Creating 1. 3 million net new jobs and improving the States Credit rating. Currently governor bush is the chairman of the new back Investment Partners had coded and coral gables, florida. The nights guest of honor author of citizen mack politics, an honorable calling senator connie mack. 1982 senator mack left a successful banking career to run for the house of representatives where he served three terms before running for one of floridas seats in the u. S. Senate. He served two terms before choosing not to run for reelection. Upon returning to the private sector he became chairman of the moffitt Campus Center in tampa, florida. With that i will hand it over to governor bush to begin a conversation. Keep in mind you can submit your questions through the chat feature and later in the event we will go through those. Thank y very much. It is such a joy to have this conversation with a man i admire so much and ive read the book. Its a great book. Thank you, jeb. The New York Times today had an article about independent bookstores that i think is worth meioning becau im a kindle guy but every time i read a boo on kindle i buy ten books to send to friends. Its important to be able to really focus on the fact that as a nation we need to be literate and we nee to be supporting authors across the spectrum, but i am a big fan of yours and a big supporter ofhis so i got ten bos. I read it on kindle. I got ten books that are going to buy and hopether people do that. If you have a chance to do i would suggest y do it at an independent bookstore which are struggling during the panmic. So enough of my hope paid politil aouncement. Jeb, maybe one suggestion. There are four independent bookstores that are participating in this tour, israel. Thats why i brought it up. I think weught to neighbor the are. Midtown reader, books a books down in coral gables. Okstore one in sarasota, and story and song. They are very special. And midtown reader happens to behe bookstore of sally bradshaw, so i have gained a grter appreciation for the struggles of a Small Business owner as well during these times. Connie, it wasnt really mentioned a lot in the book but its probably appropriate to talk about your childhood. Whe you grew up if you were born in philadelphia. At some point you move dow to florida and became a te blue floridian. Describe your childhood. I was born in philadelphia in 1940. The family moved to fort myers in 1950. 1950. We ended up in ft myers because my grandfathers Baseball Team trades in fort myers back in the 20s and 30s. In fact, one o the greatest teams that have plad the game trained in fort myers in 19, philadelphia athletics. Dad in 11 3 was a coach, a First Base Coach and he may still hold the record as a youngest baseball coach in major league baseball. At was my father. He traveled with the team data to fort myers during those years. They love to fort myers a so when he sold his t team, the family med to fort myers in 1950. So i grew up really in fort myers, rate school, high school and then university of florida for. Where did y go to high school . Fort mrs junior senior high. Seventh and eighth grade went to school with ninth, tth, 11th 11th, and 12. It was the Major High School in e county back in those days. You are one of the few people who served and the u. S. Senate that also has, you have grandparents that are like lights out important so many ways. Describe that. I knew about connie mack the firs cornelius mcgillicuddy, but i didnt know about other grdfather, which is a story at youd ensure that much when you were on the stump. Its alwayshat balance. If your other talking about your grandfhers, not yourself, theres a question, who are you . At do you believe rex i kind of stayed away from that but obviously extremely proud of my heritage from my mothers side. They are texans. My greatgrandfather, john shepherd, was a congressman from xas in the 1800s, and he died in 1904, i think. And i grandfather ran for his seat and one that seat and went to the house in 1904, where he remained until i believe912 when he was appointed to the senate. As we remard before, in those days senators were not directly elected, that they were appointed by the state legislatur. So he was in the senate from 19121941. Heied as ive forgotten of the term now. He had seniority. Heas the dean of the senate when he died in 1941. Was a young man at 61. He had an amazing, an enormous career. And Lyndon Johnson tried to replace him and got beat, which peopleont remember. He came back in 48 a became the United States senator and was at the dean of the senate in his time. I i might just pick up on one thought since were down this road. Ishat when i was seven years old, mother a dad, the reform act children in the family at the time and we were living in philadelphia. They took us by trade a washington, d. C. And i remember they gave us little pads and ncils to take notes at the things we were saying and what we had an opportunity to participate in. I remember seeing my stepgrandfather, who i hadot mentioned yet, because when my grandfather died, my grandmother a year later married the other United States senator from texas, tom connolly. Tom connolly was in the senate until 1952, 52 or 54, and very intereing man but i saw him speak on the floor of the senatehen i was seven years old. And d i am sure back in my mind that little dam was planted. I wder if i could do that someday . Yes, a very interesting family backound. Absolutely. Listen, part