The economy overall. Now veterans groups are moving number are a signal of a new upward trend in veterans unemployment. Were turningind, our first 45 minutes today over to the issue of veterans unemployment. We want to hear your stories about military veterans a job. Ng for or finding well put up our phone lines a little differently today. Veterans fghanistan the number is 2027488000. Other veterans 2027488001. And military families 2027488002. And a special line for employers. 2027488003. On can all catch up with us social media. You. Wednesday morning to we begin today talking about this issue of veterans unemployment. From military times reporter leo shane after those umbers came out earlier this month. Talking about the 4. 7 Unemployment Rate for veterans overall. That represents nearly 500,000 veterans looking for work in the United States. Second highest monthly rate in the last year. Was 4. 4 . At number for he number higher even iraq and afghanistan veterans as military. Com points out in their story. The jobless rate for post 9 11 up from 4. 4 . 9 in june. And 4 in may. 9 11 vets Unemployment Rate of 5. 8 in july, while 9 11 vets t Unemployment Rate of 7 . The Research Director for iraq and afghanistan veterans of against autioning drawing too many conclusions from the latest statistics. He said while one month does not a trend make, it will be important in the next two months to monitor whether unemployment newest generation goes back down and unemployment continues to be a primary among iava members according to that story in military. Com. A little phone lines differently this morning as we focus on this issue of veterans unemployment. Iraq and afghanistan vet 20s 27488000. Veterans 2027488001. 2027488002. Lies employers 2027488003. Other point on the numbers regarding post 9 11 iraq and veterans, the Unemployment Rate for those individuals has been on a, the , wild ride since bureau of labor statistics began to track them back in september of 2008. According to the military times story on the numbers from last year. 7. 5 average in 2008. 9 11 veterans unemployment climbed to double digits in 2009 to 2011. 11. 6 , 12. 0 0. 2 , overall for those three years. Then in 2012, the average of the nemployment rate was brought under 10 following a drop into 2013. 7. 2 . 14rate was then in 2015, it was the best veterans. Ost 9 11 that number 5. 8 for the year. After coming down, it has ticked back up to 5. 9 . So we want to hear your stories. Stories of searching for a job. Your stories about finding a job. About military members. William is up first. Thanks for calling the journal. Caller good morning. Jobs that are offers are mostly truck driver jobs. Kind of job do you want, william . Wantat the kind of job you to do . Caller id say trying to get loans and everything for school, its just been pretty tough. I have been taking odd jobs when i can get work. I take it. Get work, host when did you get out of william . Tary, caller that was 2006. You got out, when how easy was it you said its been tough to take these loans. Are you talking about the loans through veterans programs or separate private loans . Through tried to go the veteran administration. They give you the run around. Its been pretty tough. Host what do you mean by run around . Been tough for you . Caller i dont know what the problem is. Host if you could have any job, william, what would you want to do . Caller i wanted to go to school for medical. I wanted to get into the medical field. Host what do you want to do in that field . Get benefits. Host william, good luck with your search. N that line for all other veterans, lisa calling in from farmington, new mexico. Lisa, good morning. Youre on the washington journal. Caller good morning. Ost tell us about your job search, lisa. Caller im calling about the veterans. Talking about jobs. First. Ed Mental Health job. E they can even hold a host did you serve in the military . That no, i have family did. And another thing. Becoming bias. You put donald trump on all the ime, but you dont put on Hillary Clinton. Host lisa, keep watching our show. Talk a lot about both candidates. We try not to be bias here. Talking about both sides today later in our program. We want to focus on iraq and veterans, and the job search thats going on. Some concern about those numbers. Numbers. Nemployment 4. 7 in july. The nation overall the number 4. 9 . So the numbers were overall lower than the nation overall. But for iraq and afghanistan was the number in july. On that line for iraq and bjs nistan veterans, calling in cambridge, massachusetts. Good morning. Go ahead. Sorry. thanks for putting on the show and for this topic. Its important. Just wanted to say a couple words. I got out of the marine corps in iraq. After two tours in i am fully employed now after about three years at an boston. Nt school here in it was made possible by both the ew gi bill, which is a fantastic program that a lot of my fellow veterans took of, but all a matching program by Tufts University. A lot of other schools have similar programs, try to do similar programs to kind of the gi bill gives, which is much better than it was world war ii era but still sometimes inadequate as tuition now, rising cost, room and board and fees. Mind talking about your numbers . People hear about the gi bill. Can you talk about specifically the numbers . Helped you . How much did it give you in terms of trying to pursue this education . Yeah. so massachusetts, the gi bill basically matches for any school the highest level of in state tuition for the most expensive public university. So Tufts University overall elite s one of these schools thats somewhere near 60,000 for full room and board. Gi bill covered a decent amount of that. Tufts university matched a good well. Of that as the rest was supplemented by loans and other help. Living gives stipend for expenses so that returning veterans who are often times oing to school at 22, 23, 24 years old arent stuck in dorms with 18yearold kids which is a to be able to do. A it really does provide really good cushion and any kind of soft landing after such from ent experiences obviously the rest of the country. Important to have that collusion and cooperation between both government between gi bill and the veterans dministration, as well as the private sector in terms of loans and Job Opportunities and for veterans and Higher Education institutions that are recognizing that these students, and others, need some some cushion some way, help, some support, but who can thrive just as well as anybody had those snt experience and those challenges. Thanks for the call. Arkel is waiting on that same line. Good morning. Having trouble hitting the button. Caller good morning. First off, i just want to thank ou for having this line available and having this conversation available. My story is that it seems as i wasnt able to find any work with the Veterans Administration. Job Search Program didnt really help me very much. More so even than the one in my own home town. It wasnt until i left memphis, tennessee, and headed off to washington, d. C. That i was able find any type of employment. And that was through friends and etworking with programs like linked in and just trying to figure out the job market that way. What kind of job do you do now . Is it private sector, Public Sector . Its private sector. Yeah. T wasnt until i actually had to come back from my deployment that i got in touch with a couple of friends here in d. C. Moved up here to d. C. That i was actually able to find any type of employment. Your own networking process and not anything from the various programs that are out there . Caller right, right. That ly it goes to show the va job search whatever programs that they have available now, as far as my goes with it, hasnt been very much help for me. Currently, ist now but i have done active duty in afghanistan. I have got a friend now who just came off deployment in iraq. Hes been living in memphis, tennessee, for a couple years now. Hasnt had any help with the va job search. He had to get on active orders he was able to get any type of employment that would be gainful for him. Story. Hanks for the earlier this month president obama spoke at the National Disabled american veterans. And he talked a bit about administration has done to try to help veterans get jobs both in the federal to encourage private Sector Companies to hire veterans. He he federal government noted that nearly one in three federal workers is now a veteran. Veterans applying for jobs in the federal government can called from the so veterans preference hiring federal in the government. Theres ef forts under way to change that practice. For more on that we turn to lundy for the government executive website. Senior correspondent there. Kelly, good morning. Can you explain the veterans preference hiring practice in government. Sure. Basically gets those who serve in the armed forces an extra when applying for many jobs. It gives them up to ten extra on their federal application so that they have another advantage to sort of the list of at to top candidates when hr staff and putting nagers are together their final list. And, you know, they do have to mentally qualified for the job as advertised. Are the same, s depending on whether you are a disabled veteran, they get the most preference. They would get ten points going in. T can also apply under certain circumstances to veteran spouse, a widow or parent. Been around in some form since the civil war. And a longstanding benefit incentive for veterans that the federal government has used to and retain veterans from the federal government. You wrote stories on this and changes proposed earlier this summer. Ou described it adds a confusing and often controversial factor in hiring. Controversial . Its a very complex system in part because there have been been passed t have over the years to changes. So other rules have sort of been previous rules. So its very difficult for hr it f to sort of understand and apply it correctly. Also, agencies that have a lot of how bility in terms they advertise and post jobs, so they can use different means so preference doesnt always apply. Really and nonvets dont understand the system because its not explained well. An unfairness on how federal agencies implement veterans preference. The changes are proposed that are working their congress now guest the Defense Authorization bill that was passed earlier provision ncludes a that says veterans preference would only apply to a vets first service. Ederal now vets can use, can benefit veterans preference with as many jobs as they apply for in the government. Happens, change, if it thats where you receive the additional points that veterans for rence confers only their first jobs in federal government and not for any the e positions within Competitive Service that they might apply for. Now, the house and the va, the bill to the senate bill, doesnt contain a similar provision. The kers are working out final version of that bill right ow sort of a twist to all of this is separately an amendment was added to a different house that l in the would prohibit funds from being used to change the current policy. Provision is at trying to block the provision hat was changed in the senate bill. I think ultimately given sort of the controversy over this right the provisions changing the rules will get dropped ultimately from the Defense Authorization bill once its hammered out by both chambers. Administration expressed support one way or the changes . R these guest they havent said much about it. Congress especially on the house side have come out nd said they dont support changing it. Part of the reason people have itd that they are opposed to is critics of the program feel it was quietly slipped into the bill. Se senate there wasnt a lot of debate about it and theyre worried hat because there hasnt been public debate, there hasnt been that any change ould introduce some unintended consequences to the benefit essentially diluting it and articularly harming the recruitment of disabled veterans into government. Well see what happens when comes back in session. Thanks so much for the time lunney government executive Senior Correspondent there. Guest thank you. Host head back to the phones. Were talking about job prospects for veterans. Your experiences. Lines for iraq and afghanistan veterans. Lines for family members. Special line for employers as well. Stories about ur hiring veterans. Dean is in louisville, kentucky. Dean, good morning. Caller good morning. About you all talking benefits. Lot of homeless people, veterans. About education for veterans. If the government makes all colleges have to have Free Education to go to college, you no military. People going to the military to get that education. Just go skip the military part of it. You wont have people in the ilitary if you give Free Education. Host are you a veteran . Caller i am a veteran. The va, talk about veterans. Job, retired from my didnt have insurance. On pills and so four its a joke. Your new health care. Luck. Just out of host chris is in debarry texas also on that line for all other veterans. Chris, good morning. Morning. Good thank everybody for their service. Im a vietnam veteran. A truck driver in nam in 70, 71. Home. I was treating my ptsd with alcohol. Involved in recovery rograms in the va, inpatient and outpatient. Sobered up, it was just and sy for me to get a job work. One, using my mos as a truck ability as a soldier to be able to travel and to around the country different places. If theres no work where youre and youre like me, i dont have a problem loading up and is, you where the work know . We were deployed all over the world. Trained with the best soldiers in the world. Theres nothing we cant do if, were sober. So everything opened up for me when i sobered up. Va. Still involved in the still go to groups and meetings. Check in and accountable with them. Me. Has been real good for i have shown up and done the work. Ou cant just lay out for ten years and show up all of a instantnd expect to get help. I mean, youve got to get involved. Youve got to stay somewhat involved. Got to get your primary care. Going, whether youre there four, five times a year at least. Suggestions have worked out well for me. Thank you. Ost thanks for sharing your story. Good luck to you. A few tweets. Jody writes in, i have to wonder ptsd has made it so veterans have a hard time rejoining the civilian world. And nine tours. Madman across the water writes in anyone who has joined the last 40 years did so voluntarily if they cant find a job in the private need more be they skills. Edwin christian writes in personally as a veteran i feel the Unemployment Rate for vets rather than all people is counter productive. All need jobs. Again, the latest numbers, the that are the reason were doing this segment. Nation as a whole the was 4. 9 in rate july. For veterans 4. 7 . Thats up from 4. 2 in june. Nd for iraq and afghanistan veterans 5. 9 in july with the 4. 