Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20150314

Vote in this country. Give us a call. Africanamerican viewers, {202}7488000, hispanic voters Asian American viewers and the line for all others {202}7488003. You can also catch up with us on social media on facebook and twitter or email us at journal cspan. Org journal cspan. Org. As a potential running mate to secure the hispanic vote in this country. This morning were talking about the minority vote in 2016. We have our phone lines split up a bit differently to do this. Well start today with this article by william frye and a recent story of his and politico. He writes that the energy that propelled minority Political Base is here to stay. Its clear the biggest story out of the 2010 census more minority babies were born in the United States than white babies. The growth has been attributed to new minorities. Just as the baby boom up ended the second half of the 20th century, the racial minorities will be the signature demographic trend of the 21st and it will have radical implications for american politics. Thats william fryes piece. Ten maps that explain the next election. Republicans making outreach to minority voters an important part of their early president ial campaigns. Jeb bush on his right to ride pac website had this to say when he launched that Political Action committee in his effort to run for the United States presidency he says we will not cede an inch of territories as we unite our citizens to strengthen america through greater Economic Growth and widespread prosperity. And as we said, rand paul was talking to a historically black State University in maryland not far from washington d. C. This was a bit of his appearance yesterday at that event. Weve gotten rid of segregation du juor segregation by law. But we still have a problem in our country that is somewhat like segregation but also somewhat like there are two systems. Whereas Martin Luther king said in 1967 there are two americas. Theres one america that believes in life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness but theres another america thats witness to a daily disgrace, a lack, a lack of hope and dispair. Why . Because there are still people in our society being hounded by fines, hounded by this and that. Several cities in missouri over a third of their budget is gotten by fines. In ferguson theres 21,000 people. Last year, there were 31,000 arrests. So i tell people its not just about what happened this year. Its about this building up, its about this gradual increase. I call it an undercurrent of unease in our country. There still are two americas. Most of the people here part of the america that does belief and can believe in life liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Those who get an education no matter the color of your skin, you can live the American Dream but there are many people who arent. So its a lack of education but also our criminal Justice System host and president obama was at the 50th anniversary of the marches in selma last week. He talked about the need for a new Voting Rights act, an issue thats become a top priority of the Congressional Black Caucus here in washington d. C. Heres a bit from his speech last week. Right now, in 2015, 50 years after selma, there are laws across this country designed to make it harder for people to vote. As we speak, more such laws are being proposed. Meanwhile, the combination of so much blood, sweat, and tears and sacrifice in the face of one the Voting Rights act stands weakened. Its future subject how can that be . The Voting Rights act was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy. The result of republican and democratic efforts. President reagan signed the renewal when he was in office. President george w. Bush signed the renewal when he was in office. Its hundreds of millions of people willing to die for the right to protect it. Let them go back to washington and together plan to make it their mission to restore that law this year. Thats how we honor those on this bridge. Host that was president obama last week. Were talking with our viewers this morning on the washington journal about the minority vote in 2016. Played out back in the 2008, 2004 2000 election. We want to hear from our viewers. Well start with william calling in from north carolina. William is an independent on that line for africanamerican viewers. William, good morning caller good morning. Im an independent and i like to vote for the best candidate. But it seems as though if you choose to go to the republican ticket if youre in the city, you know, you can do pretty well but pretty much all the county commissions are rigged the way that the district lines have all been redrawn and, i mean there is no republican how do i say this, drive to get the black vote. When you look at their policies as to one, the voter id. Just come out and say that the demographics that they are trying to stop are such and such and such and such. They from what i would call, low turnout elections, and they depend on especially blacks not going to vote. And i tell a lot of my friends if you dont vote dont complain. Host william it seems like Voting Rights act, a new legislation on the Voting Rights is a key issue for you in the 2016 election caller yes. I mean, the Supreme Court me i dont have any problems with them changing the states that were targeted during the time but this congress we have here theyre not going to do anything different. The republicans cant agree with the republicans because of what they call the acid rule everybody screwed up everything. Host william, heres a different take than the one you laid out of republicans on the issue of minority votes. This is the Huffington Post story from the end of the mob, the american electorate change in the composition of president electorates. Theres no reason to believe that thats going to stop magically. He goes on to talk in that piece about george w. Bushs efforts to reach out to minority voters. The last republican to win a president ial election to reached out very aggressively to minorities and did better than any republican nominee before still didnt achieve enough in both groups in order to put together a winning percentage for 2016. You can read more on that piece in the Huffington Post headline gop pollster explains why republicans need record minority support in order to win 2016. Caller my main problem is injustice with all the its been too much going on with the killings and even where i live its a lot of white youths that come in there that are heroin addicts and theyre on drugs but they seem to get a pat on the back. But if its a black kid arrested with a little bit of marijuana, they send to jail. And, two, you try to discipline your child and they call police but a child goes outside and does something, they get killed. That is my main fear. When the black kids grow up at the mercy of the police and its just getting worse host its criminal Justice Reform that you think is going to be a key issue in the Africanamerican Community in the 2016 election . Caller i believe so. Because its not getting better. Its getting worse host have you listened to anything rand paul, we played a bit from his appearance yesterday at a historically black university, have you heard much of his efforts on this topic and do you agree with him at all . Caller ive listened to him and i know sometimes paul says things that could probably be helpful or are good to the Africanamerican Community but the fact is the republicans come in there to help the africanamericans. They claim that they can help africanamericans but they really dont. Everything that they do like right now trying to do with the Affordable Care act, anything that can help people. And they claim africanamericans are the most on welfare but when all these republican states 90 , the majority of the people on welfare is really white people but i dont know why they choose to make it look like its black people. I have a son whos 22 whos scared of the police. And hes not doing anything. Because you dont have to do anything if youre black for the police to do something to you. Host were talking about the minority vote in 2016. Issues that will be important to the minority communities of this country in the next 20 months before the election. John is calling in from atlanta, georgia. John is an independent. Good morning john caller yes. There have been so many lies and how all these lies is a long story. Theres no continuity. Rand paul stating that there are two americas in this country. And there is. Theres the republicans of the United States and theres the United States federal government. And congress has a say in both of them so thats why they cant get anything done. I find it to be a fascist entity thats taken over the government. We need to start regenerating and get some sovereignty in this process. Were going to have to go back and get all that stuff straight. The one big issue that people often associate with the Latino Community is immigration. More say this now than was the case just a year ago. We also find that the issue of immigration is important to many latinos. Three quarters tell us that its an extremely important issue to them personally. But the issue with the economy and jobs, education and healthcare are seen by many latinos as just as important or sometimes even more important than the issue of immigration. So it looms large and its an important issue for latino voters but other issues as well also resonate with them. Host and we have the line for hispanic viewers. On that line, john is waiting in miami, florida. What did you think about those comments we just showed caller i think in the case of miami with the cuban american vote its a little different because cuba is an area of concern for cuban american voters. And the policies set forth barack obama in this new cuba policy has been received very negatively especially the release of hernandez involved in the killing of three cuban americans. Its gone down very badly in this community. I think the host heres a story in the International Business times. Clinton could clinton pick castro for 2016, the hud secretary isnt saying, talking about jewel yap castro, former san antonio mayor. The story notes his name has already begun to appear on the list for Vice President ial candidates. The speculation about castro started when he delivered the key note speech at the Democratic National convention in 2012. He could help lock up the latino vote for the democratic party. Were happy to talk about those issues. Minority voters in 2016 phone lines for africanamerican viewers. Hispanic, Asian American viewers, and all others. Lorenzo is in louisiana caller good morning. Thank you. Host i can hear you caller okay. Yes, sir. I think bush was the last white male president and because after hillary is elected, then i think the next will probably be hispanic. And as far as the Voting Rights act, i think it should be just like the way they do the census is that you dont have to show any id they just take your count. I think everybody in america should be allowed to vote. But the problem is that theres a lot of people in america that dont vote and i hear some people talking about this isis stuff. The police in america is a black mans isis. We have to you know they talking about how they beheading people now. But the police is going around shooting people in the back and just catching you off by yourself and killing the black man. Another thing that you got a lot of these news stations on here that preach black hate. I was watching last night the lady anne coulter on fox news. I dont even see how host what was the example that you saw last night . Caller she was host what did she say . What was the example . Caller she said Something Like about the black people now they have been treated like kids. Like weve been kids since weve been in america. White people have had what do you call it handouts since shave slavery. Everything they got was free. We had to work for everything. We dont hate nobody. All we want is a fair shake host carol is in nevada on that line for africanamerican viewers. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, carol. Caller first of all, im a first time caller so im kind of nervous here. But i dont see why any minority support by the Republican Party. Everything they do is for the very rich. Everything they do is give tax breaks to the very rich and take away from the working class people. They dont even want seniors, College Students minorities to vote. So how could you support a Political Party that dont support you . Host when did you decide to be a democrat and why did you choose to be a democrat . Ive been voting for about 30 plus years and i was a democrat because of their policies. I mean taking away our Voting Rights. Theyre against lesbians gays and transgenders. Theyre against muslims. Theyre against everything. Theyre against everybody and everything. I mean i dont see any promises you know, that they advocate that i agree with. Host carol, on this program earlier this year with dr. Benjamin carson also a potential republican president ial candidate, he talked about how republicans could reach out to minority groups in the future and specifically ahead of the 2016 election. Heres a bit of what he had to say in that interview. What the Republican Party needs to do is really start reaching out to the black community, the hispanic community. So all communities in the past they have not perhaps reached out to and that really push the idea of developmental potential and investing in people. You know, in 2006, Mohammed Yunis won the nobel prize for his microlending policy. Lifted millions of people out of poverty in bangladesh. 