Transcripts For CSPAN2 2017 Miami Book Fair 20171118

Good morning. You can applaud. [applause] i know you are applauding because you are here at the 2017 Miami Book Fair here in miami, florida. What a Beautiful Day it is here in miami this morning. That is why we live here and why it is such a wonderful destination. Welcome again to Miami Book Fair. We have a truly wonderful treat in store for you today. I hope many of you have had the opportunity all week to enjoy the outstanding presentations that have been taking place this year and hope you will continue through tomorrow evening when the 7 days closes. This fair just would not take place each and every year without the cooperation, collaboration, passion and volunteerism of many, many people in the community. Namely the students, faculty, staff of miamidade college. [applause] and really hundreds of high School Students, middle School Students and others in the community. We truly thank everyone for coming together and unifying behind this Miami Book Fair. I also want to thank the circle of friends of Miami Book Fair, where are you . Can i see who you are . Thank you for your support each and every year. I invite others. I want to acknowledge the sponsors and other corporate and Community Sponsors come together to make sure this literary and cultural events, and hundreds and thousands of fairgoers. What i would like to do at this time is ask you to turn off your devices, we wont you help me welcome a friend of Miami Book Fair, of miamidade college, he will be introducing our special guests. Help me welcome the regional market manager of tv bank. [applause] what a large crowd. It is my in miami, got to be one of the nicest days and needed that each and distinguished guests here today, and working on the staff or four democratic members of congress, and matthews began his talkshow hardball which is every weeknight on msnbc. Including jack kennedy, elusive hero, and kennedy and nixon, hardball, a raging spirit driving on Extensive Research where he pulls back the curtain on public and private world of Robert Francis kennedy. Please join me in welcoming Chris Matthews. [applause] what an intelligent crowd. Just came from seattle, the weather is nicer here. I dont have to wear a tie or a coat or anything. I want to talk about my book, 35 minutes, dont want to give away the book, it is an extensively priced, actually a beautiful piece of art. There is the picture i spent so much time on. I wanted it to be a beautiful book for a beautiful guy. I wanted to have him with minority kids reaching out like no one has ever done, the first weight candidate like this. And engulfed himself the cause as much. The reason i wrote this book is dirt poor white family along the jersey tracks in 68, dirt poor. We didnt grow up like this but the father is obviously patriotic about Bobby Kennedy. This is something democrats of lost, this affectionate patriotism, gut patriotism of the heart. He has obviously been in the military, has a crisp salute, offering his democratic leader. This is gone between the white working class, it has to come back. It has to. And the salute is everything. In grad school at chapel hill, the audience, Something Like this doesnt happen, they sang spontaneously, 20,000 in baltimore, the battle hymn of the republic. This americanism, and when i wrote it, april 4, 1968, Bobby Kennedy campaigning for president gone from Notre Dame University to wall Street University and africanamerican kid said why do you have hope for america . Most white people and most black people are good people. [applause] he said he had hoped. He got on a plane, got in a car to go to the plane in indianapolis, and assassinated by a white guy, a racist killer. Why did i tell that kid to have hope . So he gets to the scene, before he gets to this tough neighborhood, and africanamerican neighborhood, the Police Escort refused to go in. They are not going to take they knew it was explosive, the situation. Bobby goes in and says i have to go. He gets up on the flatbed truck looking at a group of africanamericans, no idea what happens, there was no twitter and all that crap back then. People heard things through wordofmouth, and from cronkite at 6 30. Because i work with nbc, i was able to get the tape and you hear him saying to the guy next to him do they know yes . The guy says no. He has to tell him, i got something terrible to tell you. He tells them. Initially the crowd is cheering him because they Bobby Kennedy is there but they dont hear his words, he has to keep telling them. The words are amazing. It is awkward, his brother was killed by a white guy which was an odd thing to say, he wasnt killed for racial reasons but he did try to connect, took his skin off to talk to that crowd, exposed himself. Any true empathy has to come cloaked in vulnerability. You have to be vulnerable to be empathetic. And prayers, i am so sick of it. True empathy comes from pain and experience and being a person. The guy with empathy, dont have it today. And all the ones in congress, they readout statements, board to death, cold toast is what we get from these people. Chuck schumer, doesnt matter who reads this stuff. It is a ponzi scheme. Say something human or means something to you, relate what this tax thing will mean to their lives. It is too much work, raising money, which is what they do. [applause] talked about the train ride. The cuban missile crisis, bobby predicted, he had a couple predictions that were fascinating. We have an africanamerican president , 40 years, off by 7. And a guy like barack obama will come along who was threading the needle of being africanamerican but promotes all the impetus, and worked for him and being a genius, absolutely 100 clean like no politician has ever been. [cheers and applause] but he nailed that. Also jimmy hoffa, the labor leader, pretty wise about it. He couldnt quit. He said hoffa cant quit the mob. You dont know what cement, and we dont think it was a happy ending. He tried to get out or stay in or whatever. The other prediction he made was bay of pigs, Nuclear Weapons into that, Nuclear Weapons and within a year they did. Castro told the guy who produced the money, 13 days, i dont want offense of weapons, but they did. A city like Bobby Kennedy, that is what he meant. He did say that. He did say they were wrong to do it and not to defend castro from us. They were to reach every city in the United States this side of seattle. They were offense of intermediate Nuclear Weapons aimed at balancing Nuclear Weapons, nothing to do with defending cuba. Castro would have been standing there no other way watching us all being executed, he would have loved it. Cuban missile crisis when that happens, bobbys first instinct which are tricky, was lets go get them, bombed the hell out of them. They realized, khrushchev was ready to move on with 3 billion west berlin. We would have had to go nuclear. You can see the Chain Reaction and where it started. You got to calm down these hoxha. You know what he did to do he went into the room of hocks and we are not the empire of japan. We dont pull sneak attacks, we are not going to kill everybody. Just because we want to gain advantage, we are not like them. [applause] he made a lot of great calls, joe mccarthy, turned on him, the thing i liked about bobby was his character, when he turned against joe mccarthy, he went too far in appeasing witnesses and demagoguery, he wrote the resolution condemning them on behalf of democrats to bring them down. When mccarthy drank himself to death it took three years to do it, determined, drank himself to death. Bobby stayed with him as a person, with his family, sit there where mccarthy sat across from him, wrote in his diary, drunk the last three hearings. Im irish, i understand this thing. The guy who grew up like you even if he goes bad. I understand it and all the time he was risking his political career because he didnt want to be known as a friend of joe mccarthy entering the election. The airport, national airport, his daughter, kathleen, kathleen told me, 6 years bury mccarthy 70 centers, 4 of them went to wisconsin, and begged the guy never to say he was there, watched from the car, politicians are not like this. Politicians are for show. He thought they were important. That is why enemies feared them. And do it as they do. When announced for president nixon is seeing portland, oregon, watching television. On march 16th, nixon is watching the tube, staring at the tv set and it is almost like the Twilight Zone and nixon starts with that weird thing of his, forces will be unleashed we cannot imagine. Who knows where this is going to lead . The kennedys had this atmospheric connection to this country. People fear some hated him and loved him, they excited us. In most cases, when jack kennedy went to debate nixon, bobby with his corner man and kick him in the balls. Who doesnt want