he had grown up and he's written a wonderful book. the media relations department of hezbollah wishes you a happy birthday. i have read some of that book as he was developing it but a class was the editor and didn't have time to read the whole thing yet by loved so much what i read i decided i really want to give the whole thing a great read and i love hearing what people are saying talking about that book. the third book i have to be in the week at night has been by my bedside many of us are but maybe this is finally the summer i will read the powerbroker by robert a. caro on robert moses. it is something i wanted to read a long time and it's that kind of book you need a nice summer month to find the time to read it. >> to see more summer reading lists and other program information, visit our website at booktv.org. ..

>> at every level in the federal government and we have seen a significant losses across the united states and obama one in a very decisive

victory not only winning electorally with a large mandate but carrying a very significant filibuster-proof senate and a strong majority in the congress. these are serious times for conservatives and republicans that want to have a two-party system and see that important for the future of the nation important foundation for our republic can form of government. today we have a number of distinguished guests broke i have an newsmax one of the new on-line new media companies in america restarted 10 years ago and we reach 5 million americans most people know was best from newsmax.com but also publishes newsmax magazine and

also many news.com online and reared dedicated the american public needs to hear both sides of the story we're seeing the obama presidency that the media is giving the public a one-sided view on important public policy issues. joining us today are a number of people involved with not only republican politics, a conservative politics but the media as well we have a number of powerhouse to describe the people on the panel today. some of them are not household names but names that carry significant weight in the conservative movement the far left is richard viguerie considered the godfather of conservative direct mail and has created the modern conservative movement by helping dozens and dozens of leading conservative groups in the nation bypass the media and recharge to get donors to

support causes that advocate for conservative principles brought next to him is thomas phillips. he is a heavyweight in conservative media and the founder of eagle international which started with a $1,000 investment in 1974 and grew that to a newsletter business in the hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues. he is best known as the owner of viggo publishing which produces human events which ronald reagan said was his favorite publication and tom has kept it true to the tradition of ronald reagan and regnery books that publishes best seller after best-seller that you are very familiar that what they publish. next to him it is thomas fuentes who is a leading

republican in the state of california. a longtime chairman of the orange county republican committee, one of the nation's most leading hispanic businessmen and also joining us is jon utley a long time conservative activist the associate publisher of the american conservative magazine a monthly that many of you pat buchanan writes for the publication i want to thank them for joining us. i would like to ask each panelist to start with a three or five minute response about what they think about the future of conservatism and if it is true the brighter than we see it now and many people have a pessimistic view but i am hoping that we will get a silver lining today in this cloud of obama common the overcast in washington.

let's start with richard and move down the row. >> thank you chris. i do believe conservatives will govern in the future. in my lifetime i have been involved in three times of the national level of helping conservatives capture the republican party. 1964 goldwater, it 80 reagan, 94 gingrich revolution providing i think we can do it again but this time to a very different and not just take control of the party but all of american politics and when the g.o.p. again is a mere 10 a majority it will not be led by washingtwashingt on district of columbia insiders the people who cause a problem cannot fix it. as conservatives we have been betrayed by roche daybook a few years ago called

conservatives the trade how george w. bush and other big government republicans hijacked the conservative cause" and we have problems with unions and the mainstream media and george soros and this and that but that is not our real problem we won three landslide elections in the '80s with the same opponents but the problem quite frankly is big government republicans george bush, at karl rove, tom delay, denny have scared to, etc. our leaders have betrayed us. and we will not get to the local park promised land until we get new leaders. kelly and conway conducted a exit poll this past election for words asking people how they felt about the word republican conservative

democrat or liberal the most unpopular was republican and the most popular was conservative. our philosophy is we have been betrayed by the big government republicans. we did not lose the recent elections it was the big government republicans that lost the election. the number one mistake was to too many times it became an appendage of the republican party, the arm of the party and we need new leadership going forward. we have to have new leadership. mostly young girl leadership in many ways we're like the biblical jews 1/2 to wander through the desert and tell the generation of lot leaders have passed and we will not get to the political promised land until we have new leaders and people have made a conscious decision they do not like republican leaders whether tom delay, boehner