90 of those loans have been paid back. We need to invest the time and effort into them and if we invest in all of our people and the tide rises host bobby is waiting on the line this morning for africanamerican viewers from maryland. Bobby, what do you think about ben carsons comments that we just played . Caller ben carson is a very intelligent man but he has obviously missed the vote. If he truly understood the core of what republicans stand for, he would also understand that republicans are not going to target any particular ethnic community. It goes against everything that they stand for. What they stand for or tell you they stand for is equal opportunity for all. So thats what we really if thats what they mean when they say that, theyre not then going to go and even appear to cater to any particular ethnic group. So hes talking out of both sides of his mouth and he really doesnt understand. The upcoming president ial vote isnt going to be about whether minorities vote for democrats or republicans, its going to be about whether anybody is going to get excited and participate in the vote given the fact that theyre going to feel like we put an africanamerican in for the last seven years and he really didnt deliver so if democrats think that barack obama can deliver the minority vote, they are sadly mistaken. Host bobby in maryland this morning. Conversation also happening on our twitter page if you want to follow along there. Steve harrison writes the only minorities the gop will attract are those that are part of the one percenters. And is the minority vote up for grabs in 2016. Michael is in illinois. Hes an independent. Good morning. Caller hi paul. Thank you very much. So the comment i would make is one of the issues that should be paid attention to at least is voter id laws. I dont know the numbers but the enactment of Voter Registration and voter id laws. Mostly what appears to be republican dominated states. It seems to be more of a republican issue. Its interesting if you look at for instance senator rand paul just because youve shown him. If you look at all the issues and what he said, the voter id is justified. You have this hypothetical voter fraud that you need to be concerned about. Its not quite it doesnt appear to actually exist according to most of the research but its possible so we should restrict voting to ensure that doesnt happen but then if you look at the statements on gun rights dont touch our guns, we are against any type of formal registration or control. People could die of guns. That seems to be pretty apparent. But dont control it. Its a fundamental right. Voting also is a fundamental right. I would recommend any person interested in this minority issue, when you hear this voter id look at other issues. Dont let them trick you by saying you need an id to buy alcohol or drive a car. Yes, those are privileges. Privileges are not rights. Rights are different. You dont need an id to speak the first amendment. You dont need an id to tell an officer i choose not to answer your questions. The republicans with slight of hand are tricking people host heres a recent story from the national journal, the most valuable voters in 2016 is the headline there. The story noting that in the 11 states that both parties now treat as decisive swing contests all the states are simultaneously growing more racially more diverse and older. The cumulative affect particularly the growing racial diversity can be profound. In 2012 can be obama won key Battle Ground. The reason why is because america is still very close in president ial elections. We havent had a blowout since 1988 so in Close National elections like these a three or four point decline in the white vote share in a Battle Ground state can shift the entire thing. The stats and charts are in the national journal, the most valuable voters in 2016. Caller good morning. Basically what ive been saying is that i am a democrat but i dont think were doing what democrats and republicans and liberals or anything like that. Away from the main issue. The main issue in this particular election is going to be that the world stage the international stage, and dealing with islam, isis those issues. Iran. Therefore, were going to need a real political dream team and i dont think that the democrats have any kind of dream team. Now, on the republican side although ive only voted one time for republicans because he was my personal friend, now we got to put this dream team together. Hes got to reach out to the hispanics and all the minorities. Im looking at cruz as secretary of state. And possibly bush, jeb bush and the governor of texas. My governor. Host these are all republicans you mentioned. Why are you still registered democrat . Caller the tradition of the hispanics is always getting you back at the last minute you vote. You vote. And you dont want to be changing like you change religions. All it does is continue the Obama Policies and continues obama in control. And i tell you what, Hillary Clinton will circle the wagons but in the end, mr. Obama has something wait forking us. The forces have something for the country. Not really for us. Our country is in peril and the stage is going to be international and caller im going to give you a quick background of myself and the reason im doing that is because i consider myself a good citizen but being what im going to say after that its going to be brief, aint going to sound like im a good citizen. I did a tour in vietnam. Did a good job there. I was a good soldier and did my job. All that is legitimate. I worked 30 years in this country as a police officer. I think that makes me a good citizen. Having said that, as far as the voting thing goes, you know i do it and i do it for one reason and for one reason only. Thats because we didnt have the right to vote and the people that put their tails on the line first to have the right to vote. I dont believe for a moment that voting is going to affect folks. I just dont believe it. Host why is that . Caller well, because, i mean its been proven all the years that weve had the right to vote, what has it gotten us . I mean, i appreciate its been proven that it doesnt do any good. We have this catch phrase thing about were Diverse People which we cant afford to be but were that and this other thing about dont complain if you dont vote. Well, if you vote and dont get nothing done for you or your community, i dont see the difference in that and in not voting or complaining and not complaining. The result is the same. I do vote. I do vote. I want to make that clear. But for that reason only it makes me sick to go to the polls knowing that theyre going to do me and my people any good but i go anyway and i do it. I tried to get a lot in. I appreciate you taking my call. Host thank you. Ray in florida. Want to get to glenn waiting in tallahassee, florida. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan and for the opportunity that we have to give our opinions. I try toe be a christian. I love white people and hispanic people. Im supposed to love everybody according to the counsel of jesus christ and i do my best to do that. At times i fail. I know. But i just think its a Republican Party thats going to survive and if our country is to survive as it has in the last 230 something years we just got to get back to the constitution and get back to following the gospel of jesus christ. We are so divided in this country that it just seems like were headed for a third world status. We are going to have to teach some history, some civics and we just need to treat each other the way the lord would have us treat host question for you. Are you saying that all children arent getting that education or are you saying specific ethnic groups arent getting that education or that focus that youre talking about on the bible and on the constitution . Caller i think theres probably more white children getting a much better education than the black folks and they are going to be taught more probably history and civics. But thats the problem. Our educational system it just is so bad host why is it that way . Why do you think its become that way . Caller well we are a fallen people and we keep getting further and further away from the bible and the bible has the truth and if we just read history, the history of humans then weve always had wars and rumors of war and thats because people are not following god and its going to be getting worse and worse as we get further and further from the bible and the christianty is getting hammered in this country and its not politically correct anymore in this world to be a christian and i dont see much else for us unless we turn back to the world and study our history and depend on him more host thats glenn in tallahassee, florida. Just some headlines this morning. Heres a story in the washington post. Iraqi forces battle Islamic State for tikrit. Were going to talk about the efforts against the Islamic State and iraq and syria in our next segment on the washington journal. This story continued fallout over the letter signed by 47 republicans to the iranian leadership over the nuclear deal thats being negotiated. This from the hill newspaper. Senator ron johnson on friday said the open letter that he signed with 46 other republican senators should not have been directed to irans ruling regime. I suppose the only regret is who its addressed to the senator said during a friday breakfast but the content of the letter, the fact that it was an open letter, no regrets whatsoever. This is such an important deal, its a deal that rises to the level of a treaty that really should be evaluated by the American People through their representatives. The treaty should come to congress for an up or down vote. Thats senator ron johnson being treated by the hill newspaper. President obama also talking about that letter that was signed by the 47 republicans in an upcoming interview with vice news heres a preview of that interview that is set to be aired early next week. Im embarrassed for them. For them to address a letter to the ayatolla who they claim is our mortal enemy and their basic argument to them is dont deal with our president because you cant trust him to follow through on agreements. Host president obamas interview airing early next week with vice news. In terms of whats airing tomorrow on the washington journal, after the washington journal, well be showing our news Makers Program at 10 00 a. M. And 6 00 p. M. We were joined by Maryland Democratic senator ben carden. Also airing on the cspan network, tucsons festival of the book airing today and tomorrow on cspan 2 on book tv. You can check that out all weekend long. Time for just a few more calls in this segment. Were talking about the minority vote in 2016. Sarah has been waiting patiently in michigan on the line for hispanic viewers. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. Anyone that would vote minority would vote for the Republican Party, somethings wrong here. Of course theyre saying they need our vote. Yeah they want our vote. But when they get our vote we just go back to what theyre trying to do. Theyre the wealthy. You know, they dont need they dont need healthcare. They dont need social security. They dont need medicare, medicaid because they have so much money and of course they want to vote. They need our vote to stay in office so they can make their big dollars. But to think that we minorities fell off a christmas tree, no we havent fallen off a christmas tree. Were not stupid. Host i thought you were done. Lawrence is waiting as well. We just have a few seconds left here. Lawrence from georgia on the line for africanamerican viewers. Go ahead caller good morning. I have been voting for 48 years. Ive never voted for a republican and i dont think i ever will vote for a republican because the poor whites only they vote republican host when did you decide to be a democrat . Was there a specific event . Caller when i was 18 years old and i decided. My parents, they were democrats. I thought of them through the years. Ive been voting 48 years. And i never voted for a republican. Host and whats going to be your key issue heading into the 2016 election . What do you think will be the most important issue for the Africanamerican Community . Caller well Voting Rights act. You know cutting out the polls and everything and making it harder and harder for the blacks to vote. Host and if our viewers want to see president obamas comments about the Voting Rights act, weve shared some of those with you earlier this morning but you can watch the full remarks on cspan. Org. Thats going to do it for our first segment of the washington journal today but up next well talk about the fight against isis in iraq and syria as Government Forces this week are pushing to take major cities from the militant group. And later after a week in which wisconsin became the 26th state to sign right to work legislation, well check in on the health of the union system in this country. But first, were joined by the democratic senator from maryland ben cardin. He talked about u. S. Negotiations with iran over its Nuclear Program and the impact of the letter sent to irans leaders by 47 republican leaders. Heres a bit from his interview. I really did not understand how that letter could have been sent. It is not in the tradition of the United States senate. Any individual senator can do what he or she wants to do but to sign that attorneyclient privilege of letter undermining the United States undermining the president s ability to negotiate on behalf of the United States. That was certainly something that never should have happened in american politics. It was clearly partisan. Theres no question about it. And it is not helpful to the negotiations taking place in regards to the iran nuclear capacity. He should have had the full response of the United States congress. Im very disappointed by that letter being sent host you were one of these democrats that has signalled support for legislation ramping up sanctions on iran. Youve signed on letters to the president saying we may consider these after march 24th but before that were not going to vote for them. Do you think the cotton letter has affected that sort of group of democrat support for these two bills . I think it has made the environment and the senate much more partisan on these issues than they should be. There should not be that partisan division. This is clearly a partisan effort by an overwhelming majority of republican senators. The bottom line is Congress Must be engaged if theres an agreement. We imposed the sanctions. Theyre statutory sanctions and the only way they can be removed is through congressional action. Congress has to get involved with an agreement is reached with iran. Host were joined by colonel Frederick Leighton to talk about the battle in iraq and syria. One story has been the effort by the iraq inquiry military to retake major cities in iraq. Talk about how thats going as we show this headline from the front pages of todays New York Times, battered but still on the offensive. Absolutely. And good morning. There are so malpractice different pieces to a military movement of this particular type. So what were looking at here you know, on the one hand you have a lot of pronouncements by people in the pentagon people in the administration saying that theyve captured on recaptured on the order of 25 of the territory that isis has take in iraq itself but then you have headlines like this which basically say, hey, theyre still moving forward. So whats the truth . The basic idea is that this is a very fluid situation. So they both are correct. But some things are more important than others. Were dealing with an organization like isis yes, they want to be a state. They call themselves Islamic State. They want to have territory and do all of the things that normal countries, normal nation states do. But theres a major difference in the fact that their military forces are extremely fluid and almost not quite independent of the land that theyre on but that they can live off the land much better than conventional military forces could host so the battle in tikrit more than 20,000 iraqi troops and militias are taking part in this offensive began 12 days ago. Is this a manner of isis picking its battle field, then . Guest when they both pick the same one, thats when you actually have that conflict and you actually have the typical things that you would see in a battle with explosions and bombs going off and rockets being fired and machine guns. When you get into a situation like tikrit when governmental forces are retaking the city, that then is obviously the iraqis with iranian help going in there and doing things on their timetable. So of course now that isis has territory such as tikrit they have to defend that territory and theyre put in a position that is not normal for a group that has advanced. They were in essence doing what i guess could be made to look somewhat like the blitzkreig. Intelligence team deployed to saudi arabia in support of the shock and awe phase of Operation Iraqi freedom and a colonel in the air force. So do you expect the battle for mosul to be different than what weve seen in the areas leading to tikrit . Yes. Because mosul is a far larger city. Youve got so many its basically iraqs second largest city well over a Million People. Tikrit is a much smaller place but even all of that there are so many different aspects of the way in which these campaigns are waged. The one thing that may be very similar, its going to be this kind of military behavior on their part they end up preserving themselves to fight another day. Its a very wise strategy and something i think we misread as we went into iraqi freedom phase in 2003 and throughout the period that we were in iraq, i think we misread the tendency unconventional phase, we will melt into the population and disburse. You see a lot of armies doing that and so the army in that particular time period was all