The Constitutional Convention’s Connections To Today’s Issues

Gary Midkiff, historian and professor, will speak on the topic, The Constitutional Convention’s Connections To Today’s Issues.  In today’s rancorous, let-me-insult-you-first, hashtag “YouExtremist” political climate, can you imagine 70 of our national political leaders meeting for four months and in a collegial fashion discussing, debating about and repeatedly compromising over a new Constitution and then all present signing their name to the document and submitting it the people for their vote?  Since 1787 we have made progress in many areas – certainly technology and medical science – but have slid backwards in the political art of finding common ground.  What can we learn from that Convention that might inform us today?  How did those men work through issues such as balance of power and blunting the possibility of a tyranny of the majority? We must learn from the past.

Midkiff earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Chicago and an M.B.A in Finance from Northwestern University.  He has been a corporate executive, international strategy consultant and has launched two companies.  His current focus is on politics, history and foreign policy, lecturing and leading discussion groups throughout the Chicago area and publishing his foreign policy newsletter “The View From My Balcony” multiple times each month to 3,000 readers internationally.  Midkiff is an Adjunct Professor at North Park University and a hobby chef, having graduated from culinary school in France. His first novel, Busville, was published in 2020 and his second novel, The Final Recipe, is expected to be published in 2023.