Transcripts For CSPAN2 If You Can Keep It 20170831

Last time, let me back up if you dont know what socrateses in the city is a lot of people dont know what that is first of all, thank you for rappee of your early bird dinner and hustling to the tv i know is very tough and i appreciated it i have been on cspan before a they get my humor is okay. But i want to say this is the isocrates is in the city event normally i interview someone we have tons of videos of the interviewing extraordinary people. I cannot even think of the aisle list but if you go there you will see we had clad well. We had a share, jack carter burns and allen also George Plimpton the injures sisters the smothers brothers flip wilson. Added a and castillo that was of a cameo in the rich brothers break here of this stage i have interviewed them all. Charles darwin. So we have had the eclectic gas and socrates in the city gets its name from socrates. I am greek so i can pretend anything is not worth living the only unexamined life is not worth living. It you are my friend into a plate i will call you out that we realize said york city people tend to avoid the subjects like god or whatever makes you squirm what is the nature of reality those questions that people dont get into. So everything is fair game that means all kinds of different guests and subjects we encourage you last year we did a bunch of us even san oxford in england because he said what we take it there . We have had a wonderful time over the years we had a speech data podium like s i think about cheers ago we decided i with the then i guess guest one wrote the book i was the speaker and i introduced myself. And get messed with my head so i decided not to do that this time but they have come up with another book so it is of question that we should all be thinking about it is something that we should be interested so my Publisher Viking has many representatives but they picked the date as the release date do they know this is flag day . Industry is very important to me it turns out they did not they just picked it as the day that it should come now. I dont exactly call it a miracle but it is a coincidence but it is that the center of what happens in the book i will not introduce myself. That would be a slap in the face so your beano i. M. Neece allotted you im stunned at how many people are here if youre not from new york raise your hand. Unbelievable. [applause] is incredible im so thrilled and a number of friends have not seen in many years thank you for coming in and sharing this important event so now let me turn to the subject at hand the book i have just written is called if you can keep it so i will talk for a few minutes about that then we will open it up but theres so much i want to say on the subject of the book i hardly know where to start. I will start with the title. If you can keep it some people get the reference and other people did not graduate highschool. Just kidding. I would not have gotten the reference myself but once you know something you feel everybody should know that. In 1787 franklin was exiting Independence Hall in philadelphia. Part of the background is that i did not know this. The Parochial School i went to a Good University but none of these places really seem to communicate that i will show you why wrote the book writers such a burning passion to communicate but is 1787 date struggling so well for the United States of america. We genuinely had miraculously come into existence it is staggering we should not have sense i do not put the battle of long island into the book he could not pull that off. There are so many miracles that happened if you put them together you say this is remarkable nonetheless looking at the things that came together to create the nation. I would read these to say really does seem like god had his hand on the creation of the nation you have to understand it is remarkable that we are here. Become into existence rather miraculously to win the war but in 1783 the articles of confederation with the weak federal government the whole point was heavily federal government. [applause] and the teapartier. But if it is too limited and have no government so there is a fragile balance all of the leaders in the founders understood it was not quite working so they said we have to go back to the drawing board to figure this out and spend 100 days the creation of the constitution itself seems miraculous they have to read what they wrote they all say try to find a compromise between the slave states between maine and georgia was essentially impossible a nonworking in they were despairing this could never work imagine the people inside the Constitutional Convention rethinking what will they do with their . A limited monarchy . There had never ben a republic or anything like that what is the big deal . It is in the history of the world so people are in this room doing something and people are wondering what will happen . A limited monarchy . Weld Benjamin Franklin one of the most secular of all founders asset people to parade you realize how bizarre that was at Benjamin Franklin asked . And he said god came to our aid in the formation of this country why would we doubt he would help us now . The representative the every pass things worked out they created the constitution many of those used the word for iraq unless it was astounding that the seated worked out and he walks out of the building and a woman woman, mrs. Powerball of philadelphia confronts him. So i can imagine in this dowager says dr. Franklin what have you given us . A monarchy or a republic . He says a republic madam, if you can keep it. That is where this comes from. [applause] maybe you heard it history class but it is an odd quirk of history the only way we know about this exchange and franklin is James Mchenry the 34 yearold delegate heard this and went home to write this live and his diary the reason we know the existence of this isnt like the