these different tribes and this is a continuation of that. So what im seeing in todays battle is the possibility of isis fighters melting into the population ditching their weapons. You know any type of identifying uniforms or anything like that looking as if theyre everyday residents of the area and getting out of dodge to fight another day host so much has been made about the u. S. Air campaign thats been going on for months and months against isis and iraq and syria. What gets lost when the actual boots on the ground go into a city like mosul do. They lose much of that u. S. Air support that can be brought on a larger battle field outside the city guest its easier to fight in an open air Type Campaign and nonurbanize area. Open field. Like the huge tank battles in world war ii. Thats a prime area for air power to be very very effective. But that doesnt mean that you cannot use air power in an urban environment. Its just much more difficult and requires much more precise tar jevityget targeting. In vietnam and world war ii you basically were much more indiscriminal gnat in the way in which you attacked guest they have the Communications Gear that can talk directly to the aircraft and also whats known as the air Operations Center. So the air Operations Center is the thing, the entity that controls the whole air picture, and it also tells the individual pilots basically where to go through. Of course, theres a huge command and control structure, but just to simplify it a bit, the basic idea is you use that structure and you can work very effectively within that structure. Now, having said that, it doesnt mean that you know, other entities couldnt do the same thing or similar things. For example, in iraq today a lot of the Kurdish Forces that are fighting, especially in northern iraq, are very good at helping to spot targets for u. S. And coalition airplanes. So they are used in a forward air controller capacity, and they dont have exactly the same training, but they have enough of an understanding what to do and how to do it. Host some news on that, the troops have begun attacking isis positions as of monday near kirkuk, and the ongoing battle there reuters story talking about the efforts there. Were talking with colonel Cedric Leighton this morning. Hes here to answer your questions about the u. S. Efforts against isis, the coalition efforts, and of course, whats happening on the ground as well as these battles taking place in cities in iraq. Cliffs up first, essex maryland, an independent. Caller good morning, cspan. Good morning, america. Colonel, id like to give you my view of this entire war on terror. Its nothing but manufactured propaganda. And i know my views are only shared by a small minority of people in this country, probably 40 million or 50 Million People who believe that 9 11 was a totally manufactured false flag operation designed to give this country some justification for their fashionista depression against these Foreign Countries in the middle east. Host well hold off on the conspiracy theories this morning. Colonel leighton do you want to talk about either those points or the threats of isis . Guest let me talk first about the points cliff raised. Having lived through 9 11 and actually been in a situation where i was at a place that would have possibly been a target for terrorists that wasnt hit thanklyly, but you definitely saw the response to Something Like that, i can tell you for a fact that the u. S. Government had absolutely nothing to do with 9 11, no planning no coordination. This was a brutal attack on the United States by people that wanted to see our destruction, plain and simple. Thats what it is. And those are the facts. In terms of our desire to do things in the middle east, i think americans historically have really tended not to want to get involved in anything unless they actually had to. We have a historical tradition of basically serving our needs first. You can take it all the way back to the founding of the republican. You can look at the postworld war i isolationism. All of those things really reflect the national tendency, historic tendency, to try to come back from a World Affairs to, in essence, have an insular approach to conducting our social life in this country. You know, in the modern world, thats not very possible. Were in westworld war ii a world where theres so many alliances. There were so many Different Things that had to be done and only American Leadership could really really provide. But, you know, when you move it forward into this type of the environment, the post9 11 environment, certainly postcold war and post9 11 environment, american involvement, yeah, i think there have been missteps and some things that could have been done a lot better, both tactically and strategically. But in this particular situation, you have to look at so many different factors and understand that, you know, there is a place for us in the world, and a lot of countries, whether they want to or not, whether they admit it or not look to the United States for leadership, and thats the role that we find ourselves in. Sometimes its very hard to do that, and theres a natural tendency want to want to play that role, but in some cases you have to. And i think were finding ourselves in that situation. Host were talking about the situation on the ground right now in u. S. Efforts in the fight against the Islamic State in iraq and syria. Springfield, oregon, up next line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you, washington journal, for this wonderful panel that you bring up. I have a question for colonel leighton regarding isis. Im wondering, can you maintain an acute focus in this war against isis, or will we have to go to other parts of the country . Guest i think if indiana correctly, in terms of maintaining an acute focus on isis within i think itself, you definitely have the advantage of, you know, some degree of u. S. Understanding of how the iraqi army functions. We help set it up, after all. And also, the leadership function that the Iraqi Government plays in this. The problem that you have is that, you know just from a pure military standpoint, the fact that we withdrew from iraq without maintaining a presence in iraq creates technical problems. You know, theres nothing, especially in the middle east, personal relationships matter. And if theres no way for you to have a personal relationship with somebody where youre sitting across the table or sharing dinner with them or whatever that becomes difficult then to get into a relationship of trust with these people. So if you continue to go against isis, it becomes very important to maintain focus, and i think your question you know, is clearly pointed in that direction. Host to follow on that though, boko haram announced an alliance with Islamic State. Does this now commit the United States if and when the battle with isis is completed, to move over to africa and fight boko haram . Guest technically we have not tee chaired war or done anything in that realm with or against isis. We dont necessary have the to respond to it. We have to be aware of it but it doesnt mean that we go out and put out every single fire that comes our way. I think it depends on what boko haram does next and how they handle things. Is there going to be a real connection, or is this just in essence of not necessarily a flag of convenience, but something that they do to show that they are together with isis ideologically, but if theres more than that, its something that can be taken care of later or with nigerian or other african troops. Host bert subpoena next, columbus, georgia, line for republicans. Youre on with colonel leighton. Caller good morning, colonel leighton. Listen, the way i look at this is islamic religion wants to fight the christianity religion, and theyve done it ever since the crusades. What they do is once they fight the christian religion and they defeat them, then they want to have a plate, but they want to also then they get down to their own sect such as the sunni and the shiite and the kurds, and then they fight amongst each other. So if we can get them to fight amongst themselves, we could probably stand by with our military once they become weak between fighting against each other, then we could go in and take over and kind of get the radical muslims out of the picture and maybe we could, just like in the United States, we have a few radical muslims here, but maybe we can control them better. You cant defeat them, i dont think. I think you can just control them and keep them in a certain area or keep them fighting each other, then maybe we can defeat them that way. Host colonel leighton, ill let you understand. Guest thank you. Youre pointing to very interesting areas here. The basic thing thats happening right now is actually a sunni shia war in iraq and in syria. It has not spread, you know, except for, you know, certainly isolated incidents, not really spread to other regions of the arabian peninsula, with the exception of yemen. But key thing to keep in mind is that fight that youre talking about within islam is actually happening right now. Isis has as its eventual goal potentially to go after other religions. I do agree with an article that was written in the atlantic to where it said that isis is absolutely a religious movement and it needs to be understood in that religious context. It doesnt mean that they represent all the people of that religion, and they certainly do not, but the key thing to keep in mind is that they do want to go in and control territory. They want to go in and in essence create what theyve already done, so they have this fight. They have an area that they need to defend. And they want to do it for basically an apocalyptic view of the world. So they have an end of days, end of the world scenario in their minds. They also want to draw us into it so this gets to your point about standing by and letting them fight it out amongst each other. That is, in essence, the strategy that seems to in effect be taking place right now. Theres some merit to that, where you keep your efforts limited to efforts that you can directly control. You dont get ensnared in conflicts if you can help it, and you make sure that the other entities that are fighting fight each sandore weaken each other. Now, its not the stated policy were doing, it but in essence thats whats happening. And theres some strength and weaknesses to that. But the basic idea is that in this environment, youre looking at a way in which you can take you can allow these entities to exist, but contain where theyre at. And when you contain where theyre at, then that limits their effect, at least in theory, to other areas of the world. Host you fwalk the role of shia iran in the effort against the Islamic State. Reports this week of Iranian Revolutionary guard commander spotted on the battlefield overseeing the tikrit offensive. Guest absolutely. Hes one of the leading figures in is the leading figure actually, the commander of the force. Its a Paramilitary Organization that does special operations, and they do that in a role somewhat analogous to our delta force. And how they do it is they go into different areas that are targets of iran and execute operations. One of their key areas of course, is iraq. And, you know, its something that we have dealt with really ever since the u. S. Invasion of iraq back in 2003. The iraqians had an Extensive Network already in place in iraq during that period. So the idea of iranian involvement being a surprise, it shouldnt be. U. S. Policy makers should have understood. They certainly had the intelligence to understand that the iranians were extremely active in this area, and they were in essence just waiting for Saddam Hussein to fall, and then they would rise up and do what they needed to do and influence events, or try to influence events within iraq. Irans connection is primarily with the shiite militias so the forces that hes commanding in and around tikrit include iranians paramilitaries, iranian force as well as the elements of shia militias. He does not, as far as i know, directly command the iraqi army thats in the area. However, theres clearly liaison work going o. They understand each other. They work with each other. They coordinate what they call fires. In other words artillery barrages into the city with each other and they have a fairly well established routine in which they coordinate all of these operations. So if tikrit falls, like appears to be falling, it will in essence be seen as a victory by iran, not only in iraq, but also by the iranians themselves , and i think quite frankly on the world stage it will be seen asen an achievement for the Iranian Military especially Iranian Special operations forces. Host bob jack from minnesota is next, line for independents. Good morning. Caller good morning, gentlemen. Im a vietnam veteran in country, and you dont have to thank me for my service, just give me my full two minutes. I have a couple of suggestions for fighting isis that dont involve 100,000 a piece bombs or boots on the ground, and i a question. Number one suggestion is we need to get our golf allies to quit funding isis. General wesley clark, who i think youve probably known colonel, is quoted as saying on cnn recently isis got started through funding from our friends and allies to fight to the death against hezbollah. He goes on to say you cant get, you know, people that are used to sitting behind desks to fight these people. You need to get these wildeyes jihadis to do it. A fellow you might know, admiral james also has said the same thing on a different venue. Thats one suggestion. Another suggestion, get our friends, of course, to stop funding these people. Another suggestion is talk to our lovely ally, israel, who it has been reported has been giving intelligence, training and medical assistance to the isis fighters in the Golan Heights area. In fact, the golani brigade of israelis has been training them to fight now in egypt. So we might talk to our lovely ally israel, and get them to stop doing that. And we could findedly, as far as suggestions remember, i have a question we could get our lovely nato ally turkey, to seal their border because they are going across with ease all of these jihadi fighters into syria and iraq and also selling oil on the bothered. My question is aint it marvelous what isis has enabled. We wanted a sofa that would allow us to have troops in iraq, and now we got it, and we also wanted to bomb syria. And gee, we got stymied on that, our government did, because the American Public rose against that idea, and now, gee whiz, were able to bomb syria. Host a lot to chew on there. Guest absolutely. Jack thank you for your question. The basic idea there are so many Different Things, lets take the funding part first. When you look at the gulf states such as qatar, the united arab emirates, kuwait, yes, there are a lot of people within those countries who have and of course, saudi arabia who have gone in and funded various radical movements. In the case of at least one of those countries, there was a clear connection between the government and the muslim brotherhood. And then there were other collections between public entities in that and other countries that helped fund Islamic State activities. So, yes, there are certain connections there that absolutely need to be stopped. Many of these countries have acted to do that. Theres a lot of activity in the antimoney laundering area that is going on a lot of the Central Banks are involved in going after particular things particularly nefarious trading that work with the u. S. Treasury on that also with the state department. So there are efforts between the Diplomatic Community the financial community, and the intelligence communities to look at the funding trail of organizations like isis. So there are efforts to