the author of this book the politics of optimism, a page number one of your book that optimism is political? >> in a couple of different senses first the obvious since that it involves public policy at all levels of government and federal governments state and local even national dimensions with the politics. but also political and a deeper sense that every part of optimism policy there is profound disagreements on what it is or who has it or how much of it is fair and that is political in an entirely different since and that is what i tried to get across in this book.

>> what is thought to is some? >> as far as general consensus goes a lack of social communication but that is where consensus since everybody agrees with back but picking come in any number of varieties the cliche is if you've met one you have met one. because it can involve being nonverbal or talking to much in the wrong situations and then one source of uncertainty is three don't really know whether it originates or what causes it we do know that involves the brain but the scientists have not localized a particular brain damage to

say this is thought to some it can only be diagnosed through observation of behavior and people disagree about the interpretation of the behavior in the interviews and that is why there is some disagreement and that is part of why it is so politically profound of what it is to begin with when did the word become part of our vernacular? >> the first by psychologist in 1910 who also coined the term schizophrenia used to refer to the extreme form of social isolation by referring to the particular disorder is 1943 john hopkins university a psychiatrist basically the

father of child psychiatry wrote a landmark article describing autism as we know it today he looked at a number of children that seem to be socially withdrawn at the same time didn't have that intellectual problems as children may be with down syndrome and what is remarkable the very first person diagnosed with doctors and is still alive a man named to a triplex and it shows you how recent the phenomenon is as we recognize of course, it has probably been throughout the ages but the term in the diagnosis as we know prozac 1943. >> wears triplet today? bernanke grew up in mississippi part of the reason he was diagnosed to came from a well-off family

that could get to baltimore in 1943 he ended up having a reasonably good life he worked and has been an african-american in mississippi for his entire life it would have been radically different in worse >> when you talk about spectrum? >> that was much more recently in the '80s and '90s when people started to notice that ought to some came in a variety of forms including caspers which is a term going to only in the 1980's and became a formally as a diagnosis and 94 the whole notion involves a certain amount of controversy because those that say it ought to apply only to cases of the most severe and they would argue

those were verbal or who can work for a living ought to have a different type of classification and that is why it is so political because it involves such disagreement over basic terms. >> what is aspergers syndrome? >> it was considered to be a separate form of optimism high functioning involved kids who were very verbal to begin with socially awkward physically awkward. but are able to talk and often to move -- talk to much in the wrong situations added to the diagnostic statistical menuhin -- manuel in 1994 but there is a fifth edition rescind the that eliminated gaspers as a

separate diagnosis folding bed in to our broader category. >> was up political or controversial? >> extremely because what happened is they had a number of people who have gotten the diagnosis and embraced it as part of their identity there also a scientist who believe there really is a distinct condition and that future conditions will reenter that as a separate diagnosis but i should add some of that terminology i just used itself is controversial we use the term disorder we use of language of the defect and people of the community favor a different way they

see optimism as a neurological difference not a disorder in certainly not the disease that is a source of controversy has and animosity within the ought to some community. >> when was the first federal legislation in any form developed? >> dealing with various disorders has been in place a long time but the key milestone occurred 1975 and congress passed what was called the education for all handicapped children act later renamed children with individuals disabilities a federal statute of special education in the shapes of lives of people with autism and other disabilities as well if you get the individualized education program that is something

that was essentially structured by this statute and renamed it in 1990 in this since been amended other federal laws include the combating automat in 2006 the reorganized federal research efforts but even that was controversial to combat optimism but more recently when it was up for reauthorization they objected there is a campaign that said stop, betting me because they regard that as their identity and as a result the name of what was changed to the artisan cares act didn't change the substance and that was important. >> host: an individual with autism is a chronic condition?

