Align with theirs. Today, we are asking washington listeners,ewers and how important is character when evaluating politicians . On the eastern or central time zone, call 202 7488000. If youre in the mountain pacific time zones, call 202 7488001. You can also reach us on social media on twitter at cspanwj. And on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Merry christmas to all of you. As we talk about character, a new poll from Morning Consult indicates that it is less and less important to voters. It says over all about 53 of registered voters surveyed say they prioritize policy positions, with 32 highlighting character in said instead. The poll was conducted on the days leading up to alabama special election. Accused ofoore was Sexual Misconduct, going up against democrat doug jones. I think most voters are disgusted by all saysays a recent dave former advisor. We are asking how important is character to you . If can call 202 7488000 you are in the eastern or central time zones. Mountain or pacific, call 202 7488001. One lawmaker who face Sexual Harassment allegations, minnesota senator al announced his resignation recently. Lets take a look. [video clip] serving in the United States senate has been the great honor of my life. I know, in my heart, that nothing i have done as a senator nothing has brought this institution, and i am confident that the Ethics Committee would agree. Nevertheless, today, i am announcing that, in the coming weeks, i will be resigning as member of the United States senate. That all people, am aware there is some irony in the fact that i am leaving while a man who has bragged, on tape, about his history of Sexual Assault sits in the oval office. And a man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the senate with the full support of his party. But this decision is not about me. It is about the people of minnesota. It has become clear that i cannot both pursue the Ethics Committee process and, at the same time, remain an effective senator for them. Let me be clear i may be resigning my seat, but i am not giving up my voice. I will continue to stand up for the things i believe in, as a citizen and as an activist. But minnesotans deserve a senator who can focus with all theenergy on addressing challenges they face every day. Minnesota democrat senator al franken announcing his resignation at her several members of the Democratic Caucus called on him to step down amid Sexual Harassment allegations, although in a recent brookings showed that more americans do not have a problem with immorality, or at least americans say personal immorality is not a disqualifying factor for electing officials. It says compared to 2011, americans today are more likely to say elected officials can still perform their duties in an ethical data even if they have performed a moral immoral personal ax. This immoral behavior does not preclude officials from carrying out duties with honor and integrity. In 2011, the public was more divided over the connection between 44 of americans said that elected officials could still perform honorably, and any goal of not disagreed. Patricia is on the line. Think character is important . Caller i do. A man is judged by his character. Host so what do you think of the fact that fewer americans aree fewer americans willing to overlook character flaws in evaluating their politicians . Know what these people are thinking about, but character shows you what well do. You have to have some kind of knowledge of some kind of response ability in order to hold office. You do not want to just anybody who has money, like donald trump. Host did it make a difference in who you voted for in the last election . Caller what do you mean . Host did you think of a character, the character of the candidates, when you cast your vote . Caller sure i did. And i voted for hillary, because she was the most qualified. Host we have mary calling from alabama. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have a question. Yes, ethics and morality are important in politicians. We only have to look at mr. Him in the white house to see how well that turned out. But today is christmas. Why are you leading with this topic . Something there deranged at cspan right now . We should be talking about christmas and a b how people are celebrating and coming together. There are kids right now having their toys under their trees and their mothers and fathers listening to cspan. Did you ever think to that did you ever think of that . Host ok. And we at washington journal do talk about Public Policy issues 365 days of the year, but we appreciate your call. A little bit more from the Morning Consult poll. It found a difference between gop poll respondents. It says republicans are more forgiving than democrats when it comes to the personal issues for the candidate running for Public Office. It shows gop voters care more about policy positions. Gop voters in the National Survey say they prioritize a candidates stance on policy matters, while 28 said character is more important. Of democratsty favored policy positions. We are asking you if you think that character is an important is important when evaluating politicians. Eastern and central time zones, 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific, 202 7488001. Iona is calling from north charleston, South Carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host and what do you think . Do you think character is important to consider when evaluating politicians . Caller character is very evaluating an political person. It gives us an insight into that person, how far they will push the envelope, the things they will and will not stand for in the office. Person andlook at a think that, ok, this person has been unethical, this person has a completely flawed character that continues to follow them you do not hold a persons past against them, however, you have to look at that past in its who le context and view the person as to where you will stand. Host where do you draw the line . You say you have to consider the whole context. Are there certain amounts of poor behavior that is a line drawer for you . Caller there is. It is just like and i know it will is going to extreme, but a convict. ,f this person made a mistake made one poor misjudgment, and visit decided and they decided to strain their lives out, moving on, contributed, have been amoral, upstanding person from this point on, yes, you forgive that. But a person who will constantly, because they have the upper hand and they have the wherewithal to do these things and manipulate the system and manipulate everything around them, continuously does that and allows it to follow them no. That person does not have any reason to be in office, as far as i am concerned. Because that person will stop short at nothing to push forth their own agendas and overlook mine, the people. Host in the federalist, Denise Mcallister has an opinion piece on whether character matters. She writes a mans character is certainly a factor in the quality of his governance, but when the sins are personal and not public in nature, his governance can be directed by other virtues that still shine ghtly this fight other faults. A moral man can certainly be trusted to make moral decisions, although not always, but it does not follow that a sinner can never make a moral decision or be an effective leader. Also in the federalist, and opposing view it says if a politicians personal life does not matter for voting, why even voice support for the size at all . I am not saying only choirboys with a squeaky clean record should be elected, but the inconsistency of doing values for leaders and what the rest of us are supposed to live by will grow more and more stark. Without enforcing moral standards, the right and the left will become two sides of the same grimy coin. Who cares whether it comes up heads or tails. We all pay the price in the long run. We are getting a call from georgia. What do you think . Caller character matters, but most voters do not have a way of detecting it. It is a false indicator. Look at resident george bush. By any accounts, he was a wonderful man, great family man, no known dalliances, but he invades iraq and causes the death of hundreds of thousands. The cost of over 6 trillion. Several thousand u. S. Servicemen. For no solid reasons at all. Us id that character by buy us . Look at hillary clinton. Always handled herself with the utmost dignity, but she was apparently as corrupt as any third world politician. You look at someone like assador ron dormer incredible individual in public and his personal character, yet he is the face of apartheid. Host how do you measure it, joe . When you evaluate lawmakers or political candidates when you go to the polls, how do you measure character . Caller i think the only way i have and i think trump has come the closest, but certainly he is a disappointment, is are they talking about doing things truly for American People, American Workers . Or are they trying their very best to avoid war . Are they doing everything they possibly can to avoid war . That is singly the most important thing. Again, trump talked about those things, but he seems to be doing the opposite. I do not think there is any accurate way of measuring that. Host ok. Jay is calling in from north charleston, South Carolina. Caller how are you doing . Host i am good. Merry christmas. What do you think about character . Should that be important in evaluating public leaders . Caller absolutely. It should be paramount. , weme being an idealist could be totally transparent. This country would not even have come into inception if it directly contradicted that. Tomas jefferson had a clause free the slaves originally. They took it out. Wouldiginal 13 colonies not even have been sanctioned if people did not look like you if people that look like you and were not considered 3 5 of a person. Ladies, theyre talking about you too. You were considered property. Even in the original wedding vows, it was to love, honor, and obey your man. It definitely based on the laws and the rules of this land, i mean i want to bring an example. Back, whotive tim happens to be a republican, talked about bipartisan corruption in d. C. , in the whole political system. This is just an extension of what i formerly stated about idealistically, yes, it should be. But fundamentally because i consider myself a fundamentalist as well what we see in this country is totally false. Host lets take a look at what White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders said in response to a question about Sexual Harassment allegations against the president. [video clip] thank you. 18 to ask you about the woman who came forward today against the president , saying, first of all, on a television show, and then at a press conference, and they said that he should resign and also there should be a congressional investigation. I know you said this has already been litigated in the last election, but i wanted to get your specific reaction to the idea there should be an investigation. The president has addressed these accusations directly and denied all of these guys of these all allegations. It took place long before he was elected to be president. The people of this country, in a decisive election, supported the president. We feel like these allegations have been answered. Is callings jim from ohio. Do you think character is important in evaluating politicians, and, if so, how much . Caller yes, of course i do. I like the way you phrased it this time around. The character question goes to the electorate. The percentages that you read off at the top of your program indicated that roughly twice as thatpeople thought agreement with their policy positions was more important than what kind of person was going into the office. That is something that is known as confirmation bias. If we are electing our peoples to Public Office is based on the fact that they agree with what we think when we are, by the nature of things, not as informed on all of the different issues that they are going to be addressing, the people that hold Public Office, people should be and i guess, in a perfect world, or at least a better world, people would be hoping that the person that goes in has enough character to have the integrity to inform themselves and to present their policy positions truthfully. And to change their opinion in the light of new information or new fax facts. So what you saw in those initial percentages that you read was indicative of why we have the person sitting in the oval office that we do and why some people, who are excellent people , in terms of their knowledge gathering and decisionmaking, are probably being turned away from office or, even, drummed out of office because of what is perceived to be a small character defect. So yes, i angle that my percentage would be completely reversed you i would say it is about a 95 character and 5 their present policy positions. The type of activity matter or the type of character flaw matter . Would it make a difference if someone, in the past, cheated on their taxes as opposed to, perhaps, sexually harassing someone . [laughter] caller of course. That is why the punishment is different for rolling through a stop sign and for committing murder. When you just use a broad brush like character, of course it is the more important thing that a particular policy position. But within that, within that are of possiblesbord character flaws. The better points of our character there are things like integrity and truthfulness that rise above a momentary lapse in judgment, shall we say, which, in the last couple of months, we have seen some people who have, particularly the men who have been brought up on various kinds of charges or allegations we see them all lumped into one barrel of out with the cad. Whereas some of the violations were unlawful violations, egregious ones, crimes, and others were just a lapse in judgment of, perhaps, having a hand on someones back. What ist points to initially stated in the call to peoples thought processes, i do not think, in our country, are very well formed anymore. I do not think people think deeply. I am glad you have this question and are not talking about what presence people are getting for christmas, because the nature of how people are thinking, in this country, is probably the paramount question that could be addressed on cspan. Sean is calling in from hawaii. A very early good morning to you. My problem with this issue is when the bipartisan ship seems to become a state. Heavily democratic representative state. The things that happen and our state the persons characters covered up by them being democrats. Catch them locally here, corruption of some sort, is covered up by the democratic already, because they do not have any bipartisanship