And we think the sponsors for the panel on the president ial year. Here to say a few words about the panel is andy taggart andir also coauthorau along with face organizer jerry nash of the boo mississippi politics. Its really a privilege for my partners and i got anty to pt opportunity to participate in this way and i thank all of you for participating the this is an extraordinary gift that the board and a paid staff of the book festival have contributed to our state and the sponsors are thrilled to have a chance to be a part ofchance t it. [applause] also welcome to the great treasure that ooh our State Capitol represents for all of us. You all if we were playing whats my line, among the three gentlemen to my left, one of them would be able legitimately to say im a pulitzer prizewinning president ial biographer, one would be able to say im the former majority leader of the United States senate, but only one of these three gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, can say in good conscience that he was eudora wealthys paper boy. Thats right. [laughter] [applause] Stuart Stephens has been a friend of mine for a long time. He will be the moderator for our panel. His father, actually, was one of my very first law partners and professional mentors. I hold this man in extremely high esteem. But for the fact he has not yet learned to play a musical instrument, stuart is the dictionary definition of a renaissance man. Truly, he is. He was the first person to complete all ten of the crosscountry skiing equivalents of a marathon in the same year. Something that sane people dont do, right . It coordinated winning campaigns at virtually every level of the american political process up to and including races for the white house, currently working in a variety of very tough, competitive United States senate and governors races around the country, a multiple author himself, accept books, the two most recent would be the ones familiar to this crowned. His penultimate book published last fall the very cool last season, which is the story of making all but one ole miss Football Game in an entire season with his 95yearold father traveling around the country watching ole miss football. His most recent book, though, has just been published, an extraordinarily and prescient, i suppose, its the story of a strongman who sort of muscles his way into the republican nomination at a brokered convention. Go figure . [laughter] i give to you my friend stuart stevens. Thank you, andy. [applause] so what were going to do, were going to have questions for about 20 minutes, so well have plenty of time for that. And before that well dive into this. Let me just introduce these two gentlemen quickly. Ive known trent lott, he doesnt know this, since i was a page for thad cochran. And he was chief of staff for a thenDemocratic Congressman. Most of us coming up mississippi politics of that era, we all worked for democrats. I worked for william winter. I worked in all of his losing campaigns. When i finally quit working for him, he was able to win. [laughter] and he confirmed, he has never lost a election in his life, though he maintains that he lost the student body president at university of mississippi, and that should count against him, but i think well give him a pass for that. [laughter] but, you know, thats no small thing for anybody. You know, elected to the house a eight times, elected to the u. S. Senate four times. He was minority whip, then majority whip, majority leader in the house and then went over to the senate and did the same thing. Which in politics is pretty much as good as you can get for hitting for cycle in leadership. Hes written two books which youve got to read. One is really a memoir of politics called herding cats which i read when it came out, but i just reread it. Absolutely delightful. If you came across a country that was thinking about starting a democracy, id recommend this. Theyd see its not easy. And this book crisis point that he wrote with senator daschle which i assume is the only book written by two former majority or leaders. Majority leaders. Now, this came out last summer and talked about the crisis in our politics and where were headed and, clearly, this president ial year has proved them all wrong. [laughter] but well get boo that. Into that. And jon meacham. If youre a writer and like most of us and feel you really havent accomplished enough, itd probably be good to leave the room now, because jon has had an extraordinary career as a writer and as a public figure. Hes written seven books, one a pulitzer for his biography of Andrew Jackson which is just an amazing book. I recently saw some discussion that was comparing donald trump to Andrew Jackson. I thought, clearly, this guys not read jons book. [laughter] they would never, never be making that connection. He just finished a biography of president bush, a man that i, like so many, just admire and love. Its really an extraordinary book. It captures not only a man, but an era. And if that wasnt intimidating enough, jon sort of writes on the side. Hes actually done things like being editor of newsweek, he teaches at vanderbilt, but for many of us his most significant achievement is hes married to this wonderful, brilliant woman from mississippi delta. So we can claim him. [laughter] and if you ever have a chance to hang around with both of them, you realize that jons actually the domey of the family. [laughter] but the subject is the dummy of the family. But the subject is president ial year, and i wanted to start out with you, senator. Ive just got to ask, how many times this year have you said to yourself after you wrote this book that everything you talked about has only gotten worse . [laughter] well, thank you very much, stuart, more the introduction for the introduction, and i want to thank everybody thats involved with putting together this mississippi book festival. This is really