political communications those of you
47:59
who remember the 1992 election may
remember the third debate between Bush
Perot and Clinton the town hall debate
moderated by Carol Simpson then at ABC
they took questions and the questions
have settled the election was the this
is the I feel you’re paying moment a
woman was called on an older woman
obviously not very well educated and
obviously extremely nervous at being on
television for the one and probably only
time in her life and with a quavering
voice she asked I’d like to ask each of
the candidates how you have been
personally affected by the deficit panic
no one’s personally affected by the
deficit and I’ll cut the story short
Bush flubs the question Perot gives a
characteristically insane answer and and
then Bill Clinton steps forward with
that huge body of his and said and says
to them I will answer your question but
first I have a question for you how have
you personally been affected by the
deficit and as she answers it becomes
clear that either she forgot or else she
never knew the difference between the
deficit and the recession that was
taking place at the time and once Bill
Clinton understood what she was asking
out 400 feet into center field but it’s
important to remember that the language
of politics is a second or third
language for most of your fellow
citizens that it is hard for them to
tell you what is on their minds and they
use words that they’ve heard from other
people they’re trying to express
themselves in ways that they hope will
be intelligible to others and or and
when they use their private language
their own language it often seems rough
or crude or insulting or insensitive and
so the challenge for those with
advantages in life is to hear the
question behind the question and to be
able to understand what people are
really concerned about with a language
doesn’t come easily to them
thank you I was wondering if you have
suggestions on how we could find
conservatives who don’t identify with
trumpism so that we could form
communities in person there’s no because
I think associations are broken yeah and
not focused on politics but protecting
rule of law and our norms that’s a great
50:15
question I think to some degree it is
50:17
happening I mean there are such
50:18
discussion groups I know I’m participant
50:20
in a couple of them here in Washington
50:22
right now Trump has the glamour of
50:25
apparent success and that is especially
50:27
true after the passage of the tax cut if
50:30
he looks a little less glossy I think
50:33
you’ll hear from more of these people
50:34
but the place where the work can really
50:36
be done most fruitfully is at the state
50:38
level and where I think it’s possible
50:45
especially in the one-party states like
50:49
California that I think that we’re going
50:52
to need to see work between reform
50:54
minded Democrats who are not Tammany
50:55
Hall people and their Republican
50:57
opposite numbers to try to say how do
50:59
you do in a state where things are as
51:01
lopsided you deliver good honest
51:03
government and make sure that elections
51:05
remain competitive not for the sake of
51:07
the Republicans but for the sake of
51:08
those states yes sir David thank you for
51:13
coming tonight so I have a question
51:14
about symptoms and causes so you know
51:18
we’ve talked about Trump being kind of a
51:20
symptom and not so much cause the sick
51:22
current system we talked about
51:23
gerrymandering being kind of a symptom
51:26
and not a cause or or dark money being a
51:28
symptom and not a cause of the system as
51:30
a student of politics in history can you
51:31
talk a little bit about what some of
51:33
these causes are it might be um you know
51:35
I mean I read your piece on the seven
51:37
guardrails of democracy
51:38
I’m reading Nixon Ilyn right now and a
51:40
lot of this seems pretty similar so if
51:41
you could share some some of the causes
51:43
you’ve seen and maybe talk a little bit
51:45
about that well I think the the master
51:50
causes of trouble in this in this kind
51:52
of this new situation and we always have
51:55
troubles by the way so we do but this
51:56
new situation are the following the
51:58
first is the slowdown of that economic
52:00
growth since the year 2000 there’s less
52:02
to go around the next is the aging of
52:05
the baby boom
52:06
which means that the people who are now
52:08
in their 60s are arriving the point
52:10
where they’re going to make the biggest
52:11
claims on the state at exactly the
52:13
moment when they feel there is less to
52:14