here. From who we end up electing, because we are a heavily democratic favored state , the character issue is not we voteught up, because party so hardcore. Host what about choosing between different Democratic Candidates in primary races . Do you think about character when it comes to those races . Caller that is the problem as well. Because they are in the same party. The way they got there they are on the ticket at all is because there are associated with each other. And some waystate that we run it we are an island state. It is very small. Everybody knows everybody. It is not you are not qualified by what you know. It is who you know. That is why we have a single party state that is so controlled in that kind of context. If there is character flaws in that set up, they go unheeded until they are called in a corrupt state. Do nothing as an electorate. It is really sad. [indiscernible] host lets look at what democratic senator elect doug jones said in his victory speech. [video clip] at the end of the day, this entire race has been about dignity and respect. [cheers] [applause] this campaign has been about the rule of law. [cheers] [applause] abouts campaign has been common courtesy and decency and making sure everyone, in be state, regardless of which zip code you live in, is going to get a fair shake in life. We are talking about whether character how important character is when evaluating politicians. Again, if you are in the eastern or central time zones, you can call 202 7488000. The mountain or pacific time zones, 202 7488001. Lets take a look now at a tweet from the president on this christmas day, our leading up to this christmas day. He said people are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again. I am proud to have led the charge against the assault on our cherished and beautiful phrase. May christmas. The tweet from the president this morning. Also, take a look at the New York Times today. Renkle,ce by margaret it talks about the tension between christian voters and candidates who do not always espouse moral values. She writes that the special Senate Election in alabama has exposed how closely conservative christianity is now in lockstep with the Republican Party. She goes on to say the day of the election, the editor and chief ofthe editor in christianity today identify the biggest loser in alabama. The Christian Faith itself. It comes to when matters of life or death or personal commitment to the human heart, no one will believe a word we say. Perhaps for a generation. Christianity presents a conundrum for even jealous lists evangelic just evange licists. We have this call from florida. Caller good morning. I will take this from a different perspective. I am a catholic. I am a christian. I have a brother who is evangelical. He is very big in his church. He is a missionary. He tells me, unless i am born again, i am not a real christian. Well, trump is playing the god card just the way george w. Bush did. You have a lot of christians out there that say god picked george bush, god picked donald, that god works in strange and wonderful ways no. I believe god works in wondrous ways. Strange . No. Things happened under the george bush administration. So long as these religious zealots get what they want regarding policy or money or whatever, even sending our kids off to war, they do not give a damn. They are not real christians. They are followers of a false god. That is trump. Host lets look at a tweet from Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer to commemorate the holiday season. He said Donald Trumps Christmas Eve pronouncement from santa to the rich, scrooge to the poor. Some messages we are getting from our leaders this holiday season. Amy is calling from new york. What do you think how important is character when evaluating our leaders . Extremely is important. I think this is the perfect topic to discuss on Christmas Morning. I really liked what the caller before me said, and i agree with her 100 lead if we are going to proclaim ourselves christians, we really need to embrace the values that christianity, in its original form, tried to teach others. Such as caring for the sick. Without putting people in debt. Caring for the poor, without any kind of dumb litmus test of who is deserving. Taking those children off of Health Insurance to give tax cuts to the rich i am sorry. That is as antichristian as you can possibly be. And i do believe that call a Kirstie Alley call it christianity, call it karma, trump will get a, thats a comeuppance. Host this magazine saying white evangelicals are more likely to be forgiving. It says in, 2011, the Public Religion Research institute asked voters if a public official who commits an immoral act can still behave professionally in public life. Across the board, most americans said no. White evangelicals were the most adamant, with a full 61 saying no. Last year, this same survey said the number of white evangelicals who believe a white politician can still behave ethically despite immoral behavior rocketed up to 32 from 30 to 72 . The group went from least likely take more a politicians personal immoral behavior to the most likely. Frome getting this call maryland. Caller one thing i know i have been to morocco, egypt, north africa. You will not find one person over there who will admit that jesus was white. He never was white. A native african. North african, hebrew, israelite. Areof these evangelicals nothing but a bunch of racists who hide under biblical terms. They are racists. If you love jesus, it does not matter what, you are. These racists will continue to call themselves christian. Anytime a white person calls themselves a person, i question it. First of all, they will not accept the fact that jesus was a man of color host derek, do you think it is fair to paint a broad group of people with such a broad stroke . , but they know who they are. Especially the far right ones. Every time trump comes on tv, the biggest phony who ever was white person calls himself a christian to deny what i am saying. Look at the book of revelations. The first chapter talked about a black man. He describes jesus and says he was a man who had skin of bronze when people see north africa and all of those areas, one thing they do not know is 2000 years ago, no one existed. There are all europeans. If you have straight hair, you are european. Host all right. Lets look at the washington examiner. How the president and the first lady took time to make some important phone calls yesterday. It said the president and the first lady to call sunday from children calling into norads santa tracking hotline. Trump asked one child what would you like, more than anything . Building blocks. Thats what ive always liked, too, said trump. I predict santa will bring you so many building blocks, you will never be able to use them all. That was the president and first lady taking time to answer calls from children calling for santa. Perry is calling in from california. Forimportant is character how important is character . Caller berry important. The thing that bothers me is people who denies the idea that you should even present it is an indication of what went on during the election. They cannot call cspan fake news, or that is what they would call you right now. This sweeping under the rug of someones past, especially the buffoon we have in office, who stands on public tv and states about grabbing women by their private parts, and then we put him in office look at what you said about the evangelicals. They threw religion and Everything Else they pronounced under the rug to put this man in office. When i go in for a job, i am supposed qualifications for the job. This man had no political experience. That is why we have the electoral college. But it failed. Because it was set up by our laypersons to keep a out of office, and it failed to that is why we have what we have today. This man, who is all about so moronic, unbelievably so, that he could declare war just because someone insults him is scary. That is why character matters host caller let me ask they sweep caller to sweep it under the rug, to vote for someone else, is terrifying. Our politics are not working. To be honest with you, democracy has not lasted. If we are not careful, this is the reason it will not last. Because people are out there, ch whoing an oligar states, one minute, one thing. And then another, another. Look at his business background. The corruption, the trump university, the many bankruptcies he stands up and says whatever he feels at the moment and tells you this is what he will do, and then reverts. Host ryan is calling from houston. What do you think . How important his character when evaluating politicians . Caller good morning and Merry Christmas. I think character plays a big part. I am from new orleans. What i am seeing in the south, what i have been seeing a long time, is that character does not matter. Theyople do not care have no respect for no one. I am living in houston right now. It is crazy down south. The people it is like you are in another world when you come to the south. You cannot buy a new car and go there might be crime. That is how people live down south. These people can do anything. And trump is leading the United States like that. I remember when i was younger i am 46. You used to tell who was good. Who were the leaders. You cannot tell that right now. The United States has gotten so immoral all of this reality everyone naked on tv, it is crazy. But the people in the south other worse worst. These are the worst people i have ever seen. If it were not for those people in chicago and new york, places like that, california host some other headlines in todays New York Times. In congress, republicans have made a start. The republicancontrolled 115th congress, sometimes in collaboration with the president often despite him has enacted surprisingly far reaching conservative achievements in its first year. Among them, a long promised the code, oilhe tax drilling in the arctic, and a series of lifetime limits to the judiciary. Or the new year, Republican Leaders in the house have their sights on a decadesold program for the poor that they say are too easily exploited by those who do not need them. Mr. Trump is excited to move forward with a long promised program to rebuild roads, bridges, and other infrastructure. The republican leader is speaking gamely of bipartisanship, especially on legislation to detect young, undocumented immigrants brought into the country as children, whose obama era protections will run out in march. Matt is calling in from new york. Good morning. Caller good morning. Merry christmas. Or the spirit of it, if you do not celebrate it to you i just find that poll very interesting. Overwhelmingly consider the content of somebodys character when we billthrough eight years of and hillary clinton. Youinton was probably just cannot make this stuff up. Kathleen wiley, paula jones. S, of all people, talking about trump i am sure they were saying then, that was his own private business to it it is amazing how things have changed. It is so hypocritical. On top of that, the crazy caller you go back to the corrupt daley machine in chicago. The democrats voted for him, why . Because he tossed them crumbs. They allow the corruption to continue to the man that said saying thank all for people in chicago and new york and l. A. , i would like to remind him there is this guy named Harvey Weinstein that lives in l. A. And also, that area is also the center of the huge pornography industry in this country. Know what these people are thinking, but at the same time, i say peace on earth to them and did well to all men. Goodwill to all men. Host ok. Eddie calling from baltimore. Caller Merry Christmas to you. Host Merry Christmas to you as well. How important do you think character is for a politician . Caller character is important not just for politicians before every citizen of america. To the outline of character, spiritual character. If we do not have a value system built on something higher than ourselves, there is no character in it. Right now, the politicians do not have any character. I see something going on that has been since trump has come into office. This thing of republicans versus republicans and republican democrats versus republicans and republicans versus democrats, it is something the people at the top play against the people at the bottom. It is like that could send the bloods its like the crips versus the bloods. Bottom are allhe poor. I do not care if you are republican or democrat, white or black. The rich people are dividing people and playing them against each other. Host partisanship has existed since the founding of the nation, but is there Something Different between that and what kind of person you elect . Do you think someone who has committed that act could still go to congress and represent his or her constituents fairly . Caller the people that we need to send our everyday people. Politics has always been a bed full of liars, because they look out for their own self and their own families. We have to find people who are everyday people to represent us, who know the struggle of the average american. Democrat have failed. Republicans have failed. People have failed the people for years. How do the few control the many . Religion, psychology it is working. The people who promise you everything and deliver on nothing. Lets go back to the last 60 years. Nothing has been done for the everyday people. We are headed towards a very terrible point here in america, because how they are playing both sides through the middle, is like they will see us fight each other. Eventually, we may end up in the civil war. But the rich will still end up smiling and laughing. Host all right. Other headlines from the New York Times democrats are going all out in the elections in their bid to take back control of congress. Representative Pete Sessions was reelected to his dallas seat, the remaining 29 split between libertarian and green party candidates. Hillary clinton won the district by three percentage points, but no democratic candidate even showed up to write her coattails in 2018, there will be 10. Democrats are not just filing to run in district where mrs. Clinton performed well, they are also running for conservative seats uncontested in 2016 while remember can and while republicans remain heavy favorites in states like texas and nebraska. Ira is calling in from maryland. How important do you think character is . Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller how are we doing . Host good. What do you think . Caller it is very important caller mentioned the personality of our lord and savior, jesus christ. He gave you only one passage in the book of revelations. Second one. You a in the old testament, which is prophet daniel. Chapter seven, verse nine. If you read both of these, there is no way anybody anywhere, whether robson or jerry falwell, can come up with any savior any picture of our lord and savior to be european or caucasian. He is surely a black person. But we have been deceived. I watch our president , surrounded by christians who are oneptive, showering prey are him in the name of my lord and savior, jesus christ, who is precisely a black person. President himself we are so certain this person will die for our country, that he is christian, that he is this and this and this. Our lord andow who savior, jesus christ, is. He is not caucasian. Host lets take a look back to 1998, when thenpresident bill clinton spoke publicly after being impeached. [video clip] i think the millions upon millions of american citizens who have expressed their support and their friendship to hillary, me, to our family, and to our administration during these last several weeks. The words of the members here with me, and others who were part of their endeavor, in defense of our constitution, were powerful and moving. I will never forget them. The question is, what are we going to do now . Accepted responsibility for what i did wrong in my personal life. Members ofinvited congress to work with honest to find a reasonable, bipartisan, and proportionate response. Todaypproach was rejected by republicans in the house. But i hope it will be embraced by the senate. I hope there will be a constitutional and fair means of in aving this matter prompt manner. Meanwhile, i will continue to do the work for the American People. We still, after all, half to save Social Security and medicare for the 21st century. We have to give all of our children worldclass schools. We have to pass a patients bill of rights. We have to make sure economic surveillance around the world is not curb Economic Opportunity here at home. Have to keep america the worlds Strongest Force for peace and freedom. In short, we have a lot to do before we enter the 21st century. And the more recent allegations of Sexual Harassment, peter baker writing in the New York Times had a has conjured up memories of clinton. Woman camether forward with acquisitions against bill clinton. I feel a cable are starting to believe and realized i was truly sexually assaulted by bill , nearly two decades after going public with her story. If you are aatter democrat or republican, who cares if you are straight or gay, if you believe in god or not. We all have a right to be believed. The cultural conversation about women, power, and Sexual Misconduct has consumed the United States in recent weeks has raised a question that is equally promoted by those on the right what about bill . Connie is calling. Caller good morning. Merry christmas. I am talking about the politicians. I am a democrat. Only an i vote, i am not democrat or republican. I look at what that politician did before. Not what he has promised. Thomas is our promises. It does not mean he will keep them. Think we need to send to washington better people. Second, a few callers back, there was a man that said jesus was not white. I agree with him 100 . Inthat time and age, the the middle east, the only white people were the crusades and the romans. I am a european myself. We know jesus as blonde hair and blueeyed from european painters. But he was not blueeyed or blonde hair. Whoever believes that is fooling themselves. When you talk about christian religious, everyone can say they are christians. But after christ, then the apostles were not christians as you call them today. They were catholics. All the profits came after. So all of the new bornagain ranks that was not the time of christ. A jewish person. He died as a jewish person. He never renounced his religion. Host ok. In other headlines, the Washington Times writes that the president is pleased with the current fbi director, even as he criticizes the outgoing deputy. It says trump has full confidence in his new fbi director, despite a series of attacks against the soontobe retired deputy. An adviser said sunday that mr. Trump is very pleased with director Christopher Wray can a ,hanges that are taking place short,s mr. Trump continues to assail Deputy Director andrew mccabe, who plans to retire next year. Mr. Mccabes supervision of the fbis investigation into Hillary Clintons female practices can underscore indeed because of his receivednate Campaign Contributions from a clinton ally. I was thinking, character is very important in politics and daily lives. Even in job descriptions. Job descriptions tell what people are fitted to do as a politician and what the people are expecting. Up rules,icians set like in chicago, they set up rules to help people who they want to help, because they have culture. I feel, if people have a job description, they will be responsible for the people, the citizens of the state and cities they represent. Because right now, a lot of them can do whatever they want to do with the job, and you cannot do anything about it. T let me ask you this when evaluating character, there have been a lot of people who have been revered in our history. A lot of leaders who were revealed to have character flaws. People like fdr, president kennedy. Do you think that it is fair to hold what people do in their against them, or to use that as a measure about what kind of president or what kind of lawmaker they might be . Caller well, sometimes you can only judge a persons character after their history, after they are dead or whatever. But when they are living, you need a job description. I feel that people doing whatever they want to do is not acceptable in society. That does not matter if you are a politician, whomever you are or whatever you do and what your title is. If you can bear with me for one second, i will give an example. I am retired, in my 70s. I have been going to a Grocery Store here in chicago since they opened in 1969, when we had a fire. It is a store and a Grocery Store. I was in there, and i go in there once in a while to get a lottery ticket. The people working in there are from everywhere, around the country, and around the world. I was told by a person whom i speak with when i go in and say hello, and i am very friendly i say please and thank you. To make this story short, one day, she walked up and told me the manager told me to tell you not to come into our store anymore. And i said, what . i cannot understand why not. Did not tell me why. And i am not going to yell and scream, because it is not my personality. I just walked out of the store. I called. No one responded as to why they made that statement. So i went to an agency here in chicago called the department of human rights and asked them if they could find out why they are expelling me from this grocery for 55 years or more. Right now, they are still working on the case. The only thing they have told me so far listen to this carefully they told me that i offended some people who work there from mexico by saying something about trump or something. They do not give me any explanation, except saying she offended our workers here in the store, and some of them are from mexico. Now, character should be put in our society as a tool for us to live by. Not for people to make up rules and regulations because they have a title or power. Everyone should be respect it morality, with especially if youre in a position of authority, no matter who you are. Otherin the hill, headlines about the u. S. Inuring 285 million cuts the budget for the United Nations. It says the u. S. Mission to the United Nations announced sunday it negotiated a major reduction budget for the upcoming fiscal years. According to a statement, the 20182019 u. N. Budget will have a 285 million reduction from the previous two years. In addition to this significant cost savings, we reduced the ated management and support functions, bolstered support for key u. S. Prior to his around the world, and instilled more discipline and accountability throughout the u. N. System. Mary is calling from philadelphia. Caller good morning. Happy holidays. Public service i am retired now kid i worked for the state of pennsylvania. You are required to be above reproach. We were required to get a federal background check, i waslogical testing, and fingerprinted. They are not doing this now. They dismantled the fbi agency, the department that did these background checks. That is for all public servants. Officers,s, police teachers. They dismantled the agency in the 1990s. I think after their president clinton after president clintons fiasco. This is what we are lacking. We are getting everybody in these positions now. And our safeguard has been dismantled. Thated to make sure Agency Funding in this are enacted again. Congressman ringgold for several years to make sure that we got this department in place again. He promised that he was going to tosent this legislation authorize in this agency. But it never happened. This is why we are looking at these major crises in the country now. Because we have no idea who is in these positions. What they are relying on is social media. The news media. To that to vet these people. That way now. Be betting vetting should be the governments response ability. Responsibility. Host paul is calling. Caller thank god for trump. Mr. Obama put muslims first. So glad trump is doing all of these things. I am not black or white. But i am telling you, black people benefit so much from trump. Host matthews calling in from vancouver, washington. How important is character for you when you evaluate politicians . Me, moral character is very important. I personally believe that a lot of trumps activity is not for selfish capital reasons. Boot e he wants to the future of the world safer. His actions have told me that. The other side, they want to try to manipulate people and make you think he is doing bad things by saying he was doing the things they were doing that is bad. And a lot of people do not have this one. I think our politicians have to take a lie detector test. Usingem if they plan on their position for themselves or for the people. What their moral character is with all of that. I called because i wanted to mention there was a study i cannot remember the person who did it that look that president s in the past and what not. He said there were a couple of characters. One is active or passive in what they do. The other is positive or negative. Positiveactive was the most popular that people would vote for. Character is definitely important. Also, what is important when people get voted in, what i have heard about is the structure of their face, what they look like. Which is strange. Shows they mayn be abusing their power for those reasons, and therefore, they are the things they do are for personal reasons, rather than helping the general public. The moral thing is a big part for me. Host host you will have another chance to call in later on in the show to talk about your views on character and politicians. But first ethics and Public Policy center will be here to discuss his book the working class. Ronald reagan and return of the blue collar concervix as our author series continues. Well be right back. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National able satellite corp. 2017] on cspan this westbrook in prime time. Tuesday night new york city mayor. Ill tell you something very simple. A Progressive Democratic candidate with a clear, strong economic message, with a pop list approach who will go to the grassroots, that is the republicans worst nightmare. Wednesday night at 8 00 eastern a debate on the First Amendment and hate speech from the Constitution Center on cspan in philadelphia. Its important for students their how to defend ideas and criticize people. But a really important part of what the university teaches is civility. Not just that you need to be able to defend your their ideas and criticize people. Ideas. You need to defend in a way that doesnt auched other people and make them angry. Then they become unable to have the sort of debate that we value. Ashton Kutcher Ashton Kutcher on modern slavery. Ryan fille on care givers and they sit their babies in front of a television. The child quietly goes to sleep inside their mind. Tech sector trends and government regulations. Think of it as the Starship Enterprise sort of goal. If you ever watch star trek theres a computer that just is ambient. It exists in the starship and it understands your i had yms. You can have a conversation with it and knows everything. All this week in prime time on cspan. Washington journal continues. Host joining us now is henry olson, senior fellow at the ethics and Public Policy center. Also the author of the working class republican. Ronald reagan and the return of blue collar conservityism. Here on part of our spotlight to talk about the future of the Republican Party. Thank you so much for joining us. Guest thanks for having me. Host what made you write this book . Guest what happened after 2008, where the republican in the s anhile lated elections. It was down to its worst standings across the country since i was a teenager and i host why was reagan so appealing to them . Guest working class republican is somebody who looks at the everyday life of an average american and puts their interests first. Not ideology, not devotion to do bstract ideal what people need do people need in the moment to get ahead. Ronald reagan could appeal to that person and could embody that because as he always said he was one of them. He grew up in a working class family. He achieved stardom in hollywood. Shaped fact is he was very much by his roots with two High School Dropouts as parents. And he never left that behind. Host talk about blue collar conserveatism. Guest its something that of the ts the focus shaped very of the average person the average voter in america is a college dropout. The average person is also somebody who is also somebody who did not even attend university. We tend to forget that here in washington where everyone has College Degrees and post graduate degrees and focused on the new economy. The fact is most americans are facing more competition than before. There are people who are just trying to get along with their lives. And blue collar republicanenism at the focal point and says sometimes they need a little help from government. Host henry olson talking about his book the working class republican. Ronald reagan and the return of blue collar conserveatism. Part of our series on authors. Talking about the future of the republican at the focal point and says sometimes they need pa the number are on the bottom of your screen. That can appeal across party lines. I grew up in michigan. I know it was fairly democratic. And then it went to Ronald Reagan. How did that work then and