as the future of agriculture and food availability. c-span's live coverage starts saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern. watch again on sunday when the topics will be education, care for veterans, economic development and the future of work. that is live all day on c-span. >> now a conversation on what conservatism means to millennial's and younger americans and their view of the trump presidency. this is from washington journal. >> live this morning at the conservative political action conference getting underway in the maryland suburbs and on your screen is the director of campus outreach at the leadership institute. tell us about your organization and the leadership institute and whatur is your purpose at sea bk this week? >> absolutely. where a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization whose main goal is

to train the future generations of conservative activists. we hold trainings around the country in here at arlington, virginia where we are based. getting people ready to join the political process whether the average citizen or future candidate, whatever it is anyone who wants too learn the tools of the trade so we offer schools, training, for young people all the way up to old people on anything from getting involved in campaigns and using social media to join the process and we offer media training, public speaking training, anything you can possibly imagine our organization is. our mainat focus is on collegeti campus where we try to grow the conservative movement on college campuses so helping to foster activism among conservative students because he is found that is where there is a whole when it comes to activism on the conservative side is on college campuses. we try to help drive there.

anyone is welcome to come whether it whatever their political leanings and give top-notch training. >> you are a couple years out of liberty university in lynchburg, virginia. when you started doing this professionally you came into political activism and training people how did you find the standard set of rules that was currently underway and the organizations that were already in placeve to do these things? >> when i was in college it was a quite conservative university and i would try to bite people that like me and i had a good base of other conservative activists and i tried to grow with and help empower me and my personal political journey but i realized in talking to my friends around the country and other colleges that there was a need for a network of young conservatives that was willing to help another empower and grow the movement on college campuses and after college i got involved with leadership and with campus .org because i viewed it and had an opportunity to help the students that didn't have the nsexperience i had to help give

them the tools and resources they needed to help them get their opinions out there because there is such a lack of organizational standpoint elect people helping empower young certain students. manyin students go to college nt sure where they lean politically and there's an overall mean pressurere to go to the left tht they don't ever have a chance and many times they are indoctrinated on college campuses so our goal is to help empower students and say let's defend free speech and help you in the political process but let's get conversation going so you can make up your mind and not be forced into any side whatever it is. >> we will open the blinds and talk about the millennial's in the conservative movement with cabot phillips was out at the back here is how we are breaking down the line. if you're between ages of 18-34 that number is 2,027,488,000 mac and 35-49(202)748-8001 and those above 50 and over i should say

(202)748-8002 and we welcome your tweets at c-span. you talk about going to liberty and very similar political ideals and you come to the washington area obviously any mention in your opening statement about your organization welcoming people from different viewss and you feel that the nation's capital, capital hill and the other areas are an area where people are accepting of more accepting now of conservative ideas? >> guest: well, obviously with the ministration change there was a wave where there was more of a conservative presence in dc since the election and that is natural. it happens as their are changes in administration. as far as on college campus which is my main area where i am i've been on 50 different college campuses in last year and they all do have one thing in common and that is the overwhelming liberal bias. people asked me why our group is necessary and why we are goingng on in filling the need to culture and and it is because it

is so necessary because there is such a lack of conservative presence. liberal students who go in and any sort of [inaudible] they are often times they have their views reinforced in the classroom by liberal professors and they had their views reinforced by the initiation and peers and by the media and by hollywood and many time conservative students are left feeling it is a place for them and their views are unacceptable. we are necessary to come in and help get those students the resources they need help empower them and help give a voice to them to help them realize it's okay to be young in conservative and just because you don't see a bunch of young conservatives around you on the college campus is still okay to disagree with your professors your, your administers in your peers. we feel we are necessary to help empower them and that is what our group is about and try to shine a light on the lack of discourse going on on college campus today let's go to call tributary on our 50 overline in homestead, florida. good morning. >> caller: good morning c-span.

