Democracy Not Found, Please reinstall Constitution

Get ready to scream into a $20 bill, because this episode isone wild, whiskey-soaked ride through the chaos that was Andrew Jackson’s presidency.

Our hosts Kyle and Eric break down the hot mess expressof Jacksonian democracy—starting with a literal mob trashing the White House and ending with an economic meltdown that somehow wasn’t even the worst thinghe did. (Trail of Tears, anyone?)

We’re spilling all the historically certified tea:

• The White House party that ended in broken china and thrown whiskey
• The Spoils System (aka Jackson hiring his buddies because… vibes?)
• The Maysville Road veto and his extremely petty beef with Henry Clay
• Nullification, drama with South Carolina, and the Force Bill showdown
• The Indian Removal Act, which absolutely deserves the rage it gets
• How Jackson personally tanked the economy and still walked away smug
• And the kicker: how his policies laid the foundation for the Civil War

Plus, we absolutely talk about that time Jackson beatan attempted assassin with his cane like he was starring in an 1830s action film. Don’t worry—Eric brought his economist hat, and Kyle’s here to stop the man from combusting on mic.

🎥 Want more context onthe complicated history of race, reason, and rage?
Watch our Benjamin Banneker episode (Thomas Jefferson Pt V), referenced in this chaos:https://open.spotify.com/episode/7qG3nWkHKSJ6OUqPPBNNH4?si=hZ5wWh1sSWSfkANj8Y3rCw

👀 Don’t miss a single presidential meltdown.
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Because if you thought history class was boring, that’sbecause they didn’t tell you Jackson almost started a war with France over unpaid shipping receipts.

Music:

Semper Fidelis by Heftone Banjo Orchestra, Free MusicArchive, license CC-BY-SA

Images:

Democratic Jackass: Thomas Nast, Public domain, viaWikimedia Commons

Jackson inauguration: Made by Robert Cruickshank as anillustration in the The Playfair papers, published in London by Saunders and Otley in 1841, v. 2., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John Eaton: John Eaton and Ethel Osgood Mason, authors.Longmans, Green, and Co. (New York, NY), publisher., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Martin Van Buren: Mathew Benjamin Brady, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John C Calhoun: George Peter Alexander Healy, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Henry Clay: Matthew Harris Jouett, Public domain, viaWikimedia Commons

Maysville Road: https://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwriizSOk4to0ighb2ajzbkF;_ylu=c2VjA2ZwLWF0dHJpYgRzbGsDcnVybA--/RV=2/RE=1754006542/RO=11/RU=https%3a%2f%2fwww.slideserve.com%2fshubha%2fthe-growth-of-democracy/RK=2/RS=rI0dKs2Jz9QB0b9zsA3rqEczIzI-

Peggy Eaton affair: Hoffay, A. A.; Robinson, Henry R.,-1850.Albert. A. Hoffay, published by Henry R. Robinson, 1833, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Floride Calhoun: See page for author, Public domain, viaWikimedia Commons

Peggy Eaton: http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/128353,Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

John Marshall: Henry Inman, Public domain, via WikimediaCommons

Failed Assassination of Jackson: N/A, Public domain, viaWikimedia Commons

Chief Black Hawk: Charles Bird King, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

He called himself the champion of the common man—but spoiler alert: only if that man was white, land-owning, and totally cool with slavery.

In this hot-and-heavy second dive into the tangled legacy of Andrew Jackson, Kyle and Eric rip off the rose-colored glasses and get real about the president who practically invented political branding and executive overreach.

From a booze-soaked inauguration that turned the White House lawn into a frat party, to doubling down on slavery while claiming to fight for “the people,” Jackson’s contradictions are as big as his ego. We’re talking abolitionist gag orders, the rise of the Democratic Party, and how Jackson paved the road to Civil War—with a grin and a hickory stick.

It’s messy. It’s maddening. And it’s the foundation for American politics as we know it. So buckle up, history lovers—Jackson’s back on the mic, and this time, we brought receipts.

🎧 Follow, rate, and share The Buck Starts Here for more American history with bite.

