Good evening to her students in the audience in our viewers welcome to the College Grade on the Vice President of the college. Its based in michigan. We are here in washington dc campus. Also the dean of the school of government here at the nations capital. You find out more about our programs that are website. When the library with Michael Anton who is lectured Research Fellow here. We would discussing his new book space, america at the point of no return. Welcome mike. Im glad youre here. You might know michael from his previous work. He wrote flight 93 election. Under at the time, becky us moves. Was working private sector at the time. Under another tenant until he was outed. Then he went to work for the Trump Administration and the National Security council. Thats work safe say saw the election 2016 is the x essential question. And now were at the point of no return. Some tempted to ask one of the top. What you say to those who consider you to be an alarmist but look around me and i see what is going on all around us right now. What is going on what is your general assessment to set up our conversation. Mike i would agree with those people. I am an alarmist. So us on a question. The question is am i right or wrong. So im somewhat by the fact a lot of people say this isnt sounding insane in 2016 that, not to say, i dont know, maybe he was right after all. Maybe im now completely convinced. Id say someone, comforted. Because to be i would rather than just been wrong. When everything turned out okay. So i wrote the bulk of the book for lockdown before the local riots. They had sort of a bad direction. Its something that i would rather have been proved wrong and everything become a harmonious and i can go down in history as a crank who wrote an alarmist thing. In turn out to be inaccurate. Be our have a much better outcome. Everybody also be a lot happier. Thats okay. Matthew spalding both of these books are about collections. Is there something about where we are in our history hundred history are all election is going to be of this magnitude or this is a temporary thing. Mike is definitely temporary. But thats also not a comforting answer. Because one way to solve the problem is just have one more election and elected Democratic Party and let them joe biden, if you read the immigration plan. There essentially promising to bring in a combination of amnesty immigration rules, 52 million americans. From an all reaching citizenship. The highest correlation of liberal democrats believe for district with her be congressional or state. A county or whatever is percentage of foreign. They know this. They been saying this for decades that the more immigrants coming into the country, and safe when their democratic and this will be great way to build a permanent democratic majority. The so that is one example of what i think is on the table in 2016 and its on the table 2020. Someone wake to stop that is just have or not have election or have meaningless elections forever. In california, there zero because everybody knows, you know whos going to win. Not the same program as everybody else. The country could become like that shortly as well. Thats what i most worried about. Matthew spalding so in the general question. Then i want to walk through some me part of the book. The 2016 election, the 2020 election. Is the 2020 election more let or less in a preface that by pointing out that the founder of the transition integrity project which is a bipartisan group. Michael anton no. Kilman has tweeted that you were a hard time to be treated that way. He was executed. Whats going on. This is election more or even more heightened in 2016 the net premiums executed for writing an without a trial. In this person has been criticized by a lot of our friends and has refused to apologize her back down. And city extremely wellfunded. In his prestigious and barely has no problem with him tweeting out that threat. Is a lot at the left who endorsed it. So what is it tells about where we are. I think that where we are is expecting to win the 2016 election by a landslide. The expected the transition to oneparty state to be smooth and uneventful. In which they could just begin implementation of the programs. They were shocked by the election of trump. They were shocked that there was an effective resistance. In the been very angry and vengeful and moved. The angry and vengeful mood has reached a fever pitch. I feared that if they get the power 2020, believe is a transition, it wouldve been less turbulent 2016 i think it would be extremely turbulent part because they will be out to settle scores. And for example. One person the window i was spoken to in years is actually called for a truth and refuse and elation in the commission. This is something that happens when a dictatorship follow you dont want to put everybody in jail. Ulees tried to flatten out the distances. Will crimes are there for the president and for the program. Were talking about the truth and reconciliation. Were getting that. Theres no democratic policies. Theres no justified oppositions. Theres just one side and an enemy. That is the way they see it. Matthew spalding lets back up and work through the book. They flight 93 election, it was an essay was turned into a book with discipline out more of an extensive work to think through some of the underlying problems that we face. You open this book with the extended essay if you will. From a chapter about california im from california. You spent time in california. But you. That california is a study of americas possible future. So backing away from the election you see a larger trend going on here. Tell us more about that. Michael anton the schwarzenegger, the governor he became governors we call an effort and less than two years trying to close republican conservative that was defeated in every respect. He never formally switch parties but effectively was democratic. In the congressional delegation was like 45 seven are overwhelmingly democratic. The hunt oneparty government at the state level the city level. Much every county level of the large population. There were some red counties but those red counties the right people. There are millions of them in california. They have no effective vote or safer they can vote. He just