how does that work now . Guest thats when reagan was elected he was somebody who could appeal to nonrepublicans like no republican had for decades, with the exception of the war hero, dwight eisenhower. By focusing not on a principle, like helping business helps america or free markets over everything. Ronald reagan could talk to the democrat and the independent who wanted to get ahead in American Life and wanted somebody who was on their side. He got record margins among those people, they named them reagan democrats. Thats something that oddly enough happened with donald trump this past time, he was the first person to have a slarme appeal. Host i want to talk about how this plays out in modern times. You wrote in the New York Times, guest what i mean by that is what americans want today is a government that protects them from unfair competition and helps them get ahead. Get the government out of the way. Does not respond to their every day needs. They need a new Education System that instead of putting everybody into college, focuses on vocational for people who college isnt the best choice. Gets ing trade deals that treated fairly. Recognizing people are faced tr. Recognizing people are faced with competition they werent faced with 30 years ago. Getting government isnt what they need and what they want. Host barbara. Good morning. Christmas. Ry i had a simple question. I was watching the signing of the tax bill last week. I noticed that at the after party that they had was i ody seemed to be dont know. I dont know if you call it allegiance pledges. They said thank you mr. President. Thank you for this, thank you for that. I hadnt seen that with any other president. Can you give me an explanation for that . Seems to president like appreciation and gratitude. His staff or other senators seem to recognize pats part of dealing with this president. Harry truman used to say the buck stops here and Ronald Reagan said theres no limit to what you can accomplish if you dont want to take the credit. This this president became successful on putting his name on famous buildings and he seems to think thats important. Thats part of thats part of working together and establishing a relationship on both sides of the aisle. And his staff and members of congress seem to recognize that he likes to receive credit publicly. Host the caller started talking about the tax bill. Piece you talk about a little bit before it was passed what you would wanted to see. About a little bit before it was what did you think about the tax bill that came out . Guest the tax bill that came out was much better than the one originally proposed. It cut taxes for many more people. The original proposal would have raised taxes for tens of millions. People will see tikes. But i still think it could time. It could have done more to stimulate employment. How to raise wages people will tikes. But i still think it could f who are faced with competition from overseas labor and how to focus the marginal dollar of a company that is getting these benefits p, on hiring people and raising wages. We need to do more direct focus on employment and wages to have blue collar conservative. Host right after you talk about one of the things next on agenda which is tirement entitlement reform. Guest a lot of times when republicans talk about entitlement they talk about it as money problems, it costs too much and it is getting out of control. The fact is the big entitlements give People Security. They give People Security when they retire that they will be able to make enough, that they will be able to access a doctor they need it. And for people on disability they may be 55 but they need a income check. They need it. What we need to do is to make sure that for Social Security and medicare people who dont need taxpayer support dont get it. The person who has 2 million in their 401 k gets the same deal on med income check. Icare as far as taxpayer subsidy as the person who has nothing in their bank account. That doesnt strike me as fair. I dont think it strikes most americans as fair. And republicans would be well advised to start with that rather than trying to treat it as a cost problem. Treat it as a security and first. Host bob. Good morning. Aller what i want to say is that karl max is alive and well. I was a lifelong republican. Single, never had children. No mortgage. What is amazing is that all the nversation i didnt hear one of the 535 people in congress mention the people who are subsidized the most in this country, and that is me. People with no children and no mortgage. You make 50 grand pay the tax on 50 grand. Dont adjust income. When you adjust when you adjust income thats social engineering. Its just that simple. So karl mample is alive and well. Republican i can no longer vote again. Graduated income tax, seven ifferent tax brackets. Ronald reagan always supported what you are saying. Reagan opposed in principle a graduated income tax. He favored a flat tax. He called it before they said the term he called it proportionate as opposed to graduated. He would have been what you are talking about. I believe thats what michigan has at least at the state level you are paying along with the system that you would like to have. The federal government probably should be moving in that direction but they didnt this time. Host Ronald Reagan always supported what you are saying. All right. Sed in grover from virginia. Im calling, it seems to me that trump [inaudible] including the children. Youre saying its been 150 million already in travel. Thats more than obama spent in 8 years. Thats all i have to say. Host go ahead. Guest 150 million is a lot of money and maybe it could be spent better. But in the context of a federal budget over 3 trillion and growing, theres still lots of money to be spent and lots of money is being spebt on lots of other programs including for children. I am hoping children can renew the childrens Health Insurance program permfantly when they come back if january. Host lets take a look back to 1979. Guest governor reagan. One problem that we face today can compare with the need to restore the health of the American Economy and the strength of the american dollar. Doubledigit inflation has robbed you and your family of the ability to plan, its detroid the confidence to buy, and threatens the very structure of family life itself as more and more wives are forced to work to meet the ever increasing cost of living. At the same time, the lack of real growth in the economy has introduced a justifiable fear in the minds of working men and women who are already overextended that soon there will be fewer jobs and no money to pay for even the necessities of life. And tragically, as the cost of living keeps going up, the standard of living which has been our great pride, keeps going down. The people have not created this disaster in our economy. The federal government has. It has overspent, overestimated, and overregulated. It has failed to deliver Services Within the revenue it should be allowed to raise from taxes. In the 34 years since the end of world war ii, it has spent 448 billion more than it has ollected in taxes. 448 billion of Printing Press money which has made er dollar you earn worth less and less. Host how applicable is that at then would be president Ronald Reagan said to today when it comes to the economy . Guest i think some is still very applicable. That was almost 40 years ago. The government has added a lot of regulations that didnt exist back then and they hinder a lot of industries. So on the question of deregulation a lot of that is still applicable. When he was speaking then the top tax rate was 70 , there were over 15 brackets even after the last bill taxes are lower for most people than 40 years ago. So i think the tax question has now been pretty much dealt with. But theres still regulation that needs to be dealt with in order to make a number of American Industries more competitive. Host gary, good morning. Caller hello. Good morning. Ow are we feeling today . Merry christmas. When Ronald Reagan came into ower i was 10. Systemically watched the quality of life go down under Ronald Reagan. If you recall, Ronald Reagan gave us a gift of homelessness. Dont you recall that . Also, Ronald Reagan also gave us iran contra. But the funny thing about it is that you guys talk deficits. Dont you recall he said that . Guest i recall everything that you said. No person is perfect. I dont think that Ronald Reagan caused homelessness. Homelessness was something coming u about in part because we were deinstitutionalizing our mental hospitals and people were put in Community Treatment centers but werent being rovided with oversight and makes. And too many ended up on our streets. But i do remember mitch snider and the homeless crew sadse. While other cities, particularly my home state of california have encouraged people to live the lifestyle of their choice. One thing to recognize the thing that is Ronald Reagan did do. Ronald reagan restored confidence after a decade of defeet. He restored an economy that hile it didnt touch everybody increased standard of living for the vast majority of people, set off a nearly 20year boom. And the communist empire fell one year after Ronald Reagans presidency. Host i want to read an excerpt from your book, the working class republican. Explain what is different about today that makes todays conservetives sitting ducks. Guest pretty much most conservatives argue as a matter of default that the people who need tax cuts are the job what they call job creators or entrepreneurs, the people in the top 1 the people who spend 70 hours a week building their businesses and theyre the people that need help. Everybody else comes second. I think you saw that in the tax bill where the focus was on corporations, the focus was on small everybody else comes busi and Everything Else came at the back end. And Ronald Reagan never did that. When he spoke about tax cuts he spoke about the working person. He tried to cut taxes for everybody. His 1986 tax reform which was the last big tax change before now Ronald Reagan emphasized making families more economiccal to raise an equalityly with cutting rates. Thats not something you saw republicans do during this debate at all. Host were talking with henry olson the senior fellow at the ethics and Public Policy center and also the author of the book the working class republican Ronald Reagan and the return of blue collar conserve tism. Talking about the future of the epublican party. Aller good morning. I would like to address this. You spoke earlier about character. Mark twain, Samuel Clemens said theyre liars. And there are the stats ticks. But lying is the propaganda thats been put out all the time by this stuff about Ronald Reagan. I lived through Ronald Reagan. Im 66 years old. Ronald reagan cut taxes and raised it seven years after that. You should play Allen Simpson to this guy. I a senator from utah believe. And every time this guy comes with grover nortax nor quistperpwuts this myth. Do you remember read my lips when george h. W. Bush had to come in and say he wouldnt cut taxes and then he cut them again six months later . Its nonsense. Pply side economics is economics. Bush said that when reagan proposed it. Its nonsense. When you take a basic economics course in college they would tell you that demand creates an economy and flows it. Its the same stuff. We went in to debt under Ronald Reagan. Bigtime. Host lets give henry olson a chance to respond. I believe that candidate bush said he would not raise taxes. Guest thats right. President reagan cut tax rates by 30 25 across the board. He cut tax rates again in 1986. I believe the tike of tax hike primarily fell on corporations. Deficit spending went up in large part because first of an unexpected bad recession then subsequently Congress Never app proved many of the domestic pending that the president had approved. I think had they done so things might have been very different. The president in his letters and his autobiography opeds the possibility of a compromise. If spending cuts had been approved, but the democrats were never willing to cut nonessential domestic spending. Order to meet the president regretfully deficits were the approved. Think had result of that but it is going to take both sides to move not one side, in order to solve that problem. Host done from arkansas. Don. Good morning. Guest Merry Christmas. Caller we were talking a little earlier about the whether we trusted our elected officials or not. Let me ask. Suppose a hypothetical question. Suppose as a country that is and has a in debt huge budget deficit, should that country actually cut taxes . Guest what we need to do, i think, is deal with our budgetry situation on both sides of the equation. Cutting tax rates and making us competitive with the rest of the world in Corporate Taxes is justifiable. A world with global multinational most of our large competitors have much lower Corporate Tax rates. That is absolutely necessary. I think we have to take a look at the spending side of the equation. Do we really need to be spending 4 billion a year on Crop Insurance, where we subsidize wealthy farmers to buy Crop Insurance and then we subsidize private Insurance Companies to sell them the same policies. Does that make sense . I think a lot of things we can look at that dont touch the thing that is most americans value. Like Retirement Security and security in your health care. That can really work to reduce the deficit. And it takes both sides. It takes democrats and republicans to give. Host lets go back in time once more and take a look at what Ronald Reagan said about the role of government. I believe this nation hungers for a spiritual revival. Hungers to once again see honor placed above political expediency, to see government once again the protecter of our liberties, not the distributer of gifts and privilege. Governments should uphold and not undermine those institutions upon which civilization is founded, religion, education, and above all family. Government cannot be clergyman, teacher, and parent. Our servant beholden to us. We who are privileged to be americans have had a rendevous with destiny since the moment in 1630 when john win throp off the coast of massachusetts told the little band of pilgrims we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us so that if we shall deal falsely with our god in this work we have undertaken and so cause him to withdraw his present help from us we shall be made a story and a by word throughout the world. A troubled and afflicted pleading oks to us, for us to keep our rendevous with destiny. But we will uphold the principles of selfreliance, selfdizz republican, morality, and above all responsibility that we individual will become that shining city on a