and washington journal. the question i heard the young man say is that he likes to talk to people who think like he thanks and believe what they believe but my question is simply can you be conservative and liberal and independent in whatever else at the w same ti e time -- can you take all the good things of conservatism and use it when it is necessary and all the rest? thank you for indulging. >> host: thank you, terry. >> guest: i think it's important to never put yourself in a box. to say that i am solely a

republican on the shoe and not willing to compromise. it's important toyo have discussions and not themselves in a box. i would encourage everyone to not just assume they feel on an issue because their party feels but were encouraging discussion and you mentioned that i like to start myself with people that i agree with. i think that's a bit of a mischaracterization of what was being said. i mean it in a sunset conservative art surrounded by people who agree with them and they [inaudible] it's important that you do hear from people you disagree with and so you become stronger. we found that overwhelmingly that is happening in anconversations aren't being had on campus and the liberal status is left there and there's no 15 ideas being brought in. something that we noticed increased over the past years is a trend where when conservative ideas are brought to campus via a student group that is trying to push conservative ideas to their peers those ideas are deemed unacceptable and rather than chewing the hearing them ot a debate and discussing about why they tesagree and making up their own

minds the main tactic we see from students and often times it ministration is to shut the ideas down because they make students uncomfortable or they make them feel nervous or they make them feel unsafe and our organization is trying to get people to realize that just because an idea makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it should be shut down. on the w contrary, if you go through old college career never learning to process ideas you disagree with that will be a sad life and you will not learn how to truly become an adult and whatantithetical to america is about to expect to be able to shut down as someone just because you disagree with them. that's wrong on whatever site it is. we have found that it's more the left that is doing it and that is a problem. we're not just running assaults of people you agree with but to break up that echo chamber and it will make you stronger and the people around you stronger. >> host: let's go to our millennial line. and in virginia.

good morning. >> caller: yes, i am here. hello, thank you for taking my call. having been raised conservative myself and then transitioning over to the last under left as i went to college i don't think it was a lack of conservative influence but more education on to what each party stands for in recognizing that the right tends to condone things that don't jive with the millennial generation like closemindedness so i'm curious why you think that they are being influenced to go to the left rather than making informed decisions and maybe those citizens get better with the values and morals of the millennial generation. >> host: thank you, and.

>> guest: more of a statement there that brings up part of the point i'm making is that conservative ideas are often that people disagree and it's okay but to just give them up like it's a man of if you agree with the right you're automatically condoning hate that is part of the problem we see. they just want to say that anyone would disagree with that is able and that is wrong. as people the pressure to go to the left must of that comes from society and it does come in the classroom. we see case after case that they are using their pulpit as a platform and i'm on different campuses every week and they say peafraid to speak out in my clas because i don't my grade to get docked or it have this bias as they have to write against donald trump in whatever it is and i don't want to share my opinion because then my professor will know how i think. i will be ostracizing class in

my grade could be docked or even if students feel physically threatened that are physically threatened for holding these views and that is wrong and it starts with the professors and administration beginning to allow the classroom to become a place of discussion. many time professors may not realize that they are stifling discussion by injecting their own personal bias but every professor needs to take a look at the way they run the classroom and weigh their teaching andey if they are truly allowing a marketplace of ideas and if they are not the need to reevaluate it and the students feel they aren't getting that is what this organization about. empower them and help them tell the stories and accountability. people should know what is going on in classroom what is going on on campuses. that's what our site works with and were trying to empower those stories. >> host: our caller says she was raised conservative household and what was your background like? >> guest: i grew up in a

conservative household, as well. the main thing for me growing up this the conservative side of my face. i meet deeply evangelical person and even in adult life now i attend church regularly and that's it had a big role in my household but i wouldn't say that my own personal politics were big for me until i got into college. we i began to read government courses and internship in washington dc and i realized how important it was for young people to get involved in politics and how much of a lack there was a conservative leadership of young people around me and i wanted to rather than complain about her not being on conservative voices trying to go get involved but is not about me. my goal is not to promote any one person and it's to promote feel like they don't have a voice and to tell their story and giveun them an opportunity w

because i think there's a student the field no one has there back in there trying to make sure they know that if you can forward and you begin to fall back there are people that will go on with you but my story is similar to a lot of people in the sense that growing up many times peoplee believe what their peers believe if you never go beyond that it's a problem. every person wants to truly examine they believe what they believe just because herca pares for some or if they question their belief and study what you believe and why and that is so important to have debates with other people that disagree with you. maybe they can change your mind but if they can't your police wills be strong or than when yu started. >> host: nascar 18-34 line again and hear from billy in boston. >> caller: good morning. i pretty much agree about the underrepresentation of conservatives in academia but i disagree with the reasons about why that is so. i think it is so because i came from [inaudible] and is pretty conservative for the ivy leagu

