>> welcome to c-span2's booktv. every weekend we bring you 48 hours of books on history, biography and public affairs by nonfiction others. .. ask you to recommit to replace the director memories of those who are still with us, thank god.

with a record of this museum so that no one can ever forget these stories and these lessons. and i ask you to think about how the historic slaughter and suffering of the holocaust reflects a human disease that takes different forms. the idea that our differences are more important than our common humanity. >> this weekend on c-span bill clinton and nobel peace prize winner mark the 20th anniversary of the holocaust museum in washington, d.c. today at 1:30 p.m. eastern. then at 8:30 p.m. from houston, the national rifle association's annual meeting. on booktv c-span, in depth live sunday at noon eastern.

we started 12 week series with british authors. and on c-span3, the 1963 birmingham race riots, part of american history tv. tonight at eight. >> it was a small airport back in the 20s, and the military came and established a training base during the second world war. and it was a very active base and it was quite an attribute to yuma until after the second world war ended and it closed and everybody left. the little town of yuma at about 9000 population, and it was dwindling a cousin there was no construction going. tourism had not been established yet, it's an interesting thing for yuma, and the town had not a very bright future. with population of 9000 dwindling, the junior chamber of commerce and something has to be

done, we have to address a attention for good weather and try to get the airbase reactivated. they came up with an endurance flight because every time the flight would be mentioned they would say to yuma, arizona, and get the military interested in reactivating the airbase. so their first attempt failed and then again in august they tried again and they state that several days. then had another major problem. it caught, it's hot. people are going to say -- we will go up two, 3000 feet up or it is cool. it took a few months to get parts for the acclaim. they took off on the 24th of august and they never touched the ground until the 10th of october. >> in late 1949 the future of human arizona was resting on the wings of one airplane. this weekend the history and literary life of yuma, arizona, today at noon eastern on booktv on c-span2, and sunday at 5 p.m. on american history tv

on c-span3. >> and now david harsanyi presents his criticisms of the obama administration. the author opines on four issues he believes are hurting the country, which includes dependence on the government and an expanding national debt. this is about an hour. >> that was very nice, thank you. and it is great to be back. i love colorado. i vowed to get back whenever i can and see old friends, talk about how things are going so terrible for us, for you guys, too, since i left. i left sort of a purple state, came back a blue one. i don't feel that terrible about what's going on simply because i live in maryland which i was reading this report that maryland now, or soon, will take

over vermont and be the most liberal state in the country, and that's where i live right now. so i would like all of us to suffer equally. so i think things are headed in right direction. government is something we'll do. anticipation is not optional for you. anyway, the worst thing that's happened to me since leaving colorado as i become a hopeless pessimist. my first book was fun and the second book is not fun at all. i called it "obama's four horsemen" which is kind of over the top. i think my wife said. other than that this doesn't seem like you, david. this imager, a metaphor, kind of doomsday, you're not that sort of writer. you're not that kind of guy. revelation, fire, brimstone's. i told them that i am the sort of guy now because i think we underestimate how terrible

what's going on actually is. even on the right. i just think a lot of people don't understand the consequences of what's going on. we shouldn't underestimate how powerful and how destructive government can be in our lives. so i'm going to tell you what i think we are screwed, then at like to open up for questions and we can talk about together to see if i forgotten anything, which i doubt. first of all i named the book "obama's four horsemen" also to get your attention, get peoples attention. the greatest book of all time, the name of liberal fascism was taken, so the most provocative book of all time. but also i'd like -- i will be signing books after. i'm willing to take all the abuse the president keeps on us. i thought the religious metaphor worked well because obama claims everything in that metaphor. it's always a battle between light and darkness.

it's always come it's never about policy. it's never about a difference of opinion. it's always about morality. the central case he makes a government existed is a notion that it should be the moral center of also cite them of community. you've heard all the things he talks about. he thinks he should be the arbiter of fairness, he should be the redistribution of wealth, and he is an army of irs agents to fulfill, past pattern and make sure you participate. he has created this huge socialist revival meeting that is politics now in washington. everyone must sacrifice. remember that? or everyone must find meaning in something bigger than themselves, in which means government, right? and if you find meaning in government you're the kind of person that scares the crap out of me. washington is filled with idealistic people like that,

people that scare me a lot. especially when you talk to people on the left, i'm not sure people understand and color of how idealistic they are and what government can do. it's an amazing. anyone who stands in the way this moral construct that obama has erected is branded an obstructionist, unpatriotic, the enemy. selfish, intellectual coward. now i'm going to make one quick digression but i'm sure you guys been following the gun control debate in washington. you will hear republicans be called cowards constantly now. i was thinking about this the other day. obama's is the vast budget of americans agree with his policy on guns. like up to 120% of americans now believe in obama on guns. if i stand there and i'm heat