hill. Host one of ronald that we will become reagans more famplese addresses. Do you think republicans still have that sight in mind . Guest i think they do. I wish that they would focus on some of the things Ronald Reagan focused on. The emphasis on family is something marco rubio focused on. And often found a Republican Party that was putting the interests of business ahead of interests of family. I think Ronald Reagan had the balance as i would like as a republican i would like to recover that balance. Host new york. Interests of good morning. Caller good morning. Happy christmas. My question may be a bit almost unfair to some, at the federal level. Although the Republican Party itself, i wonder why is it so splintered . Why do we allow so many Fringe Groups to call themselves still within the same party such as libertarian . Ere is a libertarian in this nation. You have radicals, religious Fringe Groups those with hobby lobby who are willing to funnel lobbing off the hands of christians heads of christians. My question goes to current here and now at the federal level. Why do they seem to be circling their way to protect those who conspired with the kremlin . Impeach both impeach both president and the Vice President , we would still have a republican third in line. We would still have the white house. Why are they protecting these eople . My question. Happy snass and groovy new year. My question. Happy snass and groovy new year. Guest i think theyre waiting to see what the investigation knows. I dont think theres proof of an impeachable offense. We have impeached twice but never impeached and convicted a president. When nixon resigned, it required really direct ed of culpability. Nd theres not in a yet with President Trump or pence. I think we should trust in the judgment of the investigators to see what they can uncover. Then i think Public Opinion if theres clear and present proof will have its will on the representatives. But right now theyre doing their duty to say wait until the evidence comes out and not take extreme measures on the basis of mere suspicion. Host what about the point about how the Republican Party s so many different factions that sometimes work at counter purposes . Guest i think the big problem with the Republican Party and factions is that there is not a unit of what they are aiming at. That ultimately theres some sort of agreement, something that they hold in common. I think with republican factions, theres a lot of disagreement about what government should do. That means that theyre fighting with each other. There are groups that may feel more at home in a third party movement. But the Republican Party will fight less when it agrees more and thats something that they ought to be working towards against. N fighting host i want to read another excerpt from your book. Host do you consider President Trump to be a true republican . Guest the president is the nominee of the Republican Party and the leader of the Republican Party. He has not been acting as we seeing a Republican Party leader acting as. He is not somebody who most Party Leaders try to field the philosophy their party can unite behind. They dont publicly criticize members of their own party for what most people would be considered to be sleeths. And that suggests a less serious degree of loyalty to the party as an institution than we have been used to seeing in the president s both republican and democrat, in the past. Host do you think people can change . For a long time the president was a registered democrat. Do you think thats an issue . Guest the president has been all over the map politically. He has been a registered democrat, reform party, republican, independent, back to rengstered republican. People in the broader country dont seem to be bothered by that. I dont think most republicans are bothered by that. I do think people would like to see a broad consistent philosophy that is inclusive rather than divisive that says not only are these the programs i want, not only do i think im the man to deliver but here is the interpretation of what it means to be american that you can be a part in. If the president would deliver that he would find much more support and find his Approval Ratings going up. Host john from washington. Good morning. Caller good morning. Mystified. When they asked the cio. Ident of the n. F. L. He said Ronald Reagan and jackie deserve each other. It wasnt long after that that the federal government took over the pension plan of the teams ster. So the union people that voted for trump this time dont realize theyre voting against themselves when republicans hate unions. Were down to 6 union left in this country and theyre still blaming all kinds of stuff on us. Bernie r matter sanders was saying about Social Security. Just remove the cap. Im up against the cap every year and they stop taking out Social Security. I would love to make it and pay Social Security up to half a million. Remove the cap it would remove 50 more years without touching any benefits. So its a simple fix. Who can most afford it . Those making that kind of money. So whats the problem . Thank you very much. Merry christmas. Merry christmas. I think a lot of union people would like to see a lot of union people who voted for President Trump, many where you are, in vancouver washington was a post of trump democrats people who voted for obama twice voted for mr. Trusm. I think they would like to see the big infrastructure program, thing like trade and immigration, that can reduce the competition and increase wages for average working people. Thats what they voted for, thats what they expect. I think the president will find many looking back at the democratic party. With respect to raising the cap, theres no country in the world that taxes payroll for cial security with no cap on limitation. Limitation on income. The cap is around 120,000. It can be raised. If we were to eliminate the cap marginal tax rate hike on everybody, which would put our highest marginal income tax rates above that, of most international competitors, raising the cap is one thing. Eliminating it would make us the only modern country in the world that taxes payroll for retirement with no income cap. Host lets talk about unions a little bit more. Union voters. How things have changed from reagan to now when you have someone, Ronald Reagan head of the union. Guest proud to talk about that. Host but policies not viewed as being very pro union. Explain how that is different or similar than today. Guest the president always believed that the private sector, a flowing private sector economy was best for union members. He was always upset that Union President s or leaders didnt understand what he was trying to do. I think he was given a bad rap for being antiunion. There were a lot of declines in Union Membership before president reagan took office. It was a problem of the declining industries that steel or Auto Companies were no longer competitive. And unions could have done better at that time. As the man said theres only about 6 or 7 of the private orkforce is unionized. I think what we need to do now rather than think about reunizing the private sector is invigorating the private sector. The industry that hires people who are likely to form unions, high income engineers high inc but people of low or moderate skills need protection or help so they can compete in a an environment. And those people need help with increasing their pay checks. Thats why i proposed the tax changes i did. Host walter calling on our republican line. Good morning. If ingtsdz i dont know youre kin to the many olsons in minnesota and nebraska. Some are friends of mine. I was a member of the young Republican Party. I feel that the key is having listened to mr. Reagan when he ran against jimmy carter was the issues of how do we stimulate the living wage jobs across america . And one thing that he surrounded himself with so many people i only worked in d. C. I actually rs but taught ethics at my level. But the issue is, of course, how can webero from peter to pay paul in i actually this reg . Subsidies is one of layout. If you are the olsons related to them from nebraska and minnesota, there is much layover out there. I lived in new mexico as well and there is quite a bit of blm land being used. Subsidy ks be taken and placed in areas like education. We need to raise the quality of Living Standards for our teachers. The foundation for our youth. Now, i am really more of a republicandemocrat. My grandfather was a great fan and would remind me of Franklin Delano roosevelt saved the world. But the modern day democrats speak more of boston and harvard. And all i know is that beats harvard than harvard beats prince ton. But i will leave it to you to discuss these things. Thank you very much. Zpwod bless everyone. Guest Merry Christmas. As far as the personal question there is one group of one place where beats harvard than harvard beats prince ton. Norwe that wasnt in the midwest. So im not related to midwestern olsons but my great grandfather was a ship builder. Im part of the norweigian community from bay ridge where they grew up. To long we moved out island. So im proud to be a new york norweigian. When you say republicandemocrat. Thats what Ronald Reagan was. He never left Franklin Roosevelt behind. He never left the promises of the new deal and their sense that the federal government is necessary needs to make sure that everyone has a decent opportunity and that you could regulate and tax in order to achieve that. Think thats exactly the ism ing class republican that we need. I think if the Republican Party were to move back it would find many, many more people to be open and also find much better economy for people whoism that we need. I think if the are working at the average and below average wage, people for whom college never was an opportunity and for whom they the the much as graduates as prince ton and harvard the opportunity to do the best they can. Host melvin, good morning. Caller good morning. Im always amazed to hear these people talk about Ronald Reagan. He man tripled the debt. Eft 250 billion in deficit. The largest loaner of money in the world. He made us the largest debter. He also, as the gentleman said as i was working in d. C. At the time. On the police department. He created the homeless when they emptied all the hospital out since taking care of the mentally ill and created all those problems that we have aling with people in the street at that time. Ronald reagan did that. He did all that. And he raised taxes 11 tim street at that time. Ronald reagan did that. Hees. 11. He ended up making george bush as Vice President. So im just amazed and the federal government he always talks about. He increased the federal government at that time to its largest number of employees in the history of the country. So i dont understand, the republicans try to make you believe that he was he did all this. En he was in iran contra ended up introducing drugs. Not him personally even though he had his issues. But they brought drugs in here in los angeles and Everything Else. Thats how they did cocaine and that introduced into this country. So im really amazed about how we keep talking about someone who has all these major issue with this country. And speaking as if this man was the greatest thing this country has ever had when he created the most problems for the country. Host lets give henry a chance to respond. Guest i think theres always wide partisan disagreement about president s who do a lot of things. That even today youll find republicans who cant stand the name Franklin Delano roosevelt and a lot of democrats who cant stand the name of Ronald Reagan. Lets focus on some of the things that did happen during reagans time. Employment grew dramatically. The average Median Income went up dramatically. Not every person in comb proved but lots of people did. Theres a reason he was reelected with 59 of the vote in 18984. Theres a reason his Vice President was elected. Even though the Vice President mr. Bush was recognized as perhaps a weak candidate and was behind in the poll force much of the race. Most of americans at the time felt that on balance Ronald Reagan has done a good job even if he hadnt done a perfect job. I think thats what we would like to remind people of who perhaps didnt li through those years like you and i did. Host just to last year when President Trump was on the campaign trail in michigan after giving his pop list message. There is one core question for you to consider. Do you want america to be ruled by the corrupt Political Class . Or do you want america to be ruled by you, the people . Thats what it is. By the people. The way it was supposed to have been for a long time. Weve lost track. And for michigan, we will bring back your automobile production and we will bring back your industry. Wait until you see what we do for michigan. Ive been talking about it for a long time. Crooked hillary has not talked about it, folks. She doesnt know where to begin. She talked about bringing industry back to new york state when she was a new york state senator. Let me tell you not only didnt back. Look at upstate new york. Its a disaster. It got worse. People fled. Companies fled. Its a disaster. The corrupt politicians and their special interests have ruled over this country for a very long time. Today is our independence day. [cheers and applause] today the american working class is going to strike back finally. Host henry, you wrote a an opinion piece in october that talked about a trump style being like reagans in a lot of ways but trumps active leadership style and combination of cop yullism is closer to reagans words than anything ryan or mcconnell from entered the mp 2016 races he ran as a tribune as the forgotten american. Talk about that. Is trump really the new reagan . Guest theres so many ways that he is different from reagan. You cant ignore entered the 2016 races that. Ronald reagan would never have turned to twitter and insulted enemies. Ronald reagan was excoriated and attacked by the press. I know trump defenders say not as bad as trump. He knew how to take criticism smile, roll off his back and used humor to deflect his critics. The president is not that person. T as we saw in smile, roll ofe talked about the forgotten american, he talked about putting the people back in charge, he talked about the average person not the business person or the entrepreneur, the job creater. Thats the sort of language that Ronald Reagan would use. And that energy that you see in the president s speech, that sort of energetic, i can do it leadership, thats also something that reagan used to do. In that way he is more like reagan than ryan or mcconnell but in some of the other ways i wish he would be more like reagan. Host robert from atlanta. Caller