Are my grandchildren. There comes a point in life whether your 20 or 70 and you have to leave it a better place than when you entered it. I wanted them to learn lessons from my public life. Second, as i had been running and Holding Office and losing for office and running uphill races, i was struck by two comments that framed my opinion. A famed conductor said a liberal is someone who believes in a bright infinite future. A conservative is someone who stands up for history yelling stop. Thats a famous quote. Thats it. A progressive leads in congress and as fdr said in his convention speech, look, government can air and help people but better to make mistakes in the interest of helping peoples lives than being frozen in the ice of and indifference. They tried things the republicans want to go back to the 1950 and 1850 and got only knows. It framed the theme of the book which is that the arc of my public life from the 60s to 16 tracked progressive majority in america. I was part of the movement that led to it. That progressive majority has been obscured by all this chaos about the trump in the primary if they could throw, theres a natural progression thats going to be continued in my book with the Democratic Victory we could have the democratic nominee win the popular vote. This is part two of our twopart discussion on our book. Just a quick catchup, born in new york, 72 years old, graduate of cornell,. 71. You dont interrupt an esteemed artist, but you know,. Harvard Law School Graduate and cornell graduate. Id like to ship shift from politics and go to media. How much media have you done in your life. As a hose, as a performer . I appeared on fire line with buckley and the first guest i interviewed was a young congressman with a lot of white hair named newt gingrich. I appeared in maybe 200 times on those shows so i got used to biting my head off if i had a bad adverb and they were always gracious and polite but if they made a mistake, i would know it. Whatever he says is wrong about sarah palin or trump or what ever have you. Then it appeared, talking about my books and legislation and then when i was done with elected life, founded a national, syndicated radio show. Its now in its sixth year. Its called both sides now. Its distributed by premier. Both sides radio. Com, if i could. I ended up i ended up the last president of air america radio which is shutting off the lights of the titanic, i guess. The book describes the rise in dissent and why it failed can you talk about why he did what you did. The show is back. Not only do they have to face the teasing and taunts of kids in school with Adequate Health insurance, they now have more and more Severe Health problems. They join us this hour to talk about some Horror Stories she has seen plus the National Review talks about how our Founding Fathers would react to the limit. How many years did you and your brother run as opponents . One. What year. Well, it was 2007 that my brother who said, hows your america going because i had been a substitute host. I said the content is great but its losing money. Looks like its going into chapter 11 bankruptcy. He said maybe ill buy it. He wanted to do something more in the public arena than just bricks and mortar. He bought it and made me president of it and the very good legacy of air america, if if i may, it produced rachel, mark maren, al franklin, you, you dont get people who are talented or funny than they are. But, it hemorrhaged money and steven sold it to someone at a fraction of what he paid and then it kept going downhill and people were constantly asking me, why did air america fail when right wing talk is so successful. Why did it fail . Its commercial radio. Npr is not commercial. Its an audience multiple of that of Rush Limbaugh and its brilliant. Theres an audience for that. The merger radio means you have to make money to pay people. It wasnt making much money and its great to have deep pockets so murdoch would be great in the beginning until it got its legs and that worked. Two, ad agencies and corporations have to advertise. Added and ad agencies have what they call a no buy list. Certain memos would say youre not just have this, its too leftwing. Older white guys who control all the budgets and advertising agencies, they didnt want us, theres a third reason that one can argue with and its interpreted, jonathan hate he wrote a book, the righteous mind. It summarizes, he said people, the elephant is steering itself. The elephant is our born intuition. Many people are born with an intuition toward authority. Its genetically wore a wired. The church, military, trump, other people are born more tolerant, openminded, robert frost jokes a liberal is someone who wont take his own side in a debate. And then dittoheads, people who listen to rush. Liberals do better in universities, as authors and as they film about this, the brainwashing of my dad, its a documentary, littleknown and her fathers a lovable, likable funny democrat. Suddenly there yelling at him and they couldnt understand what had happened. They traced it to his hour commute to and from work. He was simply listening to Rush Limbaugh. They had brainwashed, not all of america, but one fourth of our country was racist, racially intolerant, like we saw in austria and Great Britain and france in western countries have this group that spoke very loudly in the campaign this fear that we will be outvoted by the majority. If he was sitting here, at this point, i suspect he would say that was the biggest bunch of baloney ive ever heard. My listeners are very intelligent and they are thinking for themselves, we just happen to agree. Would they say the same thing about liberals . So they filter out the evidence that 99 of climate scientists say. Of course exist. Look at the seawater in the streets of miami. I guess both sides do that, but one side really is more observant and its the progressive democrat. The other side, believing more in faith and the facts, you can be