league -- my friends the republicans generally went on to the private sector and loss rather than into academia so i wonder if you can respond to that and i don't think it has to do with the spike in bias -- [inaudible] i don't think that it is so stifling as you represented just push back a little bit. thank you. >> guest: you bring up an interesting point about professors many times some conservatives choosing more lucrative career path in the business sector but i think that is a smaller subset of the reason for the overwhelming presence of liberalng professor. there are studies out that show for every conservative or

professor who is going off with a political donation every conservative professoron is abot 12 liberal democrat professors and so it is an overwhelming thing if you look at the numbers on where professors stand. much of that has to do with the environment in academia right now. many conservatives looking to get into the field getting into the higher education field look at the environment they are in currently and many of them could be scared away. they see what happens to conservative professors. we covered a story at ucla weree conservative professor signed a free speech class in the school began to steadily give him smaller and smaller classrooms sbecause he felt it was because he was conservative and facing pushback from the administration and they were giving him smaller classes every semester even though this class was the most demanded class and in hundreds of students trying to get in and he left the university and eventually it was because of this conservative. another example is evergreen college, he is a fairly progressive progress or if you

would call for a liberal and there was a day of action where they asked every student was not a person of color, every white student to leave the campus and he sent an e-mail out saying this is racist to force people call off-campus on the color of the skin. they rallied around him calling him a racist thing he was an ally with the narrative of students live on campus and the school had to let him gono b bee to comes unsafe for him to the university. that is someone who wasn't even awh conservative but pushed back against the trend of what was going on. i talked to numerous professors and dozens of professors in the past. f tommy look, on the conservatie cause i conservative where i have conservative ideas that i wantns to bring about but i'm afraid of what will happen and afraid of losing my chance at tenure and demonstration and the board will do to me if i make it known. i think many times i see liberal professors feel empowered and they don't feel threat when it comes to their job security in

the way they will be treated professionally. conservative professors do feel that and so that is part of the reason why we don't have more conservatives going into the field or at least more conservative professors making it known that that is their belief. again, even if it was a conservative was in the classroom pontificating constantly and indoctrinating students the ev c public school i'd have a problem with that, as well. it's important that whatever personal ideology or professor has not not seeping into the class. the professor's job is to identify their bias, maketh it known to students this is where i personally site their other ideas and here is what they are. make up your own mind and do your best to make sure students don't know what you believe. >> host: let's get back to the phones. francis in houston, texas. good morning. >> caller: good morning. praise the lord. this is a great day and thank you for letting me be on and thank you for the host. mr. cavett, i thank god that you

went to liberty university which i am 72 years old and it was a very evil when it first started. i am a black woman, native american, and i am also an ordained minister who loves the lord and jesus christ. this word that you are throwing out, liberal bias, you are showing sewing so much bias that you are the ones that should be able to bee biased that that category should be taken out of your all's mouth. second, to be an evangelical iso to be evil, hateful, go, hypocrite, liars, deceivers and everything that the word of god says that christians should not be. to be an evangelical is also to

be a great, humongous center. the world is only made up of saints and sinners. i am a saint not because i am righteous, more righteous, then you but because christ lives in me and his love makes mehi righteous. >> host: that is francis in houston, texas. mr. phillips speak to many of h,mes this boils down to a partisan issue. when it comes to free speech many people do view it as a left versus right issue. it doesn't have to be. i think free speech is something that everyone should be able ton agree on and anytime there's a suppression of someone's right and anytime there's a free speech that is being spiteful every american should come together and say this is the problem and identify the problem and by no means is a strictly a partisan issue but our organization in the reporting that weob do and the hundreds of things we get from around the country is overwhelming the problems being perpetuated by the west and it's important not just onene side and don't identy

who is perpetuating the problem will not ever fix it. i think it is important that we call out was doing this and if there people on the right that are shutting down free speech, by all means, send me an e-mail and contact us and we will cover it. we want to know what is going on but it so happens that overwhelmingly that bias is coming and if we don't identify the problem and who is committingro the offense we will never fix it and if it's on the left. >> host: i want to ask you your thoughts on a pole that is out from nbc and millennial's views on president trump and he will be speaking at the back tomorrow and approve or disapprove a present job while some agreement strongly approving of congress and president trump not a green and 6% and 2% but long strongly disapproving of congress and of president trump, 46% of those surveyed millennial's what's your takee on that. >> guest: i'd be interested to