good morning. Hat was an interesting segue into what i was thinking. The title of this program is be the future of the Republican Party. But it be the future of the Republican Party. But it sounds like a love fest for Ronald Reagan. I would love to ask your guest, who strikes me as a decent fellow who i might be able to on, on a number of economic points hes raised. Whats he truly think sng by the way he works for a think tank with ethics and Public Policy. What does he think about a president who is obviously such a liar . It is indisputeable. Who attacks the f. B. I. , the judiciary, belittles immigrants. Who does things absolutely horrific. In particular, what absolutely made me sick was his first initial unscripted reaction who guest the Republican Party cannot be identified as the party of trump. The Republican Party needs to be its own institution. The president has said and done a number of things that i find shocking and dismaying. If that is who he is, he is somebody who will continue to cause problems for himself and for the party, because as we poll after poll that a vast majority of americans do not like him and a vast majority of americans seem to be turning against the Republican Party. I think largely because of the sorts of things that you just mentioned. As a republican, what i would like to do is also recognize some of the thing that is donald trump brought to the conversation, which is a concern for the average working person of america that for too parties le in both focus on Big Government or big business or big ideology as their solutions. Who felt are people parties left out and left behind. And donald trump for all of his faults helped bring them back into the conversation in some ways that Bernie Sanders did in the democratic party. I think both parties need to listen to those people. They need to reject the politics of division. And they need to focus on working for all people. To the extent the president has been doing and saying things that will go away from that i do not support those things. Host do you think that character plays an Important Role in selecting our politicians . Guest whether character plays an Important Role in selecting our politicians is an interesting question. I think what happened in 2016 is the people felt both candidates were compromised. Look at the polls, 18 of americans didnt like either candidate. They waited until the last their and kind of held nose and voted for the president. At the election the polls now suggest that people would prefer another alternative. And i think if the president hears that message hell understand that for a decisive number of americans, character rather than ideology is as important as actions and deeds. And that he will if he has the better angels of his nature, hich he has at times out strated like helping victims of hurricane harvey, his unity speech at 2 30 in the morning after mrs. Clinton called to concede, that President Trump could be somebody who unites americans. The President Trump who made the sorts of comments that out victims of hurricane harvey, his the last caller talked about is somebody who will find that him on s will judge character and will not give him the support that he wants. Host charl an on our independent line. Aller good morning. What i would like to do is i too think Ronald Reagan was a foresight d he had and he raised the Social Security tax and so that he ended up because he had the foresight to know that baby boomers were coming through, he made it solvent. Props for got the it. But actually it was Ronald Reagan that did it. And if you will remember, al gore ran on putting Social Security into a lock box. But then we got president bush to come along and use the money to fight two wars and give the tax break to the rich. My question is, is that with the republicans talk about anting to do away with or take the Social Security, why not put a dime, nickle, dollar every week into it . Wouldnt that make it solvent . Guest i think what Ronald Reagan did with Social Security states c, a magnificent manship. They worked out a deal that saved Social Security for 35 years. Nearing the end of it was not intended to last for a century. It was intended to last into this decade. We are at the expected end of the lifespan and i think americans want a Social Security program that gives them what they deserve, which is Retirement Income, secure income in their nearing the end retirement. Ded to last for a republican and a democrat did what reagan and oneal did which is come together and work for the interests of the company and crafted a similar deal, would find people in America Rising in applause. Both sides have to give. You cant have no benefits cuts because people are living longer and people have more Retirement Income than they did 35 years ago. But you cant have no tax hikes or changes either. Find people who did what Ronald Reagan and tip oneal, you will find people rising in applause. About the talking future of the Republican Party. You write in the book about a new Republican Party. Explain what this new Republican Party looks like and who would be the leader of it . Ronald reagan talked about that. He had a speech in 19 77 called the new Republican Party at a time in 19 77 only 20 of americans said they were republicans and Ronald Reagan t about they just less than a third in the house of representatives. A lot of people thought the party was going away. Said no were going to ake it a majority party. But the way was by making room for the working people in america, the cops, the farmers, the factory person. I think if you were talking today about the woman who is a cash shir and a waitress person. Ive never been to a medical office where there is a man in the front office. This is a classic pink collar job. I think if Ronald Reagan were talking today he would have added those people as well. Not just making room for them but putting them in the leadership position. Thats what reagan said the new Republican Party ought to be and what it can still be. Its not what it is. Its what it needs to be if it wants to be a majority party. Who would be the leader . People like senator tom cotton, nikki haley, marco rubio have talked in a way that suggests they might understand this. But i would say its the other way around. But the person who embodies that is the person who becomes the leader. Because its the demand from the people that creates the leader, not the supply persuading the people. Somebody meets the demand, they become the leader. I think the person who understands thats where republicans and independents want to go is the next leader. Host theres names you mentioned. Tom cotton, nikki haley, marco group. Thats a diverse much more diverse despite that autopsy report that took place in 2012 election. Do you think the Republican Party has a diversity issue . Much more diverse despite that host of course. I write about this in the book. A lot of the people in the Republican Party like to talk about gaps. They talk about the racial gap or the gender gap. They have an empathy gap that when the Republican Party shows that they are willing to use government in a limited but effective way, to help people overcome barriers in their life so they can get on with fulfilling their part of the dream, they will do away with all of these gaps and they will find that they will be more diverse. They will find that women will find them more attractive, drea away with all of these gaps and they will minorities. I should have mentioned senator tim scott from South Carolina as well. The reason they have a diversity problem is because they have an empathy problem. Deal with the root cause and you will get do away with the simple thomas of that disease. Caller how are you . Merry christmas. Happy holidays i should say. Guest Merry Christmas and happy holidays. Guest im a registered republican. I was a bernie supporter that abstained from voting. Im wondering how the people, people like me we work multiple jobs. Climate change is a thing. How does the party pull back that they dont believe in science and did you believing and tripling doub doubling own. It doesnt it doesnt appeal to people under 40. How would the party pull back from that . Guest i think what the needs to do is embrace a spirit of diversity and embrace the spirit of inclusiveness. If youre talking about evangelical, evangelicals are about a quarter of america. Right now, theyre afraid. A lot of them are afraid that things have changed so much and so quickly that theyre not going to have a place in American Life. I dont think anyone should put the demand of any needs to do i group on a pedestal and enforce those agendas. A theological agenda. But all americans deserve the right to liberty and the right to worship as they please. I think a Republican Party that focused on that aspect, the one that says youre americans, too, but recognizes the vast diverse opinion and allows for that to be expressed is a party that can appeal to both evangelicals and nonevangelical business making room for all in the party. Host calling from in on our democratic line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im calling about reagan. You said reagan is for the working man. I remember when he fired the 35,000 Traffic Controllers. I remember when he cut the Interest Rate. We used to be able to deduct the Interest Rate on cars and credit cards. This is against the working man. He increased the deficit by 5. 6 but i tell you, i respect him as a decent man, a statesman. Not like the president we have right now who called mexicans rapists. I wonder if any other group, if he substitute to norweigian, how would you feel about that . Reagan, even though he was a wasnt working for them, for the working man, ill wait and hear your answer. Guest Ronald Reagan was a decent man and i said it earlier i wasnt working for them, for wish our current president would emulate Ronald Reagan in that respect. I think thats what americans crave. When the president does that, people begin to look at him more favorably. Somebody who is very concerned with ratings as he says, i wish ratings. Ook at those the reason the president fired the Traffic Controllers is they were breaking the law. One of the few unions that endorsed him, contributed to his campaign. But it was against the law for federal employees to strike. He warned them not to do it. They did it. He said come back to work. Im going to enforce the law. They wouldnt do it. They thought he would buckle and he felt he needed to enforce the law, that he would e seen as week as week. Would be seen that had ramifications, if you recall. Somebody who is put trade sanctions on japan to working class wages and jobs at a time when was our main trading competitor. Harley davidson looked like it of competition because of japanese competition. See a Harley Davidson motorcycle, thank worked eagan, he protecting american jobs and he it in ud and wrote about his autobiography. He did help most working class people in the United States. Ost you write in your book, you believe that reagans some misread o. P. Have president reagans brand of conservatism. You an excerpt, you said conservatives and republicans them a reagan had given cut ecutter formula, taxing, promote traditional maintain a strong defense, rather than a deep and to always use government to express their values. The current that Republican Party has lost its core philosophy . Yes, i do. I think there are a number of republicans who havent lost that, but i think all too auch you find a Republican Party that that ues to adopt cookiecutter formula and i republicans why a years to go back 85 the great depression, never been people said ore there were republicans. They win elections when they say so bad or risky we vote for republicans, but in their heart, they arent all republicans and democrats. Why . Because of that problem. And overcame it and he did share those values, but the one that inues to be adopts cookiecutter reagan, not ullreagan and until it adopts full reagan it will be fighting uphill and will be having to democrats and republicans and that is going to be a problem for the Republican Democratic eps the party alive. Ost that title for the next book. Guest full length. Host mark from corning, new morning. D caller good morning. First of all, Merry Christmas to everyone, and hope you are going to have a blessed day. I wanted to make a statement Republican Party and it looks to me as though it is eaded in the correct direction under leadership of donald j. Trump and i wanted to make a about the caller from georgia, who was talking about making falsified statements. Barack say that would be obama and also id like to say is the one whoma should have been impeached for unconstitutional things like the daca program. May, i wanted to close reagan made a ld very great statement, the statement he made was a country is a country that is no e under and there truer words ever spoken on this earth. Lord, praise god and thank you so much, jesus. Folks, thank ay, you. Guest thank you for those comments. Impeachment is something that should be done in the most for me cases, particularly offices, the president , i dont was that president obama level of impeachable offensives. He may have done things with daca, the courts rightly held up guilty nt think he was of impeachable offensives and i dont think the president has to found anywhere close being guilty of impeachable offensives. He may be found offensive offensives in terms of some statements, but as far as impeachment from office, that is constitutional risis, we should only do when someone is obviously guilty of something of serious importance man wasnt think either in that situation. Ost robert from wister, massachusetts, hi there. Caller good morning. When to start out with Ronald Reagan was governor of category, remember he had his went to ech, he and delphia, mississippi, brothers got killed. Lets get this straight. Down to s, they went the when you talk about young people down south, this is started, ald reagan from down south, evangelical politicians and your taxes. Why giving money to people doing us no good. Donald trump, he need psychological test. Naval base and have his brain checked, his body checked and everything checked, bad man is not hes a man for america. Hes a danger to our society and all, we need to teach sympathy class in grammar school. Thank you. Guest well, the president did not start n his career down south, he started in california. Political movement didnt start until the late left after he had already governorship. He governed in the legislature, worked axes in 1967, he with them in bipartisan way to a orm welfare, he was governor who understood how to rive agenda and how to work on consensus and i think that simplified his presidency and think would hing i be