speech this was off the cuff but think of the words if you can keep it he understood what they created buses utterly unprecedented but the greek city states were very small for a tiny period hear we have 13 colonies a couple Million People the idea to bring this idea of Self Government to one nation had never been done and the founders and the framers really understood what they were trying to do had never been done improbably rationally should not be possible because of it has even done for millennia bin why do they think it could be possible now . We take this for granted now of course, it works. But they really did think first of all, the constitution is to be an extraordinary document which it is but requires the people to keep it if you dont it goes away and evaporates the natural state of affairs is not civil republican democracy. This is not normal. That is why well always taken this club so basically franklin did not say this lightly he said if you can keep it now is that to you so pick up that anomaly where to continue and if they dont it goes away the people, he created something that is a bizarre anomaly in his story where it is up to the people to continue it and if they dont it goes away. As we know the people did it. It worked and it continued and continued. We forgot the idea of keeping it and i submit to you, why i wrote the book, the last 40 years we have forgotten what it takes to keep it and how important it is for us to keep it. I think we have come to a place where we are in trouble. We arent keeping it. It is like a cut flower, looks very nice, but it is dead. In two week that wont look very nice because it is divorced from its roots. That is where we are, not the kind of thing we would notice. To be a people, you have to know who you are as a people, you have to know your stories. In the last 20 years, last 40 years or so since the 60s negative narrative has taken hold. If you focus on what we did to the native americans or africanamericans come we are right to know about those things and teach about those things and focus on those things because those are bad things we need to knowledge and repent of but if you get stuck and keep saying we are bad, we did this, George Washington was a slave owner in this self flagellating cycle and dont ever celebrate who you are and the fact you abolished slavery, dealt with civil rights, always struggling to do this kind of stuff. If you cease to be patriotic in that sense of patriotic, something goes wrong. I quote a proverb in the book, if you dont boast about your house it will fall down and crush you. There is something fundamental, intrinsic to being human to be proud of your family, proud of your village, proud of your island, proud of your nation, your city, there is something fundamental about that. We have been schooled in how that can go wrong, nationalism goes wrong, agenda was stick something, we have seen where that can go wrong. Not having a proper self regard, in 40 years or so, you need to love your country and i think we are at a place where most americans, anybody my age and younger and i just turned 32. Anybody my age or younger probably didnt get this in schools. Listening to a man speak on this podium, dedicate this book to oz because i ripped off a lot of his ideas. Free people suicide, and had him as a speaker, spoke about that. I thought to myself, how have i not heard what he is talking about, the Golden Triangle of freedom. This is what struck me. Golden triangle of freedom and the founders were aware of this. Freedom requires virtue, requires faith and faith requires freedom. Spoke at a classical school, freedom requires virtue, they get that in that school, some schools teaching this but i never heard this, you never see it on tv, virtue is a dirty word, we dont talk about virtue. What does this mean . It is really basic, freedom which is selfgovernment requires that the people govern themselves. Think about that. Selfgovernment requires people to govern themselves. It means you have to govern your self, not just about we govern ourselves but every person has to govern himself. In other words you dont need a lot of cops. Selfgovernment means the people will govern themselves most of the time and if they are virtuous we know they will do that. I dont steal, not because im afraid of being caught or thrown in the dungeons of saddam, i dont steal because i believe it is wrong. People who are by and large virtuous, selfgovernment becomes possible and the founders understood that it wont be possible unless you have people who can handle it, who can govern themselves. Freedom requires virtue, the freedom we are talking about requires virtue of some kind. It is a basic idea and the founders understood and wrote about it and got this stuff. Virtue requires faith. Not everyone, however, the founders knew practically speaking when they saw a community that was serious about its faith they tended to be selfgoverning and virtuous. I will talk about which deals in a minute but when they see the effects of the preaching of George Whitfield, the crime would drop, it is an extraordinary thing so where there is robust expression of faith you have people generally speaking who are generally speaking virtuous who are generally speaking able to govern themselves so they understood freedom requires virtue, virtue requires faith and faith requires freedom. What does that mean . Any kind of real faith cannot be forced. If you force faith it is not real faith, you force them to go to a Certain Church or whatever, you know unless they do it voluntarily it is just a game. You have many countries in europe, around the world, this is the official church, you have to go to that church, i dont want to go to jail or wont start my own church because i go to jail. You have to have real freedom for faith to flourish otherwise it is not any kind of faith. We have to have a free market of ideas, people say i go to this church