🔗 Explore more at www.chinashopproductions.com
📬Got thoughts, questions, or guest ideas? Email us: chinashopproductions@gmail.com

Music:

Semper Fidelis by Heftone Banjo Orchestra, Free Music Archive, license CC-BY-SA

Images:

William & Mary, Small Building: Smash the Iron Cage, CCBY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jacksonianism, The Moder Balaam and his ass: Henry R. Robinson, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The County Election: George Caleb Bingham, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Andrew Jackson’s Rowdy Party: Louis S. Glanzman, image courtesy the White House Historical Association

Abolition Newspapers: Wm. Lloyd Garrison?, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

We showed up ready to drag Andrew Jackson—and somehow left kinda rooting for the guy.

Before he was torching democracy and flexing executive power like a toddler with a crown, Jackson was a dirt-poor, rage-powered teen orphan with a scar on his face and a grudge against the British.

In this jaw-dropping origin story, Kyle and Eric trace how this scrappy frontier misfit went from bootless brawler to war hero, courtroom enforcer, and surprise national darling.

He lost his whole family, got stabbed in the face, shot in the chest, and still managed to climb the ranks, write a state constitution, and casually steal Florida. Like him or not, the man did not come to play.

Come for the chaos. Stay for the uncomfortable empathy.

🎧 Like what you heard? Don’t just sit there—subscribe, rate, and share The Buck Starts Here!

🖥️ Visit buckstartsherepodcast.com for bonus content, full episodes, and behind-the-scenes chaos.

📬 Have thoughts? Hot takes? Historical grievances? Email us at buckstartsherepodcast@gmail.com—we’re listening. (Unless you’re defending Buchanan. Then… maybe don’t.)

Music:

Semper Fidelis by Heftone Banjo Orchestra, Free Music Archive, license CC-BY-SA

IMAGES:

Portrait: Jengod, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Abolition Poster: Boston Public Library, CC BY 2.0https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Dred Scott: Schultze, Louis, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Waxhaw, NC map: The original uploader was Seth Ilys at English Wikipedia., CC BY-SA 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons

Brave Boy: published by Currier and Ives, circa 1876, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rachel Donelson Jackson: Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Duel: Unidentified illustrator, Public domain, viaWikimedia Commons

Jean Lafitte: anonymous, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

General Jackson: John Wesley Jarvis, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Battle of New Orleans: Kurz & Allison., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Battle of Horseshoe Bend: The New York Public Library,Digital Gallery [1], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Adams Onis Treaty: Milenioscuro, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Think the Founders shot their shot with the First Five? Please. The back half of the Bill of Rights is where it really gets spicy. Kyle and Eric Mason break down Amendments 6–10—and then hit you with a bonus round so wild it involves smugglers, speedy trials, and a college kid with a C paper who rewrote the Constitution out of pure spite.

We’re talking civil juries, cruel and unusual punishment (hi, bail system), and the Ninth Amendment’s legal version of “don’t tell me what I can’t do.” Oh—and the Tenth? That’s the one that lets your driver’s license work in every state and turned America into a capitalist monster truck. Buckle in. No, actually—don’t. The Founders wouldn’t have wanted that kind of government overreach.

Fife and Drum:

"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The Founding Fathers were wild, opinionated, and absolutely not here for standing armies in their guest rooms—let’s get into it. In this Buck Wild episode of The Buck Starts Here, Kyle and Eric catapult you back to 1791—when powdered wigs were poppin’ and the fear of standing armies was all the rage.

Get ready as we dive into the OG top five amendments—ranging from the freedom of speech (hint: Congress isn’t your modern Twitter) to the quirky art of not quartering drunk soldiers in your guest room. With sass, irreverence, and a whole lot of constitutional nerdery, we break down why the Fifth Amendment remains every stoner’s favorite “I plead the…” moment.

Plus, hear how Madison catches feelings, Franklin fights for an open window, and Eric battles 75 legal words in a single breath like he’s auditioning for a pharmaceutical commercial. If you’re looking for a funny, fiery, and historically smart podcast that explains the Bill of Rights like you’ve never heard before, hit play now!