stop that, and theres work being done, and that is going to be 100 effective, probably not. There are always ways to get money to these people. But one of the things thats interesting about what has happened right now is that isis was seen as being almost financially selfsustaining because they had robbed the central bank and facilities in mosul of their gold. They had access to oil. They had other means of making money. These various means of making money have either run out for them or theyre having difficulty dispensing their cash and you know, there are other resources. Of course, with the decrease in the price of oil, that does create some problems for them, so there are apparently some cash shortages that isis is experiencing right now. So it may be possible to in he is tense not necessarily bleed them dry, but at least make it more difficult for them to fund these areas. In other areas, what were looking at is, you know, with syria going after various targets, that was a long drawnout political battle here in washington. Many people have looked at that time and said it is important to go into syria and stop the slaughter that weve had now for four years in the syrian civil war, just from a humanitarian perspective. That of course, has not happened and i think in many cases, because it didnt happen, because there were no parameters set for the syrian civil war, the result has been that in those areas that have not been controlled effectively by either the Free Syrian Army and other rebel groups and the syrian government, you see the growth of isis. Host on that front, American Hero on our twitter feed asks, why arent we helping assad and the syrian army to eradicate isis . Do you think the United States should be coordinating more with assad . Guest well, you have to remember that assad is an ally of iran, and he has been an ally of iran for a long time, so youve got the relationship of, just from a pure geopolitical perspective, youve got the relationship of of assad with iran. The iranians have been supporting his government really for the longest time, even when his father was in power. So you have that particular aspect. The other thing that you have is the fact that the assad regime has absolutely and clearly violated human rights. I mean, basically what theyve done is you know, these are events that have put them squarely in the crosshairs of the International Court of justice at the hague, and so when youre looking at war crimes its very difficult to coordinate with a country, like politically it would be very hard to do that. So youre dealing with syria as a state of iran also a client state of the russians. Then you have a difficult way of coordinating with them the only way that we could really coordinate with syria is if the assad regime were removed. Host dennis subpoena next, hot springs, south dakota, line for republicans. Dennis good morning to you. Caller good morning. Question colonel. The way isis comes back and melts into the civilian population, do you think theres some way that we have the technology that we could maybe capture some of those people and then put in a g. P. S. Chip in them and then permit them to escape and then when they start to muster again, wed be able to hit them . There is certainly the possibility to do that. We dont do that right now. And i dont think there are any plans to specifically do Something Like that, although technically it is absolutely possible if you capture somebody like that to track them, and we do it with our pets, you know why not with isis . Host but the issue the military has been dealing with, separating the civilians from the militants who melt away into the civilian population. Guest exactly. That creates a real problem. Because these people, even if you had a chip in them three let he canly what you run into theoretically, what you run into is what you called collateral damage, because they will be with their families or with other people in civilian settings, and really, the only way to effectively get many of these folks is to actually go in and do a takedown operation right there with them, and cant do that for thousands and thousands of people. You have to fight this not just in the physical sense when its necessary, but you really have to fight this basically as a battle of ideologies, a battle of religions, and religious thought, much of which has to take place within the islamic world itself and cannot really be can be influenced, but it cannot be direct from plays like this. Host mike is up next, raleigh north carolina, independent. Mike, good morning. Caller good morning. I got one comment ill start with. Lets make it clear the distinction between 9 11 and iraq. 9 11 was not tied to iraq, ok . We spent money, spent american lives for how many years to watch half the military turn their weapons over to isis, join isi si knowing our tactics, using our weapons against us or against the population and i think that sticks that my craw that we spent all that time, that money effort, human life on both sides, and to watch them turn around and hand things over, and it makes me question. Then i look at the military most of them, that scattered that were over there, and i live in north carolina, and i see the scandal direct, because im not far from bragg sir. I have ultimate respect for you, my father who served in world war ii but i can tell you this whats happening now, muslim against muslim, is the way that this is going to be taken care of. Guest yeah, mike, theyre excellent points, and i appreciate what youre saying. Yes, i think that to be very frank about it, the way in which the effort in iraq was handled was incorrect. There are many aspects of it the first part from a technical standpoint worked beautifully in terms of how rapidly the American Forces advanced, but then the period in which we stayed there clearly indicated that we have a long way to go to really work out how we handle situations like this. This isnt germany or japan postworld war ii, and its one of those things we really need to focus on and need to understand from a military perspective. As far as making sure people do not mix up what happened in 9 11 with what happened in iraq, youre absolutely right. Those are two separate issues, and they need to be treated as such. But any time you get involved in the middle east and if there is any issue any idea that there is a threat emanating from a particular place especially in a post9 11 environment, its very easy to see how people can go down the path of they are all against us, therefore, we must do certain things. We have to be careful of what happens after the therefore, and thats, i think a historic lesson that we need to look at. As far as the scandals in the military are concerned clearly the military must be held, must be held to the highest possible ethical standards, and that is something that, you know, clearly every institution in the military, every service, every organization within the military, must make sure that its people follow the rules as strictly as they possibly can and that those rules make sense from an ethical perspective. Thats a key ingredient. We need to make sure that when it comes to the way in which the iraqi army handled the initial onslaught of isis, that was absolutely a disaster. You know, it pained me and i know it pained just about every one of my fellow veterans, especially those that served on the front lines in iraq, it pained all of us greatly to see that happen, because it did in effect say what we did was wasted, and you never, ever want to do that for yourself in a situation where you waste so much time, effort lives and treasure in order to achieve a National Goal so. We have to be very clear in how we do those things. Host just a couple of minutes left with colonel leighton a couple of calls waiting to chat with you. John from new york, line for democrats. John good morning. Caller yeah, good morning, sir. Thanks for answering my call. I got a few comments here. Number one the koran is a law for muslims. I say dont follow the koran. Dont follow this. If anyone from the republican side could show me or tell me where in the koran its written to read murder, peace i will go away. Number one number two, theres republicans, yet trying to link if with isis is 100 wrong. Isis however, theyre muslims. We value american law, we drink and drive, we tease, we rip, we murder, we violate american law. It doesnt make us not american. Host colonel leighton, your viewpoint . Guest yes, i certainly agree that isis does not represent the islamic faith and it doesnt represent the way in which all the muslims that i know personally handle themselves. It is the tenets of the koran are pretty clear to me as a nonmuslim and that is something that we have to be very careful. We realize that this is a small segment of the islamic faith that is doing this, that it belongs to isis, and we have to act in that fashion. Quite frankly, as many of us have said here this morning, it is very important to understand that this is something you know, from a doctrinal and faith perspective, in many respects it must be handled within the islamic community. Host mike in pennsylvania, line for independents. Mike, good morning to you. Caller good morning. Guest good morning, mike. Caller this might sound like a really silly question to you but every time i see news footage of these terrorists everywhere around the world, theyre all running around in these Toyota Pickup trucks with stuff mounted on the back. I was wondering, has anybody ever looked how do they acquire all these vehicles from corporations, especially from toyota japan, theyre supposed to be an ally of ours. They have all these Toyota Pickup trucks. Host colonel leighton . Guest well, when you go to the middle east, you will see one of the most common vehicles there is the toyota. You know, it reminds me of what happened in somalia in the early 1990s where we did Operation Restore hope, who had these vehicles called technicals. And the technicals were basically machine guns mounted on the beds of Toyota Pickup trucks. They go running down the streets of mogadishu or whatever town in somalia and shoot themselves up. The same basic thing is happening with isis. Basically the toyota is the most common truck in the middle east, and so what has happened is the japanese and toyota specifically nissan as well, and some of the other companies, they sell their stuff wherever people buy it. And as a result you find these vehicles, and it should also be noted that a lot of isis fighters drive in g. M. C. s chevy and ford pickup trucks too, so theyll get what they get. They steal what they need to. Theyll move forward you know, as they can with whatever conveyance is there. They dont necessarily Pay Attention to it, but yeah, its kind of bad advertising for toyota to say the least because they are such a common vehicle in that part of the world. Host roger, vancouver, washington, line for republicans. Roger, go ahead. Caller good morning. Im a retired Navy Commander and very interested in the aviation. I was a naval aviator. I spent a career flying internationally with airlines. Im wondering whats going to happen to the a10 wart hogs. I thought we were going to lose those to sequestration, and then i heard them they were going to bring them back and put them use. Flying low, they do a great job, but we might take some losses. So could you tell me if were really going get the a10s back into office . Guest there are a lot of big fans of the a10, roger, and the army certainly wants many people in the army certainly want to keep the a10 because it is in essence the best aircraft thats out there. Im a fan of the a10. I dont think we have a good replacement for it. Of course, in the air force, they were looking at cutting the expenditure thats associated with the a10, but quite frankly, i think the things that help the troops on the ground the most should be the things we keep. Name favor of the a10, and i believe that theres a lot of congressional support for keeping the a10 so i dont think its going anywhere, at least not within the next couple of years. Host colonel, appreciate your time as always on the washington journal. Thanks for joining us. Guest you bet. Its my pleasure. Thanks for having me. Host up next after a weekend in which wisconsin became the 25th right to work state, well discuss the status of the unions system in this country and those right to work laws. And later, as the university of Oklahoma Fraternity continues to take heavy criticism after members were caught on tape participating in racist commants the executive director of the fraternity and sorority Political Action committee joins us to discuss the collegiate greek system. But firks the Gridiron Club hosts its annual dinner in washington, d. C. , tonight. The club is the oldest journalistic organization in washington. Their annual white tie afair closed to cameras and features satirical speeches from journalists and politicians. Cspans steve scully spoke with the clubs 2015 president , the Chicago Tribune columnist, about who gets invited to the exclusive event and how the club gets a sitting president to attend. Well, number one, who gets invited, who the members want to invite. We have whats called an auction list, which is what major news makers, public and private, celebrities, etc. Who a lot of people want to invite. And so we dont have, you know a dozen members all inviting the same person. We do have not action ceremony where you literally pick numbers out of a hat, which gives you the right to choose ahead of other people who you want top invite. It takes a little while, but it does work well for us. Theres other folks out there who are not on the list but if you want to invite them, each member of the club gets to invite a certain number of people, like each member basically starts with four. Me as president , i have an unlimited amount of people i can invite, if i can afford to pay for their tickets. Thats the one benefit of being president besides being the center of attention for a whole evening, whether i want to be or not, or i shouldnt say not quite the center. If the president of the United States comes he or somebody she is the center, this is inevitable. How do we get the president there . Through formal invitation, prodding and cajoling if necessary, invite people who know the president to put in a good word for you etc. Grover cleveland was in office when the club was founded, so nobody ever finally convince him to come. He didnt get along that well with the media. But does any president . But ever president since then has come to the gridiron as an honored guest, has spoken. The president , unlike a lot of organizations, we give the president the last word of the evening. So no matter what is said before how much lampoons goes on, the president gets the last word which i think is a very important attraction. And it is viewed as important enough that some of them havent come every year, like president obama hasnt. Richard nixon didnt come every year. Especially at the end. Jimmy carter. But Ronald Reagan was here every year, loved it. And his wife performed famously one year, singing secondhand clothes to the tune of secondhand rose and turned her image around. People had an image of her as a big stuffy, standoffish and everyone agrees that america appreciated her a lot more afterwards. That was one case where photos did leak out somehow, we think through the white house. I was delighted to have that image of nancy reagan put out before the public. Aum washington journal continues. Host were talking about the status of unions in this country and right to work laws in this country. Our guest is mark. He joins us during a week in which wisconsin passed the freedom to work law. Heres the New York Times headline on that law unions suffer latest defeat in midwest with signing of wisconsin measure. Mark mix, first explain what this law does. Guest good to be with you this morning. Thanks for the opportunity. The law is really very simple. A right to work law simply guarantees a workers right to join a union, bargain collectively with a representative of their choosing, to support unions, support their political operations. But right to work law will not constitute a forced payment of fees to work in america. 