of the chapter of the book i found the most moving was the story about a relationship with your brother michael, and you talked about his battle with ccer. It clearly had an impact o your life. Its such a beautiful story of love, brotherly love, both you and your other brother. Deniz. In the night on the floor as he was suffering with his dreaded disease. Can y share some insight into that . I can, it truly was one of those events that takes place in a persons lifehe changes in the art andhat the individually with their life. I can remember, i remember one conversation with mike. You rember the movie came out called god, and john denver played the role . I remember. Michael was all kinds of, dealing wit incredible pain. But through that pain we would sithere and we would discuss all the meaning and purpose of life. What am i sposed to be doing with my life . What is life all about . Mike was speaking as if you were playing god throu george burns, it was hilario, absolutely hilarious discussion that we had. But again mike and dennis, to mecca by brothers, i have several others, but mike and dennis and i went to the university of florida together, same fraternity. Deis graduated number one in his class with honors. Michael after having a radical neck surgery didnt drop out of law schl, continued on, graduated number one in his class, with high honors. He was a brilliant young m. Played the guitar, played the piano, loved to sing he was just a bright, capable, loving guy, and somebody that i loved drly, and losing him really force me to look at myself anday, okay, what are you going to do with your life now . The most meangful experience i have had in my life. Its an important poi, which is we live life when we have tragedy hit us, we can either go into the fetal position and just like say life is not fair, itsust not fair and im notoing ive become better here or you can reflect on it and figure out somhing that can be purposeful. I thi your Public Service sounds come inhe book it really was driven by a motivation to serve others. And your post elected official life has certainly been the exact sam things i command you for that. We are gng to get into politics a little bit but maybe if i can pick up on, because we can take this store and go with it. While i didnt end up in the fetal position, i ended up really dealing with depression after michaels death. Fortunately it didnt last too long and i was never quote tread for depression but know i was depressed. One of the people i counseled with was a fellow by the name of don who was a reference of a very small churc called the church of the brethren. In conversations with the dawn, at one point he kept stressing connie, yr very special person. We kind ofeflected. Were not comfortable being td those kinds of things. He would say that or and over and finally i looked at him and innocent, don, what i hear you sayingo me is that the failure to use the talents that god h given you is a worse sin a person can comt. And no sooner had i sd that, i knew exactly what i had to do, i was going to run for congress. I drove homehat evening, i mean, really tears coming down my face as i w driving home because i was scad to death. I was actually scaredo death, hated to give speeches and here an i cuddled under told chris, i saidhat would you say if i told you i was going to run for congress . She said great. Go for. Thats fantastic. I will tell you a quick story. When i lost my race for governor in 1994 it was traumatic because i puty heart and souln the race, and losing, you never had that expernce so you dont know how it feels. Its that good. Its better to win than lose it while we still people that for office find a bad candidate to rungainst because you have a better chance of winning. I camen second and it was, felt like i let a lotf people down. I pledge to myself i was going to convert to catholicism. We would go to mass every sunday but i wasnt catholic, and going to the rcirocess after the election with regular pple that had the faith in god made a huge differencen my lif to this day. Its amazing how if you have your es open and your ears opened and you really are open to new thinking, you, it chang your life. But he to go in a fetal position youill never be able to do it. You are the living proof of that, right . You have proven that your motivation driven by the tragedy of your brothers lost made a huge difference for our sake. I mean, i am so thankful that you hadhat experience. Well, and i have often said about your experience of losing that first race, you are the onlyerson that i know that lost a racend said, you know what, im going to find it really why did i los that race and what do i need to do to win the next time i do it. You spent the next fr years, i think fourears, the next four years saying im going to learn as much as i can possibly learn about the state of florida and e concerns of the people of the state of florida, and you di it was a pleasure for me to play the role to be withou when you were out campaigning. I surely enjoyed. You ran for congrs, you mentioned that, kind of out of e blue, never been involved that actively in politics. In the book you talk about an incredible date at the Tiger Bay Club of naples. Yes. Its unbelievable. Almost reminds me of what polics are today. In 19 whenever that was eightytwo. That kind of stuff didnt happen as much. Now it is pretty commonplace, but tell the story of the Tiger Bay Club is a nonpartisan gathering what