David Frum Discusses the Fourteenth Amendment and Republican Challenges to It

In this episode of The David Frum Show, host David Frum opens with reflections on Brexit's decade-long destabilizing effects on British politics before pivoting to a discussion with Yale historian David Blight about the Fourteenth Amendment. Passed through Congress in June 1866, the amendment emerged from the post-Civil War Reconstruction era and established citizenship for formerly enslaved people through the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. Frum and Blight examine what the amendment reveals about American identity and who counts as an American, both historically and in contemporary debates. The episode also references Liaquat Ahamed's book "1873," which explores the financial crisis of that year and the economic depression that followed, ultimately undermining Reconstruction efforts. The discussion frames current Republican proposals to restrict birthright citizenship as a direct challenge to this foundational constitutional protection.