a brother like that . You know he is behind you. Henry cabot lives that his running mate call the nixon, erase the assassins image, that is a real output. Looks like an assassin, tried not to look like much during the debate. Anyway. I know what this book is about and didnt realize it until i spent the last crazy 6 or 7 months intensely writing it. All the research is based on people i know, got so many people like that. Frank mankiewicz, kathleen kennedy, people close, tiptoe neil i worked with all those years, stuff that nobody else knows about. I wrote this in the beginning, the book is about what america uses as a leader today. What we lack today. What we lack is empathy for real people, through empathy, not phony after lunch at the rotary club es religion, that kind of stuff but true religious belief. When bobby talked about the black crowd in indianapolis he said lets play a prayer for our country, that meant something to him. Unity, tried to bring blacks and whites together, in gary, indiana which is not like ron howard saying about in the music man. A tough ethnic town of people with long unsellable names from eastern europe, blacks moving in, creating the anger, the black mayor, tony sale, remember him . The guys remember him, the other guy up there, the paul newman that is the paul newman movie about rocky graziano, he won the rubber match, the third match. Gillette and everything. Being a moral compass, somebody who as president we like to think, watching robin hood movies, the king or the president , richard the lion heart shows up, he will do the right thing and he will be the right person, and the leadership. And prowar widow. And if he gets 45 he is happy. And is accountable, both play the division game, gets more money into the coffers. A moral compass, remember, when it comes to this, tell us the right decision, how do we deal with north korea or these questions . How do we deal with iran, do we have a moral judgment, these issues i too quit tricky without moral violence and human beings to divide sometimes. Bobby kennedy and your spirit running against donald trump this year you have a good candidate, very good candidate. Bobby is more interesting than jack because he is accessible. And that overlooked a friend of mine, his love life with women was Pretty Amazing that way, he said people dont mind being used, they mind being discarded. Isnt that everything . Discarded. This archie bunker thing in the early 70s making fun of white working people, kissed them goodbye. Deplorable, you tend to hear it. I cling to my religion, i am a little person voting for the other guy this time. We need unity again and this is my guy, thank you. [applause] i will take questions now. 18 minutes. I will be glad to answer, stick generally to the book. I know there is a lot of stuff but whatever, i am here. Please. I hope i have men and women here. Man explaining is over. Lets mix it up. I have often thought how much better life would be today if Bobby Kennedy had not left us . I have often thought that. So glad you wrote the book, look forward to reading it and answers are in there but i wanted to ask, would bobby be successful today and is there another Bobby Kennedy . That is the hardest question. Let me think. His brothers tribute to him at st. Patricks cathedral was pretty good. He saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw more, tried to stop it. I understood i was part of that growing up, anticommunist and all that and i didnt think the world was being taken over by the communists. We didnt want to lose like we lost to the germans letting them take one country at a time. I get all that but that was pretty clear in the mid 60s we were not going to win. The people saw it as a nationalistic struggle, them against the europeans, the french, the nazis. Body said he wouldnt have tried to end the war, just transformed as it had to be. In washington with all the dead names of people who were killed, half as many. If the war had ended and 69 under the same terms we got in 73 we come home, get the pows and come home. Wasnt much of a deal for the communist side, they got us to leave. A hell of a deal, you go, they always wanted us to do, what the war was about, we leave. Take our prisoners back with us. They got to cut that deal anytime they wanted to. It was a good deal for the communist side. I dont think we gained anything by staying there. When you watch this documentary on pbs, it is politics, johnson and nixon sticking it out to get reelected, lives for elections, comes off horribly. He is still celebrated. I dont get it. The fight that is the definition of every election. People are so angry at both sides. We will see this in alabama in four weeks. We will see what happens down there. I think it is tough. The only alternative is a liberal democrat. I think it could go away. We dont recognize i think that is a tricky one to watch. I think doug and jones will jones will win. I think. A conservative who doesnt have all of these problems. Thank you for the book. I see at the end of the book he saw the election at that time as a fight for the soul of america we are now in that fight big time. And he does mention our peace corps and what that did in the inspiration that came from that. But he sought youth is getting involved with drugs and as has becoming more and more materialistic. I see the long lines for the new iphone but still just as i was optimistic about peace corps and the domestic peace corps. I see that i have to head faith in the young people what do you see they are people with plenty of other people out there that want an america like the america i loved. And are beginning to doubt what can be done. They are very idealistic. They just are. They probably vote the way you want them to. Almost pristine in their liberalizing. I would speak there. Do you want to book me. I will never get it because im prochoice. But i do love going to college campuses. You know what kids are fascinated by they love any story of the 60s. The music was unbelievable. Every guy facing the draft in every and every young woman knows that the guy next to them theyre facing the draft. It was real i do think the 60s were great. Despite all of the horror. If you like the 60s you are probably a progressive. I think it was the march on the pentagon. The baby carriages and the nonce and before that. Thank you for teaching. Teaching is at. Speaking of division will we ever get rid of the role. Did you ever go with chip oneil. The bettys rolled rice. Every day listening to the stories. That was a stupid rule. We also had checks and balances. You are all checking off there. It is a good system. It is a standard for the world. Especially the free press. If they dont theyre not worth much. It is really all it is. They dont expect these things. They are jealous as hell as institutions we have. They look at us like this is a great country. Maybe not a great history. Unless there is a majority of the republican caucus. We could have a comprehensive immigration system in this country. If they took it there. The senate bill which has 12 republicans for it. It has all of the elements of the content. It was an open door policy. You dont outlaw it better. You just go along with whatever. Put the off the book stuff and they allow them to prevent them from even coming to a vote. I think it would have just passed. The good republicans. It have it in their hands. We will argue this for another 20 or 30 years. It is something that shouldve been left out of court. Looking forward to reading this book. There was a line in that book that stuck with me. Robert kennedy in the senate he was in the senate. Ted kennedy was of the senate. Teddys book is even better. He have to teach his brother how he have to sit there for hours and pretend to be interested. They waited for that turn to come. He was a right and wrong and i because of specific people out there there there to that are going to be the next generation. I dont see any of them ready. I dont know. Maybe they are attractive. Do something, Say Something. Just be attractive. If you are big on corey take a look at his yucky ex. Im sorry. It should be reason for them to look at that guy very seriously. Come on. Your job is not to do that. That is not your job. And you are using your job to do it. I understand the choice bribery means you actually had to have a tape recorder. If you do this i will do that. Its okay. The guys Walking Around with a 5,000dollar watch dollars watch like hes on by somebody. Given to him by some pal to establish his cronyism. Im watching, lyndhurst. As if they have them on the ticket. You will take a working guy. He doesnt let you know he did. Its great. Dont show that off but he is a labor guy from west belt state. It was a good match up with hillary. And thats what she wanted him for. She did not want a competing personality. She couldve picked anybody she