peoe talk about politics as theyxist all across the state. You were there and your opponent, what did he do and how did respond . One of the most amazing responses, it was connie mack at his best. Things just happen a have to deal with them. Sohis is 1982, Tiger Bay Club is supposed to be a candidate forum, if you will. Wasnt that the fateful where yo make a speech and i the other person is tre they can make a speech. It was during the runoff election. Back in tho days with runoff elections if you did win the primary by more than 50 . I am the and im waiting for my oppont to show up, andne of the managers of this event came over to me and said, we have just been informed that your opponent will not be here because of some other reason, and we have one of the folks that lost in the primary election is here to speak on his behalf, if thas all right with u. What am i going to say, right . So i said to him, sure, absolutely. So this fellow, jim garner was his ne, and he got up andeb, he ripped, he didnt even say to the audience. He just really just ripped into me that i was a pothead, was a crook, that the bank w collapsing. I had been fired from my job. And im sitng there, now this is a raised platfm, and so you get a pretty good view of everybody and they of view. Im looking at the sky and i cant, i cant really believe it. I had one o those moments where i really felt like, when you get t of body experience. I rlly felt like i was maybe ten, 12, 15 feet up above everybody looking down on this scen that was takinglace, was total personal assassination. He gets to and sitsown, and the moderate looked at m and said, connie, its your turn to speak. Im thinking to myself, what in the world am i going to say i get up there, and i said to folks, i remember when i made m announcement that i was running for office. I asked t question, w arent there more good qualified dividuals involved in Politics Today . And i said, what you just saw is the rean that they dont. And i sat down. That was it. The room just erupted it was just, it was a gut reaction about how to respond, and it was absolutely right on target. By the way youhow your class always, they kd of person you are. You dont mention the name of your opponent. You dont mention the names of people tha criticize you in the book, which again now in this new kd of cultural environment, the memoirs are being written in 202 about 20 twix. Well willrobably go into the gory details about that person. But she showed tremendous css then and in the book you share the story in a reallylassy way as well. It seems to me that if i had to pick the legacy of connie mack, if i had to describe it, it is embedded in this book, which is, and its in your introduction, which is that freedom is the core of all Human Progress and thatreedom is worth the struggle. And as congressman and train its editor you acted on that. Your whole philosophy, we are so thankful for your support of polical prisoners in repressive regimes of cuba and nicaragua in other places ound the world. You were a constant advote for freedom, not only in the United States but around the world. How are we doing now, you think, on the freedom agenda . Well, a tough question. The country ands for and will always be committed to freedom and the notion that freedom is the core ofll Human Progress. We are going through a time,e are adjusting to a new world, a new world order. We started talking about the new world orde back when your dad was president and the soviet union collapsed. We are trying to find our weight in a new world really, and focus has been on different aspects of freedom. I pledge free markets, Free Enterprise and so forth. Some of those things are not being approached in exactly the same way, en though i would make the case with respect to trumps activities with respect to trade, we ended up with a new reement with mexico and canada and so i think fundamentally we went through this ctentious period of time, we ended up still with the notion that free trade is important. So this country, a free society, aemocratic society has to be committed to freedom, and w always will be. What i fear about Politics Today is its me reactionary, its prank on peoples angst and fears. Their legitimateeasons why people are anxious today. Theres a lot of stuff going on. The explosion of technology and the disruption that that brings. There are cultural changes. People are legitimately anxious. What i admired about your medical caree and those, the philosophy i ascribed to his will is yet to be hopeful and optimistic. You have to describe to people its a rocky climb. Were all in it together but at the end of the day things can get better. I love the connie mack philosophy of politics a lot mo than what were seeing today. This is not related to the president or his opponent. Its related to jt the political culture today. If that is hopeful and optimistic and so you can see y people are more anxious because people are pying on their angst. How did we get out of that . How do we get on that . How do we get back to the connie mack philosophy . Again there is a saying in alcoholics anonymous, its called this is one of those terrible moments when, its putting principle over personality. And so where im going with at, the two words i would use is right now theres hatred on one side and tre is anger on the other, and every media outlet, including all of us that go around with an iphone that can eitheake pictures and send information, w are all