great environment integrates colleagues. i am a fan. >> this month we are featuring the tv programs is a preview of what's available at the weekend on c-span2. next new york staff writer provides her take on life in the u.s. since the election of president trump

him and good evening everybody and welcome to politics and prose. i'm one of the co-owners of politics and prose and on behalf of our entire staff we welcome you to tonight's event that they all havweall have been so excitt and i'm sure all of you are, t too. that may see a few housekeeping things at the beginning. you'll see at the bottom of the screen a purchase button. you can get there by clicking on the button and we are excited if you are from the site you will get a signed copy.

i also probably don't need to tell you this but like all retail business as we are doing our best to stay above water and bring the programs that you are accustomed to getting through politics and prose. these are rough times it takes a lot of resources to put these on so if you feel so inclined to do aa donate button at the bottom f the page and we would be so grateful for anything you can spare. the other thing i want to mention is that there is a question button at the bottom of the screen. if you have a question you can vote on the questions that others have asked.

i doubt they will try to get to as many as possible. we have a firm cutoff time so we need to make sure that she's able to do that. i'm going to get going and you'll byouwill be able to hearn a moment. i would like to see that she's appeared on politics and prose number of times for quite a few of her books. we are always delighted to have them and i can't think of it and we need them more than they do at this time in american histo history. last week was able to not only seek to go back to get the puck.

will be able to hear the ideas that are in the book as well. to talk about the subject, the best way to think about it is a "new york times" reviewer said. we are looking forward to the conversation. i will put you a little background. having forgotten the soviet union a she moved to new york permanently targeted by putin. they didn't warn about how fascism takes great.

a contributor to the new yorker and attend previous books, has won more awards than i can list for journals including the national book award and continues to be an extraordinarily important voice explaining how it takes root, but it looks like and how to both prepare for it and prevent it. we are also fortunate to have only a a senior editor at slate where she writes two columns. one is the supreme court's guidance. she also has a podcast that's bye week biweekly. she has one comes with award and

i hope you've read her column a few days ago that was a wonderful examination one of the quickest so different than those of the past few years. we are happy to have these incredible monuments. [applause] >> thank you so much. this is a treat. even before we met in person i felt like i could hear you right in my earbuds all the time. i felt like your voice was the voice in my head and then yes, everything you said.

you've been in my head int and e book is fantastic. congratulations. >> guest: you are in my head every to be. it's the most illuminating thing there is. >> host: thank you. i want to start by asking if i know you've massively updated the book but i don't know that you've had the chance to update it in the last week and i wonder if we could start a seen as a

militarized policing does it make you think that kind of slow normalization of you are so afraid of not having in the last week or two? the approach is amazing, but the court action makes me think that things are really, really horrible. a couple things. one is the way that they were

known as progressive democrats part four di debate. for to the left. the reason that the city is, it's this idea that's very strong. certain bodies don't have the right to be in certain places. in the place you are currently located in the fact whether you

agree or disagree i think that is really terrifying. the other thing is a. the willful curfews the president of this country they

disagree on the extent to which. for those of you that don't kn know. itit's part of the political conversation. there are a lot of times.

it was deemed over missed by the times that wasn't part of the conversation. they wrote a book and he's been trying to submit op-ed's. >> i think it is good you are talking about the word language and fashion compares event of the word authoritarian, tierney, those are words we are not meant to use into the same time this is something you have said for the long time they've come to be

if you talk about this sterilization this has been such a concern for any because if words were to have no meaning than the law has no meaning if one of the things i have tried to understand is how when he is so slippery with his language but i want to talk about some of the words even in the last few weeks the notion of opening up the city is. i've been in there for weeks it

doesn't mean what you think it means, it means but trump wants it to mean. he starts throwing around thin things. i wonder if there is a way in which we can't use words like fascism and tyranny. that is too much for the mainstream media that we can use these words that mean nothing and we're very comfortable with that. it's part of the thing where i know that you say it is a dual but it is a rule of law crisis and they aren't appropriating

all his language. >> spinach has been an incrediby dominating t debate talented at dominating the conversation. they saw how much is at the sete conversation and in the matter of degree. it became part of our mainstream language and the concentration camp was marked as extreme as then he has been running the language war and he has certain talents as a performer and he

has a real sort of instinct for the relationships of power so things like chimed in topeka -- witchhunt and he also uses words to mean nothing and that is a problem for us as citizens and journalists because when a president uses words that mean nothing still means something because it has consequences so we have to cover it but -- and there is no right answer here.