wanted. And she blew it. Wisconsin, ohio michigan pennsylvania and acted like she was interested in this people. She didnt do it. Thats probably not likely its going to get worse. I think its not going to end with him. I was wondering if we were ever going to get rid of the Electoral College because of the people why do you think we have that. I think we need it. Its political small states dont want to be pushed around by big states and it will always be there. If you live in idaho or the elastin all the campaigning will be done here in florida and new york and california. And those states will run the country. Okay. Thats exactly what the rest of the country thinks you think. Look at that little circle down there every time i see a National Poll by the way it doesnt matter with the Electoral College. In the congress by the way important for different reasons. They can take house by 12 points. A better state 12. The states like berkeley, San Francisco Los Angeles Chicago atlanta, miami new york city they are 90 democratic. All of those districts are different. They are a flooded into the same districts. The roads are allocated around the country. They are a liberal bunch. They like to be in cities that are diverse. Whites like bunching together. I promise to read your book i know as a young man you worked as a speechwriter for jimmy carter. I do know how know how you look back on the white house i think he was an honest guy not with any great executive ability. The conservation and he understood he knew he was talking about. I thought he just didnt have that black background and he also was not a liberal in the liberal party. It was much more of a moderate. I loved it. Even the other one took up diagonally straight up. The great job in the world. Come on, i dont care. Im not saying i would like to work for trump but the perks are all there. It is exciting. We tried. I was there that night the guys is now a billionaire. How come we are not stopping anywhere. Then we flew all the way to oregon. Why are we not stopping. The reason we are were not stopping is because not a single state we are fine over we have a chance of carrying. They were all of the middleclass people in winter park. They were all nice suburban people. What can happen. It was great. For the next few months we hope to spend your time there. Can you talk about bobbys relationship to lyndon johnson. Was pretty critical and i wonder what you thought about that. And talk a little bit about how they got along. Lemmie tell you. It is a very smart guy. His movie was about lbj. To read the book. But it starts in 1940 and 1940 he was there as fdr. And sitting next to him in the oval office. They are on the phone with the ambassador who he doesnt like it doesnt trust. He is an appeaser and worse probably soft on nazi ism. He his doing his charm. Cant wait to see you. Im to fire the slb. So johnson dines out on that for a number of years. When they first meet in 1953 bobby working for joe mccarthy. He is a new majority leader. Everybody is standing up including mccarthy. He said there quietly and ignored him. I know he was the writer he said johnson well always make a beeline for anybody that wasnt kissing his butt. Finally he goes over to the young man. He can to give them a fish handshake. Its about 1940 i got that from robert carol. The latest addition an episode. It was like two dogs meeting on the sidewalk. They did not like each other. Instinctively. And of course bobby wanted to succeed. He wanted to be the next president and thats a fact. He does wanted to continue with the new frontier. Johnson was in the way. A lot of it was true. About the old man. And one thing they were very sensitive about all three about. He was an appeaser but look at what those kids did. Im going over to kill nazis. And he killed himself. And a Dangerous Mission over occupied france. And that he was missing for a week. He was cut in half by the japanese destroyer. Bobby cannot wait to get it. He get gave up his rtc. They were great americans of the kids. As an air core guy. They will help liberate the camps. The kennedys were like that. The kids were better than their father. The father. So much better. Every time they brought up this. And johnson brought up in 60. Umbrella guy in the hitman was great. The kennedys do you think they like that. I still need this guy. He really didnt care what johnson had said. Bobby sought right and wrong. This guy is not to be rewarded. He tried to get them off the ticket. One was charm and one was brains. Together they were magic. Separate they were very different people. The question now good hatred though enemy only means one thing. Its very clear with enemies are. I would like to ask for a round of applause. Thank you very much. [applause]. A well deserved standing ovation. He will be in an area on the floor. Thank you very much. Please exit to your left. You are watching book tv on cspan to live coverage of the Miami Book Fair. Chris matthews will be joining us a little bit later to take your calls. And in about 15 minutes at the next author you will hear from is edward luce. One nation after trump. We are in the middle of the Miami Book Fair here on the campus of miamidade college. And joining us now is a former senator and author larry pressler. The quest for disarmament in the new subcontinent. First of all, what is the Pressler Amendment that you discuss in your book. It permitted prohibited aid with pakistan if it developed a Nuclear Weapon it was enforced for about three or four years in pakistan paused. It was the pressler glenn amendment. The series of amendments. And we worked on this as partners. I believe there would not be Nuclear Weapons in the indian sub content today. It was clear that pakistan was being given Nuclear Weapons fire pentagon the United States has been a main prolific later but of conventional weapons and in pakistan in turn sold them to north korea with our octopuses approval so we had been a major proliferator of Nuclear Weapons that is part of the passion i have. To wake people up to that path. Before we get into what this octopus is that you refer to. Where did your issue develop. Of the Senate Foreign relations committee. And i got enmeshed in this issue way back in the 1970s. I was in the u. S. House. This was a great interest at that time. Nuclear nonproliferation. They backed off because of my amendment. They would get entangled in this fight. But it was debated every year for about 12 years and it performed the basis for the debate that we head on asia. And it still is to some extent. It was largely listed by bill clinton. The first thing that you do is lift the press amendment against pakistan. The only answer i got is we dont know why but for letting them have the bomb. They didnt had one at the very beginning. And they were not going to develop a bomb unless pakistan got one. In the u. S. Give that technology to india. In your view is a pakistan should they be declared a terrorist state. They should be declared a terrorist state and they are. They harbored terrorists and they meet all of the qualifications now their Nuclear Weapons are actually controlled by four different sets of the generals. Its not just one thing. They cannot launch a Nuclear Weapon without the concurrence of 15 other people. They are all in touch. In pakistan there are four sets of generals. Im trying to write a novel of future where they are buying for five bombs. And bring them to the home state. And then setting them off in different cities at different times. That could be done very easily. It is a very dangerous situation that we are in. And pakistan is much more dangerous than north korea. Why do you think that the u. S. Has been allied with pakistan in many ways for years. We have a weve militaryindustrial state and has formed an octopus of all of the contractors. All of the people who are pro arms export. They had formed it. All over washington. We have an amendment preventing the state department from participating in sending any arms to pakistan. And then they go over to the Commerce Department and they get a sophisticated licensing agreement. They said the same thing. It is really not made in the traditional way anymore of congressional hearings. The very first thing that the new indian ambassador has to do is to hire five or 6 milliondollar a year law firms that is the truth of the matter. It is the only capital where that is true. Most of that big money is the armed companies. Even the foundations. It gets a lot of its funding from the armed companies. And they are complicit to getting both arms to india and pakistan. The octopus that you refer to the follow the money situation by and large i described our whole foreignpolicy by this octopus. If they want to be active in Foreign Policy they might will join one of these big law firms. That is a very sad situation. Senator pressler, do you think the india should be