>> yes if you are born with you will be that way your whole life that doesn't necessarily mean the same type of impairment will follow you through your life with early intervention with applied behavior you can learn certain coping skills that help you to function in society and many people can pursue all kinds of occupations and they are. for example, there is a pulitzer prize music critic who learned later in life he was on the spectrum and there are many other authors that come forward talking about their lives a lot of this is the results of early intervention. >> host: your book the politics of optimism, where did you come up with the topic? >> someone close to me is

autistic so i had firsthand exposure. plaza started to study there were many first-team and accounts by parents of children and increasingly the autistic people themselves there was great literature on that probably could not add to much so i discovered there was a gap about the politics of this a with a background of political science and it seemed natural to write a book like this for that particular gap so it comes from some firsthand observation but also my experience in politics. >> host: ronald reagan and george debut bush, what were their efforts with autism? >> ronald reagan as governor of california, he signed an

act which was a landmark state law to provide services of developmental disabilities including autism that organized regional centers to help families of those with disabilities to access services so that was a very important step president george h. to be bush played an important role to sign the american with disabilities act in 1990 this was a landmark statute probably the most significant civil rights lot of the mid-60s giving people with autism and others access to a wide variety of opportunities bill clinton signed legislation areas disability laws and there is

also the combating artisan lacked. >> is this so left right issues supporting research? >> is an unusual these days because there is very strong bipartisan dimensions to this we have democrats and republicans or conservatives joining together on this issue but the lines of contention intend to cross party lines rather than follow them one example is the issuance of vaccines starting in 1990's there was a theory that it caused doctors of it originated in an article that was since retracted with the author's ability to practice medicine

in britain and that vaccine period crosslines with some democrats such as kennedy, jr. donald trump of the republican side the congressman from florida all strong believers of the vaccine and opponents crossing ideological lines so the issue is contentious because the vaccine issue has that distracted from other efforts? >> yes. vaccines do not cause autism the consensus is very clear research of any number of ways has shown there is no connection and it is a distraction because the amount of money available

for research is limited if it goes to continue its studies of this is money that cannot go to more productive areas of research it causes a great deal of anger and hostility within the community because there is no basis for this to begin with. >> at this point what is the estimate on the spectrum? >> one fatah 68 the like everybody else that is controversial because that comes from the cdc but isn't from the census but based on some studies done at 11 different sites and scientists disagree about the validity of those if they actually captured optimism or define it properly c will get very different estimates the big

question is has the prevalence increased over the years? looking at the estimates from the cdc the numbers of people getting services in schools they have appeared to increase however has there really been an increase or an increase of awareness and the willingness of people to come forward? with that increased awareness the diagnostic standards is the difference but is there are real increase nobody has the answer to that and that is ongoing controversy. >> first talking about in the united states but where

else? period that is a huge question i did have the opportunity to address it in this book i hope other scholars pick up this topic there was a fairly limited amount of data we know some about artisan in britain and canada but here the problem is different cultural expectations coming to diagnosing not to some because what we regard as autistic behavior in the united states may be standard behavior in other countries like by contact. a clinician looks at a child talking to an adult that avoids eye contact the conditional say maybe that is a sign of optimism in other cultures that is just the way children approach adults and what they're taught to do so devising

across the national measure is very, very difficult and one of the emerging frontiers of research. >> to democratic trends will influence politics in the coming decades first the autistic population will get bigger and second the general population will get older just as the tsunami arrives. >> to do things are happening we don't know the actual prevalence if it is increasing but we do know the number people who of had a medical diagnosis or an educational termination will increase that means there are people who will be looking for government services who have grown up with the label of watches and that will affect how

they interact with government and placed demands on government budgets. at the same time the aging of the baby boom generation as they get older will placed demands lung government in particular with alzheimer's they will need home health care and fact it's the same type paraprofessionals who take care of them with impairments and that will be a problem in the years ahead to simply have supply and demand will increase foreign these services but the supply may not catch up. >> host: politics of optimism is the name of the book. claremont mckenna professor is the author.