4 loyment rate, up from in june. We have special line for iraq and afghanistan vets to hear about looking for jobs and your job prospects. Others. R all line for military family members. And a line for employee members. Beckly, westing in virginia. Linda, good morning. Youre on the washington journal. Good morning. I just couldnt stand to listen guy at any more that last on how good they were. Years ago my husband, who was a quantico and my brother tommy that was in the got really both of them died right around the same area. A few months or so. They wouldnt pay anything for of them. E my sister and i had to take turns every month. Pay for nothing. And then now my young brother, family that n the was living in arizona. Do something for him. Live. Ot him a place to and a budget that he could live by. Died out there. They wont do anything for him. Have the money. To go t have the money down there. It. Iece had to pay for host when youre talking about these family members and talking how hard prospects, was it for these folks when they came home from war to reenter force . Vilian work can you talk about those experiences . My husband always worked. A drinking ve problem, much like maybe the guy just talked to. Yeah, they had their problems. Danny, bless his heart, the one that just died a few months ago, had problems. Like hed come out here and stay scream every so often. Years. Done it for i said go down to this va. He did. He kept going back. Back. Pt going had to walk. Even pills st kept giving him for pain. So finally thats when he came up here. He didnt have anybody. He didnt have anybody except us. He decided to go to arizona where it was warm. Got there. I said just go do it. What i told just you before. They did get him a place to live. Thats where he was found. Give it to him. He did pay. Thats where he died. linda, thanks for caller they had done the same thing. They wouldnt do anything. Giving him he wanted to see what was on his head and they just kept giving pills, pain pills. Host thanks for sharing your story. That line waiting on for iraq and afghanistan veterans. Vista, s in see era arizona. Good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. Of those ng to all listening. Analogy of a an jet and a glider. m gonna use a gulf stream 550 which is a High Performance whichate jet and a glider just can go anywhere it goes in the world. Years, the last 15 weve placed our Service Members very harsh conditions when theyve been deployed, short turn arounds. So in that sense, when they did their missions, they were in a 550. Stream wherever you want me to be decisions. E and death now they come back and they start leaving the service, now like a glider. Theyre drifting here. Theyre drifting there. To blame ptsd on them. Directed security information in the entire sitcom area. I left an Intelligence Center making 80,000. Go. Y didnt want me to saying we need you more importantly as a civilian there in going over uniform. But i had to go because i had hung up my uniform. Then when i came back as a a salaryveteran, i had that was 150 higher, thats with my va disability nd im coming back to an 80,000 job and trying to take care of my health. My civilian employer was totally no longer hadt he control over my salary. Trying to work as hard as i can, but i got to take care of my health. Medications. Do you know what . Within three months of being work becauseo stop of a hostile work environment. May, hen on the 20th of five months after, they sent me letter, notice of removal for medical reasons. Host what do you do now . Im retired. Im focused on my health. Helping in my community. From got a letter back the Police Department yesterday. To the local te Law Enforcement community, one disability check a year. I want to spread that out to their emergency fund. Because i need them. If im in an accident, theyre first ones that will come around. Since i am not working that more often. T me being bability of a an accident, from theres gang or just simple things. When youre in a job, youre in environment. Eight hours here, ten hours there. But when youre not working and basic things, doctors appointments in tucson, going to the Grocery Store, gas, the likelihood of you having to interact with someone goes up. First responders. Host before you go, can i ask how old you are . Caller i am approaching 57 this year. Months i will be 57. But i have been working since i years old. Two, three jobs since i have been about 12 years old. I love to work. Back. Tting my health im still studying security. I love to read. Books. Away when i go see my physician, i garden. Rden organic i take them fresh fruits and vegetables. I cook for them. I may be a disabled veteran in some folks terms, but am an abled body person who understands my limitations and owe all veterans. Host anthony, thanks for the call. Line for l on that iraq and afghanistan veterans. Nashville, georgia. Earl, good morning. Youre on the washington journal. How about your job prospects . Are you working . Caller good morning. Desert storm. There. Served in 9 11 over i want to tell everybody thats out there that are going through know, i went through a lot myself. I applied for the state times. Ent five down five times. Job workinged for a in the jail. I got turned down for that. Did is i took a low paying job, 7. 85 an hour. I have been there ten years. Host what kind of job is that . I do security. And i picked up another parttime job. I am still a provider. I want to tell the man that just phone, god bless him for what youre doing. Let people know, i if it wasnt for the va, i operations e got my done. Those people looked after me. They waited on me. Sure i had my appointment. They called me to go to counseling. They sent me money to me. And i think that to all these cities of and states, vas are different. ll leave you with some information. In georgia, they are building a brand new veterans hospital. Going to be hiring. They are building a Brand New Center there. O anybody that wants to relocate they need to apply for hose jobs there in temple, georgia. Host thank you for the tip from nashville, georgia. More of your k to phone calls in a second but want o give you some news from the campaign trail. Front page, lead story in the noting eet journal donald trump has overhauled his campaign team. Two new ging in managers. Wall street journal said to hes r the ground that lost in recent weeks. The executive chairman of bright a new position of campaign chief executive. T the same time mr. Trump is conway. Ng kelly anne you can see her past appearances cspan. Org. O the position of campaign manager. The story noting Paul Manafort joined the campaign late in the primary season remains the campaign chairman. Designed to is bulk up a structure that Many Republicans have complained the rigorssraeut for of the general election. Want to win, mr. Trump said. He said thats why im bringing people who know how to win and who love to win. A few other stories from the trail this morning. Lso on donald trump and his hiring ousted fox news chairman oger ailles is advising donald trump before the president ial debates. Irst debate is scheduled for september 26 at hofstra university. Ailles being connected with Donald Trumps campaign could be a form of edemption after he was pushed out of the powerful network that he helped built at fox. R. Trump having mr. Ailles taking a hand in preparations for debates adding to the insaging and media expertise his corner. As for the Hillary Clinton her ign, some hires on part. Ken salizar of as chairman serve of the Hillary Clintons transition team. Preelection ge the effort designed to make sure enter inton is ready to the office if she wins the election. Former security adviser tom granholm, nnifer tanden and Maggie Williams will serve as cochairs as well. Campaign. Ote from the donald trump is expected to be given an intelligence Briefing New York city in the field office of the federal bureau of investigations. Practice that the once a candidate becomes the nominee, that he or she starts receiving intelligence by the fbi. Thats also in the wall street journal today. Issueo your calls on this of job prospects for veterans. Want to hear your stories. Hear the issues youve had in finding a job or what job after leaving the military. Terry is in california. You. Morning to caller yeah, good morning. Watch your show all the time. His is the first time i actually got through. I have been trying for weeks. Ahead. Go coast. im on the west host its still night time for you out there. Thanks for watching. Im saying, out here on the west coast, i went program at the va. It. Me out of im 73 years old. So my balance arm isnt so great. But anyway, i got a brand new apartment. Brand new building. The front of the line. Im lucky i have a doctor that on even though im on many. Veterans out at the va out there, when you use their you got to make sure to get part gible, d. That will pay for your prescriptions. You dont, its 8. 50 per month. Ption bill. An really run up a nyhow, thats if youre an out patient. The va did me well, okay . I wouldnt go and have any urgery there, not after the experience i had. Im not gonna talk about it. Embarrassing. T but anyway host terry, appreciate you tipsng your story and your for other veterans. Lot of veterans wanting to share their stories. Specifically r about job prospects for veterans. Your experience in searching for a job after you gout of the military. James is in chicago, illinois, all other t line for veterans. James, good morning. Caller good morning. Yes. I have had a very hard time in the illinois area. A government job. I have been told to go to my Veterans Administration office. About the only thing they can tell me is well, ofres a lot of veterans out work. Lot of them im not disabled. Served during desert storm. Because im not disabled i was that people who are disabled have more points and benefits tting more that youre not. So that puts me at a disadvantage. Host james, may i ask how old you are . I am 40. Do what would you like to if you could have any job right now . In processing. I went back to school to get a in Computer Science and a job in le to find the degree that i earned. A hought that would give me leg up. I thought veterans preference would give me a leg up. Disabled enough. Host skwraeupls in chicago, illinois. Up next, valley center, california, also on that line veterans. Ther gary, good morning. Caller good morning, sir. Cspan. You very much for i was lucky to get through. Ill make it very short. I got injured in 1986. Catastrophically. I was on duty in the duty. Rmance of part paralyzed and i had of my left leg amputated. In 1986, you back this was before the americans with disabilities act came into play. I think that came into play around 1991. Couldnt get a job. Theuldnt even get a job at federal level, federal government job. Living out here in california, San Diego County specifically. I even thanked a man one time ho i became friends with who owned a mom and pop who owned Grocery Store nd there. Told him id work for him for have a job. Just to give me a little decency. And went to his son three days later. Told me, gary, i cant hire you ecause my workmans compensation would go up sky high. O im 62 host those folks you were talking to about finding jobs, did they know you were a veteran . Caller of course they did. Every single one of them. Do youto all these, what call them . Placement agencies. Filled out application. Be interviewed. I bet i was interviewed a dozen different ot 18 times. For different companies. To find a job. Always had the same excuse. Place, third place. You know . Host do you think employers differently about hiring veterans today than they did back then . Caller i hope so. I hope so. In fact, my point is, i think is catastrophically i abled, that was somebody still have somebody who fits in category of a prior veteran or their disability, prior v 1 veteran should be given a job by the government of the United States. There are so many jobs out there that could be filled by these people. Realize im an old timer. Im going to be 62. Host so a federal job or help finding a private sector job . Caller it doesnt matter. Orst case scenario, if the veteran cant get a job, then the government of the united theres a plethora of jobs that the government has you could easily fit some gentle man or some young lady served in these wars in iraq and afghanistan. Find themselves a job. I mean, they could provide themselves a job. The country owes them a job. Ill put it that far. Guy goes over there or woman goes over there and gets atastrophically injured, they did their part to society. Issue. My feeling on the host gary, appreciate the call. Want to get in one of those eterans from iraq and afghanistan. Wayne is waiting in fayetteville, north carolina. Good morning. Caller hello . Ahead. Go oure on the washington journal. Are you currently looking for a job . Yes, sir. I have been looking for work. Im 53. I have been putting in other tions like the gentle man just mentioned. I have issues with my back. Had surgeries on my back. Because of that, i have problems sometimes feeling in my legs and my arms and stuff. I can do me to work. But i have limitations. That, theyre ear like, were sorry, we cant help jobs in re, or this the field. Ost that last caller said hi hopes that employers treat veterans differently now especially catastrophically disabled veterans differently ow than his experience in 1980s. Do you think people are treating than ns differently today they were decades ago . It might have improved a little bit. Who w guys from vietnam came from vietnam. My father served in vietnam. When they came back they got times worse. Its improved a little bit, but difference much of a as far as trying to get hired. Im being left out. You serve your time. I did three terms in iraq. Know . Come back. Its hard to look for work. I had to start my own business got tired of getting put down, so i started my own business. I do my own business now. That way i can work when i want. I dont have to have excuses why cant work because of my age. Host wayne, what is that business . Aller i started my own detailing business. Host wayne in fayetteville, north carolina. Caller in be our last this segment. Couple other stories wanted to point out to you before we leave segment. Some sad news from the and section of politics media. Stories coming out this morning. Obituaries about john mclaughlin. Died yesterday at age 89. The obituary in the washington shows oting the official Facebook Page on tuesday afternoon said he died yesterday morning. Death was immediately released. The bituary noting Mclaughlin Group debuted in 1982. Mclaughlin mist the First Episode of its entire run last starting to show with a written introduction and apologizing for his illness. The hosting job that day was left in the hands of tom rogan. Immediate show on whether that arrangement would continue. Thats from the Washington Times. And then from politico vernight, news from that primary that happened in wyoming. There were also primaries in alaska. Liz cheney won the gop primary for the at large house speak the biggest hurdle to ongress for the national security. Cheney had 40 of the vote to leland christians 23 . Raceiated press called the 