fantastic. I had no idea thered be such a tremendous crowd here today, and even the rain didnt dampen anybodys spirits, so thanks to all of you that are involved in making this a success. Thank you, andy taggert, and your law firm for sponsoring this panel. What an honor it is to be here with stuart and with jon. You know, he really is a mississippi guy now since he married a mississippi girl absolutely. And theres [laughter] there is clear proof of it because hes sitting up here with no socks on. Laugh [laughter] Haley Barbour would say, yep, hes a mississippi boy thats true. With khakis and no socks on, so its a great honor to be sitting next to jon i reserve the balance of my time. [laughter] but thanks for the introduction, stuart. You know me, stuart, and you know ive said many times this year this beats all ive ever seep. [laughter] everything i thought i knew about Party Politics and american politics had has been n out of the water this year not just on the republican side, but the democratic side too. Bernie . I served in the senate with bernie. I know bernie. I used to know how we could clear the senate chamber, let bernie get up to speak. Everybody would leave. [laughter] so, i mean, its been on both sides, and im having to try to analyze where are we here. But really what were seeing now is what tom daschle and i foresaw a year and a half ago when we were tom and i both served as majority and minority leader, and we went through a lot of tough times, you know . 9 11. The anthrax attack was in his office. We had the 50 50 senate, you know, 100 senators, 99 of whom or 98 think they should have been president. I dont know who the other one would have been when i was there. [laughter] but trying to manage the 50 50 senate and the impeachment trial of William Jefferson clinton. We went through a lot of things together, and in the process, we adopted a chemistry. I liked him we developed a chemistry. I could talk honestly to him, and i knew he wouldnt betray my confidence. The only thing i promised him was, look, i will try never to surprise you, and every now and again id mess up, so id go apologize, and we became friends. A year and a half ago we were sitting at his house, trish and i went to see tom and linda to try to teach them how to be southerners. He said, hey, south dakota. I said, no, that aint going to work. So we took them some mosquito spray, tick remover, took them a hammock. We were sitting out on his back porch, tom and i, and linda and trish were inside, and we were lamenting what had happened to the senate beginning it started deteriorating, going downhill in 2006 and, of course, now the bid lock beats all ive gridlock beats all ive ever seen, honestly. Tom said, you know, we ought to do something unusual, get a republican and democrat, one very liberal, the other a southern conservative, and see if we can put a book together, and so we did. We called it crisis point. How prophetic it was. At the time, we really were just thinking about the gridlock really in the congress, but between president s, both bush and obama, and the congress and what we think could be done about it. Well, we needed even more. So in answer to your question and not make this a filibuster, many times i have said, yes, this is a crisis point. The question is now, what are we going to do about it. We think we have some ideas in here, and one of the things im pledged to do even though i have a real job these days, you know, i retired because my wife said dont you think its time you get a real job before its too late . [laughter] but my goal in washington is to find anybody that will listen to me on both sides of the aisle, both sides of the capitol and even if its, if i could possibly talk to the next president , whomever that may be, and say weve got, weve got to do better. Weve got to find a way to make this place work. [applause] jon, one of the wonderful themes in this book is you have a man, president bush, who embodies a certain era of the greatest generation. War hero at 20, congressman, head of the cia, ambassador to china, Vice President , president , and i was really struck reading this capturing what it was for him to then lose to bill clinton. This theme that you have of passing from greatest generation to the baby boom generation, and now we have republican nominee who is a reality tv star. Right. What do you think that means . Do you think this is an aberration or just sort of a continuation where what youve done in the past or service to the country will mean less to voters . Well, i hope not. The central thing donald trump makes, ill go ahead and say voldemorts name [laughter] no one else has. There are, by the way, no bush steaks or bush vodka available commercially, so i apologize for that. Trump appears in the 88 race briefly. He told lee atwater who then told president Vice President bush that trump was willing to serve as Vice President. [laughter] and the old man in his audio diary said, strange, unbelievable. [laughter] which is kind of the headline of the past 14, 15 months. I think in many ways, you know, bush is the antithesis George Herbert walker bush is the antithesis of what were seeing right now without any argument. Hes someone who spent his life in Public Service; as you say, at the on his 18th birth days, june 12, 1942, three things happened. He graduated from andover, he turned 18, and he drove to boston and took an oath as a naval enlis tee, later becoming the youngest flying officer in the navy. Hes shot down, he loses his two crew mates, he plunges into the ocean. Blessedly, the life raft was near him. He almost was decapitated on the way out. As you bail out of a plane, the plane doesnt stop, and he gashed his head on the tail of the plane. So another 6 or 8 inches, it would have been that would have been the end of the story. And he, the island in which, next to which he was shot down was the scene of horrific japanese war