[inaudible conversations]

>> hi, how are you? [inaudible conversations]

>> on the next washington journal former donald trump adviser discussing the 2016 presidential race and experience working with the candidate, and role call writer looks at the senate agenda and the iranian nuclear deal, plus facebook comments and tweets. washington journal live 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> the c-span city tour working with cable affiliates.

this weekend we're joined by charter communications to learn more about the junction of colorado, importance in colorado. >> all over the colorado plateau , we are surrounded by morrison rock, we find a will the of fossils. the also thing we find is a mineral, a rock, contains three different elements, radiant, also used to strengthen steel. it also contains uranium, it's one of the best sources for

atomic power and atomic weapons. >> colorado responsible for water legislation. >> he fought the battle to reserve water for western colorado by making sure that we got our fair share. how did he do that, well, beginning in his state career and then going onto his federal career, he climbed up the ladder of seniority and certainly in united states congress where he was making sure colorado and western colorado would be treated fairly in water. the first major success was the colorado project in 1956.

>> see all of our program on c-span book tv and sunday afternoon at 2:00 on american history tv on c-span3. >> next a panel of high school and college students talking about voting, democratic process and political engagement. this is an hour and 50 minutes. >> all right, good evening, everyone. i'm the coordinator here with the birmingham institute, our staff and our board of directors, we would like to cordially welcome you to our presentation, voting rights theories and tonight when we discuss things, why your vote matters. one of my responsibilities is to

go out and tell students about the history that we display here at the birmingham civil rights institute. from the beginning of this country, when voting was always the cornerstone discussion, where the slaves where -- could vote, when women could vote, so tonight we will discus a key component of that and that involvement in voting. i'm sure you all watch daily the tragedy in south carolina. our hearts goes out to the family and the community in

charleston, south carolina, but it's important to participate in voting. so tonight we are going to turn the program over to someone who is not only a member of our family here in the institute, mr. barry mcnealy. he's a graduate of miles college, but one of the things that he is more proud of is being a graduate of the institution in which he is an educator. it is this country's oldest and at one point the largest negro high school in the world. he served as well as handling

education program now. [laughs] >> he told me i go up. you know me, so just talk about me. mr. mcnealy, i can think of no other person to lead the discussion. he's also the program coordinator of our legacy youth program which we are proud in the birmingham civil rights institution. without further due, i would like to turn the program over to mr. mcnealy, i asked sam no to

read the bio because with that, just keep it brief. this evening i want to delve into something that sam said in terms of what took place on last night in our nation, and with that in mind, i would like us to have a moment of silence. thank you. this evening we are talking about voting rights, in term of talking about voting rights, i

thought it would be silly to take a step back before we took a step ahead and look at where we got to do in this democracy. when we started the country after the revolutionary war, voting was a privilege and, in fact, a strong thing of the story that we tell is the history of the united states. isthe idea of the expansion of e vote. when we first began in this country, less than a quarter of its citizens could legally vote. there were barriers, barriers in terms of religion, barriers in terms of wealth, barriers associated with property ownership. well, as we move forward, we try

to get rid of some of these barriers and increase this idea of voting, and you have to ask yourselves, if we're a democracy why in the world is there a barrier to voting. you have to go back a little bit further and i promise -- you have to go back to the románs, the greeks. when we look at their understanding of government, there were three forms of government, government by one, there was government by a few and then there was government by many. now, the problem with this is, is that the idea of many were frowned upon. he gives us a pure form and a

corrupt form. the single form in its pure nature would have been a monarchy. one person, kings. the corrupted form of a single government would have been something that we still deal with today tyrants, dictators, we deal with a few. you have what is what best among us, the leading citizens. but getting to the idea of democracy, government by many was frowned upon.

most people feel that the many with -- it was all about power and position, and the few felt as if the many would use political powers to take away the things that they had, and so you have barriers to voting. barriers that don't allow native americans to vote, you have barriers that don't allow women to vote, you have barriers that don't allow african american to vote, you have barriers that don't allow too many people to vote because of power. when we talk about power we think about fed -- fredrik

douglas. and so many struggles have brought us to where we are tonight, and tonight to take about their perception of voting and where we are going to take this in the future, we have four outstanding people here. in sitting here we have -- raise your hand. jared. jared is a rising senior at the university of alabama at birmingham. he is majoring in public health. jared is involved at uab, in different organizations. jared is a member of the uab leadership and service counsel and he serves at the chair for the colony of the fraternity of

five gamma delta at uab. he's also a member in the excellence network known as b man for short. lastly he's also a member of sigma alpha national leadership organization. the first time he voted was in 2012, a primary election. next to jared we have micah. micah is currently a senior in high school in birmingham, alabama. [laughs]