because i choose to go to this church, not because the Government Forces me or i go to know church because i choose not to go to church, we are not forcing anyone to go to church, anyone to go to any particular kind of church. It is utterly free. The founders understood freedom of religion has to be at the heart of the United States of america. If people dont choose themselves what they want to worship, it doesnt work. They wanted a robust expression of faith and said this form of government wont work unless by and large there are a lot of people of faith but the faith must be utterly free. They enshrined religious liberty in the constitution and were really practicing religious liberty for most of the 18th century, it is not universal but america got this stuff. I remember from this podium thinking this is crazy, he just told me how my Government Works and has worked for 230 years and i never really thought about this. I was embarrassed until i realized most other people hadnt heard about this and felt good about myself because i heard about it first. I really thought something is wrong, this is strange, why dont i know about this . Then one day, i guess my daughter was about 7, right here, put the cigarette out of your mouth, stop it. And i found dont know if you know those dover catalogs but we get all kinds of books and i found a model, paper model of the Paul Revere House and it appealed to me, like that moment where his brother makes the tin of moss and twigs, the timing us appealed to him, a nice thing to do with my daughter so i get the thing and we are building this. The poem paul reveres ride, i never read that poem because i went to yale, poems that rhymes were sneered at. Only stupid people would was poems to rhyme. Most people want an elliptical obtuse poem that Means Nothing and you never read them. So i picked up the poem and started reading it and mostly little snippets of it. Listen to my children you will hear of the Midnight Ride of paul revere, on 18 april in 75, hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year. I realized i hadnt gotten past that much. I was absolutely stunned by the beauty of the poem, why people sneered at this poem . This gets into where we have been in a culture where we sneered at this. Norman rockwell is an idiot, and why dont we memorize this . We decided to memorize it and my daughter being 7 or 8 at the time with a fresh brain was able to memorize it more quickly than her father. But we memorized it together and as we were memorizing it i thought to myself i never felt getting feelings of patriotism that are breaking my heart, there is a line in the poem, there is a chapter in this poem that says there is one asleep in his bed who at the bridge would be first to fall talking about lexington. He is evoking the image of a man asleep in his bed who at the bridge would be first to fall so in a few hours this man is going to get up and go and be pierced by a british musket ball and die. It just pierced me to read this because i thought i am a father and if i was if you are older these things mean something to you. I thought the sacrifice never thought about this. You dont hear about this on tv. God for bid they say anything patriotic. It is a sad thing but as you get older you realize how sad it is, turning back on faith and patriotism, these are something from an older time, we dont do that, we are too sophisticated this. It reminded me of doing the same thing with my father. The greeks are afraid of patriotism every march 25th, we celebrate greek Independence Day in 1821. They are forced to memorize poems, a long poem and i hated it. We will get up early and sit on the couch and i will help you. This old patriot who wants to die, served his country, reading the line in greek, choked up. And i would get embarrassed, you dont really understand, you feel inadequate when your parents get choked up but i realize now he was experiencing what i was experiencing with my daughter. You read something and it gets to you, you understand sacrifice, what people have done for our freedoms are not things we take lightly and a healthy culture celebrates that. They dont say who are we, we dont talk about greek exceptionalism, they know greeks are better than everybody. On the planet. My cousin johnny will string you out. I was raised in a home where we are proud of the greek heritage. We dont get into that. I was raised in a home where we are proud of being americans. My father and my uncle were very patriotic americans who came to this country in the 50s and they knew this was a great country. When somebody would Say Something against americas they would come after us because who are you . Do you know have you been to other countries, do you understand what we have here . Better be grateful for what we have. Of america perfect . Of course not but if you dont appreciate what we have you are a fool, something we need to appreciate. You got to put everything in context, dont want to be a jingoistic nationalistic chest beating fool to not appreciate what we have is sick, it is wrong especially when it is the United States of america. Readings that poem and a number of things made me think we are living in a strange time because kids dont learn these poems, there were 90yearolds in this audience, many of them memorized paul reveres ride, the village blacksmith, the thing that was done because people in order to be a people need to know the stories and poems and songs that make you a people, otherwise you break down into red states, blue states, monsters beating each other over the head, you have to have something in common and what we had in common was that history and those stories, everyone, liberal, conservative, we understood this kind of thing, paul revere was the hero, nathan hale died for his country at age 21, this noble man is all those stories were on the lips of every american and when you came to america you were forced to learn this