it's a little bit less awful in the way that we have the language. >> a through line in the book you say again and again in there. there are guardrails and they have public education and all these things and again it's

distressing for me to someone you have been pretty consistently correct that those things can be corroded. one of my concerns when i'm downing bourbon at three in the morning is the confidence that election is going to save us and i had a friend said as long as they are registering voters and standing in line it's all going to work out. even then there is a certain amount of magical thinking about how to extract ourselves from this. i am not nearly as confident as i was six months ago and i would add to the question how are we going to know if people, quote

unquote voted. and you described russian elections. i don't know that we are sophisticated enough to distinguish. >> that is a huge question. let's start with institutions. listening to your podcast has helped me think through to the conditions that allow the institutions to function. i remember your podcast about the travel ban and the ways in which it was a course of action. if they are not fixed in a vacuum they are entirely

dependent. donald trump is a back seat after in the way that he treats the law he sees it as an obstacle and something to get around. correct me if i'm wrong but i think the american court system i'm not sure you can make a system like this still continue to function so that the when he comes up with the travel ban and

again a real estate developer would try to get around. they want us to call this alley a road okay we will but that is until the court is designed to function as a. a. it's a relationship that doesn't take into account we create the conditions. as for the question of the election, i try to thread a

needle in the book because i have a problem with this idea donald trump is an anomaly in american politics my argument is he's determined and a quantum leap from a running start. electoral system has been eroding for a long time and the money of -- marriage of money and politics has grown over the last couple of decades so when you ask how do we know if we will have free and fair elections, when did we so i'm

just avoiding it altogether and using this terminology is there still reversible for electoral means. what i am most worried about him

but the millions of illegal voting and now i think this campaign is starting to be well-funded and vote by mail option that might be the only way people vote if there's a second wave in november and this effort that failed o is built op this week to describe voting by mail when presented may be the only way they can both as part of what you are describing and i don't want to wake up in october and realize we didn't protect the franchise.

this is us creating and constructing a. i want to remind folks we will take questions in just a minute so put them in the question box if you would. before i let you go i want to ask a quick question than a harder question and i .-full-stop. i love how he can catch this tendency is still a perfectly distracting and i've really struggled with bad.

i think that he can barely play hungry hungry hippo and there's the point in the book we all think that putin is this devious puppet master controlling everything. he's just kind of a lot closer to trump and we think and i think you've talked about in the book we want to believe somebody is in charge of all these things and one of my takeaways from this book is nobody is in charge of all the things. i wonder if you have a theory for why there is a tendency to assume just because somebody has power or is wealthy or is famous they must be an absolute

mastermind. >> because it is hard to contemplate the alternative. we have a deranged lunatic and a i had one very sad and one somewhat happy donald trump one and i have been convinced he was great in since july. then there was the book that the rise of vladimir putin that was pretty well reviewed the one

criticism was an educated, just basically incompetent and not very smart and now you know you can be president if you are an idiot and continue to be president if your an idiot. i think that we like to believe, not that they like to but we believe it the worst things were created by evil genius because they think we just stumbled into them, that we can't agency over to the most emotionally appealing clown is so demoralizing and old-school that is what happened.

spinach before i take audience questions, and again please put them in that little box on the screen and not the checkbox otherwise it is baby found my capacity. i want to ask you a journalistic question you talk so much about how we are doing journalism on and i don't dispute any of that. it. we lived in charlottesville when the nazis marched in 2017. my then 11-year-old son said if you pay attention to them they've been. i've come to think of that as my

mantra for the entire trump era. they don't have the option to tune him out or say he's distracting i'm going to pretend he isn't. how do they navigate, and i know you've thought about this more than anyone. how do they do this split screen of watching this deterioration? >> guest: it's going to be

awful. your son is right it is a beautiful way to put it. we are not going to be able to make it better by writing about it or talking about it in a particular way. how much are we contributing and is it possible to reduce. publishing the op-ed is clearly contributing to the growth of think it's easy for me to say i am a columnist at the new yorker which has taken a clear stand

from the beginning. there would actual institutional losses ibe actualinstitutional g up the valley is like neutrality and the colts to know where. when you cover his statements in a natural matter and he says testing is no longer a problem and governors disagree which is a step in which he says the earth is flat and scientists disagree, when you allow for this to appear on the pages then you are contributing to the

harm. it's more difficult to be mindful and located in politics like they were covering trump, but that is what we have to do this asking the question how not to is giving up. then you try to figure it out and you make mistakes but you bring things into focus. >> that is a good answer. thank you. that helps. i want to ask some of the audience questions and there are a bunch. i want to start with john who

asks this good question i should have opened with which is how do you define fascism quite >> guest: i don't use the word fascism in the book. i did use it in a column. the reason i didn't use it in the book is because i don't think that it is very tight wo word. it is an autocratic system that describes a lot of places in the world even right now. i try to avoid using it and the performance was very poignant.

he's chosen all of the symbols. >> host of interesting question do you think the left and the u.s. have blind spots about its role contributing? spinnaker don't kno, with a life u.s. is exactly. sometimes when we talk about it but talk about the democratic party and sometimes we talk about an actual leftist thinker and activists that are marginalized.

i'm going to take that as a question about the democratic party, and i think the democratic party failed through it was dealing with and the democratic party in general is whether to forgo the idea of politics. they agree getting votes is a matter of adding the polls of your excel table of which states the presidential nominee can deliver but mostly its electoral appeal we've been at this for a long time and we know we have a

good resume. that is not enough and they know that it's not for a long time. they certainly have known since 2008 that evening and did it go a hint of a vision of the future works magic. ..