focused on how much anger and how much hatred there is of saying lets talk about the sues that are important to the country. As indivuals we have a responsility to look through what were seeing and hearing from the media today, and look at the issues that are fing the country, whether that is broad Economic Issues or excuse me r local issues and our communities. Getting iolved. Getting involved youre going to changehings. I think a lot of us needo quit getting focusedn anger, hate and fear, fear, and sir talkedt thessues that are important to us. Bring up a good point wch is we are a bottomup country, and our sucss typically has been where people act on their own sense of consciousness and their own belief that they can make a diffence compared to act on it. Ey dont talk about it. They dont write about it. A glu and do it. Maybe thats the path forward for our country is to go back to the roots ofhe founding, which was not overly reliant on washington, d. C. Right, right. So your service as United States senator particularly was focused on a lot ofhings but Foreign Policy of itst is where you made yourark in so many ways. W do you think American Foreign poly Going Forward needs to be . What americas role in the world compared to look, we grew up in the reagan era, and restoring amicas leadership in t world really mtered back then, and it was hugely successful. We have at iterations of that in successive presidencies, but the rld has changed dramatically, and where you see americas role the world not just as relates to freedom but just in tms of bringing security and aspirations for all of us . [phone ringing] so where i would start is that [phone ringing] sorry i think that might be you, jeb. It is definitely me. Hone ringing] i cant get my my bad. Okay. So i think what i would start is your brother, george w. , in my opinionave one of the greatest inaugural addresses in h second inaugural. When he made the case that americas responsibility is to project freedom around the globe. Eventually as we work our way through the Foreign Policy issues that are facing our country, we have got to get back to that notion. Theres a real debate today as you well know, as tohether america should continue to project out this commitmento freedom, or should we withdraw. I dont think we can withdraw. The second part of it is, it seems to me that Going Forward that ourelationship with china is the k relationship and we are going to have to figure ou how were going to work through that. And so what that requires i think is tha we as a nation need to start working with our allies, whether they are i europe or whether theyre in other parts of asi in building organizations and institutions that reflect todays modern commitment to freedom, and build these organizions in the way that we can contain what i think is a potentially frightening experience with china. We have to combat the activities, the United Nations that youust ying the things th do incredible. Cha and dont know whether it was cuba or nicaragua was just put on the Human Rights Council and i thought to myself, thats so outrageous. Wee kind of faced with a position of saying, you know, maybe its time for us to leave and there are times in my career where i really thought that. That. Bu weve got to somehow or another make the United Nations more accountable to the notion thatreedom is the core of all Human Progress and they ought to be part of defendinghat frdom. Absolutely. So i have to few more questions. One, iv got to talk to you about another political event since we sre a common opponent, buddy mckay. And florida is always for whateverreason, i dont know what it was, b florida is the place where close elections always sm to take place and yours was a doozy, man. I mean, it was jt to give people people may not remember your race with buddy mckayor United States senate. First of all, you had the courage to run against two icons, not one. Yeah. Which most politicians move around and try to figure out what they can do, you know. So youre going to run defense lawton chiles, who nev lost and then he got out of the race and ruben eskwew and person in terms of respect i the people florida and he got out of the race and you ran again buddy mckay and tt race was pret close. Yeah, 50. 4 of the vote. So, how many days or how many weeks did that go on post election, and how was that on your familynd just the craziness of that experience . We, im, it was eig days before it was concluded and eight days seemed like a very long time to me. 92, right . 1988. 88, sorry. Yeah. So 1988. So there we are, the votes have been count or are being counted and its about 12 30 at night and weve been getng the information back and forth about the outcome of the cnt and sometimes i was being told, these are internal conversations. Youre up, youre down. Youre up youre down. Some of the data coming in seam seemed to indicate i s going to win and art finkle stei was going to brief the family and literally telling them why i w going to win and we had tvs behind him and one by one as hes talking, they sa that tonights pbs declared buddy mckay the winner in the election and then abc, then cnn. So, it was a pretty rocky chris and ient to bed thinng we were 25,0 votes behind and thinkinghat we had lost the race. Codnt sleep, got up one of the gre lines of bob dole is being asked by the press, you know, how did you sleep last night . And iaid i slept great, i ept like a baby, i woke up every two hours crying. Dole