crimes including cannibalism. So at various points when mrs. Bush would be upset with george h. W. Bush, he would say, well, at least, bar, i wasnt an hors doeuvre. [laughter] which is a pretty strong domestic card to play. Laugh and im married to a mississippian, as you heard, and ive never had the courage to do that. [laughter] then he gave his life to business, gave his life to Public Service in many ways emulating his father who was a senate from connecticut for ten years. But a couple of things happened while he was president , and i think we are seeing those forces manifest themselves. I offer this for your editorial comment. One is the rise of reflexive partisanship. While this man was walking out in october of 1990 to the rose garden with george h. W. Bush to announce a compromise with a Democratic Congress on taxes while we were in the midst of building up 500,000 troops in the gulf, Newt Gingrich went out to front door the front door. And bob walker, remember from pennsylvania, sees that newt has left the white house, hes rebelled against the president of his own party. He goes up to capitol hill, and they meet him with a House Republican rally. So the president of the United States in preparing for war trying to impose some economic has his own house bolt on him. This rise of partisanship was taking form there. The other, which i dont think we can minimize, and you mentioned the reality tv, but before reality tv there was cable tv. And mark twain once said history may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Trump and perot dont rhyme, but they should. The bush family has been to this movie before. There has been a populist billionaire who took advantage of the new Media Techniques of the era in order to go around the Party Establishment and the press establishment to whip up popular sentiment. And that was ross perot on larry king. And Cable Television in its way was the twitter and the internet of the early 1990s. So i think that was going on, and president bush didnt fully understand it. And also i think president clinton gets a lot of the blame ask is and or credit for this, clintons ability to use Popular Culture to be a figure in the life of the country was significant. Bill clinton went on arkansas seven yee hall. I m arsenio hall. I am here to tell you that george h. W. Bush thought arsenio hall was a building at andover. [laughter] no idea. He had no clue. It surgeon lu was a building certainly was a building somewhere. So these tectonic plates are shifting under this mans feet. And one of the things that i think is wonderful and whats great about the culture of books and hats off to all of you all for being here and testimony to the power of that is that history tends to get right what journalism may not always pulley appreciate. Fully appreciate. And i think whats been great for george h. W. Bush is that he has lived to see this shift. Many of the things that he did that led 37 of the country to support him, only 37 in 1992, the country has come to see as statesmanlike. And i asked him about this a couple years ago, and i said can you believe all incoe them ins that are coming in, and he said, no, its kinder and gentler all over the place. [laughter] my wife said when she saw bill clinton playing the saxophone, its over. [laughter] because, you know, that have something that appealed i mean, its the showmanship thing that were seeing now. And bush just didnt, and i think you can say this as well about governor bush to some extent, it was not his reality. This is a man, you know, they lost a daughter to leukemia in 1953. This is a man who in 1987 as Vice President goes into a childrens leukemia ward in krakow in poland, and the press spray is behind him. Rerealizes where he is, he didnt know quite where he was looking into, and he immediately begins to cry because these children, obviously, remind him of his own daughter who died 46 years before or so. But he wont turn around. Because if he turns around, the story becomes about him and not about them. I submit to you, there are not Many American politicses who would not have turned around. George h. W. Bush, that was beyond his reality, and i think so to some extent, thats why governor bush didnt do well either. Senator, let me ask you, theres a lot of debate about congress and the role of the president and the lack of cooperation. You know, theres good reason to believe that either Hillary Clinton or donald trump had been the next president. Do you think this is a trend that is just irreversible, or do you think that itll be able to somehow get more of a balance of power back . Maybe this is just the way i am, i dont think anythings irreversible. The trend has cleary been in the wrong direction on both sides. The congress has not been assuming its responsibilities which has forced at least this president to do more things by executive order. Theres no question that they should have come together and passed Immigration Reform legislation. And [applause] and they werent that far apart. And yet this president and this congress, the congress would not sit down and talk it through. So in the book i emphasize, you know, it doesnt take, to change this it doesnt take but one thing, one person that is willing to be a leader and step up whether its a congressman or senator. Paul ryan has the potential to do that kind of thing as a speaker. I have a lot of faith in him. Or a president. Say, you know, i worked all the time with bill clinton. You know . We didnt agree philosophically, he was a character, but we talked. And a lot of times when i didnt want to talk. You know . He called one night at 2 00 in the morning. Phones on trishs side of the bed, she picks up the phone, hands says its the president , hands it over to me, and i start saying, yes, sir, mr. President , well look into that, yes, sir, all right, sir, yes, sir, and i hung up, goodbye. I handed the phone back, she says, whatd