common niche mcconnell, they have made a conscious decision -- decision they do not like these people they feel republicans are incompetent, iraq, katrina, and that they think they are in net to. there is a long list. until the republican party is open under new management nothing will change. that is the bad news but the good news is the leadership change will come from us. here at the grass-roots level nothing will change until the people at the grass roots level assume the role of leadership they think is our i's with each and every one of the. >> i thought you were going to give me optimism i am going to have to head to the bar for a

drink. [laughter] >> i would like to endorse what richards said. in fact, for three years of my life i endorsed everything that richard said because i was working for him. [laughter] he was a wonderful boss and a wonderful teacher and mentor i've learned more from him than anyone else regarding the politics and business thank you for the movement and also on a personal basis pride to endorse what he says when they we're all familiar with is there is a difference between being conservative and republican and those people that bird -- put the word republican first unfortunately often sacrifice the conservative party and do not stand for anything that matters. the party label, of the party

elders and they do not add much to the next. also one favorite term of mine, republican been in name only and unfortunately a lot of our leaders do not have the philosophical beliefs that those of us in the room share. and also how the republican party needs to modernize and respect to the voters so there you have to compromise between liberalism or conservatism or between left or right and become more like the democrats to attract more votes. that has never worked and has not and that is how ronald reagan came to power as he put it if you hold up your standard is an articulate the voters will come we do not have to chase them for leadership.

finally, washington is mostly the problem, the solution. i certainly hope from the states and cities around the country we do get some young leaders coming up and looking different from the tired old leaders the republican party has now. >> thomas fuentes? >> a joy to be with you today as a republican county chairmen for 20 years it kills me to me and a group this large and not be a fund-raiser. [laughter] >> we can pass that had. >> there is great hope for the republican for the conservative movement and it is the republican party and for those who see it differently i do think if we will be a movement of hope it has to be placed in a party that is the vehicle of the

great two-party system that has proven itself to be the best in this world. we have values, principals, ideals as conservatives that have been in times past well enunciated by our party and have to be well annunciated again. faith, family, freedom are the reasons that i consider myself a conservative and why i have worked in the party as a volunteer for these many years to accomplish something to achieve those goals, and the targets and those ideals we did that in my community to a point* where we became the most republican in the county in america up. i think that is doable in other places and i think it is

a means by which we recognize that in deed all politics is local. we should start at the grassroots much as richard said and their house to be a place at the table for all elements of the conservative movement at the table. added one time for those of us who began walking precincts for barry goldwater we realized we're in a battle with eastern liberal establishment that controlled our party they were boardroom republicans and we the people took away from that element and we have a new western establishment those who attempt to run our party. we have a need for money at the table but we also have an need for all other segments for the christian right and

ethnic communities and hispanics in california we are becoming once again because it started out as a hispanic stay and hispanics are coming back in great numbers unfortunately we look around at this convention and there are not enough people of color we need to include them because they are our neighbors [applause] we build those elements into the party then we recapture power and we need to turn to the think tank that is available to us today to stimulate and encourage the message of our movement by the party then invite people than from all segments of our movement to be a part of the leadership. >> thank you. i am at jon utley at my a magazine "the american conservative" in your packet

my background is not described but i have been active since i was 18 with republicans but i lived 15 years in south america it in business and we have another viewpoint many of us to spend many years in foreign countries especially the third world and what happens in washington with the republican establishment is there was a very few people with knowledge of the outside world. it was some things that i set up a number of web pages with a neo-conservative biographies and those that were running foreign policy the international experience was a semester in england or if they were sophisticated, paris. and they were supposedly the knowledgeable people of international affairs. you have washington run by policy wonks in the think

tanks and congressional staffers to go back and forth who have credentials that get posted in high positions. i am not quite as sanguine as richard i think the system corrupts both parties. one of the war parties we were against was the war with kosovo and an interesting side point* is the republican congressman who were freshmen and sophomores oppose that war but the republicans who were in washington longer supported it and i will tell you later some of the reasons. and talking about conservative is that we may say to our c-span audience may be since bush and the republican leadership people have forgotten perhaps to define what we mean by conservative the tradition of russell kirk preserving and building upon successful traditions of our