25 states now have right to work laws, and they are very simple. They simply say you cant be forced to pay a fee as a job condition. Host 25 states with right to work laws. Whats the next front after wisconsin has now passed its law . Are there other states that are in the process . Guest absolutely. I think our goal at the right to Work Foundation and our Sister Organization is to end this across the country. We can continue to do it at the state by state level, or we can do it near washington by changing the 1935 law that establishes andulls a power that Union Officials enjoy over workers in 25 states now. Host heres a flap your website on states with right to work laws on the books. The states in blue on this map are the ones with right to work laws on the books. How easy or hard is it to form a union in this law right now . Guest not very hard at all. Lets say unions with 100 employees are interested in having a union speak with them for their employer. They can get the signatures of 30 employees in that work place, and they can petition the National Labor Relations Board, which is the fivemember agency near washington, that is designed to serve as kind of the aadjudicator of private sector relations in the country. That petition gets check out by the nlrb. They deem these workers are in this unit, and they will either recognize well, if its 50 of the workers they can either ask to recognize the union without a vote or they will run what is a secret ballot election in the union to certify the workers there. Secret ballot elections have been something Union Officials dont like to do anymore. In fact, they tried to change a law here back in 2010 to kind of eliminate them to allow them to union yies by what they call card shack, and that would mean, if we could get you john, and 49 others or 50 others in our hypothetical unit of 100 to sign these cards, the union would automatically be recognized as the bargaining agent for all the employees in that unit. Its not hard to unionize in america. I mean, certainly employers have a voice in that process. Theyre the ones that can actually trigger a secret ballot election. The employer is the only one in the equation that would say i would like my workers to vote by secret ballot whether or not they want to be in the union. Host the issue in this wisconsin legislation is the money, the dues paid to a union. Who sets union dues and who controls who union money gets sent to in political elections, some of these Political Action committees and the money that goes to candidates . Guest i dont think theres a Standard Forum for all the unions in the country. I think all 56 unions have probably differences in how that process works. I know that the Carpenters Union and the Laborers Union have different techniques as to how they decide how money is spent and what the dues structure s. In fact, the u. A. W. , i think it was last summer, they raised their dues by 25 at a vote with the delegates at the u. A. W. Convention. Unions are private organizations. They should be managed by the people that to want join them. They cant get over the fact that they have been granted this andulls in the marketplace. If they were a private organization, they may fare better. Host were asking our viewers to join in. Were talking with mark mix with the international right to work. Democrats can call in at 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents 2027488002. If you want to join in the conversation, if youre outside the u. S. , its 2027488003. Were talking about that law that was passed in wisconsin and signed this week. Heres the statement from Governor Scott walker on that Wisconsin Union law when he signed it host scott walker headed to concord, New Hampshire, today, a potential president ial nominee, someone hes some say hes being watched as a g. O. P. Candidate. Hes meeting with the New Hampshire Republican Party at a grass roots activist workshop today. President obama also released a statement on the signing of that Wisconsin Union law want to show that to our viewers as well. He said host were taking your calls and comments. Well start with don this morning, north carolina. Don is a democrat. Good morning, don. Caller hello. How are you, john . Im calling to talk about the assault thats been put on unions. The right to work laws are part of that assault, to say that they give unions or workers more rights to represent themselves is kind of ridiculous. My example and its part of the overall republican philosophy my example being the United States postal service. They are under definitely under assault. Theyve been burdened with laws and regulations by the congress that prevent them from being profitable so that they can then be criticized and the pushes to privatize the system, you know, take away one of the strongest unions that there is. What happened in wisconsin here is not the enhancement of individual workers rights, but the deterioration of their ability to act as a combined force to stand up to corporate rules and policies that really tamp down on their salaries, benefits, and everything else. Host mark mix, ill let you respond to that. Guest thanks, don. The postal system has been in the news with its financial condition, but don, did you know that no one in the postal system is forced to pay union due to see get or keep a job . They have a right to work law in the mostal system. Its not specifically articulated that way but there is no compulsory unionism in the postal system. Yet, as you mentioned yourself, you said its one of the most powerful unions in the country, and boy, oh, boy, they are formed together through volunteer unionism. Its just like what the right to work laws do in wisconsin and the 24 other states that have them. Host lets go to laura whos waiting in troy, michigan, line for republicans. Laura, good morning to you. Caller good morning. I am a senior citizen, and i have two brothers that were skilled laborers that, of course were Union Members and my observation is, through the years, i have seen our country prosper and the working man have a good life because there were unions. A lot of these right to work votes were taken in lameduck sessions, very much like the letter that the senator supposedly signed because they were in a hurry to get out. Theres never really been in my observation a thing had a has been put in front of members. All we have to do is witness what happened in tennessee when i believe it was senator corker who came in and talked to all the workers there the company is going to work out if you vote for the union and all those kind of things, and ive seen a lot of subversive things done to keep the unions from prospering. Our country and the average working man prospered and lived a good life when there was a preponderance of unions. Host i want to show this chart. Its tilingtsd a long downward slide for unions, talking about Union Membership in this country. Back in 1983, Union Membership well over 17 million americans. In 2013, just about 14. 5 million americans split between 7. 2 million in Public Sector unions up. 3 million in private sector unions. You can see the downward trend over the years in that graph. Guest back to the point about michigan, she talked about how the law was passed up there, but really, the debate over right to work began back in march of 2012 when bob king, then president of the united autoworkers union, decided to put on the ballot a proposition called prop 2 that would have constitutionally prohibited the state of michigan from ever passing a right to work law, or reforming its Public Sector labor law. Bob king rolled the dice, took a gamble, if you will torque try to block right to work in michigan, and he lost. Unfortunately, even after spending literally tens of millions of dollars to win this proposition, the voters in michigan voted this proposition down by 16 , and thats when the legislature turned around and said ok, we will pass a right to work law, and they did, and michigan became americas 24th right to work law, effective in march of 2014. Excuse me, 2013. As it relates to unionization in michigan and across the country under right to work laws, no one in a right to work state or a nonright to work state is denied the right to join a union. Thats just absolutely not the case. Workers can join together voluntarily. The thing that the right to work law protects against is the compulsory power that Union Officials have enjoyed in this country for 80 years. The idea that a private organization can force to you pay them a fee for the privilege of working in america is something that, according to a gallup law last labor day, over 80 of americans oppose. Host you want to talk about the Legal Defense foundations involvement in the different legislation in different states around the country . Guest yeah, john, the Legal Defense foundation is a Free Legal Aid Foundation that provides representation to employees only. Weve been around since 1968. The national right to Work Committee gets involved in a legislative activity. The foundation does litigation. The committee does legislation. Im the president of both organizations. When we deal with state right to work laws, were working through the national right to Work Committee. When we deal with cases in the Supreme Court or the National Labor Relations Board thats when foundation attorneys step in and help workers in those states. Host brian is up next in shalmburg, illinois, line for independents. Youre on with mark mix of the national right to work. Caller good morning. I am a labor union member. You know, this whole strategy behind right to work its been around a long time, and its basically divide and conquer. They want to divide up americas working class and look whats gone on. You should show a chart that show average incomes in america. As unionization has fallen, so has average incomes. Were on this downward spiral the race to the bottom. We have corporations with all the power and the working class with very little. And this gentleman says, oh, sure, you can join a union, but if you follow his logic, all unions become is just a social club. Host ive got your chart for you. If up to the take a look at, it we can get mark mix. This is Union Membership rates around the country, the red line. The blue line, middle class share of income in this country, this courtesy of a chart from the center for american progress. In their study, the headline of their chart is Union Membership rates decrease middleclass income also shrinks. Guest thats an interesting point he makes. What we found when we studied the economics of right to work laws, and certainly the first and foremost right of work is the individual freedom that it provides for workers to choose whether or not to support or associate with a union. Don has had the choice here in illinois. Hes decided to join a union, so thats a great thing to him. The bottom line on the economics side is quite simple. Union officials try to use every other argument as opposed to the freedom argument. They like to talk about how rates are less in other states. The fact is its not true. When you adjust wages, what we find is workers that have a choice in the right to work states actually have about 2300 more than in disposable income than their brothers and sisters. To do a constituted any new york city, a plumber in new york city, example, and a plumber in provo, utah, the unionized plumber in new york makes 125 an hour. The plumber in provo, utah, makes 65 an hour. You can compare that and say oh, my gosh, voila obviously unionization means a 60 benefit to this plumber in new york. If you adjust for cost of living, the cost of what that dollar buys, kind of disposable income, youll find workers in right to work states are much better off than their brothers and sisters. Host since were showing charts one more for viewers, this also from the Pugh Research center 46 back in 1985. You can see the ups and downs over the years. 51 in 2013. Were talking with mark mix during a week in which wisconsin became the 25th state to sign right to work legislation. Robert is up next, arizona line for democrats. Robert, good morning. Caller good morning. My full name is genius robert. My father named me that way so that i would become a thoughtful person and could be analytical, and its a broad, broad discussion about peoples rights and how people can get distortion. Ive seen too good occasion are you still there . Host yep, were listening. Caller ok, listen up ok, please. You know, i said good morning, and i want to be humane. You know, when people work and they put out they cannot be as glib as the last two people that are fully trained in what they do. Including this one. What they do is buy the Public Opinion, and the Public Opinion is always bought by money. That is whats so disastrous about our election system now. You can buy anything with money. You go by the sentiment of the workers as a government of other countries, and it forces our wages down. That is the spiral were in. And probably 55 of the people that are not dumb enough to analyze the situation bad mouth obama. Obama walked into a powder keg and he did so because he wanted to be president , he wanted to help people. But all that big money causes is big wars, and the big example of that is the last spokesman you had very, very glib. People, when they get fully trained, either through the military or the colleges or organizations they can be very successful in convincing people how to think. Why dont you think for yourself, america . Host that was robert genius robert from arizona. Do you want to talk about the Public Opinion of unions and how they fared in elections when union issues come up in elections . Guest yeah, its interesting. The Public Opinion of unions usually stays pretty level at 50 approval ratings. You know its compulsory unionism thats the problem for them. If you look at the gallup poll from right before labor day last year in 2014, they asked very simple questions about union power. And what they found was, the American People overwhelmingly oppose forcing workers into union collectives to get or keep a job. Thats really the issue of right to work. I mean, nothing, nothing in a right to work law in any of the states prohibits any union from doing anything, except collecting a forced fee for the privilege of working. You know the idea of volunteerism was at the foundation of organized labor in america. It was samuel that said the workers of america adhere to voluntary institutions. Anything else is a menace to their right. He knew if Union Officials stayed focused on providing a service to workers, if they actually had the workers in mind and paid attention to what happened on the shop floor, they would do just fine. Unfortunately, back in 1935, they came to washington and asked for a federal policy that granted them these huge new privileges, and theyve been more focused on politics over the last 80 years than theyve been on workers on the shop floor. Thats why they have to spend this money according to our constituted any 2011 and 2012, over 1. 