used to love to tell that. So anyway. [laughter] weve got the absentee ballots started being counted and by the next morning, probably by 8 00, 100, the conclusion that we drew, with the absentee ballots that i was going to win with about 30, 35,000 votes and that in fact turn out to be the case. Buddy challenged though the notion, there was we didnt have hangi chads, but we had poorly designed ballots, apparently, that was being claimed andhere were parts of e state where not all the voters were apparently able to have their votes counted because theres a big dropoff between the president ial election and the senate election. So, it was a precursor to the 2000, to the election in 2000. Th difference that occurred is that the major newspapers in the state basically said to buddy, its time to call this thing over. You know the votes have been counted. Connie is aad by 35,000 votes or so and its time. And he decided not to take the next step which was to go to court. And thats where 2000 was different. Gore decided to take its course and once it went to court took off. I got to say your dad won the president ial election in 1988, i think in the state of florida by 11, 12 or 13 of the vote. It was like it was huge. And i would never in and my point is i would never have won the race if he hadnt won florida in such a big way. Well, im a proud chairman of that campaign and i appreciate the acknowledgment. It was a it was a big deal. In fact, i just, as an aside. I had resigned as secretary of commce and was working fulltime for my dads campaign and i moved to california to campaign there about, you know, mayb august because the campaign was pretty much over. Dukakis got no traion so fond memories for that campaignbut floridas always close and the good news, just for everybody watching in and thinking, oh, my god, weve got 2020, wve got a president ial race, theres huge interest, it will be a close race, which its likely to be. Florids election law is the best in the country and the vote will be countedn election nightnd you dont have to hyperventilate all the people watching this, it will go fine. Th winner will be probably announced that night, if not, theres a process to beble to county all of that stuff is Lessons Learned from your race andhe 2000 election. Yeah, yeah. So, tell me about your post public svice life, because its been remarkable. Youve been involved in on boards, and youve been incredibly focused on the fight against cancer and your advocacy f the Cancer Center has been extraordinary, as a leader, as the chairman of the board and chairman emeritus, i gues now. Talk to me what itsike after you finished runni for office and being involved in d. C. Whats life like now . Well, its been a wonderful 20 years. Its hard to believe, but 20 years, itseen a wonderful experience for me. I came up with the phse, you know,eople would say what are you going to do when you step down or when you leave . I said i wanto put together an eclectic collection of activities. What i did was, i did do a lile government relations, lobbying kind of stuff during the first year o two was out of the senate and that went by the wayside fairly quickly. Other two xoen cponents were the engagement, and then service on corpote boards. And so, iad a of those corporate boards, two of them were Biotech Companies, and genzyme being one of them, it was one of the leading Biotech Companies of the world and the other was the startup. You mentioned earlier about learninghe experience i mean, everybody that runs for office ought to have to sit on the board of pa company thats desperately trying to make sure it doesnt get shut down or closed or runut of cash. So it was the corporate boards we a great experience, but moffitt Cancer Center, lee moffett, he and i had a conversation about th possibility of my joining theirrganization and he offered that, if i would, that they wld name me the chairman of the board, and i said, i think thas a great idea. Lets do it. And the moffett Cancer Center is just a wonderful institution. One of my main objectives there was toreate a significt, a premi premi premier melanoma program, that was the disea that killed my brher michael and now we have a premier progr at the moffett Cancer Center. I have one more political questionhich is why the hell did you n accept the vicepresident s nominee with my brother . Yeah, well i mean, i actually tried my st to perade you and you, like nobodys business. I know you did. And its an interesting part the book. Yeah, so i had a convertion with your brother not long ago and because the book kind of brought it to my mind and maybe i sent the wrong message to george w when i said no. And i told him, i id, look it, i admire you, i love what you sood sod for, what you worked for and it wasnt time for me. The bottom line is that in 1996 bob dole put me on the sho list to be a vicepresident ial candidate again in 1996. Anat some point, you know, bob said, now,ook it, i need to know if i wer to say to you, if i said to you i i asked you to ru whether youd say yes or. And i went through the process to try and decide. I want to tell you something, was a heart wrenching expeence to go through and try to figure out was this the right thing to do . In the d, i said okay,m going to do itbut i was never so relieved in my lif when bob dole picked jack kemp to be his running mate. Good man. Wonderful guy. And wonderful guy. But anyway, so the expience of going through that, really thinking