booktv on c-span2. >> we share the people's wisdom to go forward and to date we asked for prayers of the people place your left hand on the bible the right hand that i lamar alexander. >> it was the ku the day the democrats ousted the

government through the early swearing-in of governor lamar alexander january 79 he was just elected governor three months before and by this time the fbi was deeply into their investigation of this administration of governor black but the crisis had to do have a governor's office was releasing prisoners for all the wrong reasons there was a process for pardons and paroles but that was sidestepped in this came to be known as the clemency for cash scandal. >> walking out of the tennessee state prison a free man his 99 year sentence was pardoned nearly nobody would have noticed the he has commuted the

sentence as they leave office but this is showing political favoritism has played to the administration handling of executive clemency. >> the fbi became interested very early landed is important to remember that they were focused on the governor's office particularly the office of extradition working on pardons and paroles you had a small crowd in the governor's office that was up to no good and it wasn't just the clemency for cash scandal but liquor store license highway construction rigging and people into prison the governor himself later went to prison so there was a the nest of

corruption in the governor's office at the state capital. so december 15th of 1978 just a month and a half after the election actually could ran for reelection but there's so much controversy at that point he said i will not run again but on december 15 the fbi executed a sweep in which they arrested three people. one of them was in the safe house on the ground floor they arrested the governor's chief legal counsel and he had money in his pocket he was cash that was marked by the fbi they have gone into several of these cases and had money that had exchanged hands obviously was marked

that was on this man's person he was arrested at the same time that the national airport the state extradition officer for reported to the co-counsel was stopped before he could get on a plane to move this he had clemency documents in his briefcase at the same time in memphis, there was an arrest of the governor's chief security detail officer on the highway patrol they knew that this man, this lieutenant was the man to see if you have a friend or a loved one in prison you were eventually led to this man. to of the three went to prison after a trial so that was the flashpoint in the middle of december january

january 15 and actually the governor from his office in the building on the night of monday and 69 signed a clemency document three were all right pardons and they were bad people. convicted murderers and did a crime is bad but these were bad. so this set in motion an extraordinary three day period that ended with a coup that ended that evening and right next door down the hill from the state capital from the tennessee supreme court and in that chamber governor alexander was with two speakers of the state legislature standing with him to akio of office three days early. three days early that has been kept secret from the

governor because they didn't know where he would do he could've called off highway patrol to mobilize the national guard to make a ring around the capital so he did not know so it happens successfully at 6:00 that night. during the day then proceeded through 6:00 p.m. from all outward appearances it was a normal day we are standing on the legislative state capital in the background and downstairs river we're standing is a legislative offices and though legislator was not in session this particular week

but the state building commission and the speaker of the senate and they had to interrupt that meeting to inform them of what had been happening in the phone call that he received from the u.s. attorney an interesting aspect is who initiated the coup with a phone call to the republican governor was the u.s. attorney who was the federal government officer and all of this is about our state government so there had to be a leap over the jurisdictional boundaries. it involves some personal

persuasion on the part of the u.s. attorney talking to alexander he said we have to evolve the speaker of the state house side want to look like a banana republic because that is not how we do things in america so there is always of a peaceful transition of power that is what makes our country unique to the world so the attorney general had to call him because that was a routine activity and that set in motion a four or five hour period throughout the afternoon of phone calls and meetings that all had to happen in private. >> cry was thinking of all the things that could go wrong the governor could see general wallace who is head of the national guard but he wanted to keep his job he is a democrat so he need to

make sure he was loyal to meet. i have forgotten the roberts was on his way in as head of highway patrol and he had those loyal members in case we needed them if there is the contest to the governor is or who is in charge then there was the issue of the lot and my thought was we wanted to look as much like as much as it possibly could that is why i insist henry cannot of the hospital and were wilder said we will stand behind you i said that is like you will come see how it is. [laughter] so i said no.

you will invite me and said no be will not do that which i a understood so we worked out within two hours that i literally wrote out a statement on a piece of paper that say we together agree to do this together that is how we eventually did that that was resolved by four or 430 so then we headed down and went back home to get the kids and we went down to the supreme court building where would we do it and who would we tell? and how do people find out? >> recorder and alexander did not know each other. but on that day they had to get to know each other to solve this problem with a few other people.

and they did and they both told me in interviews later that they really developed a level of trust in they also tell me how that injury affected than in a positive way to work together as republican governor and democratic speaker but the most important part of the story that we tell is not so much about the scandal and the corruption that is important to a understand why but how that crisis was resolved in a extraordinary bipartisan way by very senior leaders of different parties. they put that assad to deal with the crisis and they moved on.