wise to emulate in washington today. Republican line michigan. Azoo, caller good morning. Host go ahead. Youre on. Politicians are not the problem. The people that vote for them re the problem and that includes me, and everybody else. Ll you have to do is listen to majority of the people that call in, they either have it ompletely wrong, from both parties, absolutely have no idea and why ey vote for they voted for the person. Theyre just a few things that and very few. One of them is abortion. Schools, things like that, Pay Attention to the lie, bothns, they both sides lie. One side lies as bad as the other and when they are not lying, they are telling half truths. We voted in, we wanted change, obama. D in nobody a lot of people didnt like obama. Wanted change again. We voted in trump. Likes trump. Americans dont want change, mealy mouth politicians and we have a problem. Guest i think the caller points out something that is really important truth, ultimately, we, the eople, decide where country goes. We are undecided and we leaders to do ct anything except reflect indecision and were engaged in National Conversation as to what sort of change we want to go in. It is difficult and risky. Ultimately, i think were going to prevail, American People are people. D smart we will eventually get to where e need to go and we will recover. Host john calling from cocomo, independent line. John, just a few seconds left. You get the last question. Go ahead. Caller weve got the democrats i believe ublicans, peaceful party. Guest donald trump is somebody ho id say he basically launched a hostile takeover of the Republican Party, hes philosophy in his and temperament and this gets back to one of the questions kimberly asked earlier, if i thought the president was a republican. He wasnt a republican, he was both dy who took on the parties and if we had a different system, he probably as an ave run independent. A lot to be said there. Somebody, when he has value and the command of the American People, it is when he s the peoples president and i do wish in his public commentary and in his public demeanor, he be more inclusive, i think he would find more people would want to follow him. Host all right, henry olsen, senior fellow at Public Policy center, author of working class republican, Ronald Reagan and he return of bluecollar conservatism, you can find the eppc. Org, and finds hen henry olsen on twitter. You. K coming up next, well return to our question, how important is to acter when it comes evaluating our politicians . F you live in eastern and central, call 2027488000. Pacific and Mountain Time zones 2027488001. First, coming up at 10 a. M. , watch the how, queens christmas message and discussion a. M. , a of from last month at fordham on morality in america. Here is one panelists view of the importance of the informed consumer. Look at one of the possible solutions to the problem of fake there are some that risk, ou know, with risk being more dangerous than the disease, to empower either our government or platforms that already have overwhelming ideas that the reach us, channels with which we ommunicate to ask them or call upon them censure and constrict what is true and false is risky. I think the answer lies in an news ed, empowered, consumer. We had a report laid out, bill of rights and responsibilities news consume sxer centered it on this question, how can we inform and equip and news consumer to be onscious, make thoughtful decisions about what to credit and Pay Attention to, what to online , what to share and there are terrific news curricula that has been developed. When i was growing up, omething, i read a magazine, a book, something that used to be encyclopedia, it had gone not gh Fact Checkers and that it wasnt biassed or that it was necessarily uthoritativeor full of credibility, that is not true, in vast e all swimming ocean of data and information from unknown sources and in it. G these curricula that teach you dateline . Ke, what is utilized, you know, how are corrections handled, what a d of training does journalist undergo and investigation is published into like roy moore and his misdeeds what goes behind that, before the happen Washington Post puts that on their website and in their pages. Educating children and adults about all of that so when they they people dont want to pulled over their eyes, it would require passedion, couple states bills to mandate news literacy, we need that in all 50 states, part of the core curricula. Host we are asking you how mportant is character when evaluating politicians . Astern and central time zone 2027488000, and mountain and time zone, 2027488001. About ericans think character. In looking at prii poll, immorality is not disquali asked whether personal immorality was disqualifying for a politician, said 61 agreed in 2006, 61 disqualifier, ot 29 disagreed. And 44 said it was not disqualifier. What do you think . Caller i want to back up for a reason nd look at the tax cuts that were enacted by by president signed trump. Were seeing i think great the private business has rallied around tax the in a way to reward American Public and perhaps send saying e to congress that these tax cuts are good for business and were going to ake it good for the American Public. Democra icans or the Companies Respond that theyrelation going to help the American Congress ways that cant. Host were talking about morality and how character leaders. In our do you think there is a tiein there between the character of tax plan . S and the caller i think there is. Strong leadership, responsible cuts ment and i think tax and helping the American People and what President Trump is example of that. Host okay. Calling in from South Carolina. James, how important is how cter when it comes to we evaluate politicians . Is very important to how we evaluate being ecause if you dont have character, you will do anything, you have o conscious, you gard for other people, just do what you want to do, lie, cheat and steal, you cannot break the 10 commandments, im sorry. You. K host a little bit more from the d. C. Ralist piece written by mcc mccallister about how much character matters, she writes voted for of us who President Trump would agree, character does matter and when running for e into , you need to take account the character of both and policy, rnance for these reflect character, as well. A n making a decision about candidate, the fullness of the person needs to be taken into not just one aspect, failing or virtue, but the whole or woman, his or her complete character. In from calling blackwood, new jersey. Kevin, what do you think . Caller i think character is very important. I think big part of that is, you our leaders and our politicians making decisions is, should have a factchecking government for facts and truths, including politicians during well as as congressmen, senate, our be idents, there should sanctions or actual consequences not telling the truth or facts. On cnn, there is so much misinformation that is just repeated, even when experts sitting there go, no works. S not the way it host kevin, isnt that what the supposed topress is be . Caller sorry, say that again. Role of the he press to hold government officials accountable . Caller weve lost that, i mean, that is part of the problem now, in our news. You go back 20 or 30 years ago, is based on facts and now of the the facts are missing, you know, i wish the press had ethics and based know, big event happens or a tax something in congress or ther Major News Networks and cable t. V. , how they turn to heir format and, you know, slight different swing, but, you and there is less facts most of tical opinion the news being told. Host all right, federalist, mccallister, takes position morality and character matter when it talks about a candidate. Moral failings an have significant political, cultural and moral repercussions. David french put it recently, child senators busing senators against roe strikes me as perhaps the worst possible message to a culture in desperate of persuasion. Unpack long and shortterm votes and s of such in short, decide whether character really matters. From shakerhe line, heights, ohio, good morning. Morning. Good haracter is important as applies to like an official in the following ways. Will that official accomplish voting tions of the compilation they put that person in . Politician follow through within the limits of the legally binding law they have to and e to most of the time in the event when a person will not follow through as important applies to is that person less flawed than the probably coming behind them, that is where character is important. Is not that ishg important to get it done. Calling y, shawn is from uticah, new york. What do you think . Very character is important, obviously. I cant believe 2017 and were debate whether we should check things or not. Public ething is on access and to the media, we it as our jobs to about a uth and facts image on, not say, look, doesnt do it right now, should just be that, an opinion and not a fact. So when were looking at entirety , of course, of the person, who is character standing, but different to represent us, it is people and someone should not based on one ne hing without totality of the person because again, on all taxes or ether about abortion, all things are taken into consideration. The s, you have to look at whole person, so to speak, it is yes, mportant and again, they should be fact host i think we lost shawn. Well move to sam, who is calling from washington, d. C. How important is character when evaluating politicians . Factor for you . Important. Tremely many, manyi have seen trump. Who are like mr. Character is inseparable from the function of and it is me, as someone who has that any cases like this, r. Trump, in suffering from dementia, like the father with alzheimers, his character is more impulsive, ore aggressive, more dishonest and for this to increase over biological there is no question. He should be examined at one of walter reed here, would be fine. Nation. A crisis for the and it has s many articles, both in the medical journals and articles in the press, this is fact. Host okay. Okay. Headlines f our other today, from the Washington Post, talks about how the his Christmas Eve in a mix of twitter and calls. He says on Christmas Eve, President Trump observed a mix and personal l traditions, including makes a round troops, playing of golf at trump property and tweeting during the down time. Began with morning routine, series of tweets from the bashed t, this time he deputy f. B. I. Director, fake news and fake polls. Afterward, however, trump appeared in cheerful mood necessary ed troop kuwait and Guantanamo Bay in a members ference for thanks b maralago, Service Members from each of the five branches of the military military families, the greatest people on earth. Helen is calling from uconn, oklahoma. Helen, how important is evaluating you in politicians . Caller character is very important to me. It is important to the whole ountry, for the children, you know, we tell our children not crude, to be honest, you know, to be good to people then we turn around and give value to a person who is being one thing one ys day and turns around and says day. Opposite thing the next its been very abrasive, many, and it just is a poor representation of our its a horrible thing. I dont want my children to look man, but i want my children to look up to my president , it is very important me. Host all right, were asking our viewers how important evaluating when politicians. Again, we have regional lines or this conversation for the rest of the show. If you are in the eastern or call l time zones, 2027488000. If you are in the mountain or zones, time 2027488001. Of a look at front pages the paper today. Leads as democrat gazette with Merry Christmas banner and headlines including squeezerea calling u. N. Act of war. Headlines about Robert Mueller and a detainee going a judge there tr the san sas paper n. Bernardino, california, the sun sked, is this the year of the woman in politics, as the top lead on this Christmas Morning . Of course, celebrating the scenes with some looks from the california area there, thisristmas decorations on morning. Calling from columbia city, jerry. , good morning, host good morning, kimberly, how are you today . Great, im great. What is on your mind . Caller i want to reply to the called new jersey that in earlier. Host go ahead. 400 er you know, saying times, i lost count after 200 times. You can control callers better than that. Merry christmas and thanks for your time. Host all right, sarah calling aurora, utah, good morning, sarah. Caller happy Winter Holiday and course, character matters in but were not considering how character of the matters because that is who puts politicians in and voters lack character, they dont have any problem voting lack liticians who character and my example of roy e, would be alabamas moore. Ou have to start with where it begins and that is the voter. Host sarah, do you think the consider character more when making their decisions or do they already . Roy moore lost. Thank goodness for voters there. Christians need to Pay Attention own characters and, you , it beginsfrom there at home. Starts at home. For people responsible their own action and the way hey behave, which voting is behavior. Own need to work on their it shows because definitely lack of character in voters. Voters do not have condition of own value. Host okay, other headlines on todays e of Washington Post, criticism of a ert mueller are growing to clamor, efforts to discredit counsel Robert Mueller into russian medaling in the flickered at fringes of political debate, now the allegation that f. B. I. And areice Department Officials part of a broad conspiracy gainst President Trump is uddenly center stage amplified by g. O. P. Lawmakers, right wing media and the president himself, he clamor has become a sustained back drop to special ounsel investigation with congressional committees and officials in recent days until a lonely battle tom fenton, whose group jushl helped drive the charges by unearthing internal ustice department documents, our concerns about mueller are beginning to take hold. Host james from south bend, indiana. James how important is character choosing mes to politician . Caller first happy birthday to friend. Well, i would answer that with a luke 16 13, age, you cannot serve god and money. Think it was sanders that pointed out the top tenth of 1 than t have more wealth the bottom 300 americans and we cant figure out why things are america. Rly in then also the cash cow, defense u. S. Military 177 ountries, trillions and trillions would be solution to hat problem would be found in the bible, thou shall not kill. James 4 1, also states cost of greed. R is