doesnt matter. They will be outvoted on everything imported present california shows what happens when the Democratic Party takes power. They left especially well represented by us. By financing this managerial class. In the socalled knowledge workers. These are the people that cram that little thing up and down the california coast and come up with all kinds of enthusiasm and they impose them on the rest of the state. Is this a very, vincent mostly, i feel like california propaganda about the natural bey and Silicon Valley innovation all of these things. Everybody hears that freedom of denying that is their freedom to saying that underneath tip of the iceberg, theres a big giant rest of the iceberg which is dysfunction and decay. And people dont hear about it. Matthew spalding what really makes it the example where things are going. Obviously theres a culture question. Michael anton how it actually operates. I start almost in the book of begin mike bloomberg, former mayor of new york city, very briefly the democratic primary as a present. Said this the model for the future. To prototypical type. Dont know how much money he has 50 billion. And he founded his own company. Not taking away from his successfully very much is all about the knowledge economy, the finance economy. The hightech economy. And without concern for the middle class of the manufacturing. His vision of new york, used to call it luxury product. It is very expensive to be here no kinds of things dont work. But it works for those at the top and thats what matters. In the Global Economy thats what matters. Doesnt care about the rest of the country. In any significant way. Mike bloomberg was very much a candidate for the coastal area. In the parts of california that he was praising are the only parts that are working. He seemed to neglect the rest. I would say the same about gavin newsom and Mark Zuckerberg and schwarzenegger. In all of the great california success stories. The famous people there. As long as San Francisco and laguna beach and handful of other places are doing okay, california is working. In fresno the foothills in the cascade mountains. In the high deserts the low deserts in the inland empire. Not only do they not care about this places, they dont even really know the there. Matthew spalding theres a sense, and just oppose that, he also talk about the regime. The old regime. Michael antontheres court sorts justification your broker the submittal regime. Which has a model of where things seem to be going. In this other old regime. Talk about later to afford your net analysis but i want to talk about those two bottles. Give california model. But this regiment to talk about the older america. Tell us more about how you analyzed that. It and talk about the confusion about the left in the right over that. Michael anton the main thrust of chapters two and three to say that were supposed to be government. Not anymore. Anyway it is meant to take the conservatives by the lapels and say, i revere the constitution and the bill of rights. And just as much as you do. But, its time to own up to the fact that the United States is no longer governed by this phrase fundamentally government away. I dont really give lessons about how is supposed to be governed. But i do spend a lot of time in chapter two discussing the tax on the original understanding of how americas post be governed. Spend more time of the right wing attack. The rightleaning tax have not gotten much of the tension. Matthew spalding lets dig into some of those little bit. And in some places we spent a lot of time talking about the Core Principles behind it. The declaration and the constitution. We think those are very important to define a regime. But its also the case that our teachers have talked about any times. When you go into some depth about how there has been a debate within the right for some time over how to understand the founding. But has that kind of taken the conservatives, the defenders of founding often the wrong path. Michael anton theres maybe to a second with this. First of all are interrelated and tabulated. This intact and says, the founding is what will be put it this way. Am trying to speak to those who look at the world of 2020 and say, i dont like this. Somethings gone terribly wrong and it needs to be fixed. Which we sent him a list. Lets list things dont like. My listener list looks about the same. But how do we get here. And then they will say, maybe one or two things. Tovar civil five. The founding. All men are created equal. Number shouldve done it. The related tactic is the enlightenment which the founding is simply a byproduct of. I dont mean to disparage it. But he basically characters america in that book in 19827 is nothing but a kind of lock in a petri dish. Puts life on a political stage. So try to answer this the best again. Neither one of the charges is true. Its a deviatio deviation from e founding that god is in trouble. The banners in fact were not straight up walking and absorbed libertarians or concerned only with the satisfaction and the appetite and things like that. Building a regime thats all right. Weve heard all of these things before. In fact they were doing the best they could and probably the best that anyone could with the circumstances of 1776 which is fundamentally, still prevails today. In the sense that we still live in the modern world. We still live in the christian world. Release we live in a world which civil religious law have been separated. I dont want to get into the philosophy to deeply visit any of these fundamental circumstances still prevail. And answers their proposed by people in the right, are things that i think are unviable. I think you know that. They chip away a lot of the founding and then they hint that maybe is altered. Maybe it is a kind of old new right that comes from 20th century. I find all of those ultimately unsatisfactory. I find some of them that might be reasonable if there included in other elements free to to schedule this out. I am trying the chapter not to bash the rightwing critics of the founding who gets 2020 correct. Little seo it helps anything. Trying to say that im with you on the diagnosis. Dont think youre right in the cure prayed and god hear me out. And from what i have