stuff, you were forced to learn a little bit about the history of the country. People didnt say we want to be harsh or mellow and tell you about American Culture because you are from another country, we dont want to do that. My parents learn this stuff, they were new to something because america is not defined by ethnicity, every ethnicity, every religion exists in america. We are defined by an idea, the only country in the history of the world that was created and defined by an idea. Therefore in order to keep the republic as franklin and joined us to do, we must know those ideas, understand those ideas, by into those ideas and live them out, otherwise america ceases to exist as an idea. As i said the more i looked around the more i thought we dont know these ideas anymore. We have not been taught them. I was not taught these ideals. These are not popular on tv, the idea of loving your country is not found upon. We are america in name only, are we becoming america and not america. If america is an idea and we dont understand these ideas it seems to me that is what happens. American exceptionalism doesnt mean we are inherently better, god forbid. Im a christian, everybody has original sin. We all stink, we dont deserve anything and everything we have is a gift from god. We are not better than other people by dint of where we live for our ethnic background. We are better than the french but i believe it at that. I dont have time to get into that but the point is we are not better than anybody. Not that america is better but american exceptionalism refers to these ideas that are basically a gift from god. If you dont think they are a gift from god they are a gift from history from the founders, we do not create everything we have, it is a gift. When you give a valuable gift you have to know the value of it. They would be annoyed. What we have is an exquisite treasure and we dont appreciate it anymore. We dont know how it works and it is not easy to keep the republic. If you think democracy is easy try sprinkling that on iraq and afghanistan and see how it turns out. It doesnt turn out well because people are not prepared for decades and decades, we were prepared, centuries of british law going back to the magna carta, we were publicly literate and understood virtue, we were prepared in a way that was extraordinary. The most extraordinary thing of all, when i read about George Whitfield and was utterly astounded, he was one of the hottest figures in victory, cross eyed evangelists, he was a phenomenon. Makes billy graham and the apostle paul look like loser atheists lose he basically preached four times a day nonstop, he was a man on a Mission Unlike Anything that ever existed, came to these shores in 1738 at the invitation of china and Charles Wesley started orphanage in georgia. He was a preaching maniac. What was he preaching . Everybody come to the Congregation Church or Baptist Church . Or the Catholic Church . He was preaching you must be born again. He was not safe to people you got to worship this way were this way, the most basic gospel message about jesus and about great. Imagine going to a Church Preaching morality, and try harder. This man comes and tells you you are a coalminer or fish wife, loser, failure and god loves you and has a plan for your life. Is no better than the duchess or the duke or the king. It really upsets the duchess. And the point is preaching a message of egalitarianism that people are buying into going that is true, we are made in the image of god and the hierarchy that was still a holdover from england, it began to create an american character. I am overstating it, he preached up and down the colony so much that by the time it was over, 80 of the people in 13 colonies had heard him in person. There were no tvs in those days. You are looking at 70, use a rabbit antenna and go on the roof, try to imagine how much this man preached and when he preached thousands would come to hear him, thousands would come to hear him over and over. By the time he was done he was the patron saint of america. Americans loved him. The only celebrity known from maine to georgia. Everybody knew of whitfield, everyone bought into his thinking and he basically said if you are infinitely valuable in gods i no one can rule over you. If there is a tyrant ruling over you, say to that tyrant begun. You dont have to submit to this kind of thing because you are infinitely valuable, god loves you as much of the does king third though this king george iii. He didnt put it that way but these were radical ideas out of the gospel. Two things happened, americans uniting around these ideas, people serious about their faith the revival breaks out all over, Benjamin Franklin, not an Orthodox Christian love George Whitfield, they were friends, people become virtuous, they govern themselves. He died in 1770, people are uniquely prepared to govern themselves, when founders created this government they can hand it over to people who will keep it, have a better chance of keeping it than anyone in the history of the world. When i say that about whitfield, we would not exist. It seems to be the case. When i understand this, i thought to myself it is scandalous we dont know this, scandalous we dont know how fragile our government is our way of life, our culture, everything we have. If we dont get serious about keeping it it is game over. I do think it is as serious as what we faced in the revolution or the civil war because it is an existential crisis. If we are facing john boole or johnny reb you can fight that fight, you get that crisis that you see in front of your eyes but this is a crisis which has been like termites silently hollowing us down so that nobody sees any threat. But if we become america in name only, a hollow shell of america where america used to be we will cease to have selfgovernment and it is already happening. This book is not for democrats, republicans, liberals or