a Nuclear Power it is and it will remain. And you would not have gotten that. If pakistan had not. Just the other day they confirmed whats in my book that brazil that you would have nuclear lies south america and that didnt happen because of the amendment and implications of it. They just did not want to concur. And south africa back blacked off. In cash or what head. These things have a sequential occurrence once it happened than india developed. Should the u. S. Continue to get closer with india in your view. Be very careful about this. The socalled new agreement between india and the United States is mostly an arm sale agreement. The last trip to india was largely an arm sale trip. They say that it was a nuclear think to use Nuclear Materials peacefully but they did not resolve the liability issue so that Everybody Knows it would never happen. They are buying a lot of arms from the u. S. Billions of dollars on arms conventional and nuclear from the United States. Larry presslers book is called neighbors and arms. In a nuclear sub content. What is your take on the current state of the u. S. Senate. The strange thing about the senate is that they do everything by one vote. They are cannot wait until everybody agrees. They should be voting on amendments all day. You should know your senators position on the real estate tax. It has almost become dysfunctional because health care in the tax bill they try to get it down to one vote so that everybody has to a great with that until so forth. All the regular order and then vote on the final passage that has not been is not being done right now. They have very few votes on key issues. The tax bill would just be one vote and it should be like 40 votes per day and he would keep it there till midnight voting. The modernday senate doesnt want to go on record on anything. They just dont want to vote on the war powers or anything powers or anything after that. Its very unfortunate. Its you to the public. The public punishes senators for taking specific positions. I try to teach Political Science but i for regular order going back to the old way of legislating amendments offered on the floor and several votes per day. Before we got started on this interview. We talked about the fact that senator franken is not going to be at this interview or at the book fair because of his current situation. You mentioned that you were in the senate and dont know all of the facts or any of the facts about this case but he was essentially resigned. That was some years ago. Not being in the senate and dont had as much information. Larry pressler, i like senator packwood personally. Im sure that he is a brilliant in many ways also. A senators quest for disarming meant. Thank you very much. We are continuing here at the Miami Book Fair. We are to go back into the hall where authors are speaking coming up next is norm ornstein. Hes talking about his book one nation after trump. We will be live all day long. We have colins coming up with Chris Matthews and katie turner and you will hear from Walter Isaacson on Leonardo Da Vinci a little bit later in the day. Book tvs live coverage continues. [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [indiscernible] [inaudible conversations] [indiscernible] [inaudible conversations] you are watching book tv on cspan two. The next event has not yet happened here. One nation after trump is the name of his book. Even see him chatting with some folks know this is a 20th year the 20th year in a row that we have the after we hear this next author presentation we will hear from Walter Isaacsons. There can be in chapman hall. Of ms nbc. The gold start father will also be speaking in the home. And Chris Matthews will both be doing call ins. We hope you do too. Mitch kaplan. What is your reading. We want to hear from you. Its always been a lot of fun. That will be happening today. We have a full schedule today. We are back again tomorrow. Van jones at cnn. The former president of spelman college. As well as mark boutin. They were due to close the festival on sunday night but unfortunately he has canceled. From the Miami Book Fair. If you happen to be in the area come on down. Lets go back in and wait for the next event to start. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] good morning. Please take your seats. Were about to start. Good morning again. It is my pleasure to welcome you to Miami Book Fair the 2,01h edition. What a wonderful week it has been and it is not even over. I hope you are enjoying all of the presentations that engagement of the hustle and bustle of the book fair in the street fair in particular. And i would like to give a special welcome to those fairgoers who are out of town can i see a show of hands. Welcome to miami. As many of you know this fair would not be possible with the without the collaboration of hundreds of volunteers Corporate Community sponsors. Such as o hl and many others. I might add without the convening of miami dade college. Is the founder and true presenter of Miami Book Fair. Lets give a round of applause to miami dade college. We are getting it started this room is always full of engagement once the guest speaker has concluded you have the opportunity to ask questions we will have a few minutes for questions so please do access the mic in the middle for that. I would like you to silence your devices. And follow me as i get a brief a brief introduction of our guest speaker today. Norman is a resident color at the American Enterprise institute. In a contributing editor and columnist for the National Journal into the atlantic. He is a coauthor of New York Times bestseller is even worse than it looks. One nation after trump a guide for the perplexed the disillusioned the desperate and the not yet deported. It is truly an essential book for this as many of our and a true unsparing assessment of the current state of the United States and it also serves as an inspiring roadmap for how we can move Forward Together on a unified front to advance our nation. Please help me to welcome norman went steamed to Miami Book Fair. Thank you so much. I must say i had been to many book fairs there is nothing like this. It is a is a real testament to the city. For the incredible intellectual diversity that it brings and the crowd which blows me away. Is certainly a testament to that. I just want to one and one little footnote to the introduction it tells us something about our times. Back in 1982 i was the first poster for Comedy Central in its first coverage over politics. The first poll that i did back then all of the Television Networks would get these 900 phone numbers where they would have viewers call in and pay 75 cents to give their opinion on an issue. So we got our own 900 color number. And the question i ask our viewers was would you pay 75 cents to call in and ask your opinion on the issue. 97 said no. As you look at polls does keep that in the back of your mind. We are at date 294 of the Trump Presidency or as president trumps as longer than any other president. And for me as for many others it has been 200 days of unrelenting pain i had two coauthors on this book. A long time coauthor of my over almost 50 years of partnership and we did a book in 2006 about Congress Called the broken branch. And then we did that book about our politics more generally. Its called its even worse than it looks. I joked for some time that the next book would have to be called run for your life. We decided to go in a slightly different direction and we added a third coauthor. The Washington Post columnist. I do want to say as i will probably repeat a few times and makes a Great Holiday gift thanksgiving is right around the corner bar mitzvah, anything. Great gift. We felt i need to address what have happened to our politics into our country into our culture and yet after three books that could have easily given me the title of the Debbie Downer of american politics it is also hopeful at the ends. I will come to that. I will say, i was a little hopeful even during the campaign and i talked to some of my nervous friends and i said dont worry even if he gets elected he wont be there long to leave us for a younger country. Thats a different matter. Let me talk just a little bit about what is in the book and address the situation a little bit more generally and im hopeful that we can have some dialogue as well. This book is really in three parts. The first part is how we got here, the second is what the dangers are and the third is what we can do about it and where we are going. A part of my motivation for doing this and i came up with the subtitle first which covers much of the country i would say to people every day what do we do what do we do now. And we really felt the need to try to talk about what can be done and how we need to rise. And the hopefulness is built on a belief that donald trump has jolted us into realizing what the threat