strangelove persona on tv, kind of fry and stern and all that kind of stuff. more decent and humane and mention like human being, i'm not sure you could name. he is an amazing man. it is a whole that i don't think can never be filled. it breaks my heart what is going on. [applause] >> you talk about people in the republican party not getting along very well. when we have what happened with the iran deal, the burden of proof was inverted. isn't that what happens to create a lot of infighting? >> yes. i don't know that there is

anybody on my circle or republican circles who thought the iran thing was done, either terrible in process or on policy or both. that is one of the things that unifies a lot of people on the right. i think that one of the -- it is funny. a lot of liberals get furious whenever i argue or tweet or say that definition is a big point in the book, they have their share of blame for why trump seemed like this savior to a lot of people both in terms of response to identity politics and political correctness and all these things. i have my criticisms of seeing him as a savior on those fronts but that doesn't mean as the feelings weren't legitimate and some of the things barack obama did, he said 24 times that he

couldn't do daca because he wasn't a king and the constitution for bad him to do it and then when the politics seems right to do what he did it anyway. to me that is an impeachable offense. to take an oath to the constitution and then you say on the record dozens of times i do not have the constitutional power to do something and then for political expediency you do it anyway, you violated your oath of office which seems what impeachment was for. the way the press covered that as if look at obama, he is owning the republicans, he triumphed and all that stuff, a certain amount of what i call on the right this the linsky envy, we have to use their tactics and fight the same way. a big reason why trump fights kind of persona was so appealing to some people. >> unfortunately we are out of time. we have a long list of folks who want to ask questions.

the book is great and fascinating to read. thank you very much for being here. [applause] >> thank you for tuning into this program. those who want a copy, will answer a question or two. thank you. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> you have been watching and listening to best-selling author and commentator jonah goldberg discussing the fate of american democracy. the printers role at first will continue in a few minutes with a look at the life of the late chicago mayor washington. this is booktv on c-span2's live coverage. [inaudible conversations] >> nonfiction audiobooks according to audible. topping the list --

a look at the best-selling audiobooks according to audible continues with --

some of these authors have appeared on booktv. you can watch them on our website booktv.org. >> when donald trump ran for president and gave his inaugural address, america is essentially a day or two from the apocalypse. what i found looking at the experience of his first year historically was as follows. donald trump was fortunate to take office when he did. unlike abraham lincoln he

didn't have to deal with the secession of 7 states during appear go between his election it is inauguration. unlike richard nixon he did not inherit a war in which more than half 1 million american soldiers were bogged down. unlike franken roosevelt and barack obama he didn't take the oath of office in the midst of a massive financial crisis. although the world had its share of problems when the trump presidency began they were ongoing, not new or urgent. the domestic economy had been growing slowly but steadily for all but one quarter of the previous six years. the annual rate of inflation is below 2%, the annual rate dipped 5%. the percentage of americans regard themselves as middle or upper class to rch 62%, greater share than below the 2008 financial crisis, the stock market was already

booming. and unlike recent republican predecessors donald trump took office with the republican congress. look at it that way, donald trump was dealt a very good hand and honestly, i am somebody who appreciates the significance of the tax cut bill that was enacted last month into law but when you step back and think what have pres.s been able to do in the past when they had a congress controlled by their own party, one major piece of legislation and for republicans especially a tax cut is sort of like a 6-inch pot, right? i think history gives us a way of measuring about the rightness or wrongness but scale of accomplishments. that is one thing history gives us perspective on. another is this. when you think about the last

70 years or so and the way in which we have chosen our pres.s, the talent pool from which we have chosen our presidents, the trend at work of which donald trump election was the latest manifestation, think about this. during a quarter century, roughly a quarter century after world war ii, the pres.s we elected not only had experience in government but experience at high levels of government in washington. senators, vice presidents, gen. truman, eisenhower, kennedy, johnson, nixon, ford, every one of them build their career not just in government but in washington. no surprise there, right? figure out what happened before this. go began. the federal government was widely credited with licking the depression, beating the axis. americans had a lot of confidence in the federal government. then along comes the vietnam

war and the watergate crisis. starting with jimmy carter's election in 1976, the country still wanted people with experience in government but not in washington. that was part of carter's appeal as it was governor ronald reagan, governor bill clinton, governor george w. bush, we were experienced people but not part of the mess in washington. the next iteration of this trend is somebody who comes along and says i have no experience in washington and i have no experience in government and that is a reason to vote for me. that is sort of where we are now as people are looking ahead to 2020 and talking about mark zuckerberg or oprah winfrey, it is a way of understanding trump didn't just drop out of the sky. there has been a long-term almost 3-quarter century trend of which he is kind of the most recent manifestation.

>> you can watch this and other programs online@booktv.org. >> booktv is on twitter and facebook and we want to hear from you, tweet us twitter.com/booktv or post a comment on our facebook page, facebook.com/booktv. >> what has happened now is every single group in america feels threatened, not just blacks and other minorities that feel threatened. whites feel threatened. a study in my book says 67% of the white working-class feels that they are more discriminated against then minorities. it is not just muslims and jews and buddhists who feel threatened, christians now feel threatened. with the me to movement it is not just women, but men, straight, a moment when every group feels threatened and

every group feels tribalism, thinks that the other tribes claim to be persecuted and discriminated against our ridiculous. that is part of it. the second reason we are where we are has to do with why you are the expert on this. when you read a lot of stuff in the papers, it is wrong, there's all this swinging around white to premises white nationalism. it is not helpful to call half of the country white supremacists. it is not what is happening. what is happening is what i call in my book we almost have two white tribes now, class and not just money but educational level, almost like a cultural divide, has split america's majority and it is interesting to use the term ethnic because

long before i was a tiger mother my field was intercity and ethnic conflict. i have a 17 page footnote describing what ethnicity is. it is very difficult, and feature of an ethnic divide is if you don't intermarry with each other, this is not a perfect definition but groups often don't see ethnic differences if you can intermarry because the difference goes away. this is something new in america because of the drastic decline in geographical mobility, something else jd is working on. it used to be tom brokaw was talking about this. people from the midwest through education or whatever, you would go to silicon valley, track out to california or any of the coasts and come back.

now it is so expensive to live on the coast. silicon valley, new york, atlanta, and also education is no longer what it was, route to upward mobility. people are stuck through all these studies. there is much less fluidity. the coastal elites, in this number because they are not all coastal and they are also not all elites in the sense that they are not all wealthy. that term refers to professors and journalists and activists. coastal elites are also not all white. they are often -- it is better to describe these multicultural -- everyone in this room. people like me, whether you are republican or democrat, you view yourself as tolerant and

you know lots of minorities and believe in religious freedom and you travel a lot and see people all over the world and probably think of yourself as not tribal because you believe in individual rights and human rights and cosmopolitanism. this group tends to be very very tribal. .. >> other programs online at booktv.org. >> welcome to the 34th annual chicago tribune printers row lit fest. i want to give a special thanks to our many sponsors. today's program will be broadcast live are on c-span2's booktv. there'll be time at the end of the session for q&a, so we ask you tth