corruption and so answers to your question there, we can all pray on it today. You. Host okay. Ve calling from sioux falls, south dakota, what do you think . Caller i want to say to you that you would indicate what city somebody is name g from and what the is and keep that on the screen. I think that would be helpful. When i see new york or california, there, or very big states and theres a lot of difference in een different places south dakota, also, big city. Side right now. Hope you will affect ositive change there and i think way to effect positive in ge in our country and people tos is to hold their responsibility to the campaign their promises. And to the truth. Fact check and i think we and d also locally ationally have a public bulletin board, so grievances ould be in this age of technology of the internet and government may not need to and i think we hold people accountable, we need transparency, te there is a difference between way c and private, the people take private rights of forum, it a public constitutes ng, treason. Host stee steven, you said should be held and judged by whether they keep to ises and are responsive constituents. Take someone like senator al thinks he upheld his Campaign Promises and was doing still ey wanted, yet he resigned, do you think character how did character that . A situation like caller well, interesting point adjoining of minnesota. Sought, watched the senators and i have thought he people more for the he sits down yet over indiscretion in personal think is which i and al ut of line may have some social problem like aspergers, i does come across differently and maybe he just mistakes but hes strong n other areas and where hes effectively ublic and with due diligence, that is what should be. I think he should be reinstated interim and ethics at what takes a look and should take into account his record for people. The that is most important. Host lets take a look at what franken said in response to allegations of Sexual Harassment when announcing he down. Epping serving in the United States senate has been the great honor my life. I know in my heart that nothing done as a senator, this honor brought on this institution. Confident that the Ethics Committee would agree. Nevertheless, today i am announcing that in the coming will be resigning as member of the United States senate. There l people am aware is some irony in the fact that i while a man who has ragged on tape about his history of Sexual Assault sits in the oval office and a man who repeatedly preyed on young senate mpaigns for the with full support of his party. This decision is not about me. Ts about the people of minnesota. And at the same time remain for them. Senator let me be clear. I may be resigning my seat, but voice. T giving up my i will continue to stand up to the things i believe in as a and as an activist. Minnesotans deserve i senator focus with energy on addressing the challenges they everyday. Host from kansas city, issouri, richard, what do you think . How much should character matter hen evaluating whether politicians win elections or keep their seats . Caller i believe that character perhaps most important thing is onsider when choosing defined by Merriam Webster by irmness and that is indirect opposition to hypocrisy. Recently in our of rnment, people outstanding moral excellence and robert , such as mueller, whom everyone onsidered to be above reproach not reflect n to favorably upon the current president or his family. And so we need to take a look at over time have lived up to their own standards and truly in way that reflects what they claim to with that, ill end merry h all christians a christmas and to everyone else, happiest of holidays, i love being in america, where there is and all live ity together peacefully. Host we are talking with our viewers, asking how important is character evaluating politicians. Eastern or n the central time zones, 2027488000. Mountain or the pacific time zone, 2027488001. The front adlines on of todays Washington Post, talks about Tennessee Town that happy that President Trump is say merry kay to christmas, if it wasnt already. Rural trumpsupporting town of lyndon, tennessee, home to barely a thousand people and at churches, thestian word holiday doesnt seem to exist. Courthouse, county evergreen tree covered with olored lights and oshaments made by local students, with a ign that says welcome to our christmas tree, banners feature anta claus and greetings of Merry Christmas, the beauty shop window has a sign reading jesus for the season. We have always been merry cobb, who melissa oted for President Trump stated, and she added no one in own has ever been offended by her saying the phrase. Louise, calling from san texas. , hi, louise. I want to kimberly, say what a wonderful man that man was from missouri and knows him is got blessed by the goodness of his soul. Wonderful to ly hear from somebody like him. Is, im a democrat, i believe in the democratic policy. Give him a hard time voting hillary, not because of her, bill. Ecause of i am very, very disappointed in way that ency and the i conducted himself, but could never vote for trump, i people can. Tand why take his foundation, money given from other people that was used for charity and he paid campaign and legal bills picture of big huge imself to hang in one of his golf course places, where foundation, which gets flack, but used for medical a lotes and education and of good things, as a matter of fact, trump had to actually foundation because it is under investigation and it is many things like get out of liked to serving in vietnam, but he bragged about it and what a good the playboy t mansion, having so much fun and getting worry about venereal diseases and all his bankruptcies, that hurts little people, contractors that did with him that never got go on and on, d but these things were important to me. Host President Trumps character on one side and bill clinton on the other side, what party should do to address this issue if voters off . You are being turned should they change the way they vet candidates . They do . Ld 2016 election,he i blame the press, they spent so much time on hillarys emails, if you stop and think about it, in the hell did that affect . Hey never did find anybody, those emails could have been about who knows what, recipes whatever, and he turned that into like a criminal offense. Every time, every interview i aw of hillary, they want to talk about her emails and the not the job, as far as people heing how many screwed over and the fact he had gold seat belt necessary his things d so many southerners are, the best people and a lot of good people down here. You. K host all right, calling from san diego, california. What do you think, john . Well, i think when i saw the question on the screen, i can one evenf, how and he word character politician in the same sentence . They simply have proven together. S not to go i think the better question is hy do politicians lack character and the trades that are needed to become a lying ian are manipulation and deception. Because that is what weve seen 20 years. Ast has clear that something gone significantly and severely wrong in our form of government who is running it. Nd the country has become more divided over the last 20 years s weve grown and become more diverse. Hat divide is being pushed by social media, by regular media, academia, ern sxet by and i dont know where it ends, as i watch t. V. And look at the news and read what and ing on in this country the world for this matter, it is clear to me that there is no politicians or in government anymore. And i think a solution might be a senator forn be four years and then youre done. You can be a congressman for years and then youre done. Should be ncy really a sixyear term and then youre done. Hen you have career politicians, the only thing that old ts from that is good boy club. A feeling of entitlement and that you cannot simply be challenged anymore and that is made of. Democracy is host all right, some other eadlines today in the Washington Post reports new reverse some Net Neutrality rules revoked, days federal communications voted to repeat Net Neutrality a e for internet providers congresswoman introduced butslation to replace some, not all regulations, marsha open internetased press preservation act, sorry that, blackburns bill would restore two of the most fcc tant provisions to the Net Neutrality rule on the locking of websites and ban on slowing of websites, also includes same Public Disclosure which internet providers tfcc decision. Yonkers, new york, timothy. How important is character when evaluating public leader . Caller it is very important and that we as a country, we have no more integrity in our country and politicians, everybody is about have no more ones self nobody is about the country, with the internet and iphones and the ipads and different ways of information, our country is really on a downward spiral going to return. That is what i feel. A look at Christmas Holiday tweet from the president yesterday. He tweeted people are proud to saying Merry Christmas again, i am proud to have led the the assault on of our cherishd and beautiful phrase. To the ristmas president , he said yesterday on Christmas Eve, one of his activities, included calling the troops and getting in a round of golf. What do you think, bob . Documentary, clinton and issue, t on with this change mind about hillary. Moral talk about characte character washington, d. C. He was oror berry, caught videotaping prostitutes and cocaine, went to jail, got was reelected, got back in office. Voters are so lacking, it straighten out, call. You for taking my i wish everyone a happy christmas and new year. Host cynthia on the line, fort youerdale, florida, what do think . Call. I wish caller this needs to be they need to inform themselves. Undercut a ffort to , when they ead barack obama. This is a problem that is deep in this country. What is more ide important, party or people of to be ntry, supposed government of the people, by the peep and he will for the people. Political party, what the will we have ople is and a i think all of comments today were very informative and think that if the American People at cspan on regular t. V. Got to hear the voice of the people, we would have a different country. We are talking to you asking you how important is evaluating your politicians, again, we have egional lines for eastern and central time zones, 2027488000. Zones,in and pacific time 20274880 2027488001. Margaret calling on the line southernland, nebraska. What do you think, margaret . Aller okay, what i think is Merry Christmas. That first. Ah, that being said, okay. Character. There is no moral character in money. Machine. Y to be taken needs out of first the primaries. Thank you. Host okay. And lets take a look at another holiday tweet, this from House Speaker paul ryan, giving us a capitol looked like once everyone departs. All is calm on capitol hill, showing scenes of the capitol departed and is not filled with lawmakers and chasing folks us, down the hall. There. Peaceful on our line calling from sorry, james, i hit the button. James from greentown, pennsylvania, what do you think, important is character when evaluating politicians . Caller Merry Christmas to everybody. It falls back truck driver, subject to random drug and Alcohol Testing n. Harrisburg call the capitals, we need people come back from they need to stand in line and do drug and alcohol flush out bad d character of some of the people. Host what about would that make a difference there . Be just as , should subject as lowest truck driver the rail road and stulike that, the and stuff like that. Hehink in the medical field, should stand in line. Barack obama, shut up and get active until the next election. People active to vote. If you dont like who is in there, get him out next time. Easy as it gets. Host another headline from counter on post, terrorism officials voicing fears about gun access in the his d states, says in tenure, half Counter Terrorism coincided with rise of the islamic state. Nd surge of terrorist retreating through online propaganda. Fiveyear run of at national Counter Terrorism this month, including three director, voice concern that efforts to protect the United States from mass casualty attacks undermined by the nations policies undone. In more urselves dangerous situation because our population has no difficulty gaining access to weapons that are quite lethal. I wish that werent so. Don is calling from sacramento, don, what do you think today . Caller good morning. Hispanics and native American Indians this morning, there is no christmas, jesus was a black man and he id not do christianity, christianity is fake, our way of hebrew ich was israelites was the way of life thist was taken from us by white man and ever since that, ur life have been destroyed, the bible says earth is given unto the hands of the wicked and then everything has been going downhill as soon as they started changing the truth about god being jesus and god being black people and that the hispanics and native real truth ian are in this america, we are stuck in brought to get to ne and go and listen hebrew israelites, israelites in be the first, go to youtube and listen to israelites. Okay, lloyd calling from danville, arkansas. Lloyd, do you think that haracter is important when evaluating politicians . Is most haracter important. The reason why character is important we are a vistian nation. If we are a christian nation, the original m destination, that means christ chapter 11 26. The disciples first called inantioch because they acted like jesus christ. Christians to being like nonchristians, and we in the news media more, if we that annot do that, we need to stop calling ourselves christian nation. Host okay, taking a look at washington journal, we will have author ken stern, democrat here to talk about his book republicans like leaving the liberal bubble, and Political Polarization in the u. S. And later, inside politics editor Nathan Gonzalez will discuss the election of 2018. All for todays washington journal, on this christmas day. A very happy, Merry Christmas and happy holiday to ll of our viewers, well be back tomorrow morning at 7 a. M. Coming up today on cspan, a christmas message from the queen of england, the Opening Museum of the museum of the bible and then an discussion about americas moral character and then a debate about americas capitalism versus socialism. Queen elizabeth ii delivered her annual christmas message from london. The tradition of the royal christmas message dates back to 1932 with the radio address by king george the fifth. Queen elizabeth ii if her first 1957 d address in gave her first tel televised address in 1957
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