civilization, limited government maintaining values common maintaining fiscal prudence attacks with government structure that allows for economic prosperity, a decent respect for the opinions of mankind. this is what i hope we would all agree. >> do you think the consensus here with the panel is conservatism is not dead but the gallup poll shows kelly conway poll that's a factor of two /1 they choose conservative over liberal but it seems the bush years were labeled conservative but he was not put up and tell obama largest social spender in history engage the united states through adventurism i

don't think had great support within the party itself. to rethink the republican party is no longer the vehicle for conservatism or is it salvageable? maybe i will ask thomas phillips to start. >> i have always been skeptical of third party organizations trying to start something from scratch it would be easier to go back and turn it around rather than scrap it. just the structure of politics and election law makes it difficult to be a third party to become a second party. but i will say one of the things that we don't hear enough about on our side we don't use the word enough or think about 80 neff is what tom brought up with the word freedom and the concept that all of these debates going on in washington now and have

been for decades, less and less you hear about freedom freedom for business to build, for all of us to reach our best possible contribution. we hear about safety and opportunities but we don't hear much about freedom and i think we have to go back to talk about freedom that the country was founded on and that is what drove the founding fathers and many patriots and we should never expect to get ahold of the of leadership of the country if we can't talk about freedom to what it means to each and every individual. >> do you think the republican party is salvageable? >> it has to be, chris, because i second what tom said and to be more

blunt, i am not a fan of the leadership of either political party and they have done if what time and i did in business we would go to jail. they break the rules to keep out competition. because the rules are designed to make sure republicans and democrats stay in office it is almost impossible to think about a successful third-party will just elect more liberal democrats. it is entirely possible, what is bad for america is good for the conservative movement. there is much that is out there. we have been here and we have seen how the conservative movement does come together and grow and expand and add new members in the eventually come back to power when the other side is in office

overextend come over reaches i have said many times this year if you run a conservative organization, a publication, whatever it might be you do not double the size of your organization you should consider resigning and let somebody run it is a mass of opportunity for the conservative movement to grow and expand this and next year's. >> touching on what thomas fuentes said yes you may have a recounting of activism isn't it a demographic time bomb those that vote conservative vote republican in were anglo-american, and we're not reaching out to people of color or latinos, blacks, they voted 90% four obama's understandably because he was the first african-american is serious contender for the presidency but latinos voted in record numbers in a higher percentage than they did in

the 2004 when they voted 44% for bush. how we get the latinos, blacks, asians, india ns, to come over? most of them have conservative values. >> california as tragic as the condition of our state today virtually bankrupt issuing ious this week with a governor does not know he is a republic 10, we have in recent months of passage of proposition a comment the issue to secure the marriage be between one man and one woman and who helped us pass that? of the latino and black community came forward. we need to pick the right issues and carry the right banner to offer to the people something they can relate to.

so it believes in family values those are republican values and conservative values that we need to enunciate and welcome them aboard. reagan has plenty of hispanics approaching for them so did george bush the first and florida -- the first four rounds so it is not a matter of the demographics as much as watery offering to the people? >> obama's said he wants to legalize a net large number of illegal aliens there is 12 million even with 1 billion wouldn't that be very decisive in a national election and to ae foreseeable future perhaps one generation power at the federal level to the democratic party? am i before that happens we need to carry our message to the people that legal hispanic

immigrants resent in a legal immigrants just as much as anybody else. we need to take that to the people. >> that is a good point* but we have the message and people want to hear our message but there is a little thing blocking us, the big media abc, cnn, we have fox news that is fair with both points of view. how do we bypass? richard you invented the idea of direct mail to bypass the media is that still working? newspapers, books, is there some other routes three missing something in the age of twitter or facebook? what do we need to do to get our message out? >> let me say the problem with our message is we didn't have access to the maker funds of the country the last eight