73 of precincts reporting. Wyoming republican registered in one public poll behind cheney r during polling leading up to the race. She spent approximately 1 primary. Uring the that story in politico this to read f you want that. Thats gonna do it for this first segment of the washington journal. Coming up next well be talking in chief of itor reason magazine. Hell talk about the newspapers role as leading monthly publication as well as Gary Johnsons candidacy and the future of the libertarian movement. Later Terrell Starr of fusion us to talk about his work at that media property. Toward a diverse millennial audience. Well talk about that in about minutes. Well be right back. Host you may recognize past ine from some of her spotlight magazine articles on the washington journal. Earlier this summer she was editor in chief of reason magazine. Read meone whos never reason describe your mission to them. Ublication guest we are the magazine of free minds and free market. Foremost libertarian magazine in the United States. So for some people you might typicallyhat as being conservative, socially liberal. E like sex, drugs and responsible budgeting. And weve been around since 1968 in print form. Up on our 50th anniversary. Host circulation . Staff size, budget . Guest print circulation of 50,000. ,000, we have most of our traffic is on the web. 4 millionmething like visits to the web every month. He staff here in d. C. Is about 15 or 20. We also have an office in los angeles. Host is there a libertarian way running a news magazine as you take over this role of chief . In guest i would say its like herding cats but i think thats journalists of all persuasion. Nothing special ability reason in that respect. Host how much freedom of choice do your writers get in picking their stories . Direction do rial you give . Guest we give a fair amount of choice. Of more because were frequently covering things under covered by other outlets. Weve been on the criminal several eat for decades. Legalization. Covering the house of defense its money. Spends all of the things. Reporters who e have been on the beats just individually for decades so we work. Them to do good host special lines for 2027488003 if you are a libertarian, want to call in. Otherwise republicans 2027488001. 2027488000. Independents 8002. Markets, Smaller Government, libertarianism. Doing in ose things election 2016 . Great is the answer. I would say we have an unprecedented authoritarian pair candidates at the moment. Hillary clinton alienated some her r own party for aggressive stance on Foreign Policy intervention. Favors expanding government in almost every area of into theand sort broader world. Donald trump has his own red the when it comes to libertarian mind set. Its possible he might enact a policy or two but i dont see any particular reason to trust him to do so. 2016 has not heard a lot that sounds like music to my ears candidates. Major host do you think this election towards people more libertarianism . Guest i do. Were seeing it in the polls, in johnson. Of gary hes frequently polling double digits. The threshold to be on the stage for this debate is 15 . Hes really falling a bit short now. Hat right as is always the case with these there , polls, tallies, is an opportunity to jimmy the numbers. I think well see how that ends up. An unprecedented number of people who dont affiliate with any party. Those people of are looking for something maybe they wouldnt call themselves libertarians but maybe they should. Theyre looking for something republicans but without the overlay of bad elations with minorities and with gays, which the Republican Party is infamous for, among younger voters. Host this issue came up last week. Viewers asking how that 15 threshold is measured. Commission on president ial releasing on monday the polls that will be averaged to out who is receiving 15 support nationwide. Abc, Washington Post poll, cbs New York Times oll, cnn Opinion Research corporation poll, fox news poll and nbc wall street journal. Ive polls that will be picked sometime in mid september. Chosen by Frank Newport according to the Commission Release that came out monday. Some news on that. Johnsonjohnson, is gary a good libertarian . Guest hes a pretty good libertarian. Heres also a race to the bottom when you start to get into the contest business. It. Rsonally am intent about i think hes more libertarian major ther of the other choices. Libertarian in the green party candidate. A totally orthodox libertarian in every single way. His vice , president ial pick, is closer to what you would describe as a republican. They were both republican governors. When you look at their records hey do frequently look like republicans. But when you hear what comes out mouths, pretty libertarian. Splityou talked about the in the wings of the party. What are the wings of the Libertarian Party . Wings are smaller. Ings of the Little Chicks as opposed to a hawk. But there are people for whom more about different points of policy. There are people who come to the ibertarian party for their Foreign Policy. Libertarian party has a way of interventionist. For being interested in sort of defense only, defense policy. Many, many shades of gray that you can get into u. S. About how big the military should be. Should we have a military at all. And on the social issue you will as long as ho say the government isnt interfering people should be allowed to make own choices. So people who will see places where they want to pull back rom that slightly in different areas. For the most part libertarians subset. Eady their own you can divide political parties, and people do. Its not quite as main stream. Host you are our guest for next 35 minutes. Were talking about your work as reason chief of magazine. 2027488003. Republicans es for and democrats, independents as usual. Ommy is an independent from tennessee. Tommy, youre up first. Good morning. Caller good morning. I like the Libertarian Party, for. They stand in fact, i voted libertarian in 1988. My question is, this talk about government and Big Government. I believe in efficient government. Way i see it, Big Government leads to slavery and small government leads to anarcy. How can the Libertarian Party be more efficient in their overnment instead of necessarily smaller . Guest sure. Your question. So, everybody believes in efficient government. F you ever listen to any speech, you are going to hear variant of, well cut spending abuse. Small government is a proxy for efficient e government. When were asking a government to do what it does better, its individual. With an if you ask governments to do less, theres a slightly higher chance that it wont mess up the things it tries to do. I think that applies across the defense downtional to, you know, micromanaging what the vending machine in the school cafeteria. If youre trying to do both of those things using a giant going to mess re up a lot of it. Efficient government is the way to think of it. Do think theres places where this actually limiting the list does wille government not only get you better outcomes, it will also free up eople to make their own choices, which, while not choice better than no made in washington. Host the caller concerned ab the line between efficiency and anarchy. Guest theres a famous line. Mall enough to drown in a bathtub. That was once something people said all the time. That from dont hear republicans any more. I think theres a very small things that the federal government in particular should be doing. Ts probably just looks like protection of life, liberty and property. Is definitely not stuck in he category of school vending machines. Not necessarily anything that all or better by a private entity. O thats stuff like deciding which car is the safest car. Consumer reports tells us that. Thats when you get into more libertarians. Th what is the role of the fda . Probably a much smaller one than now. E right thats something that makes this sell on the Libertarian Party harder. Ost bonnie is in riverton, wyoming, a republican. Bonnie, good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to know if gary believes that there is od and that there is no that were made from monkeys. Definitely have to ask gary johnson that or see what he has said on that topic. One thing i will highlight here, reason magazine is what we call a small l libertarian publication. We are not a publication as a party. Arian we are not in the tanks of the Libertarian Party. Spokesmen ainly not for the Libertarian Party. That said, i think americans in very very strong aetheist to politicians. Thats a shame. Host heres something gary johnson had said. Ary johnson said that most people libertarian they just dont realize it. Do you agree . Guest i think thats guest i think thats a little optimistic. I think americans in particular have a lot of libertarian impulses. Founding is a pretty libertarian project in a lot of ways. Is a pretty libertarian project in a lot of ways. To say we want to bring closer to home to govern ourselves where we can we want to let people to be free to make their own choices. Would almost anyones support a drawing down in areas of government where things have gotten out of hand . I think so. Libertarians, 202 7488003. As usual. , ken is an independent in new york. Caller brief question. Im wondering what the libertarian position on Climate Change is. Early on in the Climate Change debate more libertarians did tend to be on the side of denialists. Flakailey took a lot of for that at the time, saying the evidence shows Global Warming is real and almost certainly manmade. The place libertarians have something fresh to contribute to that debate which is very polarized is to say that actually restrictions on emissions are almost certainly the least efficient way to solve this real problem. Many libertarians favor a carbon tax which is a technocratic solution that gives more leeway for individual choice on the part of individuals and companies. Other people who are interested in more out things like geo where we look at a technological fix to the problem rather than a puritanical everybody turn your thermostat down type of approach. In general libertarians would say that the advent of cheap energy is something that has been a huge force for good and when we worry about Global Warming is easy to overlook that. Ton we have the ability power our cars and houses and computers we do great stuff and developed countries are energy users and the extent in the dangerous gases is actually decreasing as we get smarter and wealthier and our technology improves. In general i dont think you will find many people these days in the libertarian world who would not say Global Warming is real. Vary dependingy on the libertarian you run into. Host lets talk to a libertarian in oregon. Good morning. Caller good morning. I pulled up your interview with the libertarian johnson. I was quite impressed with him and i have been a democrat my whole life. I was wondering about Foreign Policy on this regime change, its just wonderful. Its the best thing that could happen to america. What i want to know is what since theyeir view are fiscal conservatives, for the poor and disabled that we have in america that need help . What would we do with that segment of people with the conservatism they have in the . At . This is the most frequent question about libertarianism overall is what do we do about people who really need government help the most . The first thing i would say is as much as i might like it to be true even if we elected a libertarian president tomorrow libertarian policies dont go into effect instantly 100 . Libertarian, any compassionate human you would meet with say there are so many things on the list that are inefficient, wasteful, dangerous Government Programs to get rid of before you get to the true social safety net that are actually helping the very poorest people. There are a lot of programs that we think of as a social safety net that function more as middleclass entitlements like Social Security, medicare and medicaid. Libertarian with say those programs need to be cut back. For a lot of americans that is the third rail. Be offputtingto to them. It is so important to distinguish between should we retain programs for people who would literally be serving without them probably. We leave all of our major entitlements completely intact . Definitely not. That is a distinction that frequently gets lost in the chatter. You hear politicians vilified for wanting to leave little old ladies starving in the street. Maybe we should not the cutting checks to rich old people just because they are old. That gets into the question of Social Security. The notion that if government doesnt do it no one will do it is something that libertarians would push back on. There is all kinds of fantastic andate charity in america those programs very frequently do a better job of getting resources where they are needed that Government Programs. Host you said it was very unlikely that we will elect a libertarian tomorrow. Is that your estimation of the Gary Johnson Campaign . Guest it is. It is just a realistic point of view. I would love to see the Gary Johnson Campaign do as well as possible. Not least because i want the two Major Political parties to take notice. I just cant imagine how the numbers would work out to actually elect a libertarian in this cycle or the next couple of cycles. Fundraising numbers according to the Washington Post. The Johnson Campaign has raised more than 2. 