through, did i want to do it, then not being selected and the conclusio i came to is,ou know, y really dont want to to the next level. You know, and i just again, if it had been earlier, 2000 when hes now talking tome, i already announc almost two years before that that i was stepping down and not going to run for reelection. And i never regretted it, but it is you know, i dont know how many other peopleave been in that potion that probably none. And think about it, connie, in 2000 in y were on the ticke george would have won by more than 547 votes. Ive heard that story. [laughter] saved a lot of any for a whole lot of people. And you would have been a great partner with him for sure and its interesting, you think about it, whetherour decision process was yr own, but the fact that for two election cycles in a row, you were considered someone that special. A vicepresident ial nominee uld have been, you know, its a reflection on your seice, which was full o of integrity, full of consistency, and you happened to be, you know, you were a very popular senator in a really important stat so yeah, yeah, well, it was a great life. Thes no question about it. So ive got two more questions. One, there was a chapter in the book about the Prayer Breakfast and in the senate, the senate Prayer Breakfast. Describe to me how imptant that was in your life and how you kind of mov towards it and how tt became intervals for your service. Its interesting, were both catholic and i grew up as a catholic and alter y. So spiritual religious perspectives were always a part of me, but not, you know,hey werent a leadi force to wt i was engaged in. And i find myself, senator coates and a terrible moment. Durbin . No, it wasnt. General way. To theible study and m schedule, no way i could do it and i kind of blew itoff. An but dan coates just never quit. And he just kept saying, connie, this is perfect for you. Yo really, reall ought to come. So i did. I started goingo the Bible Studies and Prayer Breakfasts. So, one day im in a discussion with dan coates at the bible study. re waiting for others to come in a a strange little ment occurs and dan and i were wking with the loving relationship between us and god and talking about the relationsh between our own fathers here on eth and that kind of a discussion and the next thing i knew im goingo skip ahead of it, because the next thing i ew, we were sitting around in this bible sty and lloyd oglevy said is there anyone in the room that would like us to pray for them for a dper relationship with jesus christ. Im not kidding, im looking him eyeball to eyeball and thg going my mind like in new yorksimes square. It aint me, buddy. As soon as iaid that, i said, i wa you to pray for me. And the next thing we moved to the centerf the room and each of tm prayed for me andt was a moment in which i felt like my life reay changed. I gave up this sense of being in control, t notion of turning the life over, more to god and that eventually led to other roles for me to play i the senate. So, it was again, that was a lifechanging moment for me and it occurredn the United States senate and it was, again, pretty special. Ive always found you to be a person with lots of serenity, this very not just cool, calm a coected, but altogether, just tol totally in touchith the important tngs of life. Good humor, humble, but i think this experience tt you described may be the reason why i felt it. I dont know. Im i think i donknow if there was a before connie and an after connie moment, but most of my experiences wit you are that yo are just, you know, youre you have a relationship with a higher being that is werful. Theres another aspect to it, but i appreciate you saying that. But the i think one of the most important things for each of us is to understan who we are, you know. Lots of people have ideas about who we are, but its really important to try to understand what it is that makes you tick. Why do you do the things you do. Who are you . And you know, and that makes a difference, but, you know under is calm and cool individual, theres a lot goi on, jeb. Okay, thats good to ow. One final question and then were going to open it up for questions, is the book reads in some ws like a love story. Its a romantic love story. How is priscilla doing . Well, thank you for asking about her . Very, very special, shes gone throh some tough years, the last five, six, seven years, medical issues, and her back and i severe pain. Shes worked through all of that. We have found procedures that address that pain and she has come back strongment she had two cases of meningiti if you can believe that, o after the other. Where it came from nobod knows. She had one case of pneumonia, but now, she seems to be strong on ought of pain and as loving as she always has be. What a delightful woman she is and youre blessed to have her as your ulmate. So, amy, a we going to open this up for questions now . Yes, were now gng to transition into the questions. Thank you, senator mack and governor bush for that conversation. The first question, if you could explain the snificance of the books title. Well, yeah, so the ets say what the title is again, its citizen mack, politics and honorable calling, a lien, i was told i was asked b a friend of mine what the name of the boo was and i saidcitizen mack, politics an honorable calling and he immediately said, oh,ts a fiction. [laughter] and no, it goes back to what jeb and wri talking about arl, earlier, my grandfather