c-span opened the door to washington policy, bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. this was true people power. in the 40 years since, the landscape has clearly changed. given way tohas live casting, but c-span's role is more important than ever today. online, c-spannd is your unfiltered view of government so you can make up your own mind. >> coming up, and news conference with federal reserve chairman jerome powell.

that conference is scheduled for 2:30 eastern, live on c-span. host: our first guest is the president of the american enterprise institute. author of the book love your enemies: how decent people can save america from the culture of contempt. arthur brooks, good morning. >> how are you? host: i'm fine. people the enemies? >> consider all sorts of folks their enemies. the problem we have in america today is increasingly we see people on the other side of the political aisle as our enemies. we are more polarized than we have and since the civil war. one in six americans have stopped talking to a family member or close friend since the 2016 election because of politics and 93% of us hate it. so clearly we are doing something wrong. we are seeing the wrong people as our enemies. if we actually love the people

and we in our midst treat people with warm heartedness instead of contempt we will find out they were not our enemies after all. host: what happens when you use the word love in these conversations? >> people say, finally. i'm a behavioral social scientist by training. i run one of the oldest think tanks in the world. i'm thinking how do i mix behavioral training with public policy work. i'm going to write about what i know the most about which is happiness and love. we were talking about socialism and capitalism for an hour just now. people trying to adjudicate the boundary between them. the boundary between capitalism and socialism is really artificial. when we talk about the wealth of nations, we forget that 17 years before he wrote the theory of moral sentiments all of this stuff goes into the mist when we talk about what we really care

about which is love and relationships and happiness and when we understand that we have to be our brother's keeper and a lot of these distinctions start to dissolve. to make the distinction that someone who is a socialist and a capitalist can exist and get along with each other despite their beliefs. >> of course. book foris a solutions people who actually want more love and happiness in their lives and who want to be more persuasive in their views. no matter if you are on the right or the left you will figure out how to persuade people more. we are locked down into corners right now. people on the right are only talking to people on the right. wants to hearleft what people on the right have to say and vice versa. if you think that you are right this book tells you how to be happier and more persuasive at the same time and most importantly how we can start to rebuild country. this is not a question of better institutions.

it's a question of the revolution of each one of our hearts remembering that we are responsible for starting the movement in our own lives. host: you use the phrase culture of contempt. what do you mean by that? >> people say that america is too angry today. there's too much anger. the cable news networks are hardly -- highly partisan. anger is not the problem. it is a hot emotion. i care what you think. the problem is when you mix it with discussed. it becomes a toxic compound. you take discussed and mix it with anger and it becomes contempt. of theviction worthlessness of the other person. that destroys marriages. it's the number one best way you can make a political enemy. contempt is what we need to fight against in this country.

host: our guest is with us for the hour if you want to talk to yourbout his book, love enemies. you can call us and let us know what you think. ,emocrats (202) 748-8000 republicans (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002. thatighlight an incident happened in new york with black lives matter. asked the question what if you think that another person is truly worthy of contempt and one of the points that i make is that you have to start separating contemptuous ideas from the people themselves. will never be able to come together. i gave an example of one of the most unexpected coming together as i've ever seen right here on the washington mall. the head of the black lives matter of greater new york showed up at a trump rally.

bikers for trump. really very strong trump supporters. he stepped into it ready to protest with his fist in the air. oddugh a series of circumstances he wound up on stage addressing the crowd and a pretty strange thing happened. i think you've got tape of this. host: here is a little bit with half newsom at that rally. >> we want our god-given right to freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. you are so right. all lives matter, right? lost itlack life is gets no justice. that's why we say black lives matter.

if we really want to make america great, we do it together. >> it restored my face and some of those -- my faith in some of those people. sides that never listen to each other actually made progress today. did i expect to go on that stage? no. stand here with my fist in the air at a very militant way and exchange some insult. somenk we really made substantial steps.

i hope they understand that one of the leaders of the black lives matter movement is a proud american and a christian who cares deeply about this country and the people in it whether they are documented or not. i want them to understand that we are educated. we come from a place of love. we really are here to help this country move toward a better place. not to destroy it. a man who controls a 4000 member moshe shook my hand and said i always knew i identified with to but today solidified it asked me to take a picture with his son. i went from being enemy to being someone they want to take pictures with their children. that's the power of communication. to chant and do a

demonstration but we didn't have to. we just spoke. it worked. >> it was kind of an accident. what he did was he accepted the opportunity to talk to the other side. what the guy who was running he saidnt, tommy gun, i'm going to give you my stage for a couple of minutes because america is all about free speech. it was serendipity. talked about the deepest moral convictions of the people in the crowd. he didn't share their politics but he said, i'm an american. i love this country. when something is not right you've got to fix it. within two minutes he had the crowd cheering for him. because he was talking about how much he loves the united states of america. i have gotten to know him.