9 million since the start of august. Zack is waiting for you in bethesda, maryland. Independent. Good morning. Caller hi. Good morning. I am a pragmatist. Im not an ideologue. Im calling in and im just wondering what libertarianism is to begin with. Who are these people . Are we talking about rand paul, ron paul . Who are these people . Rand paul has described himself as a libertarian conservative or occasionally as libertarianish. A lot of american politicians who would borrow that label use it are definitely not what you would describe as orthodox libertarians. I think the who are these people question is a legitimate one, but to my mind is the more important one is what would they do if they had their way . See a lot of you policies that resonate with americans and they are not seeing them from the major parties. Who iss really no one maybe our foreign entitlements have gotten too far. Maybe this is not the right ring for america to be doing. The shades of gray are very subtle and that is where libertarians have a voice in the purpose. On spending we are hearing both parties saying our debt is not a problem. We need to spend more money on the things that i like. We wont worry about everything else. I think its important to have a voice saying actually maybe we shouldnt spend money on everything all the time and we dont have it. In that sense libertarianism is pretty pragmatic. In terms of actual human beings who are libertarians you can look at thomas massie, mike lee, paul ryan has warned that labor over the years. There are a bunch of folks who are libertarianish on the hill. Host on the cover of every issue of reason it notes that it is the magazine of free minds and free markets. Been working at reason since you are an intern in 2000. Was there a point that you became a libertarian in your life bac . Guest there is an entire book about this. Many libertarians wind up there thanks to eitheayn rand. As a 15yearold in virginia i read the fountainhead and thought, maybe this lady is on to something. I started reading reason magazine in the late 90s and was an intern. A couple of other jobs in between and came back in 2006. Host where else did you work . Guest the Weekly Standard and the Washington Bureau of the New York Times. Host what brought you back . Guest i had lunch with the editor to pitch a freelance piece and he said, come back and work for us. Best decision i could have made. Working at reason has always been my dream job. To the editor is particularly exciting. Host with us for the next 20 minutes or so. Maria is on the line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Gary johnson used to be our governor. I used to work at the state. He never gave us any raises or anything like that. And he believes in small government and i was thinking he believes in small government but he wants to be the president. And that to me is not small government for him. Says, we are he very democratic here. We are bigtime democrats. But im sure a lot of people think thats what he wants but i would never vote for him. Thank you very much. Guest i think somebody has got to be president. Most libertarians in the United States in 2016 with say that is probably not the first thing we want to abolish. I would like to see somebody with more libertarian tendencies in that seat. Host mark in tampa florida. I guess my question, we are talking about money in the government. Is a self security funding along with medicare and medicaid i believe. One question i did have was that , theyn Lyndon Johnson removed money from Social Security and it was supposed to be much more robust than it is now. I guess that was my question. She believes we should reduce or look at those entitlements in reduction. Ive had a lot of arguments over the years with different people, democrats and republicans over this particular subject. Kind of ans actually arcane subject in a lot of ways because the Social Security trust fund is either something that is totally real and absolutely exist and all of your money is waiting for you in it or it is a complete accounting figments that is actually just a dusty file cabinet full of ious depending on how you think money works in the government. To my mind that question is less important than the broader question of who should we be transferring money to . Right now we have a situation where every single month we are have moreecks to who income in many cases than the average american. Who have morele assets than the average american. In a situation where funds are limited touches all the time in real life, it seems inappropriate to my mind and to anyone who thinks the government should be an agent of redistribution in favor of the , thatn any form particular practice seems to be one we should reevaluate. On the tableats right now is very incremental. Raising the age of eligibility for people going forward. Actually the Democratic Party has shifted in the other direction. Adoptingllary clinton a program that looks much more like Bernie Sanderss proposal to lower the age of eligibility for some people. It seems like a step in the wrong direction if our goal is to spend less money and spend money more efficiently to actually help people as opposed to just shuffling cash around to buy votes from older people. Is on the line for democrats in minnesota. Good morning. Youre on with katherine manguward. Guest the main purpose of a libertarians believe is ive got mine and if you dont thats just too bad and the idea that you would destroy Social Security and medicare and medicaid as we know it would destroy the American Economy in no uncertain terms. The idea that Government Spending is that is nonsense. President eisenhower created the middle class as we think of it today by taxing the rich at over 60 and using that money to build the biggest project in mankinds history, the freeway system. That created the middle class. The idea that Smaller Government is a good thing is bad and if you look over the years you will see that every time we have cut back on Government Spending the economy has been cut back also. Your point. We got guest i want to respond to your idea that the libertarianism is i got mine and pulled the door shut behind you. Think it is a stereotype that people have about libertarians. I believe the policies that i believe. Alsoport cutting taxes and cutting spending and reducing regulations because i think it would be better for everyone but especially for poor people. When you look at the World Economy more generally one thing you see is that global trade and Free Movement of people have been the biggest engine of lifting people out of poverty that has ever existed. By sayinghat somehow people should be allowed to make their own choices that they should be free from the web of restrictions that governments frequently impose on them and they should be allowed to move across National Borders and buy goods made in other countries, the idea that that is something that would only benefit the rich is pretty manifestly incorrect. Host so why does that stereotype exists . Guest i dont know. Twostep toire a say, when you create the conditions of Economic Freedom thewho are suffering easiest thing to say is, write them a check. If people are poor, lets hand the money. Its harder to say lets create the conditions where they can buy and sell goods that are cheaper and increase their purchasing power and have more choices for employment. Just a little bit requires five more words or 10 more words. People dont have the patience to hear it. That is probably a self flattering description to say it is only the smart people who understand libertarianism i think the other piece is it easy to see very rich people as the other. Lets just take money from them and spend it on people like me. If you look at the actual tax plans of both of the major abouts they are talking increasing taxes on people who are not just bill gates. You might easily defined as upper or even middleclass. To get the numbers to balance out you have to go pretty deep into the income bracket. Seeing those transfers not only moneys take bill gatess and give it to people another way to break that stereotype. Host libertarian in florida. Good morning. Good morning. Im really enjoying the show today and im definitely voting for gary johnson this all. Towitched from republican independent to be able to vote in the florida primary but i am 100 percent with gary johnson and this is to all of america. We have two blatant liars and gary johnson is very ethical and he has great moral character and he is a leader. Hes a thinker. And i really think we have to get them to 15 . Im asking america to say lets give this guy a chance because his character above and beyond donald trump or Hillary Clinton by far and thank you very much and. Are you voting for gary johnson . I didnt hear that. Host you want to talk about your boat . Guest i actually dont vote. The last time i was on this program i talked about the cover story i wrote her reason magazine in 2012 about why i dont vote. You findnt to vote and it to be a delightful experience by all means go for it. Dont vote not least because journalists are pretty busy on election day. Theres not a huge chance that my vote is going to be the one that decides the election. I think the idea that there are people out there who are looking at the Major Party Candidates and saying libertarians seem the most sensible, that is new. Mostly people say they are so wacky. Saying at least he seems to mostly tell the truth and he was the governor of a state for a while that did ok, the libertarian as the moderate and reasonable choice shows that 2016 is a weird election. Host is there something besides time constraints for why you dont vote . Guest yes. From a mathematical perspective the chance that any individual vote will sway the election is minimal. It is nearly zero. It is megabucks lottery odds that you will be the decider in the election. Doubly so if you are not in a swing state. This idea that if you dont vote you cant complain, those kinds of ideas are kind of pernicious. Complaining is the most important american right. This is what we do. We complain. This is something you cannot lose the right to do no matter what. Voting certainly something that for many people they experience as a civic religion. They find enjoyable. They like to vote for their guy and that is all fine and it is mostly an expressive act. It is not something that is likely to change the outcome. It is kind of a nerdy statistical point for the most part. I dont vote for that reason. Host on the line for libertarians. Joshua is in washington. Caller dont you just love being a libertarian . We are the only party with a sense of humor. Just look at the numbers. You will get something to laugh about. Dont you find it fascinating how all of a sudden the Libertarian Party who was ignored since its inception is ignored because the power elite in washington dont like donald trump . Dont you find it fascinating they are doing everything to put a roadblock in the way and come up with any party they can come up with . I have been a libertarian forever. I love being a libertarian. If you cant read the book, watch the movies Atlas Shrugged 12 and three. Abouthow do you feel groups like republicans for gary johnson . Caller can i give you a statement uttered by daddy bush . If the American People ever find out what they have done well they have the ability blood will run in the streets. Of politicians have done a lot of bad things in this country and they are starting to come out what happened and they are desperate and they are clinging to anything. I think its time for them to resign. Its time for them to run. Its time for them to understand there are now four political parties. Was the new Democratic Party until their votes were crushed. The girl is exactly right. What does your vote count . They have been telling you. Host katherine manguward. I am always happy to welcome more people to the party. People imagine that washington is a place full of cocktail parties where everyone creates conspiracy theories. That is absolutely not true. When i go to parties with my republican friends these days they say, is this what it has always been like to be you . To look at the major candidates and say they both looked terrible . I think some people are seeing through that lens for the first time and they actually maybe we should give the Libertarian Party a look. Question from twitter. If the libertarian wants to achieve a stronger position why doesnt it become more active in elections at the local and state level . It is actually incredibly active compared with anybody else in the third party category. Its a very tough thing to do. At the president ial level it is hard enough. Finding and fielding quality candidates in lowerlevel races is very difficult. Major goals of the Libertarian Party is to have more candidates run on every slate all the time. It is tough. Its very hard to do. I think one thing people are willing to hear on the National Level at the moment is when both of the candidates look so unappealing why not think about a system that no matter who wins we take power away from the executive. Thread im hearing more and more. Everyone likes executive power when their guy is in charge and suddenly it doesnt look like a great idea when the other guy is in charge. This panice prevent that happens every four years about whether we should give incredible amount of power to the guy on the other side of the aisle. Host been on the republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Whatple points in about liberal means. Liberty. And liberty means freedom. Vote,using you dont people have to vote out the obstructionists and we have to get the Supreme Court filled. So this will be a really important time for people to vote. When i first paid into Social Security it was 3 and at 4800 you didnt have to pay in to correct Social Security all you 4800 too is raise the 48,000 or 48 million and you have no problem. Umb, he screwedo Social Security up so bad. People who should be paying into Social Security dont pay at all. Rich people. Host take your pick of topics. Sayt i guess i would just there is a reason that libertarian also borrows from the word liberty just like liberals do. Libertarians have a different understanding of it and it is something that looks more like leave me alone. Is better way to put it toleration. I see people all around me the americannt armed forces or the american bureaucracy to do things that i dont like. And i know that sometimes those people are going to be in charge and sometimes they are not going to be in charge. That theoretically we could all agree on, lets not let other people have this control over our lives. And gary johnson says this all the time. Ron paul said it before hand. Libertarians they say, i dont want to be in charge of your bedroom, your boardroom, your life. I like to hear that from politicians. Small seeing that in a uptick in support for the party. Host harry in georgia. Caller i just wonder if a libertarian would have supported the war against the nazis or the japanese. Of theeradication mosquitoes from the south so people would not be getting malaria. Rural electrification. The g. I. Bill. The interstate highway program. The cold war against the russians. There are some things government cant do. The way, Social Security is an insurance program. I have paid over 150,000 into it and im only just now starting to collect anything. And they have spent 3. 