in the senate and always my mother talked about in a deeply respectful w and how honorable they were and i just always looked at politics being an honorable calling. Notice i didnt say an honorable professi. I said an honorable calling and the difference is, that means that those of us who run for office have a responsibility to make sure it a honor an honorad that citizen mack, the other part of it is the notion that you dont spend your entire life in politics. I ha a life at 16 years in banking before i ran for office and i had8 years in office and then i hadnother 16 to 18 years in the private secto again, health care and boar. Yo serve and theres a time to say thank you and time tgo home and have Something Else with your life. And those are the two thoughts that come to my mind with respect to the title. The next question is, is it possible to take the high road in politics, considering the prevalence of personal aacks and lack of civility today . The answers absolutely, there is. Again, i would say to the listeners. I happen to believe that most of the people and people are in politics and seemsike the focus is o the negative things. Theyre the ones that g the attention. And absolutely theres a bit of advice i got early on in my First Campaign in 1982. And that advice was, dont take anything personal. Now, thats tough to do in politics. But if you take that perspective it makes lif a lot easier. Easier. Whats one message you hope that theyll take from you book . Well, guess the bottom line, i hopehey take the notion that pitics is an honorable calling. That its something that they can do. Jeb and i are just two individuals that made the decision to run and almost anyway in the world, there are openings for people to become involved in politics. So i would hope that they would read the book, maybe learn a little bit of something about it and understand that they could do it, too, and again, i would make the point. Dont take anything personally. Youre going to bettacked and your parents are going to wonder, is this really the person that we raised thats being attacked this way . Let it go by and it will all work out. And dont read your twitter fe feed. Good advice now. Yeah, so, jeb, thats an inresting point. I forget at what point in my care, i think it was in i think it was probably 87, so im in my third term as a congressman. I told my staff, i said i dont want to read anything written about me. Whether its good or bad. Now, you hav a responsibility though to tell me whatseen written and the reason i the reason i me this point, you read something, it just seems to hurt so much more. If somebody tells you theyve written it, its a little easier to take s i went through my entire Senate Career without reading the articles written about me. W. Youre the only senator, i promise. [laughter] well, it rked. It worked. Speaking of which, and a question ill extend to both of you. What advice did you get and did you face the same obstacles. Im going to let you go first, jeb. [laughter] i dont know, to m the chance to serveas such a blessing a a privilege. I woke up every day, even when bad news happened, which happen regularly under my watch, you know, stuff was fur was flying all the ti. I considered it such a joy to serv that there were no obstacles that i felt i mean, there wereburdens, there were prlems. The biggest issues for me were when public life kind of contaminated private life. When your family somehow gets bjected to the things. That was hard. But iad a blast. I mean, it was the greatest joy of my life toerve for eht years as governor and i have no regrets at all. The mistakes i made for sure, but there were no obstacles that i fel couldnt be overcome. It was an incredible joy. There are obstacles, viously, t difficulties of, first of all, making the decision and convincing oths that you are the person that they ought to be supporting. I mean, that requires, again, an understanding of who you are d a commitment to a political life and that would lead me to this point. I really think most people though, when you ask them why theyre running f office, dont really have a good answer to it. People will s something like, well, its time to give back you know, to me thats like the kremlin using a health issue as a reason for somebody not swing up a the scene. So i really think that o of the big obstacles that need to be overcome, that a candate really needs to fully understand what the motivations are for them and what they want to accomplish. Again,nd i say that because i was almost forced to do that back in 82, and i think it was such a meaningful thing to be able to written down as to what i was really about, andhat i was trying to accompsh, so, thats a big obstacle. I know the two of you touched on things in the past to the future. What are things about the current political future youd like to leave behind. Leave behind . Yes. We dont have enough time. The whole thing with the social media, weve got to gure out how to deal with that. I dont know whether folks have watched this documentary called the socialdilemma, its on netflix, erybody in america ought to see that to understand how social media is manilating us and if we understand how were being manipulad, were never going to stop people from manipulating usbut if we unrstand its happening and try to learn how to deal with it, that would be, i think, one the most significant things that we could change. Id say making sure that we focus on the things we