he want . I said, i dont know. [laughter] something about central america. [laughter] but heres the point, we talked all the time. We worked through all kinds of things, budget issues, tax issue, defense issues, safe drinking water, portability insurance, you name it. Did we agree . No. And a lot of times he pressed, we pressed each other to the point wed get mad, but we communicated. That was true with reagan. When i was whip in the house for eight years, we met with president reagan just about every Tuesday Morning that congress was in session at 9 00. Sometimes it was bipartisan, sometimes it was just republican. So this trend of not communicating is a recent phenomenon. It started developing with george w. Even though he tried very hard to get Immigration Reform. And by the way, i say to mississippians a lot of look, immigration is one of the big issues in this campaign. Admit it. If wed have done what we should have done in 2007, we wouldnt be here now. And Immigration Reform is not just about Illegal Immigrants, its about legal immigrants. Weve got people that want to come into america that have something to offer cant get here. One time i had two doctors from canada that wanted to come to picayune, mississippi. You know where that is . Underserved medical area. Two doctors, highly qualified. You would have thought i was trying to sneak in saddam hussein. [laughter] it was hard. Et started with bush. Duck it started with bush. I saw it coming in 2006x now this president and this congress, they just dont talk. Thats why you know, the deficit worries me more than ever because now i worry about my grandchildren. This is a booger here, and congress and the president are not dealing with it. So the next president , all hillary would have to do if shes president would be to follow the role to a degree of president bill clinton because he did meet with us, and he did talk wuss. Or if its trump with us. Or if its trump, somebody, some of us have got to reach out and say, you know, mr. President , you say youre going to change washington . The first thing you need to do to change it is to begin to communicate. There are four things you need to make washington work. Number one is communication. If you dont talk, you aint going to get nothing done. Real simple. Number two, you have to develop a chemistry. I mean, clinton made me nervous, but we had a relationship. It was a chemistry that made it possible for us to turn that into action. The other thing weve lost is a vision. What in the hell are we really for anymore . Republicans or democrats, do we really know . Do we really know what either side would actually do if theyre in the majority in the congress and have the white house . And last but not least, ive seen it, leadership. One man or one woman that will face, you know, the slings and arrows and the vicissitudes of the media and say were going to develop an Energy Policy many america. Were going to have all of the above. Were going to do it. So it could change, stuart, on a dime. But its going to take a person of strength because ive seen it. Washington is a tough place, you know . I rode the high road, and i got knocked down into the valley. But the best thing about being in the valley is you learn when you get back up how you can do things better. So it can change. I dont see it right now. I dont want see it with mitch mcconnell. I dont see it with nancy pelosi. I do see hope in paul ryan. I dont know what to expect from Chuck Schumer who will probably be the Senate Democratic leader. Hes smarter than reid, hes every bit as partisan as harry reid, but theres one difference. Hes transactional. You can do business. They dont say it that way many new york city, but they understand it. [laughter] so there is some hope out will. But it all begins in the white house. Leadership begins in the white rent,. Weve got to get a different, you know, tempo coming out of that place. That, abt one example of that, about leadership and the white house is despite what happened with the gingrich back in 8990 when the wings of a butterfly, when john howards nomination was defeated, secretary of defense,h in march of 1989, bush needed a second and defense. He reaches out to the house leadershipe reaches and takes y which leaves an opening for minority whip. And the young guy from georgia decide to run for that office named Newt Gingrich. Smn weber, congressman fromn wes minnesota, runs the campaign. A, george bush, who never really got overr being on the ways and means committee, he loved theeho ways and means committee, cataloger announced jim actually, to play battle ball. Frorge h. W. Bushs two best friends were actually of ohio,ia mo democrat and Sonny Montgomery of mississippi, a democrat. E house, bush, and and the house, reache out, he invites notout, only gingrich over for a beer in the residence but he invites weber has weber had run the campaign. He said nobody but george h. W. Bush within to invite the guy bush w who ran the with campaign. Paign. At that they are having their with john sununu ambush in theuh residence, and they can tell, gingrich and weber can tell theres something the alban wants to say he cant quite say it, which was true of many things. Lly as the and final as theyre getting up, weber says, mr. President , tell us what worries you most abouted us. Ha the oppor and the president is relieved to opportunity. He needed he says i worry that sometimes your idealism may get in the way of what i think of as sound governance. Now, at th at the risk of pulling a rubio, i want to repeat that quickly. I worry that sometimes yourill n idealism will get in the way of what i think of as sound avernance. Ber sahat he and weber said what he always remembered was that bush said idealism. He gave them credit for defeating what they believed. He didnt say ideology. He he didnt say in flexibility. He didnt say nuttiness. He said your idealistic about some