5 trillion of surplus Social Security. I just wondered how you feel about all that stuff. Host in our last minute. Guest the answer is that libertarians almost always would some role for is government. If they do not say that they are onrchists which depending how you count it is a subset of libertarians. The idea that just because something is a good thing to do means the government should do it is something that libertarians would reject. I think many of the things on your list were clearly good things to do. It does not mean it is right to take peoples money via taxes and spend it on those activities. That is a distinction we just dont hear anymore in american politics. Host if you want to read more about it, reason. Com. You can follow katherine manguward on twitter. Iq for your time this morning. Thank you for your time this morning. Up next we will be joined by Terrell Starr of fusion. Later in our weekly spotlight we focus on the New York Times magazines recent full magazine feature looking at the fracturing of the arab world through the eyes of six individuals who have lived through it. Thats coming up on the washington journal. Monday march the 20th anniversary of the 1996 welfare law passed by a Republican Congress and signed by president bill clinton. Our special program looks back at the Senate Debate over the 1996 law. The current welfare system has failed the very families it was intended to serve. I dont know many people want to humiliate themselves standing on a line waiting for their welfare check. There are some cheats out there and they are druggies and they are drunks. No question about it. But a lot of those people are simply people who have not yet discovered a way out of their misery and poverty. We have decided the state and the governors and legislatures out there in america are as concerned about the poor as we are. As concerned about their wellbeing and as concerned if not more so than we are about the status of welfare in their states. And includes discussions on how the changes impacted the poor. Now on our nations answer to this great social challenge will no longer be a neverending cycle of welfare. The dignity and power and ethics of work. Today we are taking a historic chance to make welfare what it was meant to be. A second chance, not a way of life. Monday night at 9 00 eastern on cspan. A signature feature of cspans booktv is their coverage of the fairs and festivals across the country. On saturday at 11 00 eastern booktv will be live at the mississippi book festival for their Second Annual Literary Lawn Party in jackson. Author panels feature discussion on civil rights, education policy, history and the president ial election. Notable authors include john meacham who has written biographies on president s and former Senate Majority leader discussing his book on political polarization, crisis point. Washington journal continues. Host Terrell Starr joins us from new york. He is National Political correspondent at fusion media. What is fusion media and who is the audience you write for . Fusion where i am the National Political correspondent , we aim to target millennials. People who are 18 to 35 generally. Younger people who are really for news that addresses the issue that we care about. That goes to immigration, social justice. We tend not to cover news from a traditional news or media standpoint. We tend to have we tend to audience that is very open to lgbtq people. We address those issues more intensely. If that means going out to california to interview a star, orld foreigporn talking to a 25yearold person who lost their rights in virginia on Voting Rights issues, those are the type of people we address. Its people who you think are not important in the political process as they are not voting as often as their parents. But they are equally important because they are our future. The minds that we have right now are going to be those people who will be a powerful block in the future. Host you tend to have a voice in your writing. Does that mean you tend to have an opinion in the stories you write . Guest absolutely. Thats an interesting thing because when we talk about opinion we talk about objectivity. This idea that if you voice your opinion that means you are not separating yourself from the story and i dont think thats really possible right now. Goes out human being and reports a story, i have an 800 word count for a report that i am working on. I talked to five people. The choice of which quotes go in and which quote still make it. I think whats really important is the experience that our brain is experiencing. One of the things that makes me passionate about the work i do particularly with criminal justice is i was born and raised in detroit michigan and i grew up in a home where both of my uncles sold drugs. I know with the negative impact gone have the for me had i down a path that. Beont just want my voice to heard. Im interjecting my Life Experience because it is important to the quality of the stories i produced. You lets talk about what make of donald trump and his speech yesterday. The Washington Times with the headline, trump reaching out to blacks with law and order speech. He put forward an agenda to restore law and order and revitalize inner city neighborhoods. I want to show a short clip of his comments last night. We reject the bill or a of Hillary Clinton, which panders to and talks down to immunities of color and sees them only as votes. Thats all they care about. Not as individual human beings worthy of a better future. They have taken advantage. She doesnt care at all about the hurting people of this country or the suffering she has caused them and she meaning she and her party officials. There has been tremendous suffering because of what they have brought. The Africanamerican Community has been taken for granted for decades by the Democratic Party. And look how they are doing. Its time to break with the failures of the past. I want to offer americans a new and much better future. Its time for rule by the people not rule for the special interests which we have right now. Host that speech taking place in milwaukee which has been rocked by violence in recent days. Your thoughts . Guest absolutely. Lets go into some aspects of what he said that you can kind of relate to and understand. Think about chicago. Think about baltimore. Think about los angeles. Think about a large number of major metropolitan cities that are run by democrats. A lot of these cities definitely do have issues with police violence. I know he wasnt talking about that specifically but i think its very important. There are a lot of areas where black are in the majority as far as the voting block and democrats have been in power and have failed them. The real problem with that is, donald trump does not talk about institutional racism. He doesnt talk about white supremacy. He makes it a political issue that is germane to the Democratic Party when in fact, if you take my hometown of detroit, michigan for example, there is an area of the city called the black bottom. Where people like my grandmother who migrated up into the major , there were specific areas in that city where black people were pretty much told they had to live. When you think about economic inequality, underserved communities, this was issues of Public Policy that were passed down one administration to the next regardless of party. When donald trump talks about reaching out to black voters, he really has to discuss that. Is most importantly he pulling so poorly with them because many people feel that he is xena phobic and quite frankly racist. That is consistent with the reporting we have been doing at fusion. Its actually very difficult to have conversations with him about race because you cant talk to his representative. I have tried to reach out to oma a, is director of africanamerican outreach. She has not made herself available to any of my interview requests. I tried to speak to some of his leadership on his africanamerican council. His favorite black pastor has not made himself available. Andering hard questions really specifying policy issues that will affect black people is something that is very difficult to get out of them. Simply because i dont think they have the answers. Byt are you credentialed the Trump Campaign and the Clinton Campaign . Guest what do you mean by credentialed exactly . I go to the rallies and we reach out for comment and write stories. As far as credentials i cant say. Host in terms of fusion media overall, what is its relationship with univision . Guest basically we were bought by univision from abc news. I dont reallyow do much with the business side of it. What i know is that right now we have a great opportunity to really reach out to the audience. Young minorities. We are able to use the voice that we have on our own. It is tied specifically into univision because we are expanding th beyond latino viewers and we are expanding to africanamericans. Other minority groups. Univision really gives us that leeway to tack onto the audience for us. Host we are talking about workn and Terrell Starrs as a National Political correspondent. Republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. 202 7488002. You are on with Terrell Starr. Caller good morning. Concerningatement the free student tuition. I would just like to hear a response. Im kind of fiscally conservative. What concerns me about the tuition other than the obvious of how its going to be paid for off the bat is whats going to happen in the future. If you look at the labor reports we are obviously transitioning more into a technical driven economy. And what i think is going to happen here is the millennials are going to be taking those tech driven jobs. And you are free tuition isnt going to actually be free because i think the taxes that are going to be increased on your wages are going to be taken out in taxes. If you pay that is off your tuition it is paid for and done with. Forhey tax your tuition them paying for it originally, taxes are forever and that will be money out of your pocket forever until you retire. Host we got your point. On the issue of college tuition. Guest absolutely. Aboutk before we talk this we have to talk about the initiatives carried out by president barack obama. One of the things he did a really good job of was investing in Community College education. I was part of an afterschool learning program. Somethingr of it said to us as students i found really interesting. He said not everyone is going to go to college. I think we can modify it to say that, everyone might not want to get a fouryear degree. Go to a Community College where you can get a particular skill, particularly with technology which is something the president has been aggressively pursuing, that will provide opportunities particularly for people of color and minority communities. Urban cities like chicago, detroit, new york, philadelphia. He has been progressive about that even when he became president back in 2008. Now you have Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders during the democratic primaries, the have slightly different goals. Hillary clinton did not come out all the way for universal Free Education. She had a modified version were education would be covered to a certain extent for public schools. I thinks the tax issue, people are still trying to figure out exactly how that would work. Are goingoung people into debt because College Education even our Public Institutions are increasing. A lot of that has to do with competition coming in, people who can just outright pay. I think education is something in this country that we as a nation, as an electorate from a political standpoint we really dont invest in a lot. Think about the money that goes to Public Education at the state level. At the local level. I think that right now as far as the answer to that question people are definitely trying to figure out what is the best way to pay for it. Hillary clintons proposal seems like it would the one that could possibly go a step further than Bernie Sanders because it seems more doable but we will see. Host surely is waiting for you in tallahassee, florida. A democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning and thank you for cspan. Appreciating the wonderful booktv and wonderful series we have with our wonderful cspan. Host whats your question . Caller in light of where we are with the 2016 campaign, and being that history and geography imprint, we now are living in a country where our millennials and are minorities have almost converged into the intersection of a really diversified country. And i think because of geography and history of how Land Ownership and opportunity is bridged because of living in neighborhoods with better amenities and infrastructure and schools and therefore better opportunities, when i listen to the issues that are confronting our millennials and minorities words in anse two intersecting way. I think our millennials are living in one of the most diversified times in our history as it relates to class and mobile opportunity. And the history that has in fact created this Class Division that i felt happened with the viewing of the donald trump speech last night in wisconsin to an allwhite audience. It was almost like reminding me of when Ronald Reagan went to philadelphia and mississippi to speak about a division that somehow saying now the headlines that black people are being reached out to. Its actually an insult. Because minorities and millennials, the intersecting group in society right now live i am 60. I teach at hbcu. Guest i went to a black school myself. Caller you understand what im speaking of. Host lets let him jump in. Guest absolutely. Heres the thing about this campaign right, with donald trump. We have to accept the fact that donald trump represents a significant portion of the american electorate. Thats the reality. And people have been saying donald trump is not a reflection of the Republican Party. Thats what the gop leadership said. We are trying to point to Different Reasons why someone like him is able to say disparaging comments about mexicans, muslims, black people, anyone who is not white, and why the more he talks the more popular he becomes. And we can only point to the fact that there is an appetite for that. And until america does a moral check, a post check on itself, then more people like him will be able to rise. Donald trump is someone who has a goal and the audacity. I will say he was keen enough to check the pulse of many people in america who do believe that muslims, people who practice islam, are a threat to their national security. People who are born and raised here. People who are of mexican descent are those who are taking their job. There are people who genuinely believe that. About whyen we talk this person is able to do so well, there is an important fact that we have to look at. Trump winning. This campaign because there is simply not enough white people to vote for him. Considering that you have enough black people who come out to to come they continue out in large numbers like they did in 2008, 2012. Most minorities, black people, latino people, we cant forget about asians, people of arab descent. There are not enough people who are white and who are angry to vote for mr. Trump. Were going to see in this election probably a dying breed of the white angry mail vote. That is something Many Republican politicians have been able to use. I dont see this happening in 2020, definitely not 2024. This should definitely be a wakeup call to the Republican Party to look at what types of values it holds. What types of people it will choose to represent its party. This is definitely a very troubling pulse check for the party. I think some people are definitely recognizing that but they dont know what to do because this is the election and people voted for trump. Host darrell has been waiting on the line for republicans. You are on with Terrell Starr. Are you with us . You have to stick by your phone. Kat is in los angeles, california. Good morning. Caller good morning. This is an interesting conversation. We see the same issues being talked about by us in the black community. We have been voting democrat for half a century. Half a century. And look at our neighborhoods. Look at our families. Look at the lack of businesses in our community. And this diversification and multiculturalism is not its like we dont understand the game of politics. We have been lied to all of our lives. The game of politics is a competition between resources, for resources between groups. It is an economic competition. We keep talking about social butice and civil rights, the competition is an economic competition. And here you have donald trump reaching out to black people and we continue to demonize him. I can understand, yes, but he has not been appealing and that omarosa and his group hasnt responded to you. I would suggest you not give up. We have gotten nothing from the Democratic Party. Guest i will keep my hopes up. Caller you should keep your hopes up. Im in the Media Business and i will continue to reach out for them. We get in writing his promises that he made last night. You get it in writing. Host what sort of work do you do . Caller i have a radio show. And i will continue to reach out to him. What is that notion that you continue to do the same thing over and over again for half a century and you expect good results . Host we will let Terrell Starr respond. Guest i definitely appreciate having conversations with black republicans. I would like to know why his campaign has not reached out to her either. It goes back to the point mr. Trump, many of his interactions with black people are very staged and coordinated. If he goes to black churches, he goes to a particular black church where it is not open to the public. I think with donald trump, his effort to appeal to black voters are pretty much they are not going to really make much of a difference because he has caused so much damage at this point. Right . I want to cap onto another point about democrats and white like people overwhelmingly support this party. We have to recognize that with any voter, many people look at democrats and republicans of which evil am i going to negotiate with . Black people vote for democrats because thats the party with which people generally feel they can negotiate. My next question for anybody who wants to question black peoples devotion to the Democratic Party is, what policies have republicans offered to black people to make them switch . 