7 billion on political activity by their own reporting here in washington to keep their people in power so they can maintain this privilege. The idea would be very simple. Public opinion is high i think. If they want to serve workers, they will do well. This notion that anyone is stopped from joining a union is just ridiculous. Host john in alexandria, indiana, line for republicans. John, good morning. Caller yes, good morning. Thank you. Mr. Mix, i couldnt agree more with the truth that youre presenting for the American People. Im just apaffled at some of the callins. Nafse union many, many years ago, in the food industry. In fact, the small group of people where i work that elected me as a union rep to represent them at periodic meetings that the unions would have, and i was appalled that every other word that came out of the Union Leaders at that meeting would be how they would stick it to the companies. But most notably, i just want to comment in regards to mention of the post office. I find it incredible that everyone is calling in and dont realize that here is the here is a portion of this government that keeps reaching out every year, anywhere from 5 billion to 15 billion to keep it afloat, and yet 90 of what i receive today in the mail is nothing but garbage. Its useless to me. The other 10 gets delivered two or three days a week and it would be fine with anybody, but yet theyre stuck into that mode. Our legislators are doing nothing to change it. Meanwhile, we look at close to 20 trillion in debt, and every year the post office keeps coming back with their hand out in billions. Host mr. Mix, up to the talk about the post office . Guest its difficult. We dont have a lot to say about their daily activities, but we did have a fairly significant fight back during the nixon years, actually. There was a legislative decree to force postal workers to pay union dues. It was a postal reform bill was designed to force workers to pay fees in order to keep their jobs. That was defeated, actually. And it was a big battle here in washington. But the workers there in the post office do have right to work protections, and no one there is forced to pay dues to a union. Host speaking of Public Sector jobs, ann meyer has a quo twitter, what do you think about freezing Public Sector wages and benefits until the private sector catches up . Guest thats been an interesting question. Theres been a lot of studies done about the kind of comparative occupations in the private sector and Public Sector. Obviously the theory, the premise there is that the private Sector Workers are paying the salaries for those Public Sector employees. The issue of right to work, were not getting into the wage issue. Those are issues for a different time different place. One thing i will say, because Union Officials have seemed to basically be attracted to the government sector, where their growth is i mean, you pointed out the chart just a minute ago about their membership being split between private sector and Public Sector employees as it relates to the Union Members in america, i think it just basically went back to private Sector Workers being the majority of the unions in the country. For a couple of years there were more government unions members in america than private sector. Its very interesting. And one of the things we found, in wisconsin was another example of this in 2011, the passage, scott walker walked into a situation where he had a 3 billion deficit, and the one thing he tried to do was reform labor law in wisconsin. He was able to do that, and the state has processer ited from that. Workers have been given the choice whether or not they want to be in a union or pay dues. Hes taken that and given those workers the choice and a lot of workers responded up there. The government is a little easier control in wisconsin than before. Obviously there are people that disagree with that, what did he. But the bottom line was the government is coming in line with the realities of the situation in wisconsin, and i think were going to find that across the rest of the country incountry, new york, california where the cost of government has gone up so high that taxpayers can no longer afford to fund it. Host we have about 20 minutes left with mark mix he is joining us in the week that legislation was signed in wisconsin. A democrat in Corpus Christi texas. Good morning. Caller whenever you have a venue like this, you could have a guy from the other side because this guy is spewing out stuff that is not true. I work at a facility, we have about 700 employees. I will guarantee you, i will stake my sorry on it, that at least 500 to 600 of those employees would go for a union but we were told if we discussed a union we would be fired. People do not voice their opinion or say anything about a union because they want their jobs. That is the bottom line. You could argue that right work states, alabama, mississippi the southern states, republican states, the wages are low. Thats what right to work does, drives down wages so that unions cannot command when we had unions we have a strong economy, a strong middle class you look at the decline of the middle class and the decline of the unions, that coincides, goes handinhand. My dad worked for a refinery with 35 years, he was in a union. We lived well. God rest his soul, my dad passed away. I have six brothers and two sisters, we have all served in the military. It befuddles me that people do not see the correlation between a strong union and a middleclass wages. Host thanks for the call from Corpus Christi texas. We do our best to bring justin who offer opinions on all sides. Your thoughts. Bring in guests. Guest texas is a right to work state, your father chose to join a union and it benefited him and thats the way it should work and does work. To your original point about the formation of union if you can document that, that he or she has probably committed a unfair labor practice and you have recourse with the National Labor Relations Board. They cannot say those things that is a significant thing that you are alleging that your employer has said. If you really believe that that what is what said and you can document that, bring that to someones attention on the because employers are not able to say that. The rifle workers to be able to join unions should not be abridged the right for workers. And it will be in a national right to work lost. A bill that does not at once a gorgeous bedroom a comment repeals provisions of federal law offering Union Officials to have workers fired. Host where does that law stand . Guest it was introduced on capital hill in the house and senate, the house bill has about 89 cosponsors. The senate bill has 28 or 29. We have tried to get a hearing on it and have a debate about it. It takes divisive federal law from compulsion to volunteerism, and we think that is a good first that in giving workers back a choice of whether or not to associate with a labor union. Host diana in naples, florida, independent line. Caller divide and conquer. Misrepresentation, i have lived a long time, watch the unions grow, made our country strong, had jobs here. We should not have to depend on mcdonalds and these jobs to give them raises, what we have to do is get these jobs back. We have these unfair trade agreements, because we have no unions. It has knocked the unions down and the workers with how many millions of people who have not had any benefits. They do not have jobs. They do not have jobs to make a livelihood. Misinformation and dwelling on things the most important thing that will make the economy whole it will take housing taxes, health benefits, i have lived through all these times. All these years, now people are not informed, if they do not inform themselves. It makes me feel great to hear people call that know what unions are and can express to the people what unions have done for us. Host we show that chart of declining union rates in this country, you think the unions themselves are doing enough of a job to say why they are important and why people should join them . Caller it seems like they have been so knocked down, there is no representation. That even the media with his 24 hour news media, i see so many things that are wasted. Some of these arguments, these petty arguments, i see how they dress, they can afford to buy the best of clothes. We have to buy clothes it is embarrassing to have to buy some of this stuff. This unfair trade stuff, weve to make people close. Appliances that work. Guest first of all, i love your first name, that is my wifes name. It is hard to take that, but the point is, no one in the country is denied the right to join a union tv Union Officials have been more focused on politics than about representing workers. It is their own doing if you will, when they are more focused on whether or not they can compel people force people, then they are trying to attract people by providing services and doing the things unions are capable of doing. In 2013 to 2014, there were 20 states that were the union percentage of membership increase, 11 have right to work laws, over half the state that had an increase in ownership as a percentage of the work force or write your state here and talk about good thing jobs indiana, after passing the right to work law, led the nation in new manufacturing job growth. With reduced energy costs, that we are seeing across the country, and our increase in production, there are Many Companies looking to come back to the nine states and manufacture here. Come back to the United States. Those people that talk about relocations, talk to committees about where they will invest 50 of all Companies Say they want a right to work laws as an initial kick out to create new jobs. The evidence is not surprising from 20 that from 2008 today. Host tennessee, james, a republican. Caller good morning, how are you doing . And good morning cspan. I worked in a company that is now closed up. As a former bargaining chairman for a union, could you expressed to me or explain to me, or give me a reason why, in his right to work states, people that are not a part of the union, whether he disciplinary charges, the union has to represent in the same as they do share members that pay dues. Is that fair to the unions . Is it fair to the people that are part of union in his company that pay dues for the representation by the union . I will give you a point of things that the union did be where i live. I worked at the company for 22 years, before the cup and closed, we never got the company closed, before the union, we never got increases in retirement, we got a little increase in wages but, before the union, we got none of those things. Guest thats exactly why people would want to join a union, if they feel like it will represent them. Im glad you asked about the representational issue, where unions are required to represent other workers. The issue part of that, if you look at history, you can look at these for yourself, that is a burden that Union Officials choose to pull onto themselves. It is the only contact with they can come back and say, oh, these people need to pay feet. Did you know, Union Officials never told you this, Union Officials are the ones that choose to be the exclusive monopoly bargaining agent in the workplace . They do that because it is context for their ability to say, you have to pay feet. The chairman of the National Labor relations were and the claimant Clinton Administration said that it is clear legally that unions and bargain for their own members only. That means they can represent only their workers, and anyone who does not want to join can be pushed outside and can be on their own. Which is what you are talking about people in three cases are relevant in this debate. Consolidated edison, a spring court case in 1938, when they talk about this monopoly bargaining privileges. Another come in nashville first louisville rebel gas versus louisville railroad. The white Union Officials chose not to represent the black workers in the union. They force everyone into the union, they forced them to join a union and in these Union Officials said they would not represent black employees, that case made it to the Supreme Court and the spring court said because the union asked to be the probably bargaining agent, because they were granted this power of ecstasy, they had to represent those workers because they had given power equal to the sovereign, the government there are very few organizations that can compel you to join them and associate with them. Unions are one in this country and that is unfortunate. If they didnt represent their members only, and they did a great job for the members only emma that other people would join them, and would see the value. In tennessee, the volkswagen plant, and chattanooga, right down there, the united auto workers, local 42 has formed a member only union. They are saying that they want to represent their members although i suspect, by the time it all is said and done they will ask for monopoly excellence city in the contract, meaning that all workers must go to them in order to be heard by their employer. The ideal of monopoly representation is a Union Created problem. They created it, they live in it and it is a briarpatch. Host greenville, tennessee. Independent line. Caller host turn your tv down and go ahead with a question or comment. He may have stepped away from the stone. Then, florida, line for democrats. Caller thank you for letting me be able to speak. You have all the answers. It seems like you were a lawyer . Guest no i am not. Host you sure do seem like one. I have been in a union for most of my life and i agree with the other callers. They have helped me. I did not have to belong to a union. I chose to do what i do. I am part of the union, have been, i support my union. We do have political needs that we have to have done because the companies will not support us on a lot of the things, such as the increase in wages for benefits pensions, things like that, they will fight you tooth and nail for a 2 raise. Whereas profits will soar to, for example, 40 more than last quarter. It keeps going up, year after year. They constantly put out propaganda about how the unions are and what they will not do for you. And you have to to pay for this, that, and the other. I agree with the other guy, even know they did not support blacks years ago, if you do not want to pay dues, then you shouldnt it be benefits that we fought for. We fight for those benefits for our family. And our children. Host a tweet that came in during the course of your comments unions need to spend more money on Public Relations rather than politics. The corporations have the money to buy both polls and Public Opinions. What you think about that, dave . Caller we do have we do support our own people, we spend money on our meetings and things we go to. And trying to help boost pensions and things like that for the people that are in their. Public service, we try to help members as much as we can. You have the Company Fighting against you and people that belong to other organizations fighting against you, like i said earlier, you fight tooth and nail for 2 , when the cost of living is 3 to 7 . We can never catch up to where we would like to be. We are not asking for astronomical wages or astronomical benefits. We want a fair shake in the world of today, which everybody seems to be ignoring. Guest date is a union guy in a right to work state. He chooses to join and participate and associate, and that is that needs to be protective. Host new mexico, an independent. Good morning. Caller mr. Mix you may be statement that it is easy to unionize. I would like to dispute that. I previously came from seattle washington. I worked at a hospital that unionized. I like to point out that we struggled for years. What would happen, the hospital would put impediments in front of us. I would like to point out to you that they have tried to unionize and walmart and one of the walmarts the unionized was the meat cutters in canada, and what walmart did, is, rather than work with those workers, they close the walmart store. I would also like to point out the ease in which people unionize, i live in seattle, one of the were