conservatives, this is a book for all americans. We all sense that some things are not going well, selfgovernment and liberty are being challenged in a host of ways, whether it is clamoring for an extremely strong leader, we know that can go wrong, and it comes with problems or clamoring for a judiciary that legislates from the bench in a way that is unconstitutional, the point is what we have is fragile. You can screw it up almost any way you like because it is so fragile. We are in an accidental crisis was when longfellow wrote paul reveres ride, he wrote the poem because it was 1860 and he knew america was facing a nexus dental crisis and wanted america to wake up and see that they had to rise to the occasion and fight so he wrote this poem and i realized poems and stories and books, these are the things that could galvanize us and see where we are and what we need to do and to some small extent i hope my book fulfills that kind of role. I wrote is hoping we could get a conversation started in our culture. There is a huge existential threat, we shortly cease to exist, everything will look the same, it doesnt work that way. Something we take seriously, my publisher graciously offered to give a number of copies to members of congress and another person i will not name. Every member of congress to get a letter from me asking what do you think of this . This is not written for democrats or republicans, secular, religious, doesnt matter, these are fundamental ideas, we used to bind to them for 200 years, we have to teach our children what we stand for. I hope those books, i can get on my Radio Program and shame congressman into reading it got a letter from so and so, have you read it . I hope everyone here, you can contact your congressman and ask if he got the book and read it. The people will be of people and we will hold our leaders to account, something can be done. I dont say it is game over or hopeless. God for bid, not for bid our job is to do what we can do. I have a few minutes for q and a. That concludes this portion, thank you very much. [applause] i am going to come on. I am kidding, just teasing. I will sing alone then. I would love to have a few minutes to for your questions. I ask you as we always do to put your question in the form of a question, the history of your family, i would love to know if you have any questions, speak loudly, you have a microphone. I prefer true or false questions, doesnt matter what it is, i see a hand right here. Come to the microphone, you have to go to the microphone. Sorry to say up front please be brief because i hope we can get to a lot of questions. Peter martin, welcome to socrates in the city. Welcome to the elite club. Before that, if i had a thunderbolt in my right hand right now. I want to ask the significance of lady liberty on your cover. At every event we begin with the pledge of allegiance and being flag day why did we do that . No. Not going to happen. That is so sweet, i wanted to resent you but i cant, you are so sweet. I dont mind doing that but it will shock some people watching on cspan. It will freak him out. Just dont do the nazi salute, that really gets them. It is flag day. I would love to do that. What a great idea. Here is our host. Even if i thought it was a bad idea i would have to do it. All right. I will start. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. What a great idea. What a great idea. We will start marching after this. It is so funny because i grew up in new york, any kind of patriotism makes me uncomfortable. Do we do that . When i go around the country i was someplace were singing god bless america, got tears in my eyes, why dont we do this . Are we ashamed of our country . Your question was about the cover of my book, is that the question . On the symbol of your book. Looking for cheap graphic the did not have rights attached to it. Basically one thing i didnt say in my speech which is at the heart of the book, the reason it is okay to talk about american exceptionalism, extremely proud of our country, from the beginning, this was a nation for others. We do not exist for ourselves, this is fundamentally a biblical idea, abraham is talking to god and god says you are blessed to be a blessing. It is so that you can bless others, not keep it to yourselves. We are the chosen people, isnt that great . It is an awesome burden, lincoln called this nation the almost chosen people, Something Special about this country, to touch others around the world, when there is an earthquake we dont ask questions, we dont say lets see the money first. During the Trump Administration we will have that. I dont think that is true. I dont think that is a joke. We have always been generous, we have been generous not just with our treasure but our blood. We shed blood on cornfields. Why . Not only for our selfinterest. We did it for oil those things enter into it but if you dont understand american lives have been given for freedom around the world, we have done the right thing around the world, shame on you if you dont know that or cant admit that were so cynical you dont believe that it is a simple fact that we have done that and have not acted in our selfinterest. As the world goes we go. Our boys died in vietnam, whether we were right to be there or not, the idea was, exists and everyone else can go to hell and that attitude is fundamentally unamerican, the statue of liberty is this example, and might have been in late 2001, two month after the attacks. On 34th street, in the highlands in new jersey, and an amazing thing and close to the statue of liberty and got really choked up, why did i get choked up . I am thinking of 9 11 and also the fact, look at this country. We were attacked by evil men doing harm. We still manage to keep a posture of welcoming to the world, the only country we would be attacked by radical muslims and one of the first things we worry about is muslims would be attacked by our people. The