smart and horrible and low educated and honorable, donald trump thought a lot of low education people are voting for me. Thats why people like him. He says whats true. Rush is aiming toward a crowd of people who want to believe that barack obama is not an american, that Hillary Clinton is an ice queen. Anybody who knows her privately, that laugh is real. She listens to, no one smarter. But the buildup to this monster, ideally, ideally democracy will see through it. Go back to your book, in the book you have something called the book of gop. In reading it, i suspected you probably listen to a lot of people on conservative talk radio. Is that true . Yes. 95 of all of all talk radio, i guess just because theyre better and more skilled, but whats 95 . It tips for the reasons. The conservative say thats hours you saw on your own fundraiser there, you had john stuart and although saying it figures. It shows that television is paid for both sides, to argue that the media is not as funny, why did 80 of newspapers and doors reagan, mccain, bush . Because theyre owned by businessmen who hire and fire staff editorial. You can be a left or right wing journalists and it doesnt affect your interpretation of facts. In your book, eight you suggest the fairness doctrine might be good idea to bring back. Yes it was Ronald Reagan and the fcc and thats when right wing talk in the left wing talks split and we had a 95 of very Important Media and i cant tell a car company to make black cars as opposed to red cars but publicly owned airways, there is a revolution that they take over the Airways First to talk to people and brainwashed people. In 1933 and 34 act states publicly owned, then they hand it to private companies without charging anything. They say will do that but we require politically that both sides be heard so you dont get some pseudo fascist taking over. At this stage of the media, who would you trust . Say all of a sudden your friend donald trump was elected president and he was in charge of the fcc and they were responsible for administering the fairness document. First i would pass a law that is a non tweet and non bias. You ask a good question. Anytime government gets in the business of content judgment, its a problem. Its true. Publicly owned, one side dominates and technically, under the law the fcc cannot have one more the majority of one party so if seven members, you can have seven democrats are seven republicans. You can only have four of one party in the next person has to be not of your party. This is imperfect because you point someone of your party who is really believing in the other party. At the moment, we have to figure out a way to do something because right now local media, thousands of people are being canned by the Electronic Media and print media and theyre all going to National Syndicated models and its news corporate and they control most, most of what people here, i do think the media tilts to the right. Who owns it, its changing, changing, i hope and the fairness doctrine amended, Rush Limbaugh would go nuts. They would milk it for money and audience, how dare the government tell us what to think , but fox says there fair and balanced but everybody is in on the joke. You tell a story about roger ailes in your book. You know him . Yes, not well. We went to a Christmas Event every year hosted by an on air person whos a lawyer. They said you know, were really fair. I said roger, youre talking to me. Do you really believe this crab . Fine. Dont try to persuade me. He is so on message that the joke of a slogan has not been penetrated. When they have a hundred segments on benghazi and now theyve shown its completely fabricated, theyre theyre interested in readings. Not votes. Be careful what you wish for, fox, because they have helped the republicans and the conservatives hold the house and senate and always lose the white house. Because mitt romney, a moderate guy and the party ended up with cruise and trump. There are two people who are not president ial. When did you start this book . I started it in mid 2014. Whats in here that youve never commented on before . Depictions of what will happen in a trump clinton race and what will happen as the progressive majority tied because of the demographic, the senate and the Supreme Court, shortly in the white house are scientific and realitybased and we talk about what it was like when i was a speechwriter, a popular senator who run for president and then failed. The people that you work for in politics, can you relate to your experience . Start with ramsey clark. He was a 37yearold up to the attorney general and the Johnson Administration when he was a picked as attorney general. The youngest and the most liberal. He was just so smart about the causes of crime not just lock up and throw away the key. Nixon ran against him whose father was from texas. Ramsey leads atty. General and comes back and ends up running for the senate. In 1974 he comes close losing only by seven points and sets him up for the u. S. Senate seat of bill buckleys brother who is jim buckley so the primary was godzilla and king kong. He had run guns for the ira in ireland and the predecessor to me. Eventually ramsey was an example of an advocate. How about call Ethel Kennedy for her endorsement. No i dont want to call her, shes working with me on gun control and i dont want to call her for endorsement. So he was at a hundred dollar limit and he goes to serve for distinguished terms. Heres some video from someone you just mentioned, this is back in the day when she was an unforgettable character. People need change. It belongs only to the people its because of the killing in the belief of american democracy that we should impeach the president of the United States. I come among the people and i organize them. What you learn from somebody like her about running politics . She. Shes Bernie Sanders with a hat. The tradition in our country, the very first woman elected to the congress was the belle of