years when your people are perceived to be in power conservatives were perceived to be of course, they were not a big government establishment, republicans were in power they had access to the microphone. they were out in the wilderness at that period of time and now that is why it is so important that all of us and those of us here reassume the mantle of leadership broke i mentioned yesterday perhaps you were not here but conservatives need to meet regularly in the '70s and '80s many time at my home for breakfast. we said we were the leaders and alternatives and the democrats and jimmy carter and we have to go back to those days again that we are the

leaders. we have access to the media or i wrote a book a few years ago called the new alternative media with the first book that chronicled how conservatives finally got access to the microphone in this country. it is an exciting time to be involved because we do have access in a way that was unthinkable 40 years ago. >> thomas phillips? >> in addition to what was said we have to persuade more business people who are on our side to invest in media. this conference includes a lot of investment, of professionals, and the stores and do they look at their portfolio of oil, guest, and manufacturing has anybody looked at media? one of my friends in washington for instance has bought small portions such as

general electric and other corporations that are doing bad things with public policy or media wise and they get up and protest against that the stockholder meeting and say make a lot of noise for a small organization. we need to move more in the business community and move into the media. why did i start building a company? because i have some business talent but i thought where it was really needed was in the media world and more people on our side needs to do that not just chase after was stock is doing better than another stock i think long-term investing in the media. >> we would like to take a few questions if anybody wants to go to the microphone. this is being broadcast on c-span 2 o so you get your voice heard here and across america. >> you have not mentioned the

constitution. i know that we all, then maybe not all but there are people that want to destroy the constitution because it is the last big barrier to world government. the constitution has enumerated powers, and the republicans as well as democrats, they are way away from the enumerated powers. they have done everything in order to control us in every which way we don't have a legislature that is making our laws, we now have czars and departments that make rules. regulations, unconstitutional. >> john. >> guest: to tackle that question? has it been the eviscerated? >> that is a good point* but from another angle i would say

it is averted very much in key aspects, gerrymandering has made congress 98% loss proof that comes out of communist countries it is unbelievable. the real focus on gerrymandering those are the reasons why the constitution is attacked and also a major reason for the corruption because these congressmen are so secure in their district. things like that. secondly, you have to publicize the very little known is the military commission act put in by the last republican congress that has been written extensively that allow the president to declare martial law by himself used to need the congress i believe and a takeover the national guard of any state and send it to another state.

that is a structure for a dictatorial system done under our nose is bracket is very much focusing on these kinds of issues but they come from the structure in washington and and washington itself is where we need some changes in term limits that is one way around that. >> talking about washington there has been a lot of talk the republican party does not have a leader it needs a leader is a rush limbaugh, michael steele, new gingrich? is important that the party or movement of conservatives have a leader as definable? morrice is it the open source there could be multiple leaders, multiple groups and they will have the same effect and turn the country around and take back the white house

and congress over the next two years? >> there is plenty of time. this time four years ago few americans knew barack obama. there is plenty of time to revolve a a leader for the next presidential cycle but in the meantime as volunteers or activists have to take a role and and gage and build within our communities. the problem i think has happened in her on movement through the years it is a lot of conservatives went to washington to do good. they did very well. they stayed and bought into the system. they bought into the benefits of the system and the power. we need to return to a movement of activists. >> a number of conservative leaders, tom delay said we do

not need reagan anymore we need a new path, all of us have lived the past 40 or 50 years hearing about kennedy and the last election of a grab don never betty ever says the democrats should get rid of john kennedy's so do think reagan is important for the future? >> certainly. we should keep his memory alive a and his vision and his goal for america about what may use a baseball example. the a great movie and build it and they will come, right now if ronald reagan showed up, we would not be prepared to support him. the infrastructure is not there. we do not have the organizations at the grass roots state, national level when reagan ran for president and 76 and 80 we had the new