with scorn and emotional blackmail, and everyone is telling me that the whole country is against me and they vote in the opposite of that, doesn't that make me brave by definition? i think it does. i think the coward is the person who is programmed -- as a person who wants to tax the rich who everyone hates. i hope to be part of that as i said. they are not cowards. cowards of the people in washington who continue to pile on debt on my kids, on your kids, on our grandkids. and the third reason i call the book "obama's four horsemen" is because i actually think we are doomed. i don't mean that, there's no happy ending in the end of my book. there's no accepted we do this because i don't know how to get out of this and that's what i would like to open it up. because i've yet, no one has convinced me there's way out of these problems. sorting out the debt problem,

serving up the dependency problem which is much greater than we talk about. the death problem everyone mentions unfunded liabilities and we don't know whether this, maybe 50 trillion. i don't think these calamities will transform into somalia. we're not going to be bangladesh. we are too good for that i think, but this iteration of the united states i think is over and it will be something new. kevin williamson who writes for the "national review" has a book coming out also at the end, his book is about how it's going to be better once we get there and how -- i disagree. i don't think, you know, after 10 years of stagnation which we are probably had an to terms of elizabeth warren as president, i just don't see how we are going to come out better. maybe we will. this is a sad state of affairs for me because i'm pretty much a technological utopian. i think if we let people just

use their own initiative things will be wonderful for us, but they don't. i've for a longtime operator of the assumption that free market and individual liberty and the astonishing wealth that we have and the guns that we all have, except in maryland, and the constitutional protections we have would allow us to get over recessions and war and disasters and demographic shifts and all that stuff. but underestimated washington big time because i just don't think that's the case. i'm like most americans. i just don't think bad things can happen. and when they do i'm shocked. but i think that's where we're headed, and i often speak to conservatives who really interesting and great it is, people at the heritage foundation vanessa. the problem with all that is we're still trying to -- were still fighting the great society. obamacare will be completed next year and we will spend 20 years trying to fight back on that. we had our chance to stop and we didn't.

so i'm pessimistic, and as much as i'd like to blame obama for all our problems it's important for member he didn't invent debt or divinity or any of these things. republicans were in charge were pretty long time. they share in the blame. and other share in the blame for different reasons which i'll get you in a minute. but believe it or not i don't think any policy that obama is implemented is really the big problem either. i think there's something much greater that threatens us. the thing that scares me the most is that obama has mainstreamed radical thinking. the people believe crazy ideas. not talking about the tea party. talking about liberals. so the of the week obama's at the debt is not a problem. for 10 years we don't have to worry about debt. not just that, deficit spending close become. i read almost everything again online and there are furious people in mainstream

publications who sat there and argued during the debt ceiling debate that we should have a trillion dollar platinum coin, deposited in the treasury and wash her hands of this. these are serious people and they called the tea party crazy. safi like the whole world is spinning out of control and i'm the only normal person in it, with you guys, and everyone has just gone crazy. think about obama and budgets and everything we talk about. his budget is a huge massive zero-sum fallacy masquerading as policy. it's not a budget like you think of a budget. it's not about economic growth. it's about fairness. he doesn't care about growth. he looks at the world as a piper come sure most of you read milton friedman and you have ridiculous that is. which brings the to the scares prospect of all. what does this say? well, to me this is that we've lost the american people. it's impossible to conservatives

don't like to deal with. there is no real conservative party in europe friends. my parents immigrated from congress hungry. people lived under communism and they're still no conservative classical liberal presence there. in some policy here and there but generally no. so what makes us think there has to be a strong conservative party here or republican party? i'm not sure how many of you saw the autopsy report the republicans put out a little bit ago. it was jampacked with painfully obvious things that we all already know. some of the things they found, i guess the team unearthed some of the things that republican party scary, out of trust, stuffy old men. iced am starting to resent some of those things as i start to grate. i used to think the same thing but now. and the perfection that the gop

does not care about people is doing great harm to the party. as practical politics go it's wonderful to care about people. we do care about people. it's good personal morality to care about people. passion is a good idea. but if the future of the republican party tried to outdo democrats and out emphasize democrats and out promise democrats, then what's the point of having a republican party? you are always going to come in second place but i promise you that. so that a scary to me as we'll be releasing the american people and republican party quite often wants to be more like the democratic party. and i'm not talking about immigration this is that they be just talking generally speaking their idea is democrats went from we have to be more like them. i think that the problem, newt gingrich said we have to be the party focus on the right to life and right to a good life.

