion or not, this is a conversation about responsibility, civic courage, and the discipline of doing your own thinking. Guests: J. Kevin Dolan & Peter H. Calfee Hijacked: Our Republic, Unless We Can Save It (official site): https://hijackedourrepublic.com/ It Took A Lifetime: The Song: https://hijackedourrepublic.com/it-took-a-lifetime/ Watch / Listen Live 7PM CT Watch on Rumble: https://rumble.com/JoeRooz ▶️ Watch on YouTube: https://youtube.com/@JoeRooz Website: https://joerooz.com Special thanks to: Executive Producer Wayne Rankin Executive Producer Rosanna Rankin Executive Producer Carolina Jimenez Executive Producer Angela Wetuski Executive Producer John Seeley Want to be a guest on The Joe Rooz Show? Send Joe a message on #PodMatch: https://www.podmatch.com/member/joe Check out our partners: Podhome.fm Creative Edge Get MasterPeace https://masterpeace.health/rooz (00:00:45) Joe opens the show and previews two guests (00:02:19) Walk-on song It Took a Lifetime (00:07:55) Introducing the book and its central question (00:09:28) Peter Calfee on history and why they wrote it (00:13:41) Kevin Dolan on institutions and collaboration (00:17:37) Book structure: education, values, history (00:23:22) Faith, founding principles, and civil society (00:30:35) Tyranny, the social contract, and liberty (00:36:10) Sustainability, consistency, and social fabric (00:39:25) Morality, identity politics, success, happiness (00:46:16) Education failures and the loss of inquiry (00:52:28) Competition in schools and learning from history (00:56:25) Government control, common sense, and COVID (00:59:27) Can critical thinking return to schools (01:03:39) Leadership, technology, and civilization cycles (01:10:23) Dependency, entitlement, and economic limits (01:15:17) Closing thoughts on action and citizenship (01:18:29) Rapid-fire questions and final recommendations (01:31:34) Joe reflects on critical thinking and the republic - Joe "Rooz" Russiello https://www.joerooz.com/support https://www.joerooz.com