things, mostly tax policy, mostly supplyside stuff, but i presid believe i am now the president of all the people and i may hav. To do things that youre notantc going to agree with. He won a reciprocal credit. And no president ever use the residence, the horseshoe pitch,e camp david as much as george h. W. Bush did. And the old man thought that life was one long reunion mixer. And it helped in many ways. I mean, you served with him. , i agree totally. Y. Senator senator, i have to ask you, youre now a senior figure in the party, as you look out am i getting older i want . Ge [laughter] having hathis m and having had these many roles, when you look at the waye that we choose our nominee is, do you see it as something that can be changed, and if so, do change you have any thoughts on tom daschle and i talked a lot about that. Basicallyed a lot we think our process now that we select our nominee is is a mess, and we need to change it. Youre, in a lot of cases youre dealing with state laws. But one of the things, we advocate a number of things. We do spend a lot of time in this book talking about civic responsibility. Too Many Americans have lost the sight of what is our civic responsibility. So we stick our neck out. We advocate one year of Public Service for everybody when they finish high school or when they reach 18, whichever comes first. One year. National guard, fighting fires in the west, peace corps, you name it. But some opportunity. We also advocate, you know, that we make it as easy as possible to vote. Now, where he and i disagree, i do think you need to have to show some identification. So, but we work through that. I like early voting. Were going to have to deal with, you know, modern technology and how we vote and i want more people to vote. I just believe that, you know, we can my point of view, we can win if more people vote. But we specifically spend a good bit of time in here talking about the current primary situation. Look, i love iowa, i love iowans. Chuck grassleys one of my favorites. I love New Hampshire. I go to New Hampshire with judge gregg, former senator. And then i love South Carolina even more. But the idea that iowa and New Hampshire and South Carolina basically decide who our nominees are is not a good idea. And the process isridiculous. How long we been in this election, you know . I also would advocate some of the things would take constitutional changes, but i actually advocate that we actually limit we cant limit the money in politics because the Supreme Court has said, i think correctly, money is speech. Now, tom daschle doesnt agree with that. But i think we can limit the time. I dont want to go with a parliamentary system like the brits, but i would like to have a system where we dont have the general election but from like the first of september until november. You cant spend money or you cant begin your full i believe that if the cam a pains were shorter campaigns were shorter, people would pay more attention, it would cost less, and maybe it wouldnt be as dirty. So we do advocate also that we have a im an advocate of a single primary day for both parties. One day. We all vote, all us republicans vote for our nominee [applause] democrats vote for their nominee, and then we go forward to the general election which i would like to limit. Or as proposed by former senator slade gordon from washington state, i think a good idea, maybe we could do it regionally. Maybe have five or six reames, and we alternate every few years who goes first, the southeast, the southwest, new england, and so we have five or six primary days. Again, it would not cost as much, you could have a better crosssection. Also our candidates wouldnt have to be running from, you know, from iowa to New Hampshire to South Carolina. They could camp in maybe even a little more time in mississippi. So, yeah. I think we need to take a look at some of our, you know, our conventions. I have to confess i even got to where i voted against funds for the conventions, because i just dont think theyre really relevant. Theyre a lot of fun, i enjoy it. I went to, i guess, seven or eight of them, but its time that we take a look at this. Now, you might youre sitting there thinking, well, is that possible . Yeah. If somebody of substance would take this on and say its time we take a look at this, involve the states and the mayors and everybody, but see if we cant find a way to improve the american system. Its been evolutionary anyway. It didnt used to be this way. So i would really like to change the primary system. Im very unhappy with what we get and how we get it. On that, lets open it up to questions. We have a mic at the center there, so its important to go there so we can capture it on audio as well. There must be questions. Please. You dont mean my friends in New Hampshire are seeing this, do you . [laughter] i promise you, its 100 [inaudible] okay, good. Well, while were waiting for questions, jon, as a student of history, is there any race that you would look at that would be comparable to this race that that the country managed to survive so that we might have some hope that well survive this one . I was going to suggest, you know, the land cruisers that led into the star wars bar scene. [laughter] so thats one. But you mean actually in, on planet earth . Yeah, that. Yeah. [laughter] yes. I mean, the good news is as the senator says, you know, weve endured much worse. Ultimately. And if, i would argue that if an unconventional nominee of the sort were seeing now on the republican side were in a substantially stronger position in the polls, i might give you a different answer. But, you know, the genius of the system is that it manages to take account of the momentary passions of the people. You know, James Madison saw that the bigger the country, the better the chance we had of not having any one group, any one interest, any one state, any one region take over everything. Its