1950s, this is something i have strongly advised anyone to read the book called the lonely black republican. I hope i have the name right. Basically in this book, it talks about how the Republican Party has worked to try to make inroads with black voters. The problem is there are no policies. With democrats the switch came in the 1950s when they were very aggressive in introducing antilynching laws, antidiscrimination laws. Those were things that had teeth and showed black people the party was interested in their issues. My question is what policies, what economic initiatives are the republicans pushing in order to show black people that they care . I havent seen any. And i would love to talk to mr. Trump for omarosa specifically. Another thing the republicans do is they tend to say, let me go to the church community. Let me go to people of faith. The conservative black church. There is this assumption that just because black Church Leaders approve, they support republicans in social issues or womensrriage, right to choose, antiabortion, that means they have created inroads with those communities. One thing conservative black people, christian people think of more so than any of those things is the fact that they are black. And that Reigns Supreme over everything. Faithnt speak to my without speaking to my race. I think that if republicans continue to go into black communities and talk about christian values and conservative values without talking about disenfranchisement and voting, police brutality, then they are not going to make those inroads. Host a lot of folks waiting to chat with you. John smith writes on twitter, its time for minorities and millennials to make a change. Democrats are not doing anything for them. Pennsylvania, an independent. Go ahead. Caller hello, cspan. And good morning. I am a truck driver. I was just up in your hometown yesterday, in detroit. Guest oh yeah . Caller i got off i75 on to mcnichols boulevard. Guest i love that. I had a great time there. I have a lot of positive memories. Tot time you come up i have show you some of the good parts and we will do that. Go ahead. Caller ok. Thats great. I was especially interested in whocaller from los angeles feels that the democrats have not done anything and why should we keep voting democrat. Its because its the better of two bad choices. I am a bernie supporter. And i would be interested to hear what her feelings towards bernie would be. But that is something else. The main point i wanted to make statesseems the united in many instances, education, health care, avoidance of war policies like these. We do have other very developed countries in the world that dont seem to have the same the same struggle with these issues that are fundamental human issues. Why we do not adopt and be humble enough to copy some of these issues is beyond me. Guest issues like what, though . Caller excuse me . Guest issues like what . Because i really understand what you are coming from that where you are coming from. In it me think about the time that i lived abroad for four years. Inre are certain countries europe, places like norway, who have superior education systems. Laces that have highquality health care. When i think about your question, it makes me think about, one, when i am i think the dynamic that changes all of that, particularly where i come from, working on social justice issues, thinking about race and gender as soon as you put the element of race in that conversation, it changes the dynamic. For example, in france, for example, there are a lot of black people who are immigrants there who talk about racial issues all the time. There are black people or people from north africa who travel to nordic countries that have Excellent Health care, excellent schooling systems, but discussion of issues but discuss issues of racism. Always playsf race a factor into that because you a lot ofnger in European Countries are no longer homogenized societies. Any time you introduced new people into that society, it causes a conflict. There is going to be a question of, are these people taking our jobs, trying to reinvent our culture . When i hear your question, it reminds me of, hey, you are right. There are areas in the country, in the world, where we can learn from, where we can benefit from. I think in america, a country that is so ethnically diverse, a country that does have a history people,m and oppressing that is always going to be the element of conversation that we have to unpack because a lot of these services and a lot of these benefits that we apply in other countries, we have to look at whether or not those countries have a history of racism like we do, and whether or not and whether or not access torities have those same opportunities. Host lets mention that he is a Bernie Sanders supporter. That points to your story from last month on how Bernie Sanders lost the black vote. It is on fusion, if viewers want to read that story. Several other callers are waiting. Paul has been waiting from eastlake, ohio, a republican. I have always been a democrat my whole life, and the democrats have been in office for how long . What have they really done . Why is our country in such bad shape . Why are people out of work . The trouble with you people is, you do not want to hear the truth. You want to listen to the stories that they are going to give you this, give you that, give you everything. Guest when you say, you people, what do you mean, by the way . I am just trying to be clear. Are goinge democrats to give everybody everything for nothing now. Is justwhy donald trump an ordinary man. He is not a politician. He spent his own money. Well, i dont know what to make of that between you people and donald trump being an ordinary man. Iwill just simply say that think there are a lot of frustrations among democrats themselves through the people i have spoken to over the past few months about what the Democratic Party can do to improve on some of the policy. Blackyou think about the and brown communities that i am engaged in, the number one thing that black people want the Democratic Party to be more aggressive about is taking on feele unions, who they support Abusive Police officers. When i think about democrats and what they could do for black and brown communities, you think about ways in which police in which they can think of historical justice issues. The black lives Matter Movement extensively, and one of the major platforms one of the major points in their theform focuses on abolishment of laws that allow young people to be suspended for being disrespectful. How are people of color allowed to be safe in their schools and their communities . I think a lot of the people i talked to want democrats to be more specific about how these things can happen and produce more policies that will adjust that. But as far as donald trump being an ordinary man, i do not think anybody would say donald trump is an ordinary man, somebody who has been a beneficiary of generational wealth, and someone who is running for president of the United States. I do not think anyone, regardless of what race you are or you are, could be in the position hes in. Host charles has been waiting from jacksonville, florida, on our democrats line. Good morning. A couple of things have been concerning me. I listen to people talking of the talking about what the president should do. What about congress and the senate is where the power comes from these people who will do the things you want done. But if you do not vote, as i have heard a lot of people say, i am not going to vote for either party. Nothing. Oting for whoever you do not want in their bank will get in there. This is to the lady not long ago who is a republican. She is going on and on but she does not seem to know that you have to vote for either the senate the senate and congress, get them in there. Then you will get what you want. On the importance of the Congressional Elections this year . Guest absolutely. Further froma step what the gentleman is saying. One of the most important aspects of my reporting has focused on local elections. I will give you a prime example. When i was in cleveland covering the Republican National convention, i was on the ground looking for activists to talk about what their plans were to protest this convention because obviously donald trump was in cleveland, and we know that we know the background of cleveland when it comes to police violence. You think about amir rice, john crawford, tanisha anderson, an africanamerican woman killed by Police Officers in that city. A lot of people, people of color in particular, felt insulted that donald trump, of all people, was going to be the headliner in a city with so much racial strife. I spoke with the black lives matter chapter in cleveland and ask them where they going to show up at the rnc, and they said no. They are focusing their attention on the incoming Cuyahoga County prosecutor, mike omalley. Mike omalley came in on a platform that he did not believe that the tamir rice days was handled properly. Tim mcginty, the outgoing prosecutor, was voted out primarily because of activism and because of the black lives matter activists, the chapter in particular, were working to get people to, out and vote against him. Another thing the chapter did was, they were able to convince the democrats not to endorse any candidate during the Cuyahoga County race. That shows the particular power that local activists are investing in local politics. They said they did not show up at the rnc because they felt there were that they felt it was more useful to focus on local politics, something that they could immediately control their day to day lives, particularly how police are treated if they abuse their power. Rather than dealing with trump, who has no interest in them at all. On the democratic side, i think state legislators are equally important, the state legislators, not even u. S. State legislators, because we are in a federalist political system, the federal government does not have nearly the influence as your state legislature. So i vote for a candidate running in pennsylvania, out of philadelphia. One of the things that he wants to propose when he gets into office is a bill that will require all pennsylvania have one license. If that license is lost at one Police Department or municipality, they cannot go to another municipality in that state to work. If they have been accused and convicted of violating their power. All of these are statespecific issues, and i think the caller is absolutely correct that local elections are very important. It is something we are working to do more reporting on to a dress those issues for our audience. We are going to take two calls and let you respond. Like all is in lancaster, california. A republican. Michael, go ahead. Caller cops i am white. Man, they pull me over, they search my truck. But the democrat thing you they are going to do is break these is break this country. You guys talk about bernie. Bernie was a socialist. That is the little sister to communism. Ishas social in it, but it one government power doling out to people. That is not freedom. Host michael, we got your point. Bill is in marietta, georgia, a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. , i am from the eastside. Detroit. Im glad to see that we have some young guys like yourself speaking on black issues, other than al, and other names. Are cool. Y but thank you, though. I appreciate it. Problem with that is, i see a lot of millennials, they forget that because they can go people and jump in nice cars and they have nice jobs, there is a struggle with people who do not have anything. Regular troops arrive, instead of National Guard and state police. Folks in georgia are cool, man. I have more problems with people from the north coming here to georgia who have their little attitudes, whereas folks in georgia are just down to earth people that take you as you are. Host i will give you a chance on those two calls. I willill take on a the issue with Bernie Sanders. One, the disappointment in his campaign was that he was not able to articulate how the Political Revolution would benefit people who are not white. When you think about Bernie Sanders, i definitely think he was sincere. For all the criticism i have him, ifor reporting on actually like Bernie Sanders. He had the opportunity to defeat former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. The problem was that he did not utilize the talent of his staff, and that is something i feel was consistent in my reporting, on a piece that got a lot of attention with why he lost the black vote. He also had a report with black audiences that he could have developed, but i dont think he believed it was necessary to treat white to people as if they were the make or break of his campaign. He a very progressive was very progressive on College Education, but he gave out very specific, careful answers about reparation. We can talk about whether or not his socialist views would have been good for the country, but in either case, he