i guess by libertarians instincts kick in and said government is not there to give me a good life. i'm there to get myself good life. once you start promising the government will make sure you have a good life, not just a life free of violence and peaceful, but actually good, boy, i think you're heading down a really bad road. and maybe that's the road you have to have done because, i know social conservatives feel like they're being pushed out of the party. it's a complex issue because there are generational shifts and little things happen are don't happen. i don't get into that too much. but i think free market conservatives should be even more worried about this direction and social conservatives because once government starts promising things there's no way to come back from that in my opinion. in the two parties doing the same thing, you're really in trouble. i have some poll numbers here, i'm going to hit on a few, ones

that were amazing to me when i said we've lost the american people. gallop, i saw a poll, six out of 10 americans believe the nation's wealth is not fairly distributed between poor and rich. those numbers are pretty consistent over the years and i don't think the inclination say that there are too many poor people and maybe to many, dinner, not enough rich people. you are not condemning policy, just talking about the world as you see. i think people feel like they say that. but the other question in the poll really scares me. it had a huge spike, over 60% of people who think that you should coerce or take property from one person and make it more fair. that number is a huge spike over the last few years. and i think it's because we've mainstreamed the progressive idea of redistributing wealth. there's no other way to look at that. another gallup poll that found have the democrats had a positive view of socialism.

they had a better view of socialism and capitalism. what bothered me the worst a pretty big number of non-democrats who also, by 20% or something that you'd socialism possibly as well. the pew research poll said that six in 10 voters under 30 supported bigger government and wanted government to do more to solve our problems. that's really where the problem is, young people. i say that also no as a guy who is getting old. but when i was a younger person in the '90s i was part of generation x., slackers and all that but we didn't ask too much. generation y., millennial generation, whatever the cause, let me just quickly say i hate to generalize so i meet a lot of impressive young people in human nature is human nature. there are studies so i have -- is a professor who sort of

measures psychological levels of entitlement and narcissism. he found last year that generation y. scored 25% higher than respondents to age 45 and 50, 50% higher than those over 61. when it came to those two things. so they were all essential and highly what he called the highly entitled range. so they were four times more likely to expect things from government and the parents and their neighbors than crabby old coot on attention. that is an amazing thing. because in this country a used to be old people were banging on the table wanting step ignited young people and the older generation is far more responsible in their voting patterns than younger people who are constantly demanding things. he was a think a liberal just reading between the lines but he said he couldn't believe that jim dwyer said such unrealistic

expectations which led to chronic disappointment. i have worked with interns. when i was an intern i worked in new york, make me getting coffee. i don't think i did anything with journalism for two years. now i'm up against those they want to be like speaker in front. they want to write stored that way, and i think there's nothing wrong with wanting to do those things. but i'm not sure why they expect we would let them do those. but they do. all of which, of course, means they are per -- perfect demographic for barack obama. there's a whole other discussion of race in demographics and it's very important, but i'm not as big, as big a believe in that as other people. i think it's more about immigrants or to hate to this

but i'm very pro-immigration, actual i am for immigration reform but if you think we have people coming to a country, my parents are immigrants did they bring a lot of ideas with them from elsewhere. it seems to me that this new batch of immigrants are buying into the wrong idea of america. so when my parents came, my dad -- millions of people visit my dad was a chemist. when i was born he was working in a factory where to put together those bags at the supermarket that we get arrested using today. he worked himself up. middle-class all that, it all worked out. but he never thought to think if i fail, government will pick it up for me. he just, and my mother as well. they worked hard and got into the ideal of america. but today if you listen to barack obama his message is that if government isn't there every step of the way you will fail. that if we're not that collectively you will fail.

and i am the collectively in my community. i'm a patriotic as far as my country goes but as individuals we still have to cheat and he never puts the burden on the actual individual to achieve in my opinion. now, this inherent sense of entitlement that young people have a place on, a sense of injustice that happened. a place on the immigrants. and with women. i'm not going to, i of the whole thing on abortion but i'm going to skip it because i think the horrors of this are too much of a downer for me to deal with out lunch today on a saturday. but it's prudent to think that we ignore that story the way we do because, for one very simple reason but they don't want to talk but the larger issue of abortion. very simple because it was her talk about arbitrary lines and all these things and how they made abortion into the right that is more important than the first amendment, the second,

