Allow people to make the decisions inr own communities rather than having someone from far be away be able to decide because of a Good Campaign how your health. I think we need some type of democracy to elect people to run things. What i dont think we need to do is have democracy decide what marriage looks like, what health care looks like, you know, what our communities look like. I think you have to localize that. And there is no perfect system. I think we do have the structure of the best system available, were just not i think were getting away from what makes that system great. Host and how would we do that . How would we accomplish that . Guest well, you want to allow states to make their own decisions. You dont have sort of human projects like obamacare and other things. And im not just pointing the ficker at democrats finger at democrats. I think republicans with no child left behind and other programs undermined local control of education and other things and, thus, created this sort of gigantic, centralized democracy rather than local democracy. Host what is the quote from john adams that you use in your book, there never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide . Guest yeah. I think thats what were doing in a way. Im more hopeful, i guess, that we can sort of turn it around. Pause were not really a democracy because were not really a democracy, were a republic. A cliche, people say it all the time, but i think theres a lot of truth in it. Host where do we go . Guest were going to be heading in the wrong direction for a while, i think. Have you seen flights of religious liberty where you have washington deciding what it means elsewhere by pressuring governors and, essentially, forcing people to participate, bake a cake for a gay wedding. Im actually, im for the government getting out of the marriage business completely because what kind of relationship i have in my personal life is none of governments business if no ones being heard. I mean, im a libertarian, so i believe that, and i think democracy consistently undermines that. We recently interviewed an author at georgetown law who said its time to throw away the constitution, do away with the constitution. Guest i think thats just a terrible idea, obviously. Its a provocative idea. I dont know what he wants to replace it with. The constitution was written by men, it didnt come down from mount sinai, so if you want to change it, you can. There are ways to do that, and its been done many times. Im not sure what he believes. I think the constitution, though , generally speaking is a fine document to diffuse democracy and centralize government and to give people sort of the most individual freedom possible as far as government. Host you keep talking about diffuse, but do you still see a need for National Elections . Do you still see a need for congress and the senate . Guest i do. Im well, i do. Im not an anarchist or anything of that sort, but i think their role is politics plays two important roles in our lives. You know, its not just the politicians fault, the electorates fault as well. We are not educated on the topics were voting on and so passionate about sometimes. I think i saw a poll 40 of people didnt know the difference between medicaid and medicare. So yet theyre voting on health care policy, essentially, when they vet for the president. So i think when they vote for the president. So i think that the voters are a problem, and the politicians are a problem. But i dont know if theres a better system to sort of keep centralized government if place. I dont think parol bemently parliamentary systems work any better. I like the system we have. But be i think there are a lot of to things we can do to fix it. Host name another example of how to fix it. Guest well, just education policy. I mean, ive mentioned it in passing before. I think that every president lately thats come in wants the to have some sort of National Education policy as if the kids from mississippi have the same needs as the kids from vermont. Its just not the case. And, in fact, within the state i lived in colorado for many years. Theres boulder which is maybe the most liberal city in america, but this is also Colorado Springs which is one of the most conservativing cities in america. I believe people should be able to teach their values. I dont think people should live in those communities and teach kids witchcraft or something. I think generally people will choose to do the right thing on their own without government, but be you want to teach your kids creationism, you should be able to. Host so when it comes to diffusion as you keep saying, does that mean get rid of the department of education, get rid of the energy department, etc. , etc. Guest well, i live in a theoretical and a real world. In the real world, thats not going to happen, but i think it should. I dont see a need for the department of education specifically. But thats not going to happen, lets be honest. So i think the best we can do is rely on more federalism for our everyday, you know, our votes. And starting with obamacare which probably will never be repealed, you know . Thats reality. But moving forward, i think, we should always be laboratories of democracy are the states, and i think they should stay there. Host what about the direct election of senators . Guest what . Host direct election of senators. Guest again, its not going to change, but i think there would be far more if the state legislatures elected the senators, i think youd have a lot more, youd have senators less concerned about National Politics and more concerned about the state which is i think what the founders had intended. Again, we cant even pass a bill to do anything be, so were not changing the constitution in the near future. But, yeah, i think, i think the original way