right, old right, we had a big movement that could support him. he could come into oshkosh and meet hundreds of people that have gotten together to welcome him. the first thing that has to happen is that the grass roots level we have to rebuild the movements than the next leader will appear. >> i think of someone on the scene right now that can draw of those type of crowds is very controversial and her name is sarah palin and could she potentially help build that grass-roots movement now she leaves the governorship of alaska's? >> she did not call me before she made the announcement i do not know that agenda. >> we have a question. >> i wanted to steer this in the direction of the average age of everybody at this conference and realize there are a lot of younger people

and i appreciate that but i became a conservative one day it from reading george will it was enough to get me going in a different direction where is the william f. buckley? do want to comment on the intellectual writings of people that might influence younger people to become a part of this? right now we're running out of those people and that is my impression. does anybody want to comment on that? >> i would love to take on that one maybe it is an opportunity for a commercial. i am a senior fellow at the claremont institute that publishes the review of books under dr. charles kessler. on a quarterly basis the claremont review of books is publishing bill buckley quality commentary on our

society, movement, politics of the day. at heritage and cato and claremont, we have an abundance of conservative intellectuals today offering contemporary addressing the issues of our day that is available. we need to turn to fellows like my colleague thomas phillips with regnery books, with red states, a human events, -- you minivans.com it is available. it is out there we need to encourage others to read it. >> un dae had a conversation one month ago on this train and you said you thought obama was the most serious adversary the republicans had ever faced and what was different was unlike other democrats that oppose the republican party was political opposition but

obama seems to be to put the republican party out of business. how do we counter that? we know there is a demographic problem, age, a culture gap could it be that john made the point* he would like america to be like chicago with a republican party but it is there for show and a one-party city. is that something that is a potential threat? >> it is frightening all of us. this is the most serious opponent we have ever faced. just those who say we need to moderate year or move to the center, democrats nominated the most left-wing kennedy ever nominated by a major political party who has done nothing but a select big government socialist types people say obama is a

socialist but to me speaking for myself, that is not a serious question. of course, the is but is the a marxist? [laughter] but there are two institutions to keep politicians and the government on the straight and narrow one is the media and we know they have left the sidelines as the referees and have joined in the other side that leaves the nonprofit community and they are in serious danger of being silenced by this administration it is very serious they know what to do with the power. between five and $10 billion of the stimulus money is designated directly for nonprofit organizations. the day the stimulus bill passed the american heart association put out a press release praising the package it is a wonderful thing now we can repair schools, we can get

people whose unemployment checks have stopped they will get checks again advancing the obama agenda this will happen with the cancer society, arthritis, the entire nonprofit community wanting this money they both be silenced part of that is just one of 100 things that they will do to use our money to make this a one-party country. >> when we add it that's the topic is not as bleak as it might appear. believe may it is not because the democrats are starting to make a lot of mistakes and they are coming on fast for pro it is not so bad for us in that sense but let me mention one is an oil. the of curtail drilling in america, they have some crazy hatred almost that no drilling offshore although it was approved by the congress i

have been up in alaska there are incredible amounts of oil all over. we have oil is abundant, natural guest, they, it is essentially a new technology which we have an abundance. if you at the expense obama is already dropping in the polls. the expense of the health-care program is not cutting costs they have to cut the waste, waste will spending, general motors, taking that over sets a precedent of it did agree to damage to the bond market and in the future it could be the airline. >> i think we have a pretty good picture he has radically been changing the structure. >> if this lady that has been waiting patiently? >> it is obvious that we have an old guard of conservative

people who are successful in business but people forget the government is a business. we need some of experience but we also need younger people to form a plan. i read where last week obama's sent out 13 million e-mails in support of his health-care initiative and i.d.'s to get that passed. it is not so much the 13 million e-mails what they said, i don't know because i did not get one. but it is the campaigning and that is what i think the conservative party is missing that if you fail to play and you plan to fail and our current president has never stopped campaigning whether for his next election or for his liberal agenda.

