Morning, an essential question was asked about the segregation of american political history in which there is a real barrier to what organizations and individuals are labeled as political or diplomatic actors. In a similar vein, this panel seeks to shift the conversation toward a decemb discourse that s latinos as central rather than peripheral to the development of modern american democracy. Forged in the fire of 19th century warfare, boosted by constant mass migration throughout the 20th, latinos have been part and parcel of modern americas social fabric. With well over 150 years of history in the United States, latinos have made an indelible mark on u. S. Politics. Be it in the early legislative histories in the southwest territories, as founders of longstanding civic and political organizations, in the protest movements in the 1960s, or 70s, or as voters, latinos have made u. S. Politics their own. Yet in reading the major synthetic works of american political history or examining
This was from the president ial ideas festival hosted by the university of virginias miller center. We appreciate you coming, we have some other panels going on at the same time, we will try to make it worth your while. Today we are really lucky, i am a former speechwriter for president obama. We are also really lucky to have sarah and john. Jeff who works for resident click and was supposed to be here but he had a conflict that kept him in d. C. We have some questions for these two, and then we will take any questions you have. If theres anything we hope you take away from this session, being a president ial speechwriter is exactly like you think it would be on the west wing. [laughter] im just kidding, it is much cooler. [laughter] i will start with questions about the relationship between ideas and speeches. Sometimes what starts as an idea and ends up as in a speech, sometimes the process starts before you have the idea. Im curious him how does an idea become a speech . In a weird
The president making an announcement or there is a press conference that is interesting or something. And you listen to bush and i think a lot of people thought well he is very well informed and well spoken and this is not what i was expecting because most people are busy with their lives. Is he funny. There was a. Kind out who your audience is. And things of that natch. However, it is the president speaking and therefore as he always told us, everybody is important. We were not to think of a small rose garden event for teacher of the year as not important. It was part of the full jol yum of statements that he made at president of the United States. He was always after us to never skip a step in making a case. Even if youre speaking to the people that an audience of people likely to be in agreement of what youre saying, he always has a broader audience. And if he is making his case for Social Security reform and he skips the hard part, a person who disagrees and maybe even a person who
My hope is to use about half of the time to talk about questions ive got for these two, then spend the other half taking questions that you have. If theres one thing i hope you take from this whole session, it is that being a president ial speechwriter is exactly what you would think it would be on the west wing. Thats it. Im kidding, it is much more like veep. Since this is the president ial ideas festival, i will start with a question about the relationship between ideas and speeches. Sometimes what starts off as an idea ends up in a speech, sometimes the speechwriting process starts before you have the idea. Just curious, sarah, what do you think, what would you share about that process, how an idea becomes a speech. I think in a weird way as speechwriters, we are not coming up with the ideas. There are much smarter people in the building that are developing those ideas. But in a way i think that these ideas kind of they dont get crystallized until theyre litigated on the page. So a
Media. We are proud of the realignment here at hudson. The podcast launched last year and i recommend especially for those who havent been following that you take a look at the episodes from last year. Particularly the conversation with secretary of state mike pompeo, josh holly. Chris rinaldi. Mike gallagher. Mike durand and others. Its an excellent program, partly because of the two people that put it together. Their ability to bring out topics and move the argument along. I want to thank them for that. We are happy to launch this Years Program with Michael Michael lind. A prolific writer of more than a dozen books. Michael is a professor at lyndon b. Johnson school of Public Affairs at the university of texas. Important for tonights conversation, he is the author of the new class war. Saving democracy from the managerial elite. The book was published today. So we are here at the launch. Congratulations on the new book. Whether you agree with his interpretation of western politics, h