>> micah is a senior where she's a member of the finance academy. micah has served her high school as well as legacy student at the birmingham civil rights institute and a member of peace birmingham. peace is an acronym. also he's also been collected by alabama public television from a pool of africans to serve at the student journalists and

electronic field series, excuse me. as a journal cyst micah has an opportunity to interview senator hanks and representative john lewis among others. micah is the winner of art contest. she is delegate in the leadership program and is an art intern for the project and also served for the 2015-2016 alabama youth counsel. micah will be a first-time voter in 2016. sitting next to micah is jordan,

23 year's old, graduate of the legacy youth leadership program, class of 2009. jordan returns to the institute to support the legacy program. jordan's first voting experience was on the local level in 2010. last, but certainly not the least we have decarri wells. he's a senior, drummer, music producer for birmingham, many hats. he is also a participant in the youth leadership program here at the birmingham civil rights institute. he is a cofounder s.a.r.c.

awareness and support group. alabama state, med -- medalist in drumming and a participant in the event here at the birmingham civil rights institute on june 27th. he will be eligible to vote in the 2016 presidential election. now, with that being said, i'd like to hear from the young people. i know you're waiting to hear from them so we are going to talk about the first question of the evening. and i'll start in the order that we introduced. jared, would you respond to the idea -- do you think the youth of today are concerned with

political issues or do they see it as old people -- [laughs] >> do they see it as old people problems. >> it's a bit of both, because a lot of them see that some issues need to be taken a stand on, and also that there's some in that generation that don't take politics or voting as serious as they should because they simply don't think, it's not going to affect us or this has no -- it really could in the long run. >> i think that like he said, it's a mix of the two that some issues that pertain to certain

people they find important and others they don't. i also think that the answer is based on the person's education or maybe surroundings, because their surroundings may not push voting, may not be an important issue either. so i think it depends on that, but i think a lot of people don't understand that -- a lot of people may think that their voices don't matter and that their one vote won't affect, so i think education is a big part and if people are thought that their votes matter, then they'll start voting. >> i believe the youth of today do see it as political issue that they're concerned with. mostly because the youth of today specially from my age and graduated seniors in high school, they see the issues that are happening today as something that's going to affect them as

they're entering into college, or college students seeing the issues that it's something that's going to affect their lives politically, economically as they graduate. >> well, i agree with the others, it's kind of mix. young people care about political issues now. i think one of the reasons that some young people don't really care about political issues is because you don't have that many people that are on big platforms la celebrities talking about political issues and how the youth needs to go out and vote and how much a difference it will make if young people voted. >> you know, looking at those answers it reminds martin luther

king, i'm paraphrasing, african americans can't vote, and in the north, african americans have nothing with which to vote for. and using that idea to enhance this question, what do you think would defer young people to vote, what issues politicians are not addressing that might bring a ground-well breakthrough movement to young people to the polls, and i'm going to leave that for either one of you. >> i think that a few of the issues that you are concerned with today that would bring more youth to the polls, definitely

the education system as far as students loans are concerned, the amount that students and parents are having to put out for an education in the united states, whether or not they are able to afford it or not. if it was talked about more in congress, amongst the representativeses as far as what changes can be made and policies be put to try to lighten the vote for students and not only student loans but the community is prevalent now who has lived these lifestyles and understand each other but aren't understood by the soabt that they live --

society that they live in. >> i think if politicians could make for the youth, make it more about these topics, if you can make that topic more to the youth, that they'll be more encouraged to vote and push forward certain issue that is -- issues that go into the nation today. loans for one. by doing that reach out, hey, this is something i can have an impact on by politician. >> recently when the candidates started lining up to announce their intention for the 2016 race, we had a hip-hop artist.

[laughs] >> did i say that right? >> yeah. [laughs] >> that's that one. >> all right. >> well, from what i understand, he had a constitutional impediments to his campaign. in the same idea, not every office is the office of senator or president and don't have to be 35. what do you think would encourage more young people to step up and be political candidates? >> i think the knowledge of community positions. as far as on the local level of

voting, i've noticed specially when voting for state representatives, a lot of the times -- and i heard this from other students who have voted, they see the candidates who are voting and they go to the voting polls expecting to vote for one of them and they see a list of other positions and they have no information of what it does. if they knew there was position out there instead of just governor shift or representative. not only running for a position to make a difference, those positions can lead to higher positions. those positions can lead to more experience, more credit if they

want to pursue further on the government. [laughs] >> i think it's a lot. how much support i would receive in a governor's position, would my friends support me, my city and how would my family think about. it has to do with support and also what changes we need to make or try to make, what position or power you are in and what position to see that position, there's a lot of uncertainty about being able to do those things and if you work in a position how you would be able to handle it in considering that you do not have as much experience and you don't want to lead people in the wrong direction. >> all right.