fourth, 10th, any of them. that's also very dangerous. the problem is, take it one step further, i don't think we're debating any of these issues anymore. we're just been scolded, being called names all the time. i realize politics hasn't changed that much. the problem is where losing constantly because we're always on the defensive. by we i mean people who believe in free markets and individual freedom. obama won the election. i think he wanted more convincingly than many other republicans who argue with me. i don't see a single red state, i do see a single blue state trending red in the next election. maybe i'm missing one but i think it's going to be very difficult unless you get a very charismatic person who can change a lot of minds. and this time it's not like the first election. this time when you what barack obama said for. had a record of bailouts, of stagnation, of class warfare,

past the government health care that supposedly no one wanted. he continued his policy. we have high unemployment. you know the whole story, and he still won very easily. so you have to keep that in mind going towards the next election. throughout the election obama said what i think are crazy things the going thing -- he would say you didn't build that. he was so offended you couldn't leave he said about your neighbor was not that offend. that's just the bottom line. you might think the sentiments are outrageous when we talk about liberty. he said at what people care about liberty as much, he's such a downer. but i just wonder in my neighbors never talked about liberty or guns, talk about schools. they talk about their community. and they talk about taxes although their taxes have gone up in forever. so unkind as is the think we need new issues to talk about. and i'm as guilty as anyone else

because i believe in individual liberty to i can understand why people don't care about tax. i don't care what people believe that it's okay to reduce to be well. i don't understand those things. i have no solution so i'm wondering if anyone here has any solutions. it would be helpful. what was nice that working at "the denver post," quickly mention, i liked working within a liberal establishment in that i was made one of two people who were not liberal. because you would end his denver people were coming from. now i work in washington surrounded by people who agree with me. it's a little bit weird because sometimes you want to understand why the opposition is where they are. and it's sometimes hard and, frankly, it can be pretty conservative place. i'm sure that happens here as well. but anyway i want to open up to the discussion instead of going on how we're doing. but it really did think we are

-- if someone could tell me how the debt problem isn't, were not going have a debt bomb, how we're going to roll back dependency, i'm not talking about foreign policy in some ways, i think there's a lot of ugliness going on there. i don't feel like i am an expert on that at all but it scares me as to what's happening in north africa and what's going to happen to israel and things like that. but anyway, how do we turn it around and fix it, anyone? >> we have mics over here. ilogistics the prerogative to go ahead, not to argue with you but if you look at what happens in n the state, i agree with the washington as almost beyond hope. but you do see the interesting things are happening at the state logo a lot of governors were doing very interesting things right now. so if you look at it holistically like that, isn't as

weak as you just stated? >> there's a lot of states and a lot of interesting things. reform minded governor are looking at the problems that people face, not just, friendly, mitt romney was. i'm not sure, conservatives on a national level find himself in a tough spot because they're not supposed to talk about state issues in that way. they want governors to take of that. but on the left they want the federal government to take it everything, so they're talking about that stuff. on a national level i think it's going to be tough. but yeah, i definitely think on a state level but a lot of good stuff happening. in a larger sense sometimes like in colorado, someone asked, i was with jonah goldberg and someone asked, who will be speaking later, and someone asked him about why colorado had turned red i think it was. i'm sorry, blue. and he gives some very good reasons but he missed one that i thought has happened nationally. is that conservatives were very, very successful in lowering

taxes, and other areas where they lost those issues. no one cares about taxes anymore as much as they used to because they don't pay more in taxes. they care about other things now. school choice, for instance, which is a big deal around here i know. i think that's an issue that many liberals would agree with the right on, especially sometimes they don't know they agree. when i was living in denver everyone sitting the kids to charter schools. it is a school choice but it's almost like a voucher system. the idea is very similar. i think you're right about that. >> i was talking with a friend yesterday who is also -- all of these things were foreseeable, but sometimes weekend concluded people have to actually

experience it to believe it's real. and i think one comment he made applies, which is when bad things happen to america we just can't believe it. we hear all of the bad things happen because of policy but we don't believe them. i was at cpac as well and i was very encouraged by the number of young people that were there. more libertarian minded republicans. hope is not going. >> listen, it's worth fighting for and it's a huge country. there's a lot of people with good ideas, a lot of young people who care. it's all true. cpac audience, the people of cpac were skewed young but we have to remember some of us have jobs, young people don't have that sort of thing. don't want to put doom and gloom on everything but it was wonderful to see people that activated. colorado is very interesting in

that i remember the red sea fight. but it sort of split the party pic.you can already see it was t tea party establishment thing going on. it's very difficult to amend that. i think is going on nationally and the republican party as well. you can see, the rand paul fans and the marco rubio fans. but i have to say those guys in my view at least a pretty impressive or more impressive than the candidates republicans are putting forward lately. and again i think mitt romney is probably a wonderful man and all that. >> [inaudible] >> i just can't believe it. i don't want to pick on the guy, but i remember him well. i opened the paper and i see he's the senate president or whatever. i was shocked. >> thank you very much for your comments but i want to start by saying first of all i agree with you about the issue of this current political paradigm.