was not able to articulate how he is a candidate thats how he as a candidate would have tracked as a president beyond his white support base. Even though a lot of Young Millennials voted for him, there were not enough people in their 40s, 50s, 60s who saw themselves participating in the local revolution. When it comes down to detroit and it comes down to a lot of the racial makeup of the city, i have to say, my grandmother grew up poor. She came up from South Carolina during the 1940s. She was working there at a time when she was a made, and he told me about that she told me about the detroit segregation, that if you are in a certain area and the white people in the white gangs will run you back over to the black side. We also know that in detroit, for example, there are a lot of veterans who are returning from wanted toii and who buy homes, but because of Racial Discrimination they were not able to get homes like their white peers, for example. When you think about detroit and the current Economic Conditions they are under right now, people want to assign black people in the city as a pathology problem as opposed to the policy that discriminated against like people that white people on one side and black people on the other. One of the problems with detroit that donald trump ignored was the racial stratification of that community. That politicians continue to ignore, particularly on the republican side. Even if it is not donald trump, one of the things republicans can do is acknowledge historical racism as Public Policy. That would be a significant inroads. But they have yet to do it. I hope that helps to address this question. Host that is all the time we have left in this segment. Terrel star, you can check out his work on fusion. Net. Star, you can check out his work on fusion. Net. Up next, we focus on the New York Times 40,000 word full magazine feature. Focusing on the arab world through the eyes of six people who have lived through it. We will be right back. Announcer coming up on American History tv this weekend, as the National Park service prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary, we will take a look at the development of californias national and state parks. Saturday night at 10 00 eastern reel america, documenting the daily life in the work camps. Clearing debts undergrowth from the redwoods provides lumbar for any kind of construction job which may be desirable. The conservation corps boys take everything from heavy bi heavy bridge timbers to park signs. The musical hamilton is depicted at 10 00 on road to the right house road to the white house rewind, bill clinton and bob dole faceoff in their first debate of the 1996 president ial campaign. Dole the bottom line is we are the shortest nation in the world, we provide leadership, and we will have to continue to provide the leadership and lets do it on our terms, not when somebody blows the whistle. Clinton i believe the evidence is that our deployments have been successful in haiti and bosnia, where we moved to husseinsrepel saddam invasion of kuwait. When we worked hard to end the north Korean Nuclear threats, i believe the United States is at peace tonight in part because of the discipline, careful, effective appointment of our military resources. At 6 00 p. M. Eastern, we will bye a tour of built George Washingtons step grandson, it was the home of robert e. Lee e lee, who had married into the family. He declared this house a federalist house. Included, once again, the idea that this nation would exist forever. And that no state had a right to leave it. It that that is mans daughter would married robert a lee, who became the great confederate general, and perhaps the man who came closest than any other man in history to destroying the nation that was created in the american revolution. Americanr complete revolution tv schedule, our complete American History tv special, go to cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host each week in this segment of washington journal, we spotlight a reason magazine piece. This weeks story took up an entire magazine. Andersons 40,000 word piece on the New York Times magazine, on the fracturing of the arab world. He joins us now from new york. Mr. Anderson, you write it is the story of an entire region, but you also write that you telling human story, one that has its share of heroes, even some hours of hope but what follows, you say is ultimately a dark warning. What is the dark warning . Guest when you look at where the region has been and where it is in the near future, it is hard to have much optimism. There are small glimmers of optimism for you can have in certain countries. But the overall future i think for the region is a pretty ominous one. how did you try to tell the story echo a story that takes place well over a decade . Guest i have been reporting for 25 years now. I felt like, five years on from the arab spring, and what is happening in the region now, today in places like iraq and syria and libya, we are really at kind of a turning point in the region. I wanted to do this kind of comprehensive look at how we got here and where we might be headed next. Times magazine, when they approached me about this idea of doing an entire issue, i realized quickly that no one is going to read a 40,000word essay written by me on the region. So i decided to tell the history of what has happened there, through the lives and experiences of a handful of people. So i and it up using six people from the region and showing what has happened through their lives. In some cases, starting backwards with the American Invasion of iraq in 2003. Other suspect other subjects that you meet during the rise of isis. I included a tapestry of the region through the experiences of these six people. Host if our viewers who have read the story have questions about it, republicans, it is 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. Host talk about one or two of those human stories that you followed. One of the six people featured in this story. Guest i will start with an iraqi woman from a shia family, a traditional family from a provincial city south of baghdad. She had just graduated, a top graduate from college when the americans invaded in 2003. She got very swept up with is ideal that americans were coming in to create a democracy, that good forgoing to be human rights and womens rights. Up working for the Coalition Provisional authority. Working on womens issues. When the americans and the cpa withdrew and the american influence in iraq quickly, she was kind of stranded. She tried to continue to do these human rights and womens rights issues and ended up being deaththreated by militias. She left iraq and got her family out, and she spent the next decade living in limbo in jordan. Amazingly, i had known her for included years, and i her in this project. A few months ago she joined in the exodus to europe, joining in the trip from turkey to greece. She is living in austria. Is one of theter last i introduced. , from aso an iraqi sunni family from tikrit. Laborer, a young guy, 21 years old. When i when isis came into tikrit, he joined isis. He spent a year fighting for isis, and in part of his basic training, it was to execute different prisoners of isis on different occasions, shooting people in the back of the head. He was captured recently, and i interviewed him, had two long interviews with him at a secret prison camp in kurdistan. His future is very bleak. I want to talk about some of the criticism that your story has received. Hadd french is a writer who a recent column about your piece. He writes that the magazine largely underplays the historic and present influence of islam. Mostrticular, of islams vicious jihadists strain. The picture the times paints is indeed terrible, but not terrible enough to show the whole truth. What do you make of that criticism . , even at 40,000 words, you cannot cover everything. Talkeling is that by the of radical Islamic Jihad is him, i think in a lot of ways it is really overstated. About 20ewed over isis prisoners. Iraq or kurdistan. The thing that struck me over and over again, these tended to be the foot soldiers. I am not saying there is not an intelligentsia. And the foreign fighters might be slightly different, but among the 90 who make up the grunts, the foot soldiers of isis, a couple of things that typified them, none of them had been radicalized in mosques. Most of them had never read the koran. They joined isis for the same reason that guys join innercity gangs, because their buddies did. Justhad no future, and in this powerless, impotent life that they had, it looks better to live large, as awful as that might be for a couple of years, then to continue in this existence. Time and again, i discovered that these guys who joined isis, it was not at all for religious regions. It was about power, about the power that comes in picking up a gun and lording it over other people. Read as american readers this story about the fracturing of the arab lands, in your analysis, has American Intervention made things better or worse . Guest absolutely worse. One of my main thesis points in s is that i think you have the fracture in the middle east really started with the American Invasion of iraq in 2003. It was not necessarily going into it going to be a wholly negative thing. Way. T came out that it completely altered the political chessboard in the middle east. You can certainly argue that the chessboard needed to be disrupted. When you had was an incredibly fossilized clinical system. You had dictators who had been in power 30 or 40 years. In no place that i travel around the world had i seen such political stagnation as i always felt in the arab world. All that said, what the americans did by invading iraq was to open up these tribal and sectarian fissures that existed just below the surface of things in iraq, and it had a knock on effect throughout the region. This is something that clearly americans had not thought through very clearly when they went in. Host Scott Anderson is our guest in the spotlight on magazines segment. We are talking about his piece in the New York Times. A few of his nonfiction books, the man whod tried to save the world. Questions andour comments as we go through his story in the last halfhour of todays program. Barbara is up first in new york. She is an independent. Good morning. Youre on with Scott Anderson. Caller good morning. Book called, in a the facts change, he writes it is tacitly conceded that americas reasons for going to war in iraq were not necessarily those advertised at the time. The current u. S. Administration, a major strategic consideration was the need to destabilize and reconfigure the middle east in a thought to benefit israel. When you comment . Guest i completely agree with everything right up to the end, but i am not sure that it was to benefit israel. The United States was indeed the biggest beneficiary of change in the region for one thing the Bush Administration realized quickly was that if you bring democracy to the middle east, there is this whole overture done after the American Invasion of iraq. About 2005, 2006. There was this democracy initiative. I think the notion was that if you create democracies in this part of the world, they are going to be proamerica. In fact, in country after those that benefit from the true democratic election is people who are from hezbollah, people who are inevitable is next. Rida francis is a democrat. Good morning. Good morning. I agree with Hillary Clinton about opening our borders to refugees. Even if a few terrorists get in and kill 100 americans, we can save thousands of hungry refugees. I agree completely with her. Have a good day. Host Scott Anderson, on the refugee debate. Of the sixknow, two people i write about in this article have actually gone to europe. ,s i mentioned, the iraqi woman and the young syrian man. Know, one thing i will say, i cannot imagine we are going to allow many refugees into this country if we start to see acts of terrorism in their midst. But one thing i will say about refugees and this has been true through every wave of immigration in this country since time began invariably, it is the best and the brightest of the culture who have the and the initiative to believe. The iraqi woman is now in austria. In my epilogue to the piece, i say austrias gain is iraqs loss per you can multiply that a million times over, with a vast majority of the refugees leaving iraq, syria, and going to europe , and in some cases coming here. These are people in my opinion who very much add to the vitality of whatever country they settle in. Host a big part of your story is what is happening around the arab spring. Can you talk about your thoughts as that was happening, and your reflections on it since . Those whoas one of initially was extremely optimistic when the arab spring started. When demonstrates the demonstrations started in tunisia, and they spread to egypt and were in libya. It goes back to what i was saying before about the political paralysis i had always felt in the arab world. And here for the first time, on a mass scale, the arab suite, as they call it, the masses of people were rising up and directing their anger to where it always belongs, which was to the desperate oligarchies to spot oligarchies. The problem with the arab spring amid these totalitarian ,egimes like syria, like libya people had been so beaten down and so politically silent for so many years, there was no consensus that had been built of what would take their place when these dictators were overthrown. Example, ie a small come from a rather politically oriented family. Politics withking my father from a very early age. The people i profile in this magazine piece, i would ask them growing up, at the dinner did your father, what did your mother say about the regime . And again and again, they would say we never talked about it. The Syrian College student i was stunned he told me even what myhave no it idea father thinks of the Bashar Alassad regime. We never talk about it. Even in the intimacy of your immediate family, you never talked about it because you never knew who might inform on you. Given that utter lack of discussion of what was to come afterwards, i think people were at a loss. When these dictators were toppled, what is going to take their place . Jesse is on our line for democrats. Good morning. Good morning. I would agree with everything you are saying. I am old enough to remember world war ii. It seems like after world war ii we just got in love with ourselves with wars. 2003, i do not know if you remember it seemed like we just have a love affair with war. It seems like it will never end. We are tired of these wars. From a diplomats point of view, i do not think how we have gotten anything for it. Host Scott Anderson, on the benefits that america is receiving through all of this . Guest it is hard to see any benefit to it. The gentleman mentioned vietnam. The amazing thing about the war iraq being compared to vietnam even before the invasion of iraq occurred. The parallels are really rather striking i think in both places, this is a recurrent thing in the american collective psyche, certainly be political psyche, that we see a desperate, a communist regime, it totalitarian regime like saddam overthrow that if we these people, they will hail us as liberators. People really do not like having their countries invaded and their homes bombed. So i think we seem to get caught out on this over and over again. The one thing i will say about the comparison between vietnam and iraq is that the tragedy of there was athat cost of 55,000 american lives and well over that with the enemys lives it did not change the world equation. This thing that lbj and neck some were obsessed with and nixon were possessed with, it had very little effect. The ultimate tragedy in iraq is that obviously it is far less in terms of american lives, but the longlasting effect of iraq we will be living with, and our children will be living with for the next 40 or 50 years. Host the story again, fractured land how the world came apart. If you want to call in, republicans, it is 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents 2027488002. 