president trying to say dont do that, that is the normal natural thing to do, to kick the butt of some people you think are affiliated with those, that is not the american way. Always struggled with that, how can we be welcoming the foreigners and exiles, that is a biblical idea. You can take the too far and be sloppy like Angela Merkel saying come on income of skills for what happened 80 years ago, trying to redeem themselves. They are not thinking rationally. And a nation of immigrants and have to have a posture that says welcome. We have always been that way and the statue of liberty symbolizes that. It is touching for me because both my parents half the statute in the 50s. I asked about that, woken up in the bowels of the ship and ran up and there it was. Why is that emotional. This is not some cynical idea. America is really great, they know america really is great, i lived the American Dream my parents understood that. That is part of who we are as a people, that is a different kind of exceptionalism. We send missionaries around the world come all kinds of people who heard about freedom, god loves them, who have gotten economic freedom, religious liberty, our ideas to share with the world. We dont want to keep these things for ourselves. That is why the statue of liberty is on the cover of the book. The question if you can keep it is a point in question with a point statement when franklin made it in 1787, i dont think we are keeping it. Liberty isnt receding, you can see the torch is still in the focus. I dont think it is lost but we are losing it. This is for me something i wrote. This is my best shot to wake up to what we have and start a movement of some kind that we would take this seriously. Everything bad is a symptom of this. Great question, thank you. Another question. The last word on the statue of liberty was delivered by chelsea depew, americas greatest speech writer who preceded the president of the United States and his ultimate address. You didnt have that put their as a gesture to it. If you are ever at an after dinner speaker and dont hear one of his quotes, you are do a 50 refund. That is right, peter told me this club has much to do with the statue of liberty coming to america and so on and so forth. I love your in tends to be bipartisan, getting the book out, i am a reagan democrat and our party have radically different worldviews and many people remember that god was shouted down in the 2012 election, people will watch this on cspan who will reason the fact that we recited the pledge of allegiance. What are your thoughts on bridging that increasing divide . That is the fundamental reason i wrote the book, there are people, there will always be ideologues on both sides. There are people for whom being reasonable is not acceptable, they have a take no prisoners attitude. I didnt write this book for those people. I wrote this book for people in the middle. They can be on the left or right, these are the people who are open to reason and when they read about this, i dont agree with every little thing but yes, i get this. When i watch mister smith goes to washington my heart is touched. I feel a love for my country. We have to be rational about this and reach out to people who are willing to be rational, people have read this book and praised it who are secular liberals and that proves to me that i wanted to write this book for everybody. This is for reasonable people. There are always going to be people, we have to understand to argue with people on those fringes is to cast pearls before swine. We ought not to do it, let them what they want. I submit to you there are plenty of americans across the political spectrum who would say yes, there is something here, something beautiful about teaching our kids the Great Stories of these heroes . There is such a thing as a hero, we are not all bummed . People sacrificed their lives so we can have what we have. We need to understand that not teaching that has harmed us. We are not going to go back to 1920 but we need to understand that we have failed, i am convinced there are people, most people who read books, most people think they get this. This is not something may please the people at the Editorial Board of the nation or the john burke society, i really dont care. This is for all americans and if you understand that we are in a tough spot, must be taken seriously so thank you. Final question. I will take more questions. These are nice questions. Would you be more specific about things you see as threats to america and why you say we are losing the idea of america, more specific and about you need to sit down. The other i can be more specific. Being virtuous or not following the constitution . There are a number of problems. Here is the thing. We dont talk about virtue anymore. When i was reading stuff from the colonial era but also to lincoln, the things they said, the language they used was remarkable, they talk about honor and duty. We dont talk about that stuff anymore. That is a very odd development. What has happened that we are afraid to talk about honor, duty, love of country, we have to ask ourselves what has happened and why do we think it is okay to let that stuff evaporate . What do we think what will happen exactly . I think if you are not talking about virtue and teaching virtue, if you are afraid to teach a virtue or right or wrong, you are raising a moral people, if you think about it when i say to somebody racism is bad, you will here is that. There are certain things you will hear but they dont get into why. We ought to be able to have discussions on what we believe, what is right, what is wrong, what happened in orlando is a classic case. If i was a nihilist i would say who cares what happened in orlando . Why do i care . What difference does it make . If you have a worldview, people are created in the image of god and are infinitely valuable and everyone in the world has value and ought