i do believe it is doomed. but i'm still optimistic. i believe that what, that the phoenix will be able to arrive from these ashes. i was in washington, d.c. last month were ann coulter in front of 1400 students that are all very enthusiastic about free market liberty. i think the current people in power in the current paradigm are just not, they are not grasping the honest enthusiasm that a great number of people in my generation have for these ideas. we just haven't seen the honest arbiters of these ideas within the republican party. as to your question, or the issue that you raised about how we actually begin selling these ideas to the american public, i think that the lesson has been very effective at being -- the left has been very effective,

and our philosopher and inherit negative on we are the party of no. and to a certain extent i am happy being a member of the party of no when we are saying no to bad ideas. i don't think it is just enough to say no to bad ideas but i think we ar have to be able to provide a positive vision for what it is without you want to see happen, how it is our ideas we believe rightly i think can positively improve people's lives, enhance their ability to take until otherwise and the virtue make their lives better. for instance, on the issue of taxes, while i may personally a proposal of the fair tax i don't think we can expect to sell a fair tax or flat tax by just talking against the income tax. i think that we can be much more effective by talking positively about the effect of eliminating corporate welfare and creating a more even playing field for all americans by creating a system

which americans are equal before the law, equally empowered and protected from economic, economics as much as -- >> the only way you can do that is by having the right people playing for you, right? charismatic people who can make compelling messages. i don't know, it seems like the republicans don't have those sorts of people in great abundance in washington. >> [inaudible] [laughter] >> i like rand paul a law. but -- a lot. no one is perfect. i like rand paul fine. but when you start talking about the civil rights act or something like that, you're just asking for trouble you don't need. and understand it's an idealistic point he's making but, you know, what? my neighbor doesn't understand that point because she always thinks republicans are racist. what i mean is ever want to go back an ann coulter but a very d point when she called you guys that --

>> [inaudible] >> i'm basically libertarian. i'm all for all the stuff, the crazy stuff they want. but there are things more affordable than others. they want to legalize drugs, fine. is that the big problem right now in this country? no. let's talk about obamacare. let's talk about creating the infrastructure for socialized medicine. that doesn't seem very libertarian to me but yet they are inviting by communists used to over minutia that's ridiculous. but i get it. it's an idealistic movement. that's why young people like to be libertarians. i believe they have the right idea. when i'm home alone, it would be great, privatized the army or whatever, and over here i'm in the real world and i realize you have to set your sights so it's achievable. the left, they want to pass national background check. do you think that's what they

want to stop? do you think you're saying that's all we need, now we will be good. it's just the first step, i can put we left that loophole, now we've got to try to do. in a move forward and forward with think we are, we did that, we are done and we move along. and never give up. they never say, i heard the interstate obamacare is law and that we move on, something like the. can you imagine a liberal saying citizens united was decided so now we're done with that issue, let's move onto the next thing. never will happen. i don't like all of what ann coulter says. i do understand what she means i think in that regard, and there's other stuff. that sounds fun. you need a charismatic people go. >> [inaudible]

>> trying to have a sales pitch. and i think especially on the right we've been feeding that. we've been feeling like okay, they've gotten their soundbite down, but do they really believe in these ideas or are they just doing it for the sake of securing political power? for instance, john boehner decided over a rigged vote at the republican national convention just as the democrats did, but he's the speaker of the house. he's a major representative of our party. the leader of the party ought to be willing to call out our own leadership when the nesting up for the value. >> i think what's happened with the grassroots on the right has been they feel like they can't give an inch anymore because he doesn't suck is always taking advantage in the long run. that's what you and republicans and house are obstructionists i think. i actually like that word, it's a positive in my book. they don't want to pass anything. they don't want to give in on anything because they feel like in the long run they will be

taken advantage of. the immigration bill, nobody on the right was against these sorts of things believe they will secure the border, nobody. that's why they will never be in an have a good conversation about this. by the way i think i am against liberal on the issue, believe that they are right but i don't believe they're going to secure the borders i don't see why, if that's important to you, you should give in on that issue just because obama is going to try to shame you into it. so nothing happens in washington which usually is wonderful. the problem is that everything is self-perpetuating right now. you know, that and all these things are on autopilot and now you have to do something to reform taxes began to do something, if you reform taxes like i just don't understand again not tax cuts, just reform the race, make it easier for people to do with it, i just don't understand why that's not a big winner for republicans. paul ryan put out his budget. he had a lot of good ideas.