a big, big, diverse cup. Country. And thats not to minimize, by the way, the political achievement of donald trump. I mean, lets be clear, this man is the nominee of the party of lincoln, eisenhower, reagan, george h. W. Bush. Thats depressing. It may be depressing [laughter] no, i think we have to look, i mean, he won it. It wasnt even particularly close. And so i would argue that those of you who are republicans, i cant think of any [laughter] might want to ask yourselves what it is about your party that allowed this hijacking to take place. [applause] so, and so id love to hear you all on that. [laughter] you wanted a question, so no, it is one of few recorded cases where the hijacker got on the plane, and the passengers sided with him. [laughter] so what is it . So what what happened . What happened . Im going to, im going to attempt to answer that. [laughter] first of all, we spend the first about third of this book talking about, hey, dont despair, weve been through tough times before. I mean, the early part of this country it was rough. You know the story of jefferson and aaron burr and all of that. And, of course, precivil war, civil war, the turn of the century, Teddy Roosevelt and the bull moose. I mean, weve had some really tough times, and we talk about that. But we also talk about how one of my favorite quotes in here, we have some quotes of past history, and this, again, relates to the idea about the chemistry and how people could relate even though they might, you know, not agree. John c. Calhoun said about henry clay, i dont like clay, hes a bad man, an imposter, a creator of wicked schemes. I wouldnt speak to him but, my god, i love him. [laughter] thats the way it really a ought to be. You know . [laughter] you were asking about what happened here. I think both parties have missed where the American People are. I missed it. This is, you know, its amazed me are we really this socialistic now . And im not directing that critically at the Democratic Party. I mean, its a lot of us. And in, and what has happened to the Republican Party. I think both parties have not been listening. I think Democratic Party had not been listening to the movement to the left. Bernie sanders tapped into it. I mean, he did it. Give him credit, he did a heck of a job are. I never heard him give a speech in the senate like i heard some of the ones he gave. And ive asked a lot of rank and file, blue collar working people and, by the way, thats my background. My dad was a union member in the shipyard, my mother a schoolteacher, so i talk to people now and say whats going on. Both parties have miss9 whats going on with the immigration issue, i believe. Even in mississippi, were not really threatened by Illegal Immigrants here, but theres a feeling of insecurity. Is my job threatened . Are we secure . You know, i think a lot of people in america are feeling insecure about where they are and what the future is for their children and are they going to be threatened by this, by millions of people pouring into this country, and, you know, its gone from talking about 10 or 60,000 to now youre talking big numbers. And also, and this really floored me, i am a free trader. I voted for every free trade agreement. I voted for and a half a that, the north American Free trade agreement. I would vote for the tpp thats pending right now with some side agreements. You have to, sometimes you have to adjust em. But we, including me, have lost, we lost track of the way people are feeling in america about trade. They think weve been having our lunch eaten. And ive always used the language, i want free, but i want fair trade. And i dont think we ought to put up with manipulation by the chinese of their currency. I do think we need to make sure the europeans or the asians or anybodys not going to be able to cheat. I also think its insane what were doing in america that basically forces Companies Like carrier to leave america, leave indiana, a good, wholesome Mid Western State and go to mexico. What the hells going on . And yet the congress, including i didnt get it done, we were too stupid to be able to pass a Corporate Tax reform that would keep these jobs and the growth that it contributes to our Company Country from leaving. Those two issues, i think both parties have been asleep at the throttle. We just didnt know what was happening. But the other thing that really worries me, i dont think a lot of people say, hey, wait, this deficit things really bug me. What are we going to do to grow the economy and get the kind of growth that we really need to create new and better and hightech, modern jobs . Anybody talking about that . Anybody thinking about that . Not really. I just think both parties and inma all of us and maybe all of us have been coasting. And i think weve been coasting for about ten years. This is serious. This is crisis point. The, i mean, one of the striking things about this year historically is we have the least conventional Major Party Nominee running against the most conventional Major Party Nominee. Its hard to imagine a more conventional person than secretary clinton, and its impossible to imagine [laughter] a less conventional person than the republican nominee. You know, you mentioned the jackson example. I get asked all the time, you know, is this like 1828, is it you can tell i hang out with really exciting people, because thats what they ask. [laughter] im really a lot of fun to be around. 