>> well, the idea of inclination in terms of politics because i look at the resumes that we have here about you all and everything here says leader. jared mention support. we talked about the idea of student loans, we talked about the lgtb community. what other things can be used for a young candidate and grassroots support for that candidate?

>> the black lives matter movement. [laughs] >> honestly the issue that we have with racism in this country hasn't been solved over the year. it's been kind of been swept under the rug but it's not being addressed on the local level or have people perceive the issues. being an african american you add a disadvantage. ..

>> two of you are currently high school students. two of you are currently college students. one of the things that is going to be an issue in the 2016

campaign is the idea of common core and the development of curriculum in the united states of america. as students currently, they feel as if -- let's walk a little bit and let's talk about what we actually learn when we get there. they feel as if the curriculum or the academic stance of this country is something that would interest you or potential voters? >> i would like to think so because academically, i think a lot of us want to families and children. we want to see them get education. i heard a quote from michael jordan yesterday, they could have something in one generation -- the education level that was

back in the '90s is different from what it is now. so with that idea in mind, which think is the right way may not be the best way of doing it, say in the future. kids using computers, that's a different way of life. i think academically wise, common core will be something that may just be something that's going to be spurred on by different communities and organizations, bring the future into today. it's something you have to deal with oracle around. a lot of people are going to be receptive to that because some people do not like change. >> we look at change. let's change our query. let's move to our second question of the evening that we have prepared.

what are some of the reasons for the lack of participation in state and local elections by youth? >> a lot of it has to do with the lack of education that's been given towards youth in today's society because not the issue of voting is -- a lot of you feel like if i can't vote right now there's no need to pay attention to what's going on in our nation. i think you see a lot of big issues go are nowadays such as say when i was back at a seven-day, it was a big issue but that was one of the few times i would not pay attention to the news because i was young and didn't realize how the impact of that incident would still carry on to this day. it's a lot to do with education, and also just been informed about what is going on and being

able to go in and vote because some people think different over certain think they will have no impact your because there's nothing going on or have no impact in the community because they see other community is set up and it may not really have an impact on what's going on. it could affect the whole state and let's i get a job somewhere in a different part of the state and something i didn't think was a deal to take a look at comes back in, i want to haunt me but affected why can't get something. they could have an impact. >> i have to agree that a reason for lack of participation is a lack of education. people, like me, i will be a new folder in 2016, and then a lot of people my age, they don't know how to register vote, where to go and get that come like where to go to register and vote, where the voting places are. they don't understand why they

need to vote in the first place, or even like what they're voting for. they may not understand the laws that they're voting for or even the people they're voting for. so i think once people start getting educated, it will motivate people to actually go and start the process of voting. >> wendy think it's a good time in terms of age to begin paying attention to politics? >> i don't think there is an age, like a specific starting age. i think that in school, i think in middle school, school should start making it more adamant our students to pay attention and to start teaching them about the history of voting and how the vote in this sort of thing. because personally i never received any school professor

with education or how to do it. or how did it outside of school, and had parents who supported me and got me involved with different organizations that stresses the importance of voting. i don't think a certain age but i think schools like elementary school. >> i was talking to a coworker yesterday and he was talking about the idea that barack obama could just come and speak and whoever want to be the next president, he could support that person and that person would be selected. i was trying to get over the idea that people develop a certain passion for national candidates, but they tend to lose that passion when it comes to local candidates.

this moment election, so much of whoever sits in the oval office is dependent upon who wins these down ticket elections. how do we spur people to be interested in something that doesn't sound so glamorous like comptroller or city council or state board of education or city board of education? how do we get people interested in the house of representatives and the senatorial elections? how to get young people to think that those elections are just as important as the election for president or state governor? >> i would say televise it more.