the problem is the press doesn't talk about it. i don't know what you do because the press is never going to talk about it. i guess you start your own little newspaper and so forth. >> i'm from denver. first let me say thank you for coming and also i agree with the last thing you said about framing issues in terms of how people can understand them and how people can like them and have the agenda. i think part of -- >> can i interject with the? i'm, i think being negative is more effective. i'm just saying fear-mongering works far more often than positive messages. people of negative commercials a lot better than the positive. that's just my opinion. >> let me reinterpret what you just said. making it simpler to understand, people like it so they can say i get that, i understand that. and the things, like originally wanted to comment on, i think we

should reclaim policies as redistributionist. vouchers are a handout to poor kids in the ghetto who want a way out and that's a great policy that the democrats oppose a we're trying to give handouts to those people in terms of immigration, if you want to serve in the military for 10 years or get a ph.d to hand out to people who want a past decision she. if you want environmental policy with solar panels, we can give you a massive tax credit for solar panels that you put on your house. if we can frame these issues better we can get the people that you just mentioned to represent our ideas in ways that are consistent with a framework that you also submitted problematic for us. to go forward, the last comment was right that we have coverage and. people don't vote ultimate for things that don't matter in their life. liberty and freedom are great buzzwords, but people vote based on what they think would be useful to them in their realize.

>> i agree with it. the problem, thank god i'm not in politics but the problem with that is i can't support, i don't i don't like the way that you just afraid that, you know what any? i like your idea that it would bother me that we make it sound like we're handing stuff out to people because i think it's not an attack in a way. we are giving them a break, but i mean, that's not a bad idea. it's not a big, solar panels are not that big part of people's life. vouchers, the union will never, the union will destroy people to bring vouchers for you. you did it all the time but it's a difficult. but i like the idea. i would go with it. i'm going to try it out. i will say we are referring to conservative argument, we will give you stuff, get tax breaks for everything you do.

>> i agree with you that we are doomed. is there anyone in the spectrum of humanity in this country who can run for president of the united states, one name that comes to my mind is doctor ben carson, that can when the argument and when the election? >> you know, i don't, i'm not a big horse race guy, but a lot of times everyone gets excited about a candidate and then like fred thompson or something and then it just doesn't work for some reason but i do know, ben carson what they like that probably or wouldn't. but you become it takes a big organization, takes a lot of money but it's not just that simple to say because you want to do it.

i don't know enough about him. i like what he says. but i don't know what else he believes. obviously, marco rubio is going to run, and i've gotten to meet him a few times and he's a really likable person in real life. even though a lot of people disagree with him on the immigration, gang of eight bill, going on rush limbaugh, defend your position but i think people who disagree can attest as a standard way to do it. john mccain dismisses everyone who disagrees with them. these crazies, you know, they're just going to obstruct everything. were as marco rubio i think handled it a lot better so i think that's a big plus one. rand paul, i do who else is out there that might run. chris christie. everyone is mad at him, right? he's a likable guy in a way that i grew up in new york. is like the guy who ran the deli down the street toward a thing. yell at you, like you are lucky to be in the store buying something from him, kind of guy.

he does have an appeal but is even conservative? i kind of doubt it. is more like come he's not really a conservative, but sometimes you've got to give in a little bit. you've got a winner it looks like but i just don't see how he gets through a primary and wins but i don't see the grassroots voting for the i think what he did with, i like him as a candidate. i don't really like what he believes in but we did for mitt romney i felt was really terrible. because it's not, like obama, like reached into his pocket and wrote a check and give it to new jersey. the president didn't do anything for new jersey. we did something for new jersey. perhaps they do deserve it. they had a terrible thing going on but i thought it was in bad taste i guess. >> i'm curious what you think

about how social media change the election? and as well as an organizational structure long-term that we on the conservative side don't have. >> i love social media. i'm on twitter and all that. i wrote a column years ago how twitter was useless and no, i'm under 24/7. i don't think it'd anything to do, you might be surprised, i just think it's overrated. first of all this idea that people change their minds all the time to me is ridiculous. i don't play these polls that go back and forth like on abortion. before the election the majority believed abortion is good and in bed. to people change their minds that often. i just think that twitter creates sort of a perception of something like perception of momentum or something of that nature. but i just don't think it has that much of an effect on voters, voting and getting of