go around and so much of the Tea Party
52:16
and things like that should be seen as
52:18
the baby boomers are the white baby
52:20
boomers they’re sort of their last
52:22
hurrah of their role in politics making
52:24
the politics of group generational
52:26
assertion of their claims on the state
52:30
immigration and rising ethnic diversity
52:33
which is always difficult to manage and
52:36
which governing elites have tended to
52:38
think is easy to manage is automatically
52:40
managed I think the end of the Cold War
52:42
which has destroyed a lot of the best
52:46
habits of American elites especially in
52:50
Congress of give-and-take because the
52:51
country was engaged in in a generational
52:54
in this kind of epic struggle and and
52:57
then this and it’s not driven by the
53:01
economy that’s connected by this kind of
53:03
cultural collapse in the face of
53:05
globalization in the middle of the
53:06
country which has left people gripped by
53:09
a despair and looking for solutions the
53:11
best description I’ve ever heard of a
53:13
trump voter is a successful person in an
53:16
unsuccessful place that the unsuccessful
53:19
people give up on politics they they
53:21
don’t they don’t believe they can make a
53:23
difference but imagine like the vice
53:26
president of the high school the vice
53:27
principal of a high school and the coach
53:28
of the football team in a small town
53:30
facing deindustrialization he believes
53:33
that he can make a difference and he
53:34
believes things your members and things
53:36
were better and he believes the things
53:37
should be better but he sees nothing but
53:40
worry around him and he’s ready to
53:43
embrace extremist answers and into that
53:47
steps demagogic figures Trump in this
53:50
country are the people in other
53:51
countries thank you thank you thank you
53:55
for an interesting talk the founding
53:57
fathers were suspicious of the pure
54:00
forms of government kingship aristocracy
54:04
democracy because they thought that each
54:08
of them had characteristic flaws and the
54:11
floor they saw in democracy is that it
54:14
tends to throw up populist demagogues so
54:19
they designed a system of separation of
54:22
powers to control that my question is is
54:26
it going to work well they wrote a
54:30
system of government and it’s been
54:32
written rewritten and rewritten again I
54:35
think one of the important of the
54:39
benefits of a really close study of
54:41
history is you come after a while to
54:43
know these people as people you might
54:46
have known in your own life and that
54:48
there’s this there’s this way of talking
54:50
about the founding generation as if they
54:52
were demigods and by the way as if they
54:54
were all one thing people talk about the
54:55
founders forgetting they hated each
54:57
other a couple one of them killed
55:01
another and and and then another one
55:06
tried to hang the one who killed the
55:07
other and they and through the Civil War
55:11
and through reconstruction we rewrote a
55:14
lot of their system and the New Deal we
55:15
rewrote it again
55:17
and while we inherit the system and it’s
55:19
continuous that the answers there’s a
55:26
the the answers are in us we can’t just
55:30
look backwards but I’ll tell you one
55:31
thing that they did anticipate is that
55:33
there’s a lot of discussion in the notes
55:37
of James Madison about the 1787
55:39
Constitution about the risk of
55:41
corruption in the presidency they were
55:43
intensely aware of this problem and they
55:47
had seen it they had seen Republic’s
55:49
snuffed out in their time in 1787 you
55:51
know the Polish Republic was about to be
55:54
carved up they had seen Sweden which had
55:57
a kind of which was a monarchy that I
55:58
did republic ripped apart by the
56:00
intervention of foreign governments in
56:01
his politics and the thing they worried
56:03
about a lot was the United States
56:04
comparatively small and weak in poor
56:06
country with three powerful neighbors
56:07
Spain France and England on the in the
56:09
Western Hemisphere would they try to
56:11
bribe the president and at the at the
56:14
convention they talked twice of what the
56:16
example of charles ii he was the King of
56:18
England and Scotland at the time of the
56:20
grandparents and great-grandparents of
56:21
the authors of the Constitution who took
56:23
bribes from the King of France in order
56:25
to allow the King of France to make more
56:27
on the Netherlands without England
56:28
intervening and who surrendered land on