to have dignity and so on and so forth, if you believe that you try to create a society where people respect people with other points of view but we have to get into that conversation and where we are now is the politically correct soundbites, we dont actually, one reason we started this, to have some of these conversations to introduce people who have written books about these things, we dont do that anymore. Im totally unnerved, over here. So we have to be able to talk about these things and we have been afraid to. We dont do that and we see examples in the culture, the breakdown of culture, i dont want to go into it but in terms of morality, there are real problems, there are cheating scandals, all kinds of things where if you are immoral, i need to do what i need to do to get ahead. What about teaching kids that is wrong . The whole idea of ethics, where do you get right or wrong . We have to have those conversations, we are afraid we will offend someone and that concerns me, we have to have these conversations about what am i to believe, if my religion teaches me sex outside marriage is wrong or the homosexual lifestyle is not one that i want to follow how do i exist in a culture like this . In america we say you can have all the differences you want, we are free to respect each other. If you disagree with somebody you can kill them, you can treat them as subhuman. That is what radical islam does and it strikes me as odd that we dont have a language to talk about, we get uncomfortable talking about radical islam. Do you know how isis treats gay . They throw them off tall buildings, kill them. We need to have these conversations about what do we believe as americans . We have avoided it except in a very shallow and politically correct way. I think as people cease to govern themselves the government steps in, the government will grow if people dont govern themselves, strange things happening, even roe v wade, even if you agree with the decision the way the court got there is bizarre. How do you find in the constitution a right to samesex marriage or a right to abortion . Even legal scholars say it feels like judicial activism. Their job is to interpret the constitution and the job of the people in states to vote. That is democracy. In a way, the natural course is for government to grow and grow and to usurp those rights of the people. You see it from the judiciary, a stronger executive, we have seen it under bush and obama. The people have to say no, that is not how we do things here. We have a different way, the people are the government and we dont allow people to rule over us. That is beginning to happen. I dont think there is any doubt. I dont want to go on any longer but i see all kinds of examples. I write about some of them in the book and i will think about this more. It is a great question. I dont have more than that. Jo jo starbuck, the olympic skater. Thank you for what you brought to us tonight and i hope you are starting something with this book and all of us here. I wish you were running for president. What do you mean you kind of wish . I am. Bernie sucks the oxygen out of the room. I cant handle the press. If freedom requires virtue and virtue requires god, what are we going to do . It is politically incorrect to talk about god and have it in our schools. Our children need to hear when people say it is politically incorrect here is my question. So what . Actually my dear friend dick cavett who couldnt be here tonight said if somebody says to you that will offend some people, the response should be okay, so what . One of the most wonderful things about American Culture is our desire to please everyone, we worry what people are going to, there is something healthy and beautiful about that. But it can go too far. It is a flaw for us, the idea we are changing policy, the transgender bathroom thing is such even if you think it is a good idea it is one of these odd things we are bending over backwards for 0. 1 of the people, it has gotten to a point where your average american says something is out of order here. We need to reassert ourselves and we need to talk about god and faith and virtue, people are going to do it in the wrong way, people are going to do it in the wrong way. I hope i will do it in a right way, civil way, in the book, americans have to rise up, we are all responsible for these conversations. We all need to say so what . You think im racist . Im not racist so lets move on. Have you ever met a real racist . Do you know what you are talking about. The people in University Campuses are insane, they are crazy and the academic leaders or College Administrators are so cowardly that they cannot stand up to these tiny maniacs who they have allowed to be there on campus. An extraordinary thing but it shows you if you dont have a robust sense of right and wrong you will back down when people scream and in this election, we kind of had enough, we have real problems. Lets talk turkey. Lets talk and stop being so easily offended. Tough luck, definitely dont mean to offend anybody. I am going to promotion of virtue, my wife and i, the purpose of education chose a classical christian school. The majority of our systems will be educated. Some specifics about what regardless, engage in the Public School system. Everyone is called to do different things. I wont sends my daughter to a school so i can make a political statement while her brain is ruined. We need to take care of our own and mean sending your kids to the school or that school you have to do that first but you are right to the extent that we can be voices in the Public Square and Public Schools we should be. The Public School situation has gotten out of hand and it is why we are here. In this conversation why i wrote this book, the teachers unions and so forth are not beholden to the free market, they are in their saying tough luck and you hear over and over teachers teaching things they have no business