as for the presidency goes, presidential elections get recognition year-round. the country is always going to talk about the president because he's the leader of our country. that's as it should be. we should constantly talk about it. at the same time we don't talk about our state level representatives, the ones we're going to have to read over those bills that the president proposes them the once are going to have to make their decision on how they view or which policies they approve of, which ones they don't. we don't really see that as much in immediate, and the united states definitely has kind of like you said, like a glamorous of view of the presidency and we don't pay attention so much to the real changes, the ones who are working on our level who are closer to us, the ones who are within our communities who are

going to present these issues to the president so that he can come up with the idea so that is cabinet members can come up with ideas that are going to be presented to congress and the house of representatives for them to vote on. if we don't televise and shell what those elections are going, especially in the areas involved in that specific representatives state, especially the youth vote, we can't miss out on. we tend to miss out on what their campaign is all about. not just the first two bulletins of what they are trying to propose or put forward, but there is an entire platform there we are missing because it's not being televised as much, because it's not as noticeable as the presidential race. like now, we have news reports,

commercials constantly about the presidential race for 2016. when it comes time for the house of representatives or the governors to be elected, we don't think, we don't advertise or show as much. we shall fight little tidbits here and there, but our news crews to really go in depth on what the campaigns are. we have a few smear campaigns here and there. we don't have too many, we don't have too much real knowledge of what they are running this is an it's not being presented to the public as much confidence what i feel is causing it. much of the reason why youth don't know who to vote for on the public, on the lower level come on the state level and local level. >> this is a step on somebody's toes question.

since we're talking about getting and people involved in local and state elections, do you feel that we as adults are a good example to model the civic process, or are we showing what we want young people to do? or are we saying what we want young people to do and not really doing it? >> i think that question has a lot to do also i guess personal experiences because i could say what i see my mom and she's gone to the residential inaugurations. i can see where my dad has talked about and encouraged my brother. the education level and awareness of the parents is the

case. they may not just be the fact that they don't have much, they note -- they may not push the issue onto the children to vote because of how the conversation about what voting is. it may have, it's a personal preference and experience question, i think to add to but i can't necessarily say it's because parents, adults have a good model. sun can be a good model about and encouraged them, you know, to talk about what's going on in the world today or they may not. it has a lot to do with that. spirit and i'm willing to backtracbacktrack a little bit i just said, because like you say, you do have family members and people in your community who are very intense about knowing your candidates are, knowing who's running. i know in birmingham, being

around just the older crowd and then in the neighborhood, especially my grandparents, you will constantly hear them talk about these different leaders on the city level and what their plans are, what are they trying to do. and not so much are they talking to me about it but they are talking to each other about how they feel about this candidate or how they feel about the current mayor or the old mayor or who's running for mayor next. the policies that they're going for, how they feel about them. i feel like the parents for the most part there is an element where the are talking about it, talking about it amongst themselves, bouncing ideas back and forth like society should. as far as the youth listening to that, as far as the youth come as far as those conversations being directed to the youth, i don't know. but i definitely hear where the

adults are really concerned with things on the local level. i think that's because of age, and you know being in society you do have to pay attention to those things. egypt to pay more attention to his working for or against you on the local level. i think that's why adults are more interested in what's happening on the local level, why youth are just more focus on who the next president is going to be and if they're going to follow the specific problem or that specific problem. >> i want to make one quick point. i think it's a bit of attention to people who are running for state senate in a certain county or mayor because those people could become future people in congress and also future presidents. knowing what they stand for would be very valuable towards educational purposes as far as who to vote for. >> voter education, i want to put a plug on the program, there

is also an excellent mission currently in the gallery that is adjacent to the room you're sitting in right now. this exhibition talks about -- a voting rights advocate from the birmingham area come and in his lifetime one of the things he did is he advocate the idea of researching candidates in finding out who they were and voting on them accordingly. with today as we talked about him comfort type of so they can work in education in this state in the 1940s. today, researching candidates has a different feel to it. with all social media things that you have at your disposal,

what sort of qualifications of a candidate would you be looking for if you were to research the person i go into their social media? what would you be looking for? >> i want to see their active and caring about what people, like people are saying. i can to the right now people, they may tweet at a certain candidate and say something -- [inaudible] they may say something in let's say i have a serious question for certain candidate. a couple of weeks ago obama did ask something and may tweet something about the chicago bulls. okay, something like that come that's not something cities but still something hoc cares that he did have some serious questions on is what but i want to see that he's also taking time to answer peoples questions about certain things. like 140 characters or less.

at least thing how i did between what okay, i'll give 30 minutes for people to ask a question, i'll try to answer it as best as possible. just little things like that. it seems like they're out doing positive things, not just minute own business, out trying to help other people to bring awareness to different things that's going on in society. >> and i would say, i would research the causes they support. what organizations do they work closely with, how are those organizations run? are they helpful to the community? are they destroying natural resources? i've been misusing taxpayer dollars? of different organizations that they are supporting, that they are promoting, and if that lines up with their campaigns, if