is. We are not referring to just get donald trump. But to the conditions that led to a trumpet that go back decades and that we could call the rise of tropism but it something even broader than that and i dont want to display into his ego on that front either. At least a part of it is broader changes in the society that go beyond our politics. So we have a chapter on decline of community the sense of detachment that people have from their own communities that has taken place over a lot of swats of territory in the country some of which written about also buy that Journalist Bill bishop and the vintage where people have increasingly moved into areas where they are surrounded by likeminded people one group of citizens from another. This doesnt go back a long ways we even had sociologists in the 1960s the moaning that the client and community. Of course it is also tied to some of the great economic dislocations i have occurred over many decades. Theres another holler powerful book about a community in West Virginia that really was a small town in a vibrant community where citizens were linked to one another where the Company Community institutions work very well. It destroyed the livelihood in the community fell apart. Those institutions stopped working and we saw enormous dysfunction built into it. We have as well the book by the great africanamerican sociologist. What happened in the Thriving Communities and inter cities with an africanamerican workingclass opportunity. As it happened the community went under in normas stress. Its a same sort of thing that we see now with hillbilly elegy be. In places where the problems in society transcend all of the categories that we normally think about including the racial ones. And we are seen and play out in a lot of places now. The stresses are there and part of the great challenge to reknit and rebuild community in the country and rebuild around something broader than a local area as well. The great sense of patriotism is not the negative nationalism pitting one group against another there is a real distinction between the two. But there is also the political side of it. And here also the seeds of the Donald Trump Trump ism go back quite a ways some of it lets face it are because of the enormous changes in our geography that changed our politics going back to at least to the 1960s. When they signed the Voting Rights act. And said this is can cost the Democratic Party in the south for generations to come. And the rise of airconditioning. As a common phenomenon. Im old enough to remember when i was a kid in the air conditioning was not commonplace in homes. We would go to the movie theater. To cool off. It becomes the commonplace thing. That meant a lot of seniors have been moving those were often republicans who had populated regions in the northeast and the Midwest Network thriving pace and it helped to make with the revolution the south moving from a solidly democratic region to the most significant republican region. They created some great division. They had been bastions. They became a stronghold for democrats. They went through a similar transformation. And we saw the parties that when i first came to washington conglomerates cutting across a lot of ideological boundaries. They begin to change. Those changes affected both parties but they affected one more than the other. Back in the 1970s when i was teaching Political Science fulltime i would describe congress in the sense. Imagine if we took all the members and put them on buses. It was then her football stadium. We told him to go them to go down on the field and place themselves where their worldview would make them most comfortable. The vast majority of people somewhere near the midfield strike. Generally between the 40yard lines and quite an admixture. Trailing off to a small number as a move down. And they repeated the football line. To trail off to the smaller number and on the other side you would have one or two people before you got the goal line and then you would have a whole lot behind the goalposts. And even more floating in the enter cost. And as a real change in our politics. You can have a polarization of the sort if you talk about. I look back on the odd couple last week in the coauthor. They recreated the senate chamber. Between Teddy Kennedy proud liberal. In a proud conservative. Lifestyles that could not had been more different but a close friendship and the Childrens Health Insurance Program which has provided Health Insurance to 9 million children. The radicalization that it is now almost two months without being funded. And we had 9 million children left vulnerable as a consequence. They put through the tax bill that provides great benefits for owners of private jets while taking away the scholarship tax status. So even those people who were problem solvers are not anymore but we have it back then. And that began to change. And when he came into congress and i met him right after he arrived after the 1970 election and met him in january of 1979 tom and i sponsored a series of small dinners every couple of months with members of the class of 1978 to take them through. Their experiences in their first term in congress. They have different viewpoints and pick people who would make a mark and it was quite a class. We chose pretty will we have dick cheney and geraldine ferraro. At the time they arrived 24 consecutive years. Everybody there. That means the ends would go and the outs would come in. After 24 years power doesnt corrupt. Does corrupt. They become arrogant and complacent. They overreacted. But they deliberately trivialize the process. They got some of the pauses they wanted. And then do the same thing in the country. A populist outrage in the late 1980s over the pay raise. And the bill clinton election gave them the vehicle to do it. It permanently transformed the way we deal with politics. They walked into the chamber together, and alan simpson saw across the chamber dale bumpers, also familiar to many, a former democratic senator from arkansas. And al made a beeline over to bumpers, and they had a warm embrace, and they were chatting warmly. And then he saw santorum back where theyd come in looking agitated and motioned him over. Simpson ambled back and said, yeah . Santorum said, what was that all about . And simpson said, thats dale bumpers. Were almost like blood brothers. We worked on many things, and santorum said we dont do things like that anymore. And thats tribalism. Now, when i saw simpson to validate the story and he said it had happened, i said, well, was he agitated because you were embracing a democrat or because you were embracing a guy . [laughter] i wont tell you his response, but [laughter] maybe a little bit of both. But that tribalism mattered. And at the same time, that pay raise that i mentioned mattered as well. That was in 1988. And what we had was the elites in the society finish at time we had what were called quadrennial commissions, the captains of industry, the leaders of religious institutions would come together and try and evaluate what we should do with the pay of members of congress and judges and top executives. And they decided that because they hadnt had a raise in ten years and it was getting hard to find judges willing to come in for those Lifetime Appointments and members of congress with two households were getting stressed, that theyd make up for ten years of inflation with a 25 pay raise. And it was supported by Ronald Reagan as he left office and George Herbert walker bush as successor and all the leaders in congress, and the public went ballistic. Now, the Previous Year the federal Communications Commission had eliminated the socalled fairness doctrine which said that if youre in a broadcast and you present one point of view, you have to balance it with another. And with that, Rush Limbaugh who had been a noontime talk show host in sacramento on radio moved to new york to try and make his way. Anden then the pay raise gave him the rocket to stardom. And that created talk radio as a political phenomenon, and it began the tradition of tribal media that we have now. All of those things mattered, and all of it became amplified as we moved through, into the obama era. And then what we saw was the economic strains and the populism that emerged full blown with the financial collapse in 2008 and the response of the elites. As president george w. Bush and his treasury secretary, hank paulson, and the chair of the fed, ben bernanke, and all the previous chairs of the fed met with the leaders of congress and said the entire Global Economy could collapse, we have to act now, and they came up with a bailout known as the t. A. R. P. Program, the troubled assets relief program. What many people fail to remember is that it actually failed. Despite that urgency and the enormous support in the house of representatives. Because a group of radical House