struggles for Union Representation happened people died for the right to have been represented. Guest the original question was the process of unionization. I talked about how the number of petitions that could be signed. I said that the employers usually have something to say about that, i did not try to intimate that the process was easy, i tried to a slight how that process work, and understanding that there is a campaign that goes on in these union elections. As far as the wobblies in washington, i do not know that history. I know there was violence and there had been violence throughout the history of labor unions in the country. It is one of the things that occurs when we have strikes and emotions get high. On the violence front, there is a bill that will be introduced in the u. S. Senate, a bill that would overturn a Supreme Court decision from 1973, that says that Union Officials are exempt from prosecution under racketeering and extortion laws for acts of violence that are used to achieve legitimate union objectives. They have gotten exception from federal statute. Host talking a lot about tennessee. A couple of colors left from tennessee. John, chattanooga, tennessee. Caller i would like to know how you all can sit there and say that a union is wrong when the United States was formed as a union . To make better and or the public and the citizens betterment for the public. It was based on lies and deceitfulness and racism. The problem is the right to work is for everybody, but we pay a tax to work, every dollar that we get is taxed, gas, groceries food, house, car, we cannot get anything back from the government. The government makes millions of dollars on lobbyists salaries have big homes. You have people with kids that cannot read, schools are messed up and you want to blame the black people, saying they live in the ghettos, the slums. It has nothing to do with unions, right or wrong, it has to do with what can they profit off of another person. Host one more call from pikeville, tennessee. Bill. Caller the thing about these union, if you do not like unions, get a minimum wage job its not a problem. Thank you. Host i will give you the last word. Guest with the first color with john, im not sure what i have to say about that, he needs to stay tuned to cspan and stay tuned with whats going on. As it relates to forcing a worker to choose another job based on the privileges of a rival organization, i discrete. The idea of unionization that has been useful in the past, is useful today, and will be useful in the future. There is no place in this american experiment for individual freedom for compulsion, and you cannot deny the fact that workers across the country in the states that dont have right to work or protection, can be fired from their jobs or simply failing to tender dues or fees to a private organization, that is wrong. The American People know it is wrong. There are those out there that was a, absolutely, you have to pay your dues, because we know better than you about how you should run your life. This is almost like a grouper is him we have to do these things because the people in america do not know what is good for them. Union officials use the same tact. Just said that, enjoy this, and we will take care of everything, you do not have to think about it, do anything about it. We will take care of it and assume everything we do for you is good. That may be the case, the compulsion is wrong, and that and we will get it a limited from labor policy in america. Host mark mix, appreciate your time on a saturday morning. Up next, as university of a, fraternity continues to take heavy criticism after members were caught on tape participating in a racist chant, the executive director of the fraternity and sorority Political Action committee joins us to discuss the collegian greek system. We will be back. Here are some of our feature programs for this weekend. Today, starting at 1 p. M. Eastern, cspan2s book tv is live on the universe give arizona for the tucson festival of books. Each discussions on race and politics, the civil war, and by the nation magazine writers with collins throughout the day with authors. Sunday 1 p. M. , we continue our live coverage from the the future of politics, and the issue of concussions in football. Today at nine eastern, on American History tv on cspan3 we are live from Longwood University in farmville, virginia for the 16th annual civil war seminar, with historic and authors talking about the closing weeks of the civil war in 1865. Sunday morning at 9 a. M. , our live coverage of the seminar with remarks on the surrender of the confederacy and the immigration of confederates to brazil. To find our complete Television Schedule at cspan. Org and let us know what you think about the programs youre watching. Join the cspan conversation like us on facebook, follow us on twitter. This week, cspan is in New Hampshire for road to the white house, coverage of several potential republican president ial candidates appeared before new, live on cspan, scott walker at a Republican Party grassroots workshop in concorde. Sunday night at nikon 35 on cspan, ted cruz at the annual lincoln, reagan dinner. Wrote to the white house, 2016 on cspan wrote to the white house. This sunday on q a director of the Georgetown University Medical Center watchdog project on how pharmaceutical companies Lobby Congress and influence doctors and what medications what to prescribe. The promotion of the drug start seven to 10 years before a drug comes on the market. While that he Legal Companies to market a drug before it has been approved by the fda, it is not illegal to market a disease. Drug companies have sometimes invented diseases or exaggerated the importance of certain conditions, or exaggerated the importance of a particular mechanism of a drug. They blanket medical journals and meetings, and other venues with these messages that are meant to prepare the minds of clinicians to accept a particular drug, and also to prepare the minds of consumers who accept a particular condition. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern and pacific on cspans q a. Washington journal continues. Host kevin oneill joins us in our last segment this morning to talk about the greek system on American College campuses, the second of director of the fraternity and sorority Political Action committee. First, what is your organization and why was it established . Guest thanks for giving us a chance to talk you about this issue that is so much in the news. The fraternity and sorority Political Action committee was founded in 2005, his mission is to help elect fraternity and Sorority Alumni to congress. We are going to elect leaders who believe in the fraternity and Sorority Experience and what he can do to build the next generation of american leaders. In his first 10 years, it has raised approximately 2. 1 million for federal candidates and has had a winning percentage of 85 . Including almost 90 in the last election. One of its focus is is on making sure women, who are historically underrepresented in congress, and Sorority Women in particular, have the resources needed to be competitive in electoral races. It is a bipartisan Political Action committee approximately 145 members of congress who were in a fraternity or sorority. After being in the boy scouts the secondmost common shared experience of members of common congress. Those 145, 60 republican 40 democrat. Host is it just elections that your pac works for, are there issues or legislation before congress you advocate for or against . Guest we are part of a coalition called the fraternity government relations. It includes the north american in a fraternity conference, which represents mens fraternities and the National Panel in a conference best analytic the coalition spends his time advocating on behalf of College Students in washington d. C. They believe they are the collective voice, not only for paternity and sortie undergraduates, but for many other students. They were got a range of issues, from College Affordability which has been much in the news. To Campus Safety issues, to preserving the value of Charitable Giving for donors who give to organizations that support students and their participation in student organizations like fraternities and sororities. And other issues hazing substance abuse, those types of things. They are very involved with their members of congress and very active in advocating for students. Host lets get to the issue in the news. Students at the fraternity sae at the university of oklahoma participating in a racist chant. Your reaction to that tape and the subsequent fallout. Guest obviously, like anyone else, what you see on tape is deplorable and repugnant. Start with the things that the university of oklahoma and Sigma Alpha Epsilon got right, because they are numerous. I commend the National Leaders of Sigma Alpha Epsilon, who i know well for their handling of the situation. As soon as this video came to light, their executive Leadership Team met and followed the procedures outlined in their organizations bylaws and constitutions. They went through recognition. They have been supportive of their chapters nationwide who are suffering from being associated with the chapter locally at oklahoma. What is important for folks to understand that Sigma Alpha Epsilon, like every National Fraternity and sorority, has high standards for their members and their chapters. In taking these actions this week they are enforcing the standards and demonstrating to the rest of their members and chapters a you must live up to those standards. All the private commentators agree, they are all within the rights to take the actions they took this week. When you turn to the campus, i have been extremely impressed, and most observers have been impressed by the way that community has come together and rally against racism. It is notable that the football and asked about team took time out from practice football and basketball teams made it clear to the world that the students bodies didnt bodies reject racism. A noted leader, a former senator , of great renown, probably one of the nations most Prominent University president , he has been very involved in this action. A lot of people understand his decision to expel the students at the center of the video. It seems like that might not be on very firm legal ground, they undercut the freedom of association and freedom of these rights of those students. It will be interesting to see as you might have seen, some of the students and some members are looking at legal representation, maybe suing the university down the line. Host if you want to join this conversation, democrats can call in at 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. And dependence, independence, 2027488002. Guest can i add one more thing about the university of oklahoma . Things like this spread across social media, and one of the things that struck me very a very public letter written by the president of another chapter at the university of oklahoma, the president of five delta theta, an africanamerican member of the greek system. Made some outstanding points and i encourage folks to find acting medications on facebook, or twitter. He talked about how the afghan american and the greek experience africanamerican experience any greek experience are one or him at the diversity of oklahoma. He rejected the thought that Sigma Alpha Epsilon was representative of the university of oklahoma, what happened in that video or, in the broader context of the greek world at large. He talked about how the media focuses on that outlying events instead of small, daily acts that fraternity and Sorority Members do to help their communities every day. We have gotten far more attention for a stated of video that for the efforts than the students took to raise half 1 million for a local hospital. Host some critics saying this is not necessarily an outlier of evidence for the histories of fraternities in this country. A headline from the washington post. A piece in todays New York Times, for attorneys cant fix themselves. What would your reaction be . Guest you can take that and change it to Higher Education. What was Higher Education like at the time he is talking about . There were very few americans that went to college anytime he is talking about. They were generally speaking people of privilege. All organization on those campuses were reflective of eastern body. Fraternities and stories can only examine the from the student body on that campus. We are only reflective of the diversity available on a campus to us. Host maryland, larry, line four democrats. Good morning. Caller i am listening with interest. I agree everybody is entitled to free speech, but i encourage people to find and read an article in the washington post. It highlights the insidious effects that these types of hate speech and behavioral has down the road on peoples lives. People of this when we are people of this character to get through the system and wind up in leadership roles, the impact is never obvious. The discrimination and racism is subtle. Which highlights what you see right now in our current in our country. A lot of the people came through the ranks and detected. Now you have a black man in the white house, they began all kinds of restructuring to make the man fail. Host i will let you respond to that, kevin oneill. The latest news out of that fraternity in oklahoma. Guest i had trouble following some of the question, but i heard the reference to Eugene Robinson and the peace earlier in the week. I have read most of the commentary that is out there. Where fraternities and sororities they have very High Expectations for their members. Thats what sets them apart from clubs. They set of values for their members and those do those members strive to live their daily lives through those values in that it in the organization embedded in those organizations. When they fail, their actions have consequences. Their actions were soundly rejected. Their fellow members of the greek community, by the broader student body, by the broader campus, it is obviously brought up an important discussion. It is important to realize that fraternities and sororities have a great deal of diversity on most campuses and in most chapters. It is an outstanding opportunity for students to grow as leaders and to learn about folks from other walks of life to live together and Work Together in a way that will benefit them in a number of facets going on in life. Host do you have numbers on that diversity . Guest i dont have individual diversity numbers, because the groups themselves dont typically keep that sort of information. What i was going to tell you there was a pullout last fall by gallup, the first real, meaningful poll data, 30,000 College Students surveyed, what it demonstrated was that at five different facets of life joining a fraternity or sorority had a meaningful difference in the quality of life that you enjoyed longterm, be it financial, more likely to finish your college education, more likely to be actively academically engaged, more likely to be engaged as a Community Leader or volunteer. More likely to enjoy your work in your everyday experience. We are focused on that, that is one of the reason fraternity and Sorority Membership is at an alltime high. There are folks that focus on this generation being lost in their ipads, phone, texting, the reality is there is a store nearly a store and or a demand for fraternities and sorties, because they provide an opportunity for students to grow and learn in a context that does not otherwise exist on campus. Host bart fraternities i am not ruling out a lawsuit said stephen jones, a lawyer hired by the Sigma Alpha Epsilon chapter. We are wanting seeking someone other resolution to the matter in the face of the closing of that chapter being kicked