their campaign is something that is helpful to the community or if it's just something to help select few people or helping the far right or if it is only helping the far left. just saying where they stand on certain issues. that's really the main point of the election in total, knowing where your candidate stands. because you can have a democratic candidate who is polling for several democratic policies but i wanted to issues they can stand with the republican party only. at that point that's where you make your decision, do you support them regardless of this? do you also support him for that or do you feel completely different about their entire campaign? just knowing the organizations they help with comp organizations they sponsor, work with, who they represent, who represented in when they go out and do under campaign trail, who

is sponsoring them, who is promoting them, giving them money to run their campaign at are the going to intersect, go back in with open hands to them and support their cause, and what caused his death? >> -- what cause is that? >> to me it would have to be consistency. if i look at a candidate and which part of multiple mobile times throughout their career, i would have kind of a trust candidate. if they have switched up like a campaign agenda, no they are think what they in, if they switch that belief over so many times of their career giunta going to trust in that exact candidate. that's one thing i would look for. >> decarri, when you say that, you call defined the concept of gravitas. you know, can i take this person

seriously? you know, they say anything to get elected. the president has been criticized for going on internet-based shows, between -- [inaudible] and other different things that don't seem to be quoted quote presidential. do you think that diminishes the office of president, or as a young person do you feel like this is the future of politics speak what i wrote a don't think it diminishes it. i really think it kind of bring to a little closer to the

president and making it where you can kind of relate to the president just a little bit more, where there's more of a thing that he is just a regular man, just a regular person that you can relate to. so i think it's a good thing and a good thing for the future. >> how do you feel? do you think that social media and going on the late show with david letterman and different things like that, do you think that a president should be doing that? should a politician do those things, or should those things the left to entertainers? >> i agree with decarri. i think it makes all of it more relatable but i also think there can be like a line that shouldn't be crossed. i feel like being on social media and being on those shows can make him relatable to a younger audience, but if he does

it in the right way i guess. >> it could be very beneficial to you, not at the same time it could also hurt you because if you get on certain late-night shows and asking certain questions, that question could be answered in a controversial way. it could backfire against you and could be used as attack against you in your campaign. so while looking at it through that perspective, you have to think, what would be most beneficial to me and where can i make the greatest impact at? because some event may not be as beneficial to you as others. you kind of take opportunity, this is an opportunity that you can make more impact, were as -- [inaudible] or you know how that goes, it may turn against you. >> earlier i talked to you about

political inclination, and one of the things that people do with it is, with today's 24 hour news cycle, and the idea that these little things are everywhere. we rarely have a private moment nowadays. do you think that is something that would cause people to shy away from running for office and submitting themselves to that sort of intense scrutiny? >> i would think so. if you ever go on, if you've ever seen barack obama a different talk shows or on

twitter, people to all sorts of questions that have come relevant question, completely irrelevant questions, questions that question his authority, all sorts of things. that can be intimidating knowing that people are out there to try to discredit you or try to harm you, your campaign. i think that definitely could be an element of it. i wouldn't say that it should deter you from it because if you have a solid campaign, what's to worry about really? >> well, one thing is the idea of putting one's foot in one's mouth and holding it there for long enough to say that almost half of the country are takers and the other half of the country is makers.

and just about everything they say can be taken and used, like you said, very simply, it's a double edged sword. you get the publicity but then somebody might take a sentence or a phrase or something that you said and come back and beat you crazy with it. is that something that as young people, and what i look at you, i look at the idealists who are young, you do have a way of focusing on the world in a very idealistic form. does this disappoint you about our political process? you talked about the negative campaigns and ads and things like that earlier. are you disappointed in the level of our discussion?

>> yes and no. [laughter] >> give me both. >> just not to put my foot in my mouth. [laughter] i would say yes and no on that issue because -- how can i explain it? can you go over the question again? >> are you as young people, i mean, you guys are voting for your very first times. when you see the way that campaigns can go extremely

negative, and then they also -- from the truth, as important as democracy is to us as people, does that disappoint you and does it turn you off from the political process speak was okay, i would say yes and no. for the simple fact that it does disappoint me because you have issues were a candidate, if i'm looking for a candidate and i see the one that i want to support and they say one of those things, a line from what they were taken out of context or just, something they say was used to just repeatedly go after that candidate, i would be upset about it and i would be worried that the one thing could really harm their campaign. but at the same time i say no

because they need that challenge. they need to be able to step up to the platform that they have created, the platform that they presented to the public. if you make a statement on a certain issue and someone comes back and challenges you on it and says something that you may have slipped up on in your campaign, you have to be able to come back and present yourself the right way, how you intended it to be, or explain yourself as far as, you have to be able to stand by your word basically. if you say something, you have to be able to explain it. you have to be able to stand firm by it. so i say yes, we should have that sort of debate. we should have that sort of the media where people are able to challenge and speak up and say th o