no, also how many of the students are there views going to change your jobs and begin to pay taxes and all those things. for me personally i became more conservative when i got out of college and began to have to make my own financial decisions and begin to get into my career. that could be a factor, as well for the students. the only way to form a political opinion is in the classroom and what they see in the media and what they're getting from their peers in all three of those things given overwhelming liberal bias in my opinion. many times i can be a reason for numbers like that to come out. ... d save those kids will always be liberal. it is important we continue outreach efforts and reach them on a level they can understand. say, here isnt to an issue on why fiscal help you get a job when you get out f school and come to them with issues, here's why we're pro-life and why the science is on our side. let's have a discussion about

this. but not just writing young people off and say, well, poll numbers show they're liberal, let's forget about them. i think it's important we continue the outreach effort, and that's what's exciting about getting toex meet young conservatives, hear about why they are conservative, and it's exciting too see the next generation getting ready to get involved. i do think that it's important that we continue to reach out to them. >> host: here's delano in conway, missouri, on our millennial line. go ahead. >> guest: delano stands for swamp in scotland. anyway, i wanted to ask mr. phillips what is the state that gets the most defense money? >> host: defense department money, delano? >> caller: yes, sir. >> host: do you have the answer for us? >> caller: i do, from google. do you know? >> host: no, i don't. >> guest: no, i'm not aware. >> caller: it's virginia. you know,re i thought it would e

texas, maybe california, something. but here's my, that's my question. here's my -- a soft answer -- [inaudible] greaves words stir up anger. thank you very much for c-span. >> host: edward in keyport, new jersey. morning. >> caller: yeah, thank you. my question is i think even if youmy had fox news in every millennial's bedroom, that your points just don't make much sense to younger generations. i would like to ask you what is it that you want to sell millennials? and, i mean, because right now we're looking at the party that doesn't believe in science, the party that believes in evangelical shah' like, you know -- sharia, like, you know, the party that doesn't believe in minimum wage. so i want to ask you what points can you tell a millennial that, you know, that you can sell them on conservativism?

thank you. >> guest: yeah. well, i am a millennial, and i've talked to hundreds, thousands of millennials every year. one thing i notice that they all have in common, whether left or right, is really they don't trust the government in many cases. they just want the government to get out of their lives on both sides. and i think the side that wants smaller government, the side that wants people to have increased personal liberty, personal freedom, is the conservative side. i think that's an important selling point. if you trustst the government to run yourr life, if you trust the government to make decisions about your health care, about other important personal decisions that you are going to make as you get out of school and begin to start a family, then go to the left. the liberals are perfect for you, because they want the government to make more of those decisions. if you trust yourself and your make those decisions, if you wantt the government out of your life as much as possible, then go to the right. picking up on that fear of -- not fear, but a distrust of the government is an important way of reaching young people. and also the side that, yout know, young people

overwhelmingly want to be able to voice their opinions, and many of them don't like being told what to think. i do think there is a backlash coming in the future. it's one thing where i i think, you know, the next generation, generation z that's coming up, we've seen studies that they are more likely to be conservative than millennial, and i think it has to do with consistently being told you are young, you have to be a liberal. i think that's going to backfire. young. people don't like being told whatt to think or what to do, and there's that natural kind of strain of bucking, you know, whatever you're being told. i think that's going to begin to change people's minds when it comes to making -- >> host: reflecting some of that, ans. opinion piece in the washington times, how republicans can win big with millennials. they say stop asking millennials to join you. s of join them. millennials are the first generation to consider themselves political independents. we don't join professional association ises, we avoid labels and embrace diversity in every sense of the word. we're not attending your conference, they're boring, and

we adopt want to go to your -- don't want to go to your meetings,me and that's okay. cabot phillips, one more call from my size la, montana, and this is t.j.. good morning, go ahead. >> caller: hi. mr. phillips, your outlook is refreshing. i'd like to ask you a question and make a brief comment. my comment first. you said three words a little while ago, you said three words that i, that stuck out and are the most important words any person can hear, and they are think for yourself. my question is do you consider donald trump to be conservative? >> guest: well, i think when it comes to thinking for yourself, i think that people have to make that decision for themselves. rsi'm not here to tell anyone wt they believe, my personal goal is to defend people's ability to make up their own mind. i think there are a lot of