027488002 caller i believe they didnt think it through. I think powell said if you break it, i think colin powell said that if you break it, you bought it. I think it was a way to expand the military wartime profiteering. And i am very dismayed by the fact that we did that and pushed into it. Thank you. It is a good show. Thank you very much. Host Scott Anderson, your thoughts. Guest what i just mentioned, i this notion,as this collective notion in the you caninistration that capitalize on september 11 to kind of change this region that had been very stagnant for a very long bit of time. To the degree that oil played , that the American Military presence played into it can be debated. The ultimate tragedy of that is that part of the reason we part of the propaganda of going against Saddam Hussein was this idea that iraq becomes a haven for islamic terror. Nothing could be further from the truth. But Bashar Alassad and Moammar Gadhafi they are all despots and vicious rulers, but their primary target throughout their rule had been islamic fundamentalist. They also islamic fundamentalism as the primary danger. So there was this great irony, going into these countries certainly in iraq, and to a limited degree in libya that you sort of opened up the pandoras box, where islamic fundamentalists came into the void. In october of 2002, i interviewed the market of the muammar gaddafi, four or five months before the invasion of iraq happened. I asked him if the American Invasion went forward, who would benefit. And moammar can duffy, he Moammar Gadhafi, he had this aura of like a philosopher king. Question,ed him that his answer was instantaneous. Oh some of bin laden, oh osama bin laden, he will benefit. Most prescienthe things that has ever been said about the American Invasion in iraq. Kay is in missouri, and independent. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I believe we live in a fractured land ourselves in the United States. If you are familiar at all with the daily life of being poor and elderly or poor and any age in a rural, smalltown america, we need three things for the m people here to wake up for the young people here to wake up to a different life tomorrow. That is we need National Public health care with special provision for the elderly so that families are not pulverized when their elderly need care. Free, asducation to be was called for by you know who. And because these young people are not even having access to education. Because they are in deadend jobs. The reason they go into the military lets be honest for a good many of them, is that is the only way out of town. And, speaking of getting out of town, we have no mass Public Transportation system. To leave my own hometown, you have to go either 150 miles north or south to make a connection. You cannot go to any of the small towns around here, and even if you do not and if you do not have the money to pay personal driver or friends to take you there, you are a virtual prisoner of your town. Host Scott Anderson, any parallels you can draw between what she was calling for and sort of the conditions that set the stage for the story that unfolds in your piece . Mean, just picking up in the poor of and rural areas, and not in therily rural, but inner city also often the only way out is through the military. I do not want to carry the parallel too far, but when you are talking about with the men i talked about who joined isis, it is a similar thing. It is the utter lack of an economic future. T is a sense of powerlessness , myother thing about isis one character was scraping by living at home, picking up day laborer jobs in construction sites, and isis comes in and are offering 300, 400 a month to be recruited. You get a fancy uniform, you get to ride around in a gun with a gun in toyota land cruisers. The allure of the military not even the allure as the only way out for a lot of people. But i do think there is a similar atmosphere that leads to both things. D. C. , is next,n, al on the line for democrats. Comment about a the role of terminology and how it feeds into our misunderstanding. Is constantly used and overused. But nothing we are doing speaks to islam. I am 57 years old. I grew up a quarter of my life under jim crow. The kkk, the white supremacist groups. They consider themselves christian. But we do not call them radicalized christians. And to the other point of the lady who just spoke in missouri, i happened to be in missouri back in the 1970s, traveling across country. There are other places all over the country where, on the other ,ide of the Railroad Tracks identified as the black part of town. There is self severed nation theyre a selfsegregation. Im concerned about how the terminology feeds into the misunderstanding. That keeps the things going. One last thing before the american experiment, all countries had kings, desperates. Applied to the french revolution. Populations were not ready to accept the fact that they could be self ruling. Ruled by king. T that is my comment. Host Scott Anderson . Guest the gentleman raises a great point. Said, klux klan, as you has always seen themselves as a devout christian group, and they are never identified as such. With this whole emphasis on talking about islamic fundamentalist terrorism what do we gain by attaching islamic 28 . Do we really want to try to establish this idea that one religion is against another . I have never really understood. People are trying to assist to insist that president obama or Hillary Clinton adopt this terminology. What do they think is the gain or benefit from doing that . The more you paint this battle and it is, a battle or a war but the more you paint it as something between religions, in my feeling it plays into the hands as to exactly what groups like isis want to achieve. To be seen as a war between religions. Host outline for democrats, you are on the Scott Anderson. Caller good morning. About you wrote a book lawrence in arabia, and i wonder if he was taken from the movie lawrence of arabia, that movie from the 1940s. Yes, the movie was actually 1962. The lawrence of arabia movie with peter otoole. It was a bit of a play on lawrence of arabia. Hugelylawrence was a important figure, a jr. British military Intelligence Officer who fought with the arabs during world war i against the ottoman empire. He rally the arab tribes to file fight. I followed his exploits and three others in the middle east during world war i, including the only american intelligence agent in the american middle east at the time. The idea was to show the shadow war that went on in the middle east at that time. World war i being out of world war i was created the middle east, the modern middle east. A lotlot about the of the issues that go back, the artificial borders imposed on the region go back to a piece that was propose on the region at the peace conference. Britain and france, the victors of world war i, carved the region out for themselves. I spent five years working on that book, and it came out three years ago now. Host about 10 minutes left in todays show. Mary is waiting in sanderson, texas, a republican. Go ahead. Caller just to your point, regarding where we are right now the fractured status of the region as i have told my congressman, will heard in the 23rd district, who is over in pakistan and afghanistan, he knows these countries. Go back to the u. N. , set a fire under the u. N. We want to redraw these lines. If you need to get pardons part of southern iraq and iran, lets do it. We draw some lines, and as i learned in the emirates, used a in your place. You stay in your place. If we can arm everybody, then they could protect the region, just as the kurds have done. He does not read the koran for dummies. Thank you very much. I look forward to reading your article. Host is fracturing some of these countries as the caller suggested guest it is a tempting idea, and unfortunately in a lot of places, it is not as simple as that. The caller mentioned iraqi kurdistan. Iraqi kurdistan has had their own nation since 1992, essentially. They have an internal border, there were military, their own parliament. So they are part of iraq in name only. They very much want to even get rid of the name. So it is tempting to look at kurdistan and think you can create anthat and iraqi sunnistan or shiastan. The problem with these tribal and clan divisions, just looking at iraq in particular, what do you do with baghdad, which is a mixed city . Shia and sunni, how do you divide that . Are talking about tribes of hundreds of thousands of people, the larger tribes. With sunni and shia imposed on them, how do you divide that . For the sectarian identification or their tribal identification . When you start thinking of how you can divide these places up, these regions up, it starts getting more and more complicated. I understand the temptation to want to do that here it i mention in my article the whole german question. This was the final solution that was done to germany at the end of world war ii, where millions of ethnic germans, in the baltic states, in poland, hungary, romania, were forced at gunpoint and forced to go back to a germany that in some cases they had no identification going back generations. Wrenching, very largely unknown history of what happened in 1945, thinking 46, 1947. Solve openly did kind of the german issue that had been going on in Eastern Europe for generations. Can there be Solutions Like that in the middle east . Possibly. Partition between india and pakistan is a similar story. But we should not be getting ourselves that the solution will be simple or fair or anything less than murder to create these boundaries. Host paul, a democrat, good morning. Taking myank you for call. My question for mr. Anderson is basically what do you think the effect of revaluing the currency in iraq would have right now . From my understanding, there are contractors lined up waiting to throughy rebuild iraq their infrastructures and things along those lines. However, at the current rate that they have right now, i do not believe that is going to be something that would happen. I would like to get your opinion on that. Thank you so much, gentlemen, for taking my call. Guest i have to say, i do not know much about the idea of reevaluating. What i will say about any kind of rebuilding of iraq, you have the problem of oil being so cheap right now. So you do knew to have that so you do not have the income coming in. You have so you do not have the income coming in. Intore people coming back this country that is still so unsettled . I think it is a rebuilding of iraq that will be a long time in coming. Vegas, nevada, on the line for independents. I am from palestine, jerusalem, in 1947. The New York Times is guilty of war crimes, first of all, against the arab world. All of the information about israel, which does not exist. Europeans are occupying my country of palestine. Am an american that is the name of this country from canada down to mexico. We have done nothing but world wars. Wereast two world wars about creating the state of israel. Do you want to respond to that . Guest not really, no. I do not agree. Linda,e will go to knoxville, tennessee. Good morning. Caller my qualification for commenting on this is that i was a middle Eastern Studies major starting back in 1973 when i first entered college. Seeingntirely caused by columbia pictures rerelease lawrence of arabia in 1971. And then i made the classic mistake of mistaking an interest in lawrence for an interest in the middle east. I remember you being on cspan back in february, 2014, when your book came out. I was wondering whether you had made that is not the question you got to the critical point when lawrence gets sent back to britain. Left what happened in the middle east and went back to england and followed lawrence. Big mistake. The real story is what happened when the european powers cut up the middle east after that. And the particular story i am focusing on is saudi arabia. Saudis are. He i know they came out they were wahhabists originally. The cleric, they were his sword. He was the message. A conquered the Arabian Peninsula twice in the 1800s, and both times were driven back by mohammed ali and his son ibra him that agents. I want to know how Alec Guinness ended up king of iraq, i. E. The character he played in lawrence of arabia, ended up king of iraq. I want to know where jordan comes from. Host we are running out of time. I do not know if we will get to all of those questions. Scott anderson, i want to give you a chance. The houseking about is how you get to saudi arabia today it goes back to him. Power comic in this case, brick it goes back to imperial , in this case, who Lawrence Arabia was working with. And also in the south, husseins chief rival. The british said we cannot lose, we are backing both tribes against each other. , yes, what has happened the caller mentioned jordan and iraq. The other thing the colonial powers did, and they did this all through Subsaharan Africa and the scramble for africa in the 1880s you employ a local minority tribe, or Minority Religious Group as your local overseer over the majority. That minority then can never rebalance you as a colonial go againstcan never you as a colonial power. This divide and conquer strategy was used all around the world. Scott anderson is a contributing writer to New York Times magazine. His piece, you can check it out newyorktimes. Com. Thank you for joining us. Guest thank you. Host we will be back here tomorrow morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. Have a great wednesday. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] here is a look at some of our live program coming up. Join us and a half hour for a conversation with the founder of an Antigovernment Movement in zimbabwe, hosted by the atlantic council, set to start at about 10 30 eastern. Later, an event calling for a president ial pardon for marcus garvey, who was convicted of mail fraud in 1923. Run the National Press club, that starts at 1 00 eastern
comparemela.com © 2020. All Rights Reserved.