heard, ive been on the fence about it. But i was impressed by that. So literally five people told me that so maybe there will be more. Thats an important aspect. Matthew spalding this will come to your serious criticism of current policies. In modern aspects of the movement if you well. There really stems from a misunderstanding or failure to comprehend the grounding. Michael anton is that a fair. Its an original case. And of think the most original thing about chapter two is putting it all in one place and trying to directly address criticism say over the last ten years. Im not going into all of the cases from the 70s. And not reciting the civil war. Not going into any of that. Its all about, and were addressing serious right wing critics of the regime thats developed in the last couple of decades. Regime which i oppose. I think its far from what it should be. But i think that i have diagnosed reasons why. Matthew spalding lets talk about the left him a little bit. So we have this 6019 project. The first 1776 project. What you make of all of that. Especially that is the root of it. Michael anton is a good question. I isolate to movements. The early 20th centuries. In the 60s leftism and beyond. The 1619 project. Some of those scholars are skeptical. But i find some good in them. The only thing i find good is that none of them were there. Theres Something Different about it. They were anti founding. It got that they thought it was bad at the time they just thought, think of them as somebody coming to the state of the art computer and finding a software, this the way they looked at america. The constitution of 17827 is cannot possibly work on these machines. They love the machines. They wanted to bring about progress. By the time you get into the 60s radicalism, the machine is terrible. I need a sledgehammer and one breakage. It. Matthew spalding so what happens there. Sue and so arises from a kind of l irrational passion. Utopianism. Residual marxism. Maybe a lot of discontentment built up in the system. Some of it i think also arises from just critiques. You telling the history one way a lot of people been left out. A lot of this begins with conclusion. Why we telling the story not the story. And then it is like well youre right, we should tell all the stories. Why are we emphasizing it. Will change the matter of emphasis and so finally were not going to tell the story anymore. And then a disparaging wind and has me about the stuff that was formally excluded. His momentum to it i guess. It took on a life in its own and culminates. I will say but the 1619 project if you been for the last couple of days. Theyre starting to deny that theyve never said some of the most radical things that they said in the new york times. They been gone so far as to disingenuously metro actively change the tweets but as they say the internet is forever. All these things have been captured summer. Turn back into their face. Matthew spalding thats kind of a, i guess for the purposes of our conversation bro make a distinction some intellectual ships that are going on. It also some structural practical things that are happening as well. One of the things that any of our friends went out about what they called the administrative state. There are some structural things that are happening. Hello there intellectual critiques and arguments. Sue and but because of the intellect. To go back to the software analogy, and the constitution this old software that we are commissioning it is too complex for a going to come up with new software. The part of the problem is that the old software is let the people decide. Because the question is too complicated. They should not be decided. They need to be decided in basis of Scientific Authority and then implement a nine person way. In order to do that we will have to build credible apparatus. They do it cleverly. Theyre still only three branches of government. In ministrant of state, not quite been almost entirely built with in the executive branch. It becomes unaccountable branch, people who work are not elected. Theyre not really responsive to electoral voting. On paper theres an org chart which the executive branch, the presences at the top everybody has aligned to the boxes go. The ceo of the company for you think all these people report to me. In the ceo actually, that is more or less true. You have a lot of leeway. The president does not. The administrator state is so insulated from political authority. Matthew spalding here we see the breaking away if you will of the regime. The regime of the founders, that was an intellectual thing. In various different ways. It was a break there but the progressives. Even though there were some things that were not quite is radical as what comes later. Sue and theres a break and it takes a while to build these things. Sometimes the most radical movements dont go anywhere. And sometimes they do but you only notice because when the progressives are talking about the want to do in 1998. In 1910. Actually pushed through a lot of socalled progressive reforms. In a immigration systems. It i listed bunch of health and safety things. But they do all of that legislatively. Theyre using the old system. Takes a while to you get the point where Unaccountable Agency can say, passing this regulation. Congress had nothing to say about it. The president did not order us to do it. If you found in violation of the week tried. And we found a way 104 agents. And then you can be brought up before an administrative judge. All three powers constitutional powers invested in one unconstitutional branch where they can charge you, try you, send you if i knew. And within one system. Against the administrators but lets say the epa says a inadvertently killed and endangered insect in my backyar backyard. They charge me with the law im hoping for an administrative judge on the proceeding that has no president and then im convicted and fined and whatever. So in one sense the old order but on the other sense ive seen that cartoon godzilla defeats b b. And shifting political power from the elected branches in the delegation which begins at the progressive themselves little structural things are going on now looking at the shift of power that is called the administrative state. By talking about th