Republicans said why should we believe any of this. And then the dow dropped over 700 points which back then was a big deal. And they came back and passed it, but the resentments remained. And most americans said, wait a minute, let me get this straight. Just like the 25 pay raise when most of us were getting, if we were lucky, a 1 c. O. L. A. A year and maybe making 25,000 while they were making 87,500 and bitching and complaining that it wasnt enough. This time it was so what you did was get together and bail out the miscreants who got us into this mess. And then they got big bonuses on top of that. What happened to us . We lost our houses. Or if we didnt, they declined in value by 30 orr 40 or 40 , and most americans dont have cash savings. Their nest egg is in the homes. And as you get older, you can downsize and have a retirement fund, or you can have money that you can give your kids for tuition or for a down payment on their homes. And that was devastating. And and i will mention one thing that will tell you also something about the nature of our country and our times. A survey thats done every year and most recently showed the most shocking numbers that ive seen. People are asked used to be 500, now its 400. If you had an emergency that required 400 in cash, could you come up with it. 68 of americans say no. Right . So you blow a wad on your car. Tree hits the house and youve got to pay the deductible and the insurance. You have a medical emergency. You cant come up with the cash. And the bailout to, what did that say to those americans and even those with some resources but who were hurt . You lost your job. Or if you didnt lose your job, with a stagnant economy, your employer knew they had you where they wanted you, and they could make you work longer hours for less pay. And we saw the occupy wall Street Movement emerge on the left and then the Tea Party Movement on the right. And all of that began to feed on itself to create some of the seeds that could result in the emergence of a donald trump. And, of course, trump himself exploited that anxiety and some of the larger anxiety over the changes in our country, the growing diversity, the fact that by 2050 white americans will no longer be a majority in the country when he cynically exploited the Birther Movement to become the leader of a movement that is openly racist in nature. And that gave him a platform to run for president. Now at the same time as obama came in, Republican Leaders in congress on inauguration eve 2009, desperate, demoralized, depressed because not only have they lost the white house, they lost the house, they lost the senate. And they met together on inaugural eve, a bunch of leaders including some who called themselves the young guns; paul ryan, everything cantor, kevin mccarthy, john cornyn, gingrich himself. And they had dinner at the caucus room, a restaurant just a few blocks from the white house, and they emerged with a bring in their step because they figured out that the way to move ahead was to unite completely in opposition to everything that obama and democrats wanted and delegitimize any of the actions that were done, blocking add much as we could as much as they could otherwise. And that worked like a charm heading into the midterm elections in 2010. And the young guns fanned around the country take thing a page from the gingrich playbook and recruited a bunch of candidates and exploited that tea party anger and said, you know, if you bring us into power and give us the congress, well bring obama to his knees, and well revoke obamacare, and well blow up doddfrank, and well blow up government as we know it. And they won this sweeping victory, and then none of it happened. And then they came back in 2012 said, dont worry, if you vote for us, after all, the scales have been pulled away from the eyes of americans. They know this kenyan socialist for what he is. Itll be a oneterm presidency, and then we can do what we want, and it didnt work. And then in 2014 it was were outnumbered 2 to 1, theyve got the senate. If we can win the senate, we outnumber them 2 to 1, and well bring obama to his knees and get rid of obamacare and doddfrank and blow up government as we know it, and none of it happened. And that set the seeds for the 2016 nomination contest. Conventional wisdom said republicans will do what they always do, theyll flirt with an outsider, the herman cains of the world, but than theyll nominate the obvious establishment candidate, and the obvious candidate was jeb bush. Wed had bush 41, and wed had bush 43, and here was jed, the model in motto in the family, no child left behind. Laugh [laughter] but jeb was the lost child. [laughter] who was, in fact, left behind because the reaction of the Tea Party Populist republicans and conservatives out there was you guys are no better than the other ones. You told Us Government was evil and youd blow it up, and you didnt. Youre establishment just like the rest of them, and an outsider was going to be the choice. Now, it didnt have to be donald trump. It could have been ted cruz, you know . The insiders outsider whose calling card was going on the floor of the senate and calling his own leader, mitch mcconnell, a liar. Which had never been done before. Or it could have been carrie fly that or carly fiorina, but trump had his finger on the zeitgeist of the party and understood the dislocation that people felt in their loss of community, the sense that their own role in society was slipping away. And some of the ugly features of populism the protectionism, the isolationism, the nativism and often the racism that can accompany it. And its when he got to the right of everybody else on immigration talking about the mexican rapists coming in and preying on us and putting up the fence, the wall and making mexico pay for it and a muslim ban and all of that. And if you watch those debates, you can see ted cruz utterly befuddled that anybody could get to the right of him on anything. [laughter] and its when trump took on the other candidates and belittled them, belittling jeb and belittle little marco. He really likes to belittle floridians, i dont know [laughter] and all the other candidates. And then taking on fox news and megyn kelly then with fox news. And it was, basically, im not like these weak establishment figures who bow down to obama. Im not taking crap from anybody. And he played on another great meme in American Life which is politics is so awful, they dont do anything, theyre so corrupt. Why cant we run government like a business. And he gave them that promise of running government like a business. And i will tell you right now we are pull filling that promise. Fulfilling that promise. We are running government like a business. The business is trump university. So all of that enabled trump to win a nomination, and the unease in the society and the frank reality that we had two candidates who were underwater in terms of public support gave him the conditions in which he could compete. And then a lot of things that happened in the final two with weeks combined with what we now know was a big, fat putinesque thumb on the scales of our political system, combined with some Voter Suppression which we now know made the difference at least in wisconsin gave him the ability to win even though he did not win the popular vote. Now, he won under the rules. Thats a reality. Those rules may need some rethinking. And ill just talk for one minute about the Electoral College and note that from the moment when the popular vote actually meant anything at all in 1824 all the way up through 172 years and 44 elections we had three, arguably, in which there was some question about whether the winner of the popular mandate actually was elected president. One where it was very clear. One out of 44. From 2000 on weve had five elections, two out of five. And that tells you were heading down a path, a very dangerous path, where increasingly we will see the winner of the popular vote lose the Electoral College. And it can happen once, and we can say those are the rules which is what happened in 2000. When it happens twice and then three times and then four times, the question of the legitimacy of the presidency is going to be a very real one, and its something were going to have to deal with. Now, let me talk for a few minutes about the second part of the book, and we can come back to some of these other elements and what brought it about if you want. And that is the dangers that we have. And i want to mention three words to start with; autocracy, kleptocracy and cac us tock rah rah city. The first two are familiar. Autocracy, and thats a real danger that we have. And weve seen now some very powerful books including a best seller by timothy snyder, a historian, called on tyranny about the steps that move you away from a vibrant democracy towards an autocracy. And the fact is, it goes sliding ten