56:30
the continent to France and the Charles
56:33
second example the corrupt president in
56:35
the pay of a foreign power that is
56:37
something they thought about a lot and I
56:39
think their remarks have some
56:40
instruction to us because I think that
56:42
is the part of where we are now that
56:43
would not surprise them
56:44
it was 230 years good run but the
56:48
problem did eventually show up I think
56:49
this is the last question I want to tell
56:51
you I really enjoy your appearances on
56:53
Bill Maher thank you very much I think
56:55
you saw the last one I thought you were
56:58
very principled and didn’t you say you
57:00
had voted for Hillary and I wrote that
57:02
um you know one of the things that has
57:04
been a rule of mine I have no illusions
57:07
about how interesting or not interesting
57:09
my personal thought processes are but I
57:11
do feel that when you’ve taken any
57:13
position in public if you change your
57:15
mind about anything you owe the eleven
57:17
people who care some kind of account of
57:20
why you’ve done it so so I wrote I did
57:23
vote for Hillary it was a difficult
57:26
thing to do I wasn’t actually I was not
57:28
in DC on election day I cast an absentee
57:29
ballot and got in the mail I filled it
57:31
out and then it sat in my outbox for
57:33
about five days as I hesitated but in
57:39
the end I believed you know I have a lot
57:40
I have a lot of problems with her maybe
57:43
others do too but I believe in the end
57:47
two things about her one was that she
57:49
was a patriot and the other was that she
57:55
would she knew the job because one of
57:59
the things I’ve really come to believe
58:00
is there such a thing as being good at
58:02
the job of president independent of
58:04
whether you’re delivering the right
58:05
answers I’m just do you have the ability
58:07
to run a meeting where you make sure the
58:11
the most junior and least important
58:13
person the meeting always talks first do
58:15
you know that do you know how to manage
58:17
the staff process do you know who did it
58:20
had a staff and administration so I
58:21
believe she knew all of those things and
58:23
I also believed and this is one thing
58:26
that I try to impart to my conservative
58:27
friends one of the habits of mind of
58:30
people on the right is the belief that
58:31
we’re always five minutes from midnight
58:34
on the tipping point which are Paul Ryan
58:36
gave that speech and I believe politics
58:39
never ends and when you lose it’s the
58:41
setup to the time you win and when you
58:43
win is the setup to the time you lose
58:46
that you have to play for the the long
58:47
game and the belief and what threatens
58:50
democracies maybe almost more than
58:51
anything else is the belief that this
58:53
moment of decision is so important that
58:55
anything anything you can do to win is
58:58
worth doing because you will never get
59:00
another chance and we have to preserve
59:02
the system which makes sure there’s
59:04
always another chance and that you know
59:06
in a under president you don’t like your
59:07
present your rights are still protected
59:09
and under president I don’t like my
59:11
rights are still protected and that we
59:12
can continue to follow these rules
59:14
together for decades and centuries thank
59:17
you so maybe you’re gonna have a
59:20
following well I didn’t really ask a
59:22
question I just I thought that was the
59:24
I’m sorry all right sorry III don’t mean
59:29
this to be patronizing but why are you a
59:32
Republican what attracted you to two
59:35
conservative principles I’m not putting
59:38
that I’m not saying you can’t be
59:40
principled but yeah you don’t seem like
59:43
your average I’m a pretty weird do
59:47
generally sir but why am i Republican
59:51
I’m first on the core question of are
59:56
you someone who has more to lose from
59:57
politics than to gain I’m that person do
59:59
you are you someone who is in the are
60:01
you concerned with markets and business
60:03
and private property that that’s me do
60:05
you want to see the private sector
60:06
bigger and the public sector smaller yes
60:08
if I said if I live in California I be a
60:11
very enthusiastic supporter of the
60:13
Republican Party of California against a
60:15
Democratic Party that I think cost too
60:16
much but one other thing that and why
60:19
I’m especially Republican now because
60:20
these are like they’re proud in any the
60:22
history of any party they’re proud or in
60:24
less proud moments and like it was 1864
60:26