getting into. Schools are supposed to the most basic idea of freedom is i can raise my kid the way i want to raise my kids and i dont have time to teach my kids so we will create pay taxes so someone else can do what i want them to do, they will be paid and teach our kids, the idea those teachers say we will do what we want to do is fundamentally unamerican and undemocratic. The idea we have schools teaching our kids Public School teaching our kids things that are not what we would want them to be taught is fundamentally crazy. That is why you have to have school choice. That is something im happy to say trump has been talking about school choice. The idi have to send my kid to get indoctrinated by some crazy people who arent afraid of losing their jobs is fundamentally unamerican. It is wrong. My mother left communist germany when she was 17 years old by herself because of this issue. She was having communist garbage poured down her throat every day in school. She said i couldnt take it, i have to get out of there because it was indoctrination. She chose not just to go to another school but to leave east germany. We have to understand we have freedom. If somebody says to me if i had my kids in Public School and said tomorrow we are going to whatever, teach thirdgraders how they can choose their own sexuality, some parents in that school needs to contact all the other parents in that school and say here is what we are going to do, we are going to keep our kids home until the maniacs stopped teaching things we dont want them to teach our kids, you have to be willing to keep your kid home was the montgomery bus boycott rosa parks started for a year, africanamericans didnt ride the buses because they said that is wrong and we wont put up with it. If some people think they can bring the way they think to bear on our kids in that kind of way, americans are nice, we are so nice but so nice we dont get angry. You have to say no, my kid is not going to go to school, are you going to put me in jail . It is not norway yet. This is america. I think people have to get involved. It is what it means to get involved in these things. The schools dont have this right but if they do it and we allow them to do it we are ourselves to blame. We are at a point where the craziness is getting peoples attention but we need leaders, crazy immigrants like me who have been raised in a way they think it is okay to get upset rather than not upset anybody, if somebody is doing that to your kids you have to act. Time for one more question. I appreciate the way you contrasted this robust belief in original sin with the virtue that was present at the time and in the founders. So Benjamin Franklin and Walter Isaacsons biography is a genius hedonist, what is the turn in virtue, has walked away from. Roughly speaking in the 16s, the trickledown, already turned the corner in the 30s. Europe turns in world war i, the twin authorities of church and state. And the same kind of thing as a loss of confidence. And a cynicism and nihilism or something, why became codified. The way we function. The media typically tends to be uncomfortable secular, some people, you dont get that kind of free market operating in the media. And in the market, always corrects itself, doesnt do it right away. 70 years of soviet communism before that wall fell down so these things can last a long time, 50 or so years we had this hollywood basically created antiheroes in the 16s. All the films before that, mister smith goes to washington, suddenly they were seen as corny or Something Like that and it is part of the culture, part of the drinking water, the ivy league where i was at school it is part of the way people begin to see things and that is the club you belong to, how people think and the gatekeepers, people in media, teachers unions, politics, generally speaking a lot of them are those types of ideologues. The average american is not really there but over time it affected america. We are at a Tipping Point and very close to the edge. For me there is hope but i say this with a level of desperation. We must take this seriously. This is it cannot go wrong. There you have it. Thank you so much for coming. [applause] i appreciate it very much. So many of you are from out of town. What we are going to do, thank you. I appreciate that. Let me say what we are going to do, let the party continue. You can hang around as long as you once. I will be signing books as long as there are people who want books signed. I am happy to do that just to hang out. Please do tell your friends about socrates in the city. Please do read the book, please do, if you dont want to read the book i dont care but at least by several copies if you dont mind. We believe it at that, god bless you and god bless america. [applause]. [inaudible conversations] created and defined by an idea. And, therefore, in order to keep the republic as franklin enjoined us to do we must know those ideas, we must understand those ideas, we must buy into those like us and we must live them out. His books include biographies on wilbur wilberforce. And later, if you can keep it the forgotten promise of american liberty. Join our live threehour conversation with eric metaxas with your calls, emails, tweets and facebook questions live sunday at noon eastern on cspan2. Tonight booktv in primetime looks at authors who are on the Summer Reading lists of members of congress. This morning a look at building a secure and inclusive Global Economy and how Digital Technologies are supporting individuals financial health. Live coverage from the Brookings Institution against at 10 a. M. Eastern here on cspan2. Cspan where history unfolds daily. In 1979 cspan was created as a Public Service by americas cabletelevision companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Next, a panel on u. S. Policy towards north korea and the implications of its recent nuclear threats. George washington university