All right, good evening, everyone. My name is liz artlip and i would like to welcome you to the wharf. Pick up those notes, if you havent done so silence your cell phones. Feel free to keep them on, tagus on social media, just do it silently. We have cspan booktv with us and you dont want to be the one whose phone starts ringing on national television. When we get to the q a portion i will be passing around a wireless microphone. If you have a question please raise your hand and wait for us to get you with the microphone and sneak into it so everyone can hear you and everyone who might be watching on tv in the future can hear you as well. If youve not purchased a copy of the book and you would like to they are available at the register up friends. You can buy a copy or two or three or four, however many you decide you need, hopefully more than one. After the events, happy to sign books, now first for why we are here, to listen to george beebe talk about the russia trap how our shadow w
A scorching op bedri written for teen vogue and titled donald trump is Gaslighting America well the piece became a viral sensation and lauren was suddenly and in demand speaker and guest on t. V. And radio well she is back in the public eye with a new book and the assertion that donald trump 2016 when shook young people out of a coma and reminded that voting bloc that government by and for the people requires their input so will Younger Voters participate in the 2020 election process and who or what will motivate them to do so so lets talk about this with journalist and feminist advocate lauren duca who joins me right here from new york city shes the author of the newly released book how to start a revolution young people and the future of politics Ron Brownstein thanks for having me great so your book is about starting a revolution why do you think we need that right now. I think that for too long weve understood democracy as a thing that we have and not. Thing that we do there is suc
Youve got lots of twitter followers a lot of people you know who who tune in to hear what you have to say on social media do you think that that is influencing young peoples participation in the political process i think that it is definitely having a democratizing force in addition to the harmful forces weve seen of just information and misinformation were exposed to many more viewpoints without a blockade of the gate keeper and that has had pros and cons but i think whats how what are the cons would you say with the influence of social media and getting rid of the quote unquote sort of establishment gatekeepers of politics well you know i dont think thats the one of the problems i think one of the benefits is getting rid of the establishment gatekeepers of politics you know our media and political gatekeepers told us that when wasnt possible and and truly 1st i remember i tell them im not one of them actually yet. I mean i was thats a lot of what led to my personal awakening and i he
A shift in agency and selfdetermination in which young people are deciding that were no longer willing to wait our turn until were deemed qualified to take part in the political conversation right so a lot of let me ask you about that because you know traditionally typically typically young people do have a lower voter turnout rate than older people and to what extent do you think that social media is changing that landscape i mean youre very big on social media youve got lots of twitter followers a lot of people you know who are tuning in to hear what you have to say on social media do you think that that is influencing young peoples participation in the political process i think that it is definitely having a democratizing force in addition to the harmful forces weve seen of just information and misinformation were exposed to many more viewpoints without the blockade of the gate keeper and that has had pros and cons but i think whats how what are the cons would you say with the influ
The country talking to young people its the sense of who makes the rules you know weve been subscribing to this kind of analyst authority and it was shattered when when this a possible thing was rendered reality suddenly we start asking you know why had we have taken our political media gatekeepers instructions on how to live our lives and how this hierarchy ought to function i think the downside of social media is that we need to further and besides being demonstrative and not just performative with taking action and have a push for for it to extend beyond the page online and she to take the form of raising your voice. Beyond tweeting thats a thats a really interesting point about you know being demonstrative which means taking action versus being performative do you think social media gives a lot of people including young people a way out that they can just blast their opinion on twitter or facebook or wherever instagram but then not actually become engaged no i think that there is a