up here and there’s 2016 down here but a
60:32
political system doesn’t work very well
60:34
if there’s one party committed to
60:36
democratic norms and only one party you
60:38
need to and I think that those of us who
60:40
believe in both conservatism and
60:42
democracy are more needed than ever
60:44
inside the Republican Party and you
60:45
should run to where the trouble is not
60:47
away from where the trouble is that’s
60:49
true
60:52
thank you all we actually have one one
60:57
final oh I’m sorry
60:58
I bungled that this is a follow-up to a
61:03
previous question tonight concerned
61:05
about religious fundamentalism in its
61:09
influence of America I share that
61:14
concern very much and I don’t like the
61:17
way religious fundamentalism is emerging
61:22
in politics I don’t like the granting of
61:26
religious freedom to corporations or to
61:29
freedom of speech for corporations
61:32
especially with political financing I
61:35
really don’t care for so-called
61:41
self-appointed religious evangelicals
61:45
supporting a child molester wackadoodle
61:50
judge in Alabama all right again he said
61:54
I’m really interested in what you think
61:55
about if you could assess the move
61:59
currently underway in gathering steam of
62:04
religious fundamentalist Christian
62:07
Sharia law okay okay well let me say
62:11
you’re in for a treat because you have
62:14
now in office the least religious
62:16
president in American history running an
62:19
administration in a White House that is
62:21
less hung up on religious morality then
62:25
they do everything I mean it’s just
62:27
unbelievable you know when Hillary
62:34
Clinton was asked that question the
62:35
debate is there anything good you can
62:36
say about Donald Trump she answered I
62:39
like the way he raised his kids which is
62:40
an answer she might want to take back or
62:42
rethink but here’s the thing I can say
62:45
that is good about Donald Trump is that
62:47
he’s not a hypocrite that he never
62:49
pretended to be a good man and he’s not
62:50
a good man he doesn’t pretend to be
62:52
otherwise and he doesn’t protect their
62:54
people who around him he will tell you
62:55
that he’s religious he’s so obviously
62:56
not but here’s the thing that is
63:00
happening the Trump years and I think
63:01
Trump himself is going to accelerate
63:02
this that he
63:04
in the 1990s if you surveyed American
63:06
religious attitudes you saw a country
63:08
that was dramatically more religious
63:10
than any other developed country I mean
63:12
Americans 90 percent or whatever was
63:14
believe in God believe him life after
63:16
death
63:16
huge huge huge overwhelming almost
63:20
unanimity answering religious beliefs
63:23
then when you observed religious
63:25
practice what you two saw was a country
63:27
that didn’t look that different from
63:29
other developed countries where if you
63:30
looked at how many people went to church
63:32
or other behaviors there’s this huge gap
63:34
between what Americans said and what
63:36
Americans did and in the 21st century
63:39
that gap began to close and close very
63:42
very fast and you saw this huge increase
63:44
in Americans who said they had no
63:45
religion you didn’t see a decline in
63:47
Americans going to church that was a lot
63:50
of people had been sort of weekly
63:52
religious before identified as religious
63:54
without doing it stop doing so and I
63:57
think that trend I’m guessing the people
63:59
like Roy Moore and the attitude of
64:01
evangelicals to Donald Trump may
64:02
probably accelerate that and that you’re
64:05
going to see a more validly secular
64:06
country in future whether that’s a good
64:08
thing or not however I really have to
64:10
question because religious faith as a
64:14
way of guiding individual behavior is a
64:19
POW is the most powerful tool we talked
64:22
I talked with general last question but
64:24
Islam of it at religion as an ability to
64:25
bring out the bad it’s also force that
64:27
can bring out the good when we wish it
64:28
and when we lose it and we are losing it
64:31
fast
64:32
I think we’re gonna lose something
64:34
something precious and that religious
64:38
people I think one of the ways that
64:40
younger evangelicals will speak about
64:42
their about the the grams and the fall
64:45
Wells is that they have failed them is
64:46
that they have seen religion as a system
64:49
of political power and not as an
64:50
inspiration toward greater goodness and
64:53
kindness and in human beings
64:55
[Music]
64:59
[Applause]
65:13
you