there is a plan so along with the wisdom and knowledge that our conservative party carries, we need to get a plan together and it is not too soon to start that. we need to start now be for all of this rolls over the top of the systemic there is a lovely pamphlet said david horowitz wrote called the art of political warfare i suggest it is about strategy. he makes the point* that aside that has a strategy will almost always win against the side that does not have a strategy. your point* is very well taken their needs to be a strategy. i would empathize that conservatives it is not enough to say you are against obama and maybe there will be a backlash or maybe not. rose about 140 elections and the economy got worse and worse. so they need to have a strategy that has a positive

future and image talk about what the free enterprise system does. there are less than 5% of the world population but 27% of the world's gdp there is something going on that we have been doing right socialism will hurt that. >> i want to ask the speakers if they saw any tension or contradiction within the conservative movement on the one hand with libertarians to stress freedom, individual choice, liberty and the moral majority family values side of the conservative movement the white seeing are headed in a different direction in do you see a contradiction in how the conservatives work to resolve it? >> let me start with richard that is the last question because our time is up and i

am sure the panel will take some questions after if you want to come up. >> let me quickly comment on the lady who answered the -- are made the comment about the play and i have my own a page plan i have had it and i am working my plan i have colleagues and friends who have plans and they are working and meeting regularly in washington and around the country. do not count on those national conservatives to save us all but beings are happening and plans are being developed and meetings are happening and there is perhaps some light at the end of the tunnel but of course, there is tension there is tension on the left side. roosevelt's put together a coalition of groups of people who hated each other. blacks and union leaders, met due wish, college

professors, intellectuals, and these people hated each other's they got a 70% and they got a 70% i am a disciple he was a great conservative leader and he talked about fusion is and and i commended to all of you and that is the only way we will come to power is to bring us together as ronald reagan did we do not have to square the circle. traditional conservatives will never totally agree with libertarians who will never agree with this or that group. we have to do the best we can and move forward. >> ien doris richards comment i was about ready to mention frank who was a pillar of the foundation of the conservative movement who wrote to "the national review". he showed how we could bridge

the gap between of the libertarians and the traditional conservatives and frankly we have to realize a few are a libertarian it from you have more in common with of fuddy-duddy conservative and if you do with the left and the reverse is true we need the help of the libertarians as well as conservative traditionalist to have any chance to provide leadership for those countries. >> i want to thank our distinguished panel for a very insightful time to offer their time. i know tom came from california today too be with us. i appreciate all of you for spending the time to this then and hopefully we will work for building a better and a stronger america [applause]

thomas phillips founded angle publishing in 1993. he is the chairman and president of philips international inc.. thomas fuentes a senior fellow with the claremont institute and former chairman of the republican party of orange county california this talk was part of freedom best 20092 find out more visit.

>> rick pelstein who lives since the "nixonland" but with the election of barack obama it is a question but the whole idea of "nixonland" is we have to mutually groups of americans who hate each other left and right, red and blue that one side barely considers the other side american at all and the big part of barack obama appeal was to transcend that sort of thinking whether that will work or not is the open question of this administration. he did pass a stimulus bill with zero republican votes and still called a socialist so it is a way to think about our history going forward. we're still living in the bifurcated time that would

evolves with richard nixon in the '50s. >> host: how did 80 faltering richard nixon and was the partially responsible in your view? >> he did not create the wave but he served well wave. basically of the '60s social movement became all the more passionate and by land, largest loss of white middle-class america became very frightened through normal expectations of law and order were being appended. richard nixon in house that rage and to a political advantage of that rage and not only harvested its but exacerbated its as a political strategy. for example, he argued privately all the zero he did say publicly they wanted to

achieve a polarization in other words, it is good to have a political discourse to divide the country into because of there believe the republicans would harvest a bigger side of the divide is so although much public rhetoric we would expect our president to speak all the time the bear the beneath the surface he encouraged the idea that one group of americans was not american at all one was the silent majority and the others wanted to tear down everything that we had built a seven was some of that raged justified? >> absolutely. of lots of what went on on the new left with the power movement was juvenile common