1828. [laughter] but its actually not fair, because jackson was a judge, a senator, a general, hed won the popular vote four years before, and he had a very coherent vision of what he wanted to use the federal government to do. And in many ways, that was to get out of the way of the states. By the way, his quote about calhoun since were dorking out about that is that his only two regrets in public life were that he had not hung calhoun and shot henry clay. And calhoun was his Vice President. [laughter]. The because its beard i would submit, i would submit that its fear of the base that is limiting and incentivizing compromise. Our member six years ago a senator from a swing state in the border state called me to talk about Andrew Jackson so theres sort of a theme here and it was the middle of obamacare debate and i was in the house then i asked him, we talked about history and i said how is it different and he said its never been more conservative ever and i said why and he said ive never heard heard heard this using a verb that everyone lives in mortal terror of being primary. The great fear is you lose your base, your local talk radio folks coming your local activists rise up against you and you are seen as a sellout and if we dont have a Healthy System where incumbents are basically have the confidence of their bases in the basses have confidence in them than you were not going to get that three out of 10 reaching across the aisle and i think what we are seeing with the Establishment Republicans right now with their very delicate dance around the nominee again who has become the nominee as opposed to who he is, not a good sign. What you are seeing there is people trying to prevent the day where the 20 , the 30 of their district further state that is devoted to trump rises up against them in the next primary. Would the jump into that because theres no question that permeates the contest now and another verb is lugar because we have senator lugar an outstanding senator and a great expert on foreignpolicy and i was shocked one time when we would show all of our voting percentages in my voting record was the same as senator lugars. Hes. Conservative but he made some mistakes. We didnt sell it because we knew lugar didnt have a house in indiana and he was accused of being an establishment moderate republicans so lugar, no question that members are more concerned about losing the primary and the general and by the way thats on the democratic side two. Lance lincoln who is a good senator from arkansas, a fine lady, you know i really had a great relationship with her, married to a doctor and i think may have gone to some schooling in mississippi but she had twins and she came to me when i was the majority leader and said, i was going to keep the senate in late and she said my son has got it baseball game and i really need to go to the game i said you go to the game blanche there wont be any more votes tonight. I got a lot of good votes out of blanche that way. [laughter] so i want to make the point that fear is there on both sides and by the way those of you that voted for me over the years thank you. I was consistently conservative than i used to think i was a rightwinger and now i would probably be identified as a raving moderate establishment and i dont know how that happened. Im still very conservative but you know im like the jack kemp type of conservative. I ate mad about being conservative. Im happy about it but im willing to give a little, give up a little. Ronald reagan used to say give me 6 of something and i will take it. Now its everybody, its all or nothing and the result, i want to make sure, what is going to be the impact of trump on the Republican Party . It depends on how this election turns out and im not sure how its going to turn out. A lot of people are thinking its over. I will tell you now this is going to scare the bee jesus out of everyone before this is over because there are warts on the other side too. I can tell you a lot of stories about things i had to deal as majority leader to work with bill clinton when the first lady didnt like what i was doing on welfare reform and balancing the budget. I have been there and i have known hillary since 1973 when i was on the House Judiciary Committee during the intense impeachment trial of nixon and she was a democratic staff member. Theres a history there. If you are interested look it up. I think both parties have got to take a look at where are we. We cant let the impact of trump be the lasting total ramification of four republicans are going to be but my problem with the Republican Party and i asked this question in 2006. I stood up at a republican conference of senators and at that point i believe we were still in the majority. No it was in 2004 that we lost the majority and i asked the question, what do we stand for . What are the three things we are going to do if we are in the majority and nobody stood up and im not sure where the other party is. But its not really about the partys final analysis. Its about the country and what are we going to do to preserve this great young republic that we have been so blessed to have . So i refuse even in my advanced age stuart to give up on my country or my party and i believe the old adage, this too shall pass but how will it pass . I dont have all those answers but we had better be asking and no matter which one winds we have got to find a way to help make sure that we address some of the Serious Problems that we have in America Great right now internationally, i am scared. The world is as dangerous as hell. Putin is pushing the envelope. The middle east is a mess. I ran has done all kinds of strange things and its the threat to israel and all of the middle east and china is pushing the envelope. How are we going to deal with all of these things . So these are serious times but when you have people like you that take time on a saturday to come to a book festival, there absolutely is hope that its going to take some strong leaders. I cant tell you right now who they are going to be. Ive got some good friends in the senate that have the potential to be strong leaders but they have been riskaverse. They wont step up. They are worried about the primary. We have got a guy right now that is threatened in the race, right blood from missouri who was the number two man in the house of representatives a really good senator. He