people at the american conservative union that would believe that donald trump is a conservative. i think that a lot of people here that i've talked to said that they feel he is, and i think, you know, that's an important takeaway from being at this event. but again, i appreciate the support of the phrase think for yourself. that's something we're trying to encourage people to do. and by no means, am i trying to tell anyone what to think. our organization is here to defend the right to think freely. if you come to a different conclusion than i do or anybody else does politically, that's totally fine. but having the chance to come to that decision without having all this bias thrown at you, being able to hear out different sides, hear out different ideas, make up your own mind, i think that's what we're all about, that's what's important. and we need to encourage the next generation to think for themselves.. millennials are now the largest voting bloc in america, they're going to be electing leaders for decades to come. they're going to be electing leaders. so i think it'ser important that we have a well-connect educated electorate. just joining usdu from cpac this morning is cabot phillips who's

the campus outreach director for the leadership institute. thanks for being with us this morning. >> guest: yeah. happy to be on, thank you. p. >> tonight booktv is in prime time with a look at military biographies. retired lieutenant general daniel bulger interviews former defense secretary chuck hagel and his brother tom who are the focus of his book, "our year of war." retired u.s. army captain flo groberg talked on his book, "eight seconds of courage." worldworld war ii veteran jerry yellen recalled his bombing missions over japan in his book, "the last fighter pilot," and max boot on his book, "the road not taken." booktv in prime time tonight on c-span2. >> for nearly 20 years, "in depth" on booktv has featured the nation's best known nonfiction writers for live conversations about their books.

this year we're featuring best selling fiction writers for our monthly program. join us live sunday, march 4th, at noon eastern with jeff share rah whose novel, "gods and generals," was made into a major motion picture. his most recent book is "the frozen hours." his other books include to the last man plus 11 more novels which recount the military history of america from the american revolution to the korean war. during the program we'll be taking your phone calls, tweets and facebook messages. our special series in depth fiction edition with author jeff shaara sunday, march 4th, live from noon to 3 p.m. eastern on booktv on c-span2. >> join us saturday at 9:30 a.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3 at the american civil war museum in richmond, virginia, for live coverage of the civil war's impact on americans. speakers include peter

carmichael, director at gettysburg college civil war institute, james robertson, author of "the untold civil war," jean schultz, author of women at the front and amy morrell taylor author of "the divided family in civil war america." at 8 p.m. on lectures in history from the georgetown university law center, guest speaker thomas west talks about his book "the political theory" -- >> in a republican form of government, namely based on consent, elections, virtue is needed more than in any other form of government. because in a republic the people themselves pick the rulers. >> sunday at 4 p.m. on real america the 1956 film "a city decides" about the historic supreme court decision brown v. board of education. >> and had delegates from all the high schools in st. louis. >> well, all i know is at our school some kids who just don't

like colored people. >> from the kids in our school, they don't like white people either. >> i think it's the individual that p counts. how are you going to get to know a person unless you meet them? >> when the supreme court ruled that segregation was illegal, these children were ready. >> and at 6 p.m. on american artifacts, we look at a selection of clifford barryman's popular political cartoons from the early 20th century. >> and he continued to draw for the washington evening star for the next 42 years. his cartoons appeared almost daily, usually on the front page of the paper. very prominently placed. he had quite an illustrious career. >> watch american history tv every weekend on c-span3. >> all day coverage of the conservative political action conference continues tomorrow. energy secretary rick perry, interior secretary ryan zinke

and congressman mark meadows -- chair of the conservative freedom caucus -- will be live here on c-span2 at 8:35 a.m. eastern. a little later our cpac coverage moves to c-span for president trump's comments. we'll also hear from kellyanne conway, linda mcmahon and fcc chair ajit pai. that's scheduled to get underway live friday at just after 10 a.m. eastern on our companion network, c-span. >> today former government officials talked about the impact of hospital mergers and the cost of health care. the insurance market and consumers. hosted by the alliance for health policy, this is an hour and 15 minutes. >> great, thank you so much, bill. and good morning, everybody. thank you for joining us here today for another breakfast. my name is sarah dash, and i am president and ceo of the alliance for health py.