narcissistic, and i tell a story in the book about abbie hoffman who was one of the most prominent anti-war activist at the youth international party and how john lindsay had made him an ambassador between the city and i hit the community of omori east side. so abbie hoffman would take advantage of that today to the cops. in one story he actually so bated a cop interesting him that he literally smashed and the display case in the precinct house just because he cut. and when you have that level of childishness, that does not make it easy for us to come together as a commonwealth. it is when their rage became

undifferentiated and what is directed at senators to oppose the war like a musky who tried to tie the radical movement. >> host: as a politician and, i'd do you respect richard nixon? >> guest: he was the best. he was not quite good enough to bluff his way to go through two full terms but as far as his ability, the subterranean mood, going bear the beneath the surface and speaking to those hopes and dreams come he was brilliant. he was brilliant thinking about what was built for his politics and one of the ways in which she was such a brilliant politician and he was not a very charming man. it is a paradox. he was a guy that people found

it very hard to get along with and did not enjoy a people but yet could still win the allegiance of millions of americans. >> host: your first book was on barry goldwater and this is your second on republicans and the rights and working on of third? why so fascinated? >> the thing that fascinates me i am a political activist although proud that people on the right have found my work useful and fair but fascinated that we americans share a nation with each other even though we see the world in such different ways we speak the same language, english come and have it the same space is, but we have just enough mutual comprehension that we can be voyeuristic with one another's world and i find that endlessly fascinating. why do people think

differently? what do i have in common wire some people liberal and why are others conservative? i can sit in the library and close my eyes and think about that for hours and call it a good day. >> is america unique in that respect? >> i think american it is unique in that the ideological direction seems more up for grabs the and and a lot of places. we are a country where we never had and aristocracy what binds us together is not blood or geography but a set of ideas and we're always fighting over the 80 is. what does liberty mean? a social democrat or somebody from a new deal that means having enough food in your stomach to take care of your family but conservative means

the government stays out of the private economy no matter what. we still have the same arguments with each other almost 250 years into the experiment. >> host: has there of ever been a time that america has been united? >> guest: we are always united and always divided. those two realities are that tension with each other. we could not defeat fascism in world war ii had we not achieved a degree of operational unity but by the same token that involved varying certain ways we word disunited like around praise that quickly rose to the surface after world war ii and the 1950's as americans came back they said we fought for our freedom and we fought for

our way of life and now suddenly we are at loggerheads again it is the american condition. >> host: what is a book you are working on and what is the trilogy called? >> a backlash the first was 58 to 64, at 65 to 72 that i have just begun work on a book that i am tentatively calling the invisible bridge that will be 76 through the rise of reagan and will cover 1973 through 1980. >> host: a year here the organization of american historians annual meeting and you just participated on the panel for conservative state in america why are you so fascinated with conservatives? >> guest: a lot of historians are riveted by conservative is them one of the reasons is because they have had such a dominant role in governing the country.

certainly since 2000 when we have had a conservative president, a conservative congress comment to terms of ronald reagan and that is where the action is it is a exciting story in political development why is a country that seems to be headed to a permanent liberal consensus around the liberal ideas begin to lurch so aggressively to the right? it is something bad as the panel we were trying to come it is hard to figure. >> host: as a political activist is important for you to understand the right? >> guest: sure. my way to understand the right is very much based in abbott the. any political movement that hopes to capture a majority let alone a governing majority because of the filibuster house to understand americans

are not sure if you put together political allegiance that conservative ideas are attractive. what is attractive about those ideas? why do they answer to people's normal aspirations and? without understanding that you cannot understand how to persuade people to the way of thinking politically that you find is the greater good which in my case would be the social democratic tradition, the idea that a strong a of government from a central government can deliver the most prosperity to the most people with liberty and individual autonomy. >> host: have you ever imagine and interviewing richard nixon? >> guest: yes.

he was a chess master, poker master four or five steps ahead of everybody else of course, the movie frost and extend that came out and was excellent was basically he let down his guard and seems to have been bested by this steadied lowbrow television host it is straight out this is the best way to defeat an enemy by misdirected by making believe you're not as strong as you really are i think he would be better than me on that. >> host: rick pelstein author of nixon and. >> guest: thank you