Hit play, learn what your rights really mean, and maybe stop citing “free speech” in your group texts.

📝 Leave a review, click that follow button, and if you’ve got a hot take, drop it at buckstartsherepodcast@gmail.com.

Website: https://www.buckstartsherepodcast.com/

Because knowing your rights shouldn’t be boring—and we’re here to make sure it never is.

Fife and Drum:

"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Unroll your canvas and dip your brush in the tea, friends. Your charmingly chaotic hosts Kyle and Eric are back, and they've summoned fan-favorite Rae Faba - our resident realism vendor - for another trip into the glittery, grimy world of early American portraiture and the messy marriage between art and truth.

We're diving deep into America’s painted past: presidential portraits with side-eye, photography that lied before Photoshop was even a thing, and one German guy who decided George Washington needed some heroic fanfic. Did women row the damn boat? Was that Monroe behind the flag using it as a giant Band-Aid? Is that a duck-banana in the background? Honestly… maybe.

🎨 It’s art history, American myth-making, and full-throttle snark—all in one delicious episode.

🔎 Featuring:
– The most theatrical river crossing in military history– Rae's Jedi holocron (yes, really)
– Why Lincoln’s head got Frankensteined onto someone else’s body
– Shelf-off shenanigans
– And the ultimate historical question: can you trust a painting with icebergs?

👇 Hit play if you love your history messy, your art opinionated, and your hosts wildly underqualified to fact-check America’s most patriotic oil painting.

🖌️ Want more realness, weirdness, and wildly good art? March yourself over to Rae’s lair: https://marshmallowheaddesign.com

🖼️ Drop a comment with your favorite historical painting bomb.
🌐 Visit us at buckstartsherepodcast.com
📸Tag us in your weirdest historical artifacts and shelf flair
💌Rate, review, and send to that friend who still thinks Washington was standing up in that damn boat.

Want a journal? Same. Start with this episode. Email us at buckstartsherepodcast@gmail.com with the subject line Journal and we'll hook you up.

Fife and Drum:

"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

John Quincy Adams: science nerd, policy wonk... almostfunder of a journey to the center of the freaking Earth? Yeah, that happened. Kind of.

This week, Kyle and Eric dig into the gloriously unhinged tale of John Cleves Symmes Jr.—an ex-Army guy turned HollowEarth hype man—who tried to convince Congress that the Earth was basically a cosmic donut. And guess what? It almost worked.

Was JQA secretly into sci-fi? Did Congress take leave of itssenses? Why did the frontier love this guy while Harvard told him to kick rocks? We’ve got conspiracies, crank science, and just enough Manifest Destiny to make it weird.

💌 Send us your fantheories (or geological maps) at buckstartsherepodcast@gmail.com
🌍Dive deeper at buckstartsherepodcast.com
✅Hit follow, leave a review, and remember—there’s no “the” in our email, and no bottom to this rabbit hole.Fife and Drum:

"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

This one’s got it all: dysentery, white savior complexes, land “purchases” no one understood, and Francis Scott Key playing dictator from D.C. Welcome to Liberia, brought to you by James Monroe and the “philanthropists” ofthe American Colonization Society.

In this bonus episode of Buck Wild, Kyle and Eric rip the powdered wig off the American Colonization Society’s misguided plan to ship freed slaves off to West Africa like that somehow solved racism. (Spoiler: it didn’t.)

We’re talking:

• Sherbro Island: dysentery’s favorite vacation spot

• Monrovia: named for Monroe, because of course it was

• A parade of pro-slavery politicians pretending this wascharity

• And the chef’s kiss cherry on top—Liberia’s first fewdecades being micromanaged by rich white men who’d never set foot there.

It’s tragic, it’s infuriating, and yeah—it’s got jokes.Because if we don’t laugh at history’s worst ideas, we might just scream.

🎧 Smash play on Spotify,Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your fill of historical chaos.
📨Want a free journal? Email buckstartsherepodcast@gmail.com with thesubject line “Journal.”
🌐 More sass, sources, and bad decisions at buckstartsherepodcast.com

Fife and Drum:

"Loopster" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/