was far superior. Host david harsanyi, you talk about the bandwagon be effect in the people have spoken. What is that . Guest well, lets talk about gay marriage, you know . Theres always been a debate in this country, but for many, many years it was unpopular in states, and then all of a sudden a president says hes for it, and all of a sudden theres a bandwagon effect where everyone says, oh, or the president says its okay, it must be. And they sort of gather around the issue and sort of change their mind. And people are guilty of that in almost in culture, in music, in everything. So i dont know why theyd be immune when it comes to the political issues which they, as i said before, know very little about in reality. Specifically, most americans. They also believe a lot of crazy things, you know . Opportunities of americans believe in ufo and as trolley and all kind of things that make me not want to trust them to make decisions for me. Host what does the constitution say about democracy . Does it address it . Guest no. Democracys not mentioned in the constitution. Federalist papers talk about it. I actually hate to disagree with the founders. I think they had a bit of a rosy view of what democracy would be like. I think but its not mentioned in the constitution, and they had no, in one thought that democracy, specifically a centralized federal democracy would be this powerful. I dont think they ever imagined that. Host is your view shared across the spectrum . Guest youd be surprised how many listen, when i told my parents what book i was writing, they were, like, what . Because we dont think of democracy as the process to that reflects our ethics and morals, we think of it as something thats just very positive is meaning freedom and all these things. But democracies we see in russia and elsewhere doesnt man in more liberty or more individual liberty. So what was the original question again . Host what does the constitution say about democracy . Guest oh. Constitution says nothing. [laughter] host no, no be, political spectrum. That was the question. Guest youd be surprised how many people will secretly tell you they think sometimes one person should be running something. Ill give you an example at cpac, a lot of people want to end the fed or, or they want people in the Federal Reserve to open up their files and let everyone participate. But can you imagine having everyone talking about the Federal Reserve when even the fed governors probably dont really understand why things are happening . I think sometimes we just have to say there are people who know more about manager, and we have to allow them to run whatever institution were talking about. As we do in religion, for instance. Host weve been talking with david harsanyi. His most recent book, the people have spoken, and they are wrong. Published by regnery. David harsanyi is also the author of obamas four horsemen and the nanny state. Thank you for your time. Guest thank you. And thousand booktv on cspan2, 48 hours of authors and books every weekend. Here are some of the programs to look out for this saturday and sunday. All weekend we bring you coverage of last weeks tucson festival of books. Checkbook tv for check booktv for a complete schedule. Walid phares, and the middle east. Also michio kaku talks about the latest advances in brain science, and alan townly recounts the experience 06 american soldiers during the vietnam war. Visit us at booktv. Org. Heres a look at some of the best selling nonfiction books according to National Public radio a look at some of the current best selling nonfiction books according to National Public radio. I do recognize that islam phobia exists. I mean, if its explained a rational poor of islam and, therefore, negative attitude towards a community, i am absolutely against it. It is part of xenophobia. Islamphobia is nothing but xenophobia versus one group. Its part of it. But what happened is that the islamists lobby, the brotherhood lobby and the iranian lobby have hijacked that a notion and made it into a weapon. Anybody whos criticizing a policy issue that has nothing to do with a religion, having to do with the five pillars, okay . They have been accused of islamphobia, and i think this is very close to what the National Socialists in germany would have accused anybody whos criticizing their policies of being against the germans. And even at the international level, this has become very dangerous. Walid phares on u. S. Policy in the middle east on booktvs after words with. And on april 6th, more discussion on the middle east with military strategist and former assistant defense secretary bing west with your calls and comments live in depth starting at noon eastern. Booktv every weekend on cspan2. Peter stark is next on booktv. He recalls the partnership between business magnate John Jacob Astor and thomas jefferson, creating a kohl think on the Pacific Coast a colony on the Pacific Coast in the early 19th century. The settlement, dubbed astoria, had a short existence in presentday oregon. This is about an hour and 15 minutes. [applause] well, thank you for that nice introduction, and thank you, powells, and you all for being here. Normally i have a more formal presentation, i have a video that ive shown at readings, but tonights a special night, so im going to do manager a little different something a little different. And im going to tell stories a little bit more and, of course, im going to do some reading as well. But its special because, one, this is powells, were in oregon. Astoria is very nearby. The center of this story. And also were here with cspan booktv x so we have a National Audience as well as a oregon audience. So im going to tell some stories, and you oregonians may know some of the stories, and you may not know others. But ill start with how i came to