voters. obama has a great organization with a knock on doors, i was at heritage foundation and i was listening to someone talk about how in the old days you took a big phoneless and using these people voted democrats, they are off the list. these people voted republican, we will knock on their doors. these people didn't vote so we will knock. obama's administration both on as many doors as they can. they don't give an area on a plaque that it is that old-fashioned, this technology to do that better now but knocking on doors, making arguments, saying the right things to people that matters more than social media. that's just how i see. i have nothing to back that up but my own observation of just how things went. i tweaked all the time. i have never changed a single persons by donating ever. i argue with people all the time. is probably the biggest waste of time but it is fun. >> [inaudible] >> my name is courtney and i am

a law student and i would like to say thank you for coming out and impressing the hell out of me. and i agree with everything you said. and i think chris christie is a good representative of what you're talking about before we all got mad at him. so my question for you is this. i grew up as one of those generation x. being confident you're was the best president who ever lived. went to high school, didn't learn anything about the constitution. spent the first two years of college on learning everything i learned in high school and the next two years actually learning. however, i found out that's not the same experience many of my fellow law students have had. i think in the last debate what people seem to miss and when we talk about rebranding and re- messaging is that liberty is such a fund of an issue that people no longer understand, treat. you just made a comment about you argue with people but it's a fruitless waste of time. i had my 17 year-old daughter come to me turn the election and

say, i don't understand what the president is such a big deal, it's the legislative audit that has all the power anyway. she just got done reading the federalist papers. i explain taxes and rent seeking and suddenly she is terrified of the president. so i think come and my question for you, sorry i'm getting long winded is how do we get back to a place where americans can understand what it is to be americans? what a great extent it was, and why liberty is so fundamentally important to who we are as a nation? >> it's interesting that you mention education to the left has gone and taken over the institutions of american life. they run the public school system. my kids come home, what was that thing where you have to shut the lives -- shut the lights off on sunday, i forget what it was called. watching tv, everybody shuts the lights off at my house. my daughter, unlike this is nuts. why would you do that? we should be celebrating that we have lights and electricity and

all of that. so they've taken over the institution of higher education, public education, all those things. he said instead of spending a billion dollars on trying to elect mitt romney present you should take a billion dollars and by -- that would of been a better use of that money because too often, and jones will get into this, if you ignore culture, you don't talk about things that normal people talk about. to talk about, when a good work, when i get al qaeda want to talk about politics. those things influence people in the way people think about the world. how many movies, they call me paranoid on this but mr. rich richman or oil tax, every movie the bad guy is a businessman or someone who makes money, and it

just seeps in and after a while. that's for sure. you said something and i forget exactly what you said about understanding, what it means to be american and what rights of liberty us having to think about this how we have mainstreamed radical thinking. if i don't buy you, if i don't buy you your contraception now, right, i'm a democrat. then i think that you're actually taking something away from me. with inverted what it means to have the freedom to choose. i couldn't believe that if you don't subsidize abortion, you're conducting a war on women. dave inverted what liberty means. now if i don't give you something i'm taking something from you. that i think a lot of young women, i have two daughters and it scares me, that they're going to think that they have to internalize that sort of thinking to be pro-woman. when it's an absolute ridiculous

notion. but then there you are and you teach kids the right way and to teach them what it means. but how may people really take the time and i just don't think most parents have the time. they should take the time to my kids have learned more ridiculous history so far. they have learned nothing about the american revolution. and when i talk about it, they don't talk about it in a way that i probably would have presented to them when i tell my daughter that don't the tea party patriots ran for the gun cash to get the guns to defend their freedom because guns in the school to go to is such a no-no that you can't even bring a picture of a gun in there, they will suspend you forever. they will throw you in the stockades. what do you do, you know? i guess you do the best you can. i grew up in a very liberal neighbor to everyone i knew was a liberal basically except i found where i grew up in a jewish community in new york so you can imagine how that went

down. my parents, they just kept going iinto me. i had to rebel. now i've kind of walk that back at it. i guess my dad, you read the fountainhead or that kind of thing and you hope it sticks. there's nobody could answer for it but one of the school choice is deaf in one of things i think will help turn that around because we're to get kids out of public education. i'm not paranoid about this but i don't care how many times they tell me to those teachers are suddenly teaching my kids things that i don't believe that they have no business teaching do. it's not bad and it's not science. it's environmental stuff. is really nuts where i live. colorado i think was actually better when we were here and i was in denver. but you have to take back the institutions. i'm not saying we're going to do. as i said, we are doomed. [laughter] it's better to burn out than fade away. so i hope everyone here fights the good fight but it's worth the fight, right?