by step, little by step by step, little by little. I dont like to use this analogy. Jim fallows is constantly talking against it, but this is a little bit like the frog put in the pot of cold water, it changes degree by degree, and its only when it starts to boil that you realize, he realizes or she realizes that its the point of no return. And what we know about autocracy is it starts with attacks on the free press. The press is the enemy of the people. A phrase originated by stalin, rejected by kruschev as being too dangerous, picked up by trump. It moves to attacks on the judiciary and the independent judiciary, which we saw during the campaign with the mexican judge, which weve seen since in the attacks on judges who have ruled against the travel bans. We see it with attacks on the system of justice now on the fbi, on the Intelligence Services which are a threat, on mueller himself including from abroad. We see it with this sense of i am the only one during the campaign and the egotism. What trump just said a couple of weeks ago with the multiple vacancies in almost all of the key positions in the state department. We dont need to fill those, im the only one that matters. And in a whole host of ways, we see that movement. We see it in the attacks on facts and science and on the opposition, delegitimizing the opposition. The kleptocracy, weve never seen anything like this. The inyourface moves to benefit personally with your family and throughout your entire administration with, from government itself. And that includes billionaire plutocrats like the treasury secretary and the head of the National Economic council as well as the president and his family. And the threat of an autocracy in a system designed ill go back to the first sentence in the book, american democracy was never designed to give us a president like donald trump. Were designed to create some boundaries around the process. Those bound are i boundaries that are working reasonably well with the independent judiciary but start with an independent congress. How many hearings in the house and senate in ten months on violations of the two emoluments clauses and on other efforts including by the family to enrich themselves. Zero. Not one. No checks and balances. Now, cac stock rah city is a 17th century term, comes from a greek word that fell into disuse, and im now doing what i can to bring it back. And the greek word basically means government by the worst and most unscrupulous among us extended to the worst kind of government. So you have a president who has the least experience of any in our history, no experience in any level of government. The one who comes closest is abraham lincoln, one term this this in congress. Lincoln knew he needed people around him who knew what they were doing. Doris kearns goodwins book the team of rivals was not about bringing a bunch of people together pitting them against each other, it was oh, my god, i need e bringing people who ran against me and who hate me. Trump brings in Reince Priebus as his chief of staff, right . A guy who had been a party function their and before that a term or so in the wisconsin legislature. And i just want to remind you whenever you see reince, even though hes out of politics right now, always keep in mind that Reince Priebus without the vowels is rnc pr bs. [laughter] do not look at him without thinking of that. [laughter] and then you bring in steve bannon and steve miller as your top actors. And then you bring into your cabinet Goldman Sachs executives and business types who have never served in the government before. And then with the 600 or so top policy positions, senateconfirmable, that matter, deputy secretaries, assistant secretaries, heads of bureaus and agencies, almost a year into the presidency more than half of them unfilled and not even nominated for positions. Including key ambassadorships. When with you have a president who goes when you have a president who goes to asia with the threat of a Nuclear Conflict with north korea and we do not have an ambassador in south korea and you dont trust anybody else, that is cac stack rah city defined. When you have a secretary of state hollowing out the diplomatic corps, and itll take decades to bring back the experience of the people who are leaving in droves, none of that is an effective way to run government. And when you have a budget director who proudly calls himself a rightwing nutcase, i kid you not, who comes up with a budget that says, ill tell you what, lets cut the spending for the National Ocean graphic and Atmospheric Association because we dont like those weather satellites because they tell us something about climate. But the weather satellites are our Early Warning system for hurricanes. So take away the Early Warning so people dont have an ability to prepare, and then cut funding for fema so that you can build the wall, cut funding for the centers for Disease Control which deals with pandemics when Human History is that every hundred years like clockwork we have a pandemic. The last one was 19171918. It killed more people than world war i and world war ii combined did in the United States. The flu back then. Thats cac stock rah city. So just a few minutes on i know the time. Okay, thank you very much. [laughter] a few minutes on why im a little hopeful and where we go from here. [laughter] so i believe, you know, i thought of this a few weekes ago watching the quite weeks ago watching the quiteremarkable movie dunkirk. And, of course, the west was facing a deep threat. The british army and its french allies, beaten into submission, caught with 400,000 troops on the beach, sitting ducks. The response of the British Military and what was left, inadequate, and British Civil Society saw the existential threat and rose to the occasion. Donald trump, i hope, is our dunkirk. And our dunkirk in two ways. One is we have to recognize that a society divided is a society that cannot survive. And we are divided politically now, tribally, blue states and red states, seeing others as the enemy and not just as an adversary, driven before more by our antipathy towards our fellow citizens on the other side of the aisle, more americans saying they would be upset if a child of theirs married somebody from the other party over another religion, i kid you not. We are divided into geographical boundaries where metropolitan lawyers that are thriving in the Global Economy find that they are facing a very different atmosphere as you move to smaller towns and into rural areas where they are less educates and less able to cope with these changes, and the society is coming apart at the seams. And thats within red states and blue states. And if we dont find a way to heal those wounds and that includes the greater racial divide that we have now than we have had in some time then we are not going to be able to survive in the way that we have before. And that could have gone on if we hadnt had a trump until it was at a point of no to return. And now i think were starting to realize that we have to find ways to communicate with one another and build a different level of empathy and build it around a new patriotism that celebrates what we are and what we can be and what we should be and a new optimism. And at the same time, the existential threat to our democracy posed by a president who is not like any weve had before and by a political system that is not responding to a popular will in any fashion. And we see that with proposals on health care and on taxes and in many other areas, that we will now find our way forward. And there are ways of altering the structures of the political system to help to move us back and in a different direction. And what were seeing is this wonderful response from so many elements of the civil society. And that includes lawyers, probably more lawyer jokes than any other in this society, but look at how lawyers responded to the travel ban. Look at how theyve responded with pro bono efforts with people boning up on Immigration Law so they can help those who are caught up in this cruel approach that were seeing, another part of the kakistocracy which i would add [applause] was shaped by john kelly, now the chief of staff. And i do not want to let him off the hook at all more some of the horrible things that have happened in the department of Homeland Security and with i. C. E. And were seeing it with religious groups that are stepping up including the catholic bishops moving back to help protect the safety net and the least among us, one of the great callings of all of our great religions. And with efforts to build both sang sanctuary congregations, but also to create a different climate and dialogue in this society. Were seeing it with system of the groups like the Campaign Legal center which i am a chair, the c. R. E. W. , the citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington, taking on some of