have in common and reestablish a set of shared values of what it is to be an american is the First Step Towards moving towards a concensus oriented polital situation. What were doing now is the exact opposite. Politicians win by dividing, by creating wedges, by stoking fe on both sides. And the great moments in connie macks tenure in the United States senate and as a congressman were when we found Common Ground to solve problems and connie, were you there when Social Security was reformed and it lasted until w. I mean, terally, tip oneill and ronaldeagan found concensus and it was supported by democrats and republicans and the solvency of the social serity system lasted until out now, now its going to be insolvent again and we need that kind of leadership again for a whole series of things for us to remain, you know, the greatest country on the face of the earth. , i hope that happens. I dont want to be nostalgic about the old days becau there are so many phenomenal ings going on now, but o political system doesnt work when we dont focus on bridging gaps rather than making gaps bigger. Yeah here is a persona thought and story. In 1983 i find myself in congress. My First Political office, everything brand new to me and the mx missile was the big thing being debated at the time. And i wasnt even sworn in when i was on the floor listeng to debate and i knowhe first months i listened to my democratic colleagues on the other se of the aisle,hey cant possibly believe wt theyre saying, its outrageou and nobody could believe that. As i got to know some of my friends on the other side of the aisle, they were saying exactly the same thing about me and my point there is, we need to understand that people who have different views than we do, honesy have those views and have those concerns. Its our responsibility to undetand what the concerns are, what the motivations are, andhe openness in the discussion and its going to take a while to get there, but i found that that was a important perspective is that they thought that i was, you know, well i dont want beyond that thats exactly right. If you assume that someone that disagrees with you is evil or is the enemy, you have a totally different mindset than saying well, maybe there wrong and i have to persuade them of my views. Now, we just assume that if someone has a different view, theyre evil. Theyre the enemy, and whave to get beyond that somehow. I dont know, there wl be a catalyst of some look,ur country is too dynamic, too we he the ability. Were too resilient to live through this for years and years and yearso come. Were goingo figure it out. And we have time for one more question, which is, can the Republican Party of les government, less taxes, more freedom recover from the trump era. Thats yours. [laughter] interesting, the word recovery, recover from. E notion of, lets say that was my tag line, less taxing, less spending,ess government and more freem. I think its a valid today as it was then and at some point somebodys going to refocus on those issues and it will be center point again. T, yes, the notion of less govement and more freedom is a great oortunity for this country. Country. [laughter] well, i want to thank everyone for all of your incredible questions that you sent in and thank you, senator mack and goverr bush for this amazing conversation. Thank you very much. Thank you, jeb. Thank you, connie. I appreciat you doing this. Love you, cooney. Love u, too, buddy. Byebye. Each night this week we feature boo tv on whats available on cspan tonight political scientist dra stone argues numbers ant objective and in numerous wayshey impact our dly lives. Neuroscienti looks at the brain and artificia int inteigence live wired, and lisa says that the female brain is more susceptible to alzheimers than the mal brain. And she argues that research has centered around the male brain and women lag behind. Enjoy that every weekend on cspan2. Cspan2. Book tv on cspan2 has top nonfiction books and authorities every weekend. Coming up this weekend, saturday at 9 p. M. Eastern, former president barack obama reflectsn his life and litical caree in his newly released memoir a Promised Land sunday at 9 p. M. Eastern on after words, open markets director Sally Hubbard and her book, seven ways big corporations ruin your life and how to tak back control. Shes intviewed by Bloomberg News reporter david laughlin. And at 10 00, judge and low professor douglas ginsburg, looks the at constitution through the eyes of scholars and legal historians. Watch that this weekend and be sure to watch in depth, live, sunday, author and chair of africanamerican studies at princeton university, eddie glaude, jr. Listen to the podcast weekly, were talking about the president ial transition with the director of the project. Find cspans the weekly where you get your podcasts. This afternoon, the Nevada State Supreme Court meets to certify the States Election results. Watch live at noon eastern on cspan. Online at cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Today president elect joe biden and vicepresident elect Kamala Harris will appoint key personnel as secretary of state. Jake Sullivan National security advisor and abram hanes as director of national intelligence. Watch at cspan, online at cspan. Org or listen on the free cspan radio app. Theres more book tv coming up next with a memoir from former federal prosecutor and cohost of the view, son sunny hostin, and experiences with deaf blindness,