off cap campus. Two of the members being kicked off schools. Independent line. Guest caller a lot of these campuses are microcosm of our country as a whole. To hear that someone has made a racial slur, it does not surprise me, it happens every day, whether it is publicly noted or not. I do not know why anyone is surprised. I know strides are being taken to have more diversity but, on campuses, you have black sororities and you have white sororities. The university of maryland, i dont think theres one black sorority. It does not surprise me, and it should not surprise anyone that racial slurs and stuff like this happen. It happens everyday. Host in todays New York Times, says the racist video is a window into a huge problem at fraternities on College Campuses. He says greek life on campus is worth preserving, but before the next shocking video, schools must confront the inequality that the greek system has managed to preserve. Guest there is probably a reason i use the New York Times to read my fish every morning. I disagree strenuously. They provide minimum and for people to live and Work Together in a variety of contexts. For most of the 700,000 members spread across 12,000 chapters and more than 800 campuses, they are getting a chance to be involved in a Diverse Community that maybe they didnt have before in high school or growing up. I think they are part of the solution, this is the most diverse generation ever. The instances of racism they face remain challenging, that they have made significant strides over prior generations. This generation of students has said, like their fathers, they want to be part of the solution, fraternities and sororities are active in working in social justice issues every day. That is especially true for africanamerican fraternities and sororities, which were founded to help that first generation of College Graduates go back, get back, to those communities and help them move forward. Host flower mound, texas im a democrat line, georges waiting. George is waiting. Caller i have a different opinion about the chapter. We are eastern europeans. In eastern europe, soviet union, whatever, Young Students of organizations were very much dependent of the political life of the state. They were a submission of the government. Here, i see an extreme here come a there is another extreme. I dont know if this is that chapter prevents them from doing that. When they make mistakes or what is happened in oklahoma. Which is clearly a bigger problem. When they make mistakes in taking an attitude, or political attitude that shows their concern for the future of this country, are there any limitations . Host are you saying you want to see more oversight of fraternities and sororities by outside groups . Caller yes, they have to show being more active in political life. Guest i think it is important glad to hear that you moved here to the United States where we enjoy freedom of association and the opportunity to enjoy things like fraternities and sororities and exercise our right to be to be with people we want to be with an exercise our rights to free speech, usually means making people in the majority uncomfortable him otherwise that freedom of speech right without be worth very much at all. Fraternities and sorties are highly regulated on College Campuses. They are governed by state and federal law. We Work Together in partnership with the host institutions. They have professional staff who work closely with these organizations as they do with other student organizations. The vast majority of their activities are on file with the university oftentimes advance permission is required. Most institutions would tell you that the vast majority of their leadership in other student organizations comes from members of fraternities and sororities. Those tend to be the most engaged students, those folks generally go on to have a much higher engagement in the political life and fabric of the United States then members that did not join fraternities and sororities. Host marilyn, independent line. You are on with kevin oneill. Go ahead. Caller i have three comments once you make about the kids. Another to make about the fraternities in general and another about black people. Those kids that they learned that once they joined the sorority, i dont know why theyre trying to treat this as a racial incident, when the kids learn that song when they join their sorority. The africans that join the greek sorties, there are no black sorority, all of the sorties are greek. I do not know why africans would want to join something greek and take it is progressive. In my opinion, about sororities, i look at them as mens colts cults. They do ritualistic practices that is based in satanism. Host i will let you respond. Guest lets take that in order there is no evidence at the university of oklahoma or any other case that any of these organizations are advocating or teaching their members to engage in acts that anyone would perceive as racist. That is a ridiculous assertion to make. You said there are no black sororities, i guess that is a misperception we can clear up quickly. There are nine predominantly africanamerican fraternities and sororities all started around the beginning of the 20th century. They are all in the same association, many of the black fraternities, they have traditional africanamerican fraternities, and they are also members of the north american in a fraternity tousle. Counsel. One of those sororities, delta sigma they are was just on capitol hill, they are couple thousand Community Leaders come to town. The vast majority of africanamerican members of congress are themselves alumni of one of those nine organizations. They are proud members and they think those organizations make a huge difference, not only in their communities, but in america as a whole. As for black magic and cu lts, i do not think there is much to that. Host republican line in louisiana. Caller it is really sad that so many people are ill informed about what the greek system does. First of all it is a group of people that come together to live in unity any system stresses that fellowship, and also scholarship, and a Community Service. I was initiated into Phi Delta Theta in 1968. I think it is so cool that the president of the phi delt chapter at okolona University Oklahoma university is a really neat guy who happens to be black. Opportunity chapters, they have their own unique personalities their own different the sae s at ou screwed up, but that is not indicative of for trinitys and sororities at large. For turner these fraternities and sororities at large. Host one of our previous callers said that the more oversight of fraternities and sororities would you agree with that and if so how . Caller there is. At the university of arkansas, they had behavior about three years ago, that chart that caused them to lose their charter. A National Fraternity. They had to earn it back. It involved drinking. The national fraternities do have some very strict oversight. I would wager that sae, the national sae what have come down on these guys hard if president doran had not. Guest i want to make sure people understand that Sigma Alpha Epsilon close that chapter at the university of oklahoma. Independent of the president because of the accident because of the incident and they were not indicative of the organization. For trinitys and sororities had done a good job translating who they are, the largest valuebased groups. The largest providers of Community Service hours and expertise on College Campuses today. The second largest landlord of College Students housing a quarter of a Million Students across the country. And therefore reducing the tax burden on public universities that otherwise have to build facilities for those students. They are highly regulated. The reason we know that regulation is working is precisely because, when there is a problem, those problems are getting addressed. Maybe privately, or in this case, publicly but there is an extraordinary accountability. I want to compare and contrast what is happening with university of oklahoma and at the university of virginia with other context. This is march madness this weekend, next weekend kicks off determined kicks off the tournament. You have had to members that lost members of their team because of allegations of sexual assault. The universities did not close down the teams, they simply discipline the individuals. They do not discipline the womens track team because of what happened on the mens basketball team. But fraternities and sororities when these types of situations occur, a are being punished in a variety of fashions, not just as individuals, but the chapters are being closed, often by the impetus of the national organization. In the university virginia, thousands of students who were suspended by the University President for an allegation that eventually was proved meritless by an investigation i the washington post, they were held accountable but something they had nothing to do with. Most notable for that john, you had thousands of Women Leaders sororities are the largest Leadership Organization for women on campus. They were held accountable and suspended for an allegation of sexual assault, which is a terrible message to send. Host pennsylvania is up next, line for democrats. Caller im sorry to hear you wrap your fish in the New York Times, but maybe that speaks to the gentle general intelligence level of fraternities and sororities. Guest maybe it does. I read it i read a great deal of publications. The caller is misinformed him and does not realize there is a strong correlation between the member of a fraternity and sorting and completing college. One of the reasons these host institutions are eager to partner with them. They help retain freshmen into sophomore years and they a significant difference in making sure folks complete their college experience, earn that degree, and are capable of going out in the job market and getting a job that will help them pay the student debt they have incurred in the process. Host one of our colors but of a drinking issue at a fraternity i believe he said he attended, i want to run these numbers by you, this from a bloomberg story, 59 students died in incidents involving fraternities since 2005, thats 2005 to 2012, about half of them out of all related. I want to i what you to address the issue of drinking and wreaking deaths in fraternity houses drinking deaths. Guest the issue of alcohol on College Campuses is complex. The government chose three decades ago to raise the drinking age to 21, and that has proved to be that has transformed the way students use alcohol and are educated about it. Before raising the drinking age it was very common for folks to drink in high school and to learn at home, under their parent supervision, how to handle our call and make responsible handle alcohol. Folks are still drinking at that age, now they come to College Campus and they are unsupervised , they have seen all the media depictions that they need to go crazy. Efforts to control that are hemmed in, the universities are at a difficult position in trying to teach responsible behavior at the same time they are trying to kill 90 of the student body that they cannot engage in alcohol use. It sets up a difficult situation, where College Students, the vast majority of them, are breaking the law regularly by dragging alcohol by drinking alcohol. A lot about a lot of universities, if not turning a blind eye, are not enforcing it because it is difficult to enforce. Eternities and sororities inherit a part of that problem. It is externally rare for a College Students to arrive on campus and have their first ring on campus. They learn that behavior before they get there. Colleges are dealing with the aftermath of that learned behavior. An environment host is a lower drinking age something you would advocate for . Guest we do not have a position on whether or not the drinking age should be changed. We do have a commission on alcohol that is looking at ways they can continue to better educate members and students at large about how to make responsible choices, some of the policy issues involved and how freaking occurs on College Campuses drinking occurs on College Campuses. College president s would tell you that those issues concern them greatly. The weight the law is today, it encourages dangerous behavior. Students know, if they will go to a bar, they will be carded, they now pregame, drink in the room, with illicitly obtain alcohol. By the time to get to their destination, that alcohol is in their blood system and it hits them at once and it can lead to dangerous situations. It is probably time for members of congress and others at the state level to have a discussion about how to address these issues. Host tennessee james, our line for democrats. You are on with kevin oneill. Caller how are you doing this morning . Guest good. Caller i want to know how can you sit there and say that it is regulated and it is not something that has been going on . Everybody knows where i am from at least, the community i live in, not to do with race for turner these fraternities are more likely to do Community Service . We are kept out of that gate for life. You cant tell me, that i can do things. \ i can have a car in my yard. I can have a certain color, and i have to pay this and that. Ive talked about you, the people that sit there and have the power you just sit there and feed into it. Guest you bring up an important point about the history of fraternities and sororities. The article referenced in the interview, talking about they were founded as elitist when all universities were elitist. The history is vastly different. Most of the womens organizations, some are as old as 150 years old those organizations were founded, in part, because women were having a difficult time having an access to Higher Education. Sororities were a useful tool to make sure they had a handout the latter. Up the ladder. National fraternities were formed because they made an opportunity for different segments of the community to get into an organization of likeminded individuals who would support one another, learn to be Community Leaders and get engaged. I think its very rare to have what the reviewer said, the system shuts anybody out, the system is inclusive, there is a place for everybody, it basically look for the right opportunity. The right place where they will feel comfortable with the values. If not, we incurred them to start a group that reflects their values. We encourage them. We would be happy to welcome them to our community. Host park hills, missouri, independent line. Caller good morning you dont mention about this bar the Bar Association they were under a flag in this country, how come your not talking about that . Host we are talking about fraternities and sororities and the greek system. Did you want to jump in . Guest i think shakespeare said it well, i will leave it at that. Host kevin oneill is the executive director of the fraternities and sororities Political Action committee. Appreciate your time. Guest thanks so much. Host that is our show for today, tune in tomorrow morning at 7 a. M. , tomorrows show we will be talking about the role of the congress in u. S. Foreign policy, we will be joined by former u. S. Ambassador and former governor of new mexico, bill richardson. We will talk about New Hampshire and 2016 politics with the boston globe political reporter. We will have a roundtable on the issue of legalizing medical marijuana, we we joined by someone from the medical marijuana advocates group. And an internist at premier Surgery Center at d. C. Have a great saturday. There is a look at what is coming up today on cspan. We will bring you a portion of that event, next. Lindsey graham speaking on a politics and [applause] apta, good morning, hows everybody doing