he's a great guy. we haveimportant things values in common and that's a beautiful thing. when people go to the values of instead of simply quarreling about the policy differences they can almost always find tremendous common ground. people are not their political ideas. what they want us to do is see each other as democrat and republican, left or right. as our differences as opposed to the similarities that we have. host: how do you sway the other side without giving up your own? >> you will never persuade another person by trying to insult them into agreement. it has never happened in human history. the way we talk to each other with contempt is the most

impractical thing i've ever seen. you can virtue signal to your own side. this has really changed my life. i had a very interesting experience. do 100 75 speeches a year and i was speaking at a conservative activist rally and i said in the middle of my top because i'm politically on the center-right and i said all of the things i'm going to tell you you are going to agree with what i want you to remember if you agree with me then you should be in the business of persuading your neighbors. their progresses. they are not stupid and they are not evil. they are simply americans who disagree with you and you need to persuade them. no applause. a minute later the applause because -- i grew up in

seattle, washington. sheep politically of my family and my community and i don't like it when somebody talks that way about my family. everybody watching should ask themselves the question. do you love somebody with whom you disagree politically? i'm going to say 100% yes and if that's the case then we need to our ownanding up to side on behalf of people on the other side. that's the mark of moral courage. host: arthur brooks. our first call comes from tom in connecticut. you are on with our guest. go ahead. caller: my name is tom. i wanted to see what you thought about fox news in particular but also ms nbc. sofriends growing up are into fox news. i'll think the clintons would

have lost if fox news wasn't here and i don't know how we get news from commentary. they think hannity is news just like shepard smith is news. tell me your thoughts on fox news and msnbc. get that question a lot about the news networks that have a lot of partisan commentary. if you watch the special report on fox news or the actual news shows on msnbc you are getting high-quality news sources. expect thet political commentators who set -- we haveup as such become very unsophisticated in our viewing habits. what i recommend to all people is that they get diverse sources if they want to look at something that scratches their own itch. they should look at something on the other side. if you find that you are unhappy because of the way that you are

being fired up, you are unsatisfied, you don't like what's happening in the country, take a pundit fast. don't read your favorite columnists who says the other side is stupid and evil. turn off the prime time news networks just for a couple of weeks and see how you feel. it's lent. anybody who observes lent, let's make a deal. let's watch a little bit less political commentary. host: you say anonymity on the internet is a net that and discouragedtively as a matter of basic corporate responsibility and ultimately self-preservation. is thelk about why it contempt has been able to seep into the culture and one of the big reasons for that is the anonymity that comes from sidling our newsfeeds through

social media and our ability to be anonymous on the internet. anonymity is a really bad thing. traffic is terrible in the washington area. the best way we could improve traffic is make them put their name and house of worship on a sticker on the back of their car. if we refuse to be anonymous and our social media behavior and we refuse to silo ourselves and only listen to people on our own side and all of us refuse to interact under any circumstances with someone dehumanizing themselves by being anonymous. the narrow science and the social science. you will be a happier person if you do that and that's one of the things we all want. host: oakland, new york. caller: i love the idea the

author presents but i think it's a fallacious in actual crack this. that what people are looking for privileges and benefits. they are calculating how does whatever social political economic system actually benefit and what privileges do i derive from that to the average white person throughout the history of this country is not racist. but they benefit from a racist system so am i going to give up those privileges and benefits? the average rich person is not a monster but they benefit from a tax cut am i going to sit there and say i don't need more money, i'm already a billionaire? am i going to give up those privileges and benefits? the average man, i benefit from a sexist system. am i going to give up the benefits that i derive as a man whenever i start talking, people

listen? host: ok. we will let our guest respond. becausereciate that people do act according to their own benefits and people are selfish. what i present in the book is evidence that people are inmarily motivated by love their lives and for each other which can include love for people they don't know. problem is that we have a system in which we treat each other with so much contempt that we don't actually find opportunities. we have isolated ourselves ideologically and we don't see opportunities to show love for people on the other side. the --re public upon public policy benefits that we accrue to ourselves. when i'm looking at data as a social scientist when people have the opportunity to set up

public laws and sees that benefit others at the margins of society they see themselves and they are willing to do that to one of the great things about his country that makes us different from any other country that i've seen is that we will fight for the people at the periphery of society if we have real ways to do it with respect to dignity and opportunity. one of the things everyone agrees with me on is what we should radically equal in human dignity and fight for limitless human potential. if we have crony capitalism, systems and wish it's just my benefits versus your benefits, me against you, populism that says somebody's got your stuff and i'm going to get it by fighting those people and we are lock down our to corners and get the system that you're talking about. let's work together so we can

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