it's an amazing place. it's worth the fight to i don't know if you know that god those terrorist. whenever talking to the ogle, he said we came here to be free. these guys are losers. that's the sort of talk to get from immigrants that i knew growing up that came there from those countries. they don't think of themselves as, they think of themselves as americans and they believed in that idea. i won in immigrants to think about america in the same way, and with this president and with what's going on i'm not sure that's going to happen. >> we're going to do one more quick question. if anyone else has questions after we're over, david will be right outside the door she. he will have the books for sale. you can buy one and have been signed or just stop asking your question then, okay? so one last question. >> this will be a quick one.

just a challenge to your who we are doomed proposition, how much of this could just be the pendulum swinging? that happened in politics and you look back at the election in 2010 and what happened after obama and the democrats had their way for two years come and look at what happened. so why isn't this just that having? >> i don't think it is that happening but i think you make a good point. things happen in the world that we can't proceed. liberals don't understand it because they think they can plan everything tenures out. 9/11 happened, god forbid something else. things happen and what we can't proceed to change our view of the world, that change politics, the change of eating. so that certain it can happen. but when you really look at it, the popular vote in 2000 i know doesn't matter but it's a point of discussion, al gore won. al gore won, okay? democrats have been winning the presidency for a long time.

the way, even republicans were acting was far more inviting left wing economically at least then perhaps reagan, reagan would've acted. i just don't see pendulum. i see a slow drift more than see it going back and forth. here's the big problem. when democrats create policy, its policy forever. when republicans come view a tax cut is a temperate tax cut that has to be at some point fixed. the problem is that you always have to be vigilant and always fight, and they never stop. they are programs have, continue to grow but as with hazard initial estimate on it, do you think obama to be any different? creating these state exchanges i think the price has already doubled since they started, the

estimate. so the problem is that their programs are for ever and we, our programs are not forever. >> [inaudible] [applause] spent we would like to hear from you. tweeters your feedback, twitter.com/booktv. >> mr. moss, what happened in minneapolis in april 1999? >> i start the book with that meeting because it's so informative of the industry's attitude and strategies. 1999, the obesity epidemic was just beginning to emerge. and raised concern not only among consumer activists and nutritionists but among people inside the process food industry. they gather together a very rare meeting, ceos some of the top manufacturers in north america but got together at the old

minneapolis headquarters, the old pillsbury headquarters in minneapolis, to talk about none other than this emerging crisis believes for the industry. and up in front of them got nine other than one of their own, his name was michael mudd. he was the vice president of craft. he was armed with 114 slides, and laid at the feet of the ceos and presidents of the largest food companies responsibilities for come not only the obesity crisis but decided the rising cases of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease. even linked their food with several cancer. and he pleaded with them to collectively start doing something on behalf of consumers. because michael my knew that the competition inside the food industry. you know it's funny because you walk into the grocery store and it seems so tranquil, soft music

playing, doing everything they can to encourage you to shop and buy. but behind the scenes the food industry is intensely competitive. and he understood that. the only way to sort of move to industry, a healthier profile of the product would be to get them collectively to do something. from his vantage point the meeting was an utter failure. the ceos reacted defensively. they said, look, we are already offering people choices. we have low sugar, if they really want that taken by those alternative products. we are beholden both to consumers and our own shareholders. they left the meeting basically going back to what they've been doing and continue to do which is have a deep reliance on salt, sugar and fat. fat. >> so what our processed foods? >> process fruit cup i'm also looking at what people like to call alter processed food.

even a baby carriage can be defined as a prostitute because it doesn't go that way in the ground. it's a regular character that gets shaved into the baby for me. but typically, from my since processed foods are those things that takes of natural ingredients and highly refined and, highly processed them, and the formulas, too, of the products am writing about in the book are incredibly dependent on salt sugar fat. it's not a mister. you can pick up the label and you can see, thanks to some government revelation we have come in labeling, you can see the amount of salt, sugar fat in these i don't think it's rather extraordinary across the board in the grocery store just how reliant this industry is on these three ingredient. not just for flavor but for convenience because they can act as preservatives, and also for low-cost. because they can help the industry avoid using more costly ingredients, like slices.

>> are you interested in being a part of booktv's online book club? this month were discussing "salt suger fat: how the food giants hooked us." michael moss sat down with booktv at the "l.a. times" festival of books to discuss his book and answer viewers questions. you can watch the entire program online at booktv.org. as you read the book this month poster pots on her with the hashtag btv bookclub, an inviten her facebook page my facebook. join our live moderate discussion on both social media sites. have an idea for next month? send your suggestions on which books you think we should include an online book club via twitter or facebook, or you can be mail us at booktv@c-span.org. >> we believe that the opening up the gates of our memory, we are bringing people closer together.

we bring people now to the realization of what a perfect, a human being, a person, an individual can do. .. >> reflects a human disease takes different forms