is not absolute sure of getting reelected. He has a serious contest in the same thing in North Carolina with richard burr. That could be one of the fallouts. If trump goes down he could take down not only does better obviously threatened in states like wisconsin and illinois but it could extend to other states. Even my good friend who i did battle with over years mccain has a harry race in arizona so this is a year that tests mens and womens souls in certain ways. Thanks. Roy blunt is a client of ours. He is going to win. Its just worth noting that only in 2012 all may one republican in the race ran ahead of ahead of all the rest. And right now when you have trump losing georgia thats an ominous turn but anyway, please. A Historical Perspective may be. We are in totally new ground with the 24 7 news cycle and social media and im wondering if you gentlemen think that this has in any way impacted the polarization of the parties and it just seems to stand itself and i feel like we are almost in a new era of yellow journalism. Remember that word . From history 101 . Journalism is changing rapidly as well as technology and im just wondering what sort of an impact you think that is happening or that you see on polarization . Thank you. Historically you are exactly right. In the 20th century it was in many ways an aberration in media terms because the 18th and 19th centuries, all media was parsed so if you are prolife you had your own paper. One of the reasons we had the New York Times style without fear favors when it off ox move from chattanooga to new york to buy the New York Times. There were Something Like 40 newspapers in the business in new york so the only place he could find a market niche was to pretend he was neutral. It eventually worked its way to the top of the chain. Then when we had broadcast there was a sense that because the airways were public it requires a certain amount of evenhandedness. Is really post progressive era phenomena that you would have that you would think of as a new trial media. What you have now is everyone in this room is in the media and everyone has access to the same platforms. If you have something to say that attracts enough eyeballs it can go around the world as much as anything. Dan rather and Walter Cronkite never did. We do have a problem of selfselection. An extraordinary amount of people only get their news and the only counter their news from a facebook reporter feed. You choose the sources of what comes in. The serendipity of news of looking in the encyclopedia under ra and something found under ra is interesting or reading a newspaper and having a story catch her eye that you may not even be interested in, that serendipity is almost extinct. I think its increasing a cultural silo sidling. Its inherently bad for democracy. The senator mentioned a year Public Service. Thats exactly right. We know each other too little. We stare at screens and we filter our news and we dont tend to talk to people who dont agree with us and if you dont do that then you are in trouble. The great era i would argue off domestic and successful cold war activity was in the 40s and 50s were even had people who had gone to public school. There was a military draft and people knew each other from different classes. Theres a famous story about pt 109 boat that jon kennedy commanded, had a plumber from brooklyn and a pipefitter from pascagoula and an extraordinary number of different types of people. Its almost impossible to imagine that happening in any common way now. This is an important point. Does anyone think if we have a Selective Service draft in a serious way that we would have conducted our Foreign Policy the way we have over the last 14 years . The fact that you would say that immediately is really disturbing, isnt it . Its so obvious that if all sons and daughters of the country were eligible to serve in the military we would do things differently. I think thats a very deep issue at the heart of the republic right now. I do think the modern media, social media has clearly had an impact on politics and campaigns and a lot of our candidates still dont understand. It is a relatively new phenomenon though some people have said. I was one of the first people that they were able to take them on the internet when i made the mistake of over speaking one time and i was shocked. It came on the clock 24 7 nine have facebook and twitter and youve got all this stuff and it can really destroy you and you dont even know where its all coming from. I dont think we have quite come branded that yet. With regard to the silos my partner now and since i retired before the democrat from louisiana although i describe him as a probusiness democrat in washington but we are good friends. His show is on msnbc 24 7. I dont watch anything but fox. Everyone i every once i will gag gag little bend over cnn and in 10 minutes im back on fox and when i get up in the morning i read the wall street journal and i do. Politico but then i do a little bit of aberration and i read in the Washington Post and New York Times on what the enemy is up to. So at least i do. Those two papers. But i think its a good part of what the problem is and america. I dont do facebook and twitter and that kind of stuff because i say to my family and not sending out anything when i dont know whos getting it but it is a big part of what we are experiencing. I wont say a big part of my problems. Its their inner think that politically we still have not figured out exactly how to do it you are a consultant, how do you deal with campaigns . I will only say i didnt tweak during the campaign and the New York Times wrote about and as well as social media but i didnt we. Since ive started tweeting ive cleared that up. Its a very dangerous thing and if you look at donald trump, i think if you are working in the trump campaign, you live in fear of hex
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