the house. I matter when she was 93. She was a suffrage feminist her whole life. She was against the vietnam war, you could pick that up. There were three people, any one of who couldve been a spectacular senator. There was a lot of talent running and she later ran for 0y and then went for the house seat with bill green and he lost and the next year, if i can confuse your audience, in 1980 when i when i run against him and loss. Im sort of a believer, but with nowhere near her personality. In the first part we talked about raising money and we talked about all the races you ran for. Of so many came to you and said mr. Green i want to run for office, what are the first couple of things you would tell them to do . Mentioned it to you earlier. You have to have a drive and you have to wake up and go to sleep and think i want this so much, if you do everything, you win. Second, read your your brains out. Read, read, read. It often is a learning profession. Youre not going to do well with it because you have to represent people. You have to know what theyre thinking and how to express it. The likelihood is he would end up embarrassing himself and a public race and he took that risk and he won. If youre not self funding, and very few people are self funding, bobby was thinking of running for attorney general and he is extremely smart, famous name with deeply rooted values. Robbie kennedy junior, the son. Correct. Bobby is not going to be good at sitting on a phone half his days pretending to run when hes really dialing. They were wealthy enough to self finance, and its painful. Its the price democracy requires. Until we have more matching funds and more minorities can run and win. Told by a friend of bobbys, that conversation with his mother, when you look at what he had to go through, he decided what ralph nader decided and others have been forced to decide that advocacy is more comfortable for some people than political fundraising. You spent ten years, at least, with ralph nader. How does he raise money and does he make the call . He doesnt raise it well. Bernie sanders is a freak. To raise 200 million plus because you have a viral message is great, but rare. Ralph doesnt like asking or yelling at people. Hes not coercive. He threatens he does not threaten people but he talks to people. He gives substantial gifts. He founded public citizens and they have tens of thousands of small donors. Third, the trial lawyers agree with ralph nader that civil justice, if you get burned in a bad car, you should be able to sue a car company if there was a defect, thats access to courts. They sometimes have contributed to him as well. Mostly he fundraisers by being ralph nader. He doesnt ever say this but its like take it or leave it. If you want to help our effort. As we speak, he got famous 50 years ago and as we speak, a few blocks from here with hundreds of speakers and attendees from all over the country on how to advance civic justice. Then citizen power comes in and here is what you should be doing. er i have a young assistant who helped me research the book and he said you know, people my age, millennials love nader because he is sincere and authentic. He has a rock solid character from an upbringing by an immigrant family from a small town in connecticut and leaves Harvard Law School wanting to fix the world. An unknown nonamed lawyer from connecticut within a year and a half from washington and working as an aid in the Labor Department writes a book that is investigated by gm, becomes overnight famous and gets a law enacted unanimously. You know how many laws that has happened with . If you compare the rate of debt of miles driven then and now two and a half Million People are alive today that would other wise be dead. Ralph could have said i am famous, i could give lectures for life but branches out have to thousands of ralph naders in antitrust and others around the country. He does it because he said at the hearing in 1965 or 66 in General Motors if i was here protecting the lives of animals for the aspca no one questions my motives and here you are questions the motives of people. I spoke to him on the phone who he was 32 and he sounds no different at 82. He is completely personal, kind, you should get this article. I would like to help. He is always mission driven. When you work for 50 years straight you get a lot done and are consistent. I cannot think of pane other americans, other than president s who have had as much influence over more issues over decades than ralph nader. When i asked ralph his potential opinion of what i said and he instantly said ben franklin. He started the postal system, started the private library and said it not to brag but he knew that is what an advocate does. Cspan sandy berger was your law school roommate or cornell . Guest we were at cornell i didnt know him then and then room mates in college and went on to be president clintons advisor. Host and now deceased . Guest he died tragically six mo months ago. Cspan what did you think when he got in trouble over the archive stuff . Guest i know what i read. He was extremely honest. As i understand it, he went to the archives to take notes for a speech he was helping some Public Policy and instead of coming the next day and reading it he took papers home with him so he could research it and then to bring it back. So he violated the rules of the archives. He was criminally investigated. It was very hurtful to him. But he was never prosecuted for it. You had a small note on a man named Richard Bloomenthal. Guest when i was a young income for jacob chavits, whose later seat i sought, i hated the vietnam war and organized a group of interns to distribute a petition to johnson that we this was the phrase. The best and brightest are trying to do good in washington but cant with you over us. Someone in our group was a prowar person and went to the Washington Post to disclose what we were doing in capitol hill and Richard Bloomenthal wrote the article and the