the challenges to the law in the system. Were seeing it with the Mueller Investigation, and were seeing it with groups like indivisible, rising from the grass roots up to get out there and mobilize. And what were seeing is that theres a different response than weve had before. The occupy movement in contrast to the Tea Party Movement occupied. And then they went away. Now what were seeing is more sustained effort, and that played out in those elections in virginia and other places last tuesday. And its not just in elections, its in moving in to make sure that members of congress and others know that their actions are being watched and to hold them accountable for it. And with that and if we can create a different way and this is a tough thing separating out a group of people who are truly evil. There are evil people in this society who are exploiting racism and antisemitism and ugly values to separate us. And some of them n a tribal media because they can make a lot of money, but others because with social media now you can build a network that reinforces some of those views, separating them out from others who may support political figures, exploiting those views but are doing it out of the great upheaval that they faced this their lives and the sense of despair that they feel towards their futures and those of their children. And we have to find a way to develop a different kind of dialogue with them. You know, if we can do all of those things, we will not just survive all of this, but we can thrive out of it in creating a better america. And with that, i will say two things. One, have a nice day [laughter] and, two, remember the holidays are coming. [laughter] and now im happy to take some questions or comments. [applause] yes, sir. A couple of things. First, on the state department, it seems the intentional denuding of the state department and the choice of tillerson, putins buddy, doesnt seem accidental. So, two questions. First, do you think its accidental that tillerson, secretary of state presiding over this, whats going on . Also because not much is said about it do you think the Mueller Investigation is going to get to this, and where do you see that coming . Lastly and importantly, Structural Solutions. I dont hear you talking about the Structural Solutions in terms of the Electoral College. I mean, obviously, if that could be fixed, then the democrats would seemingly win most elections. So that would seem crucial, the Electoral College. Can you Say Something more about yeah, just really quickly on those. You know, one of the things we have to keep in mind is that Rex Tillerson is secretary of state because Condoleezza Rice and bob gates recommended him. They had served on an exxon committee with him and thought he was really smart, might be good. And i hope every night they kick themselves for what they have done. We know that one of the reasons that tillerson was picked is because he looks like a secretary of state [laughter] and that bob corker was picked because hes too short. [laughter] kakistocracy. But i dont think any of us expected that tillerson would be systematically destroying the state department the way he is. And im not sure what the reasons are, but we also know that a guy from exxon who was awarded the, you know, top medal from russia is somebody who needs to be watched very carefully. On the Electoral College, we are strong supporters of the electoral vote compact in states. You dont have to do this with a constitutional amendment. 165 electoral votes represented now in states that have passed laws that as soon as you get over the 270 mark, they will this their law direct that the electors be granted to the winner of the National Popular vote. That would help. Theres still system structural issues and dilemmas though. But is that going anywhere . Its going to take a while. And, of course, one of the problems is small states have no great interest in changing things. I would also say this is in the a matter of guaranteeing that democrats can win elections. Whats important is that we have two vibrant parties that can compete for national elections. Republican party will be a conservative party. The choice is do they try to have policies that can reach out more broadly to compete in a Fair National election, or do they instead narrow the choice to rely on billionaires funding them and on Voter Suppression . And i think the country and the Republican Party would be so much better served if they moved in the former direction. Yes, sir. Yes. Can you talk a little bit about the republican philosophy about starving the beast and thats maybe one of the reasons why theyre doing what theyre doing with the state department in. Sure. So starving the beast. You know, one of the things thats happened is we have a Republican Party thats gone from a conservative party which believes that government should be smaller and leaner and meaner but that we need government, many parts of it, and those parts should work effectively and efficiently. And one part has always been diplomacy and our positioning abroad. Now its a radical version, and the radical version is if any part of Government Works well, thats bad because people will like it, and theyll want more of it. And the tax bill is, you know, very much aimed at cutting out revenue from the government and then forcing government to downsize as a consequence. Its a cynical approach. To some degree, it goes back to David Stockman at the beginning of the Reagan Administration who then denounced it because he said it cant work. And, of course, the places that are the most vulnerable, the ones that theyre aiming at more than anything else are medicare, Social Security and medicaid. Those are the big ones. And the tax bill hits medicare and medicaid directly. 25 billion taken immediately out of medicare. And thats going to have a big impact on dualeligibles, and its going to have a real impact on the system itself. And its not a functioning governance approach to actually helping citizens. Yes. While theres more than enough reason to blame the republicans for where were at now, part of the problem is also on the shoulders of the democrats. Im reminded of a story about how lbj, when he was i think in West Virginia, was actually went to the trouble to talk to this one particular person. You know this story, i see. He got down and he talked to this one particular person who had voted steadily republican all his life, but because lbj went in there and talked to him personally, he got him to not only did he get this man to switch his vote, but the county to spanish how it voted to switch how it voted. I think that the big problem is that democrats have ceded too much of the country to the republicans. Its a big problem because most of the problems that you mentioned are systemic, and to fix many of those problems the Electoral College, too much money in the system yeah. And gerrymandering so let me yeah. Let me answer in a couple of ways. The first is there are no angels here. This is not one Wonderful Group of people and one horrible group of people. Its the nature of politics. Having said that, the democrats have also made some great mistakes here, and we have a chapter in the book on economics with what i think is a kind of at least blueprint for how to perform and behave. And a good part of it is you cannot pick one groups pain pit one groups pain against another. And we cant talk about the white working class, we should be talking about the working class. This has been a problem [applause] that has stressed all communities, and there are policies that can help deal with them and alleviate the pain. And you also cannot approach this simply from an elitist perspective. Now, you know, when you talk about analogies looking at the past, you know, many people have said our politics, gee, the analogy is probably the period leading up to the civil war which you really dont want to have as your analogy. But i would also argue that very powerfully this can be a little bit like reconstruction. And if you remember in the aftermath of the civil war, the south had basically white sharecroppers with freed blacks, a all of whom were struggling to make it, and a small group of economic elites exploiting the system. And an easy opening that was almost there for the working people to unite and take on those elites. And what the elites did was realize they could use race as the wedge to exploit9 and divide exploit and divide. And we are paying a price for that even now, and were seeing it again. And we have to fight against that. But the way to fight against it is to have empathy for all groups that are facing these stresses and try and find ways for each of them to see why others have pain and look at it through a different prism. So thanks. Yeah. Yes. You spent a lot of time talking about how trump used racism, appeals to racism in his campaign supposedly, although there r