discusses whether the american dream is still attainable and at 8:45 a.m. fred: -- breadth: on view phot and campaign2012 -- on the youth vote andcampaign 2020. ♪ host: good morning. it is thursday, july 4, independence day in america. the national mall is set to play host to events from the lincoln memorial to the capital. this morning, we are with you for three hours on the "washington journal." we begin on the topic of pride in america. gallup released a survey saying pride dropped to the lowest point in decades. the first hour, we are getting your reaction to those findings on phone lines for democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001.

independents, 202-748-8002. you can also catch up with us on social media. on twitter it is @cspanwj. on facebook it is facebook.com/cspan. good thursday morning to you, you can call in now. gallup has been asking this question since 1971. -- either extremely proud or very proud to be americans marks the lowest response rate. here is how it broke down. those who said they were extremely proud of, 45% of respondents. this is the second consecutive year that finding is below the 50% level. 25% saying they are very proud, .8% saying moderately proud 3% saying they are not at all proud. here is how the chart breaks

down historically from the gallup released earlier this week. the top line, those who said they were extremely or very proud, the numbers have declined. the same for those saying they are extremely proud. the highest readings for extremely proud, 69% and 70% -- 2002 and 2003 2004 after the 9/11 attacks. fewer than -- expressed extreme pride in being american. the breakdown split by both partisan lines and age lines. here it is on the partisan side, republicans in the june response, 76% saying they are extremely proud to be an american. 41% of independents answering that way. when it comes to the generational gap, 18 to

answered they18% were extremely proud. toreased again for 50 64-year-olds to 57%. saying last month they are extremely proud to be americans. we are asking for your response, your reaction to those numbers. phone lines this morning, democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. as you are calling in, president trump spoke about pride in america when he attended the air force academy graduation ceremonies act at the end of may. here is a bit of what the president had to say. [video clip] >> each of you is graduating at a truly incredible time for our country. our country is doing well. our country is respected again. [applause]

we are respected again and we ,re reawakening american pride american confidence, and american greatness. you know that. these gentlemen know it, i will tell you right now. thank you very much. they give very much, that is really nice. we are restoring the fundamental principle our first obligation and highest loyalty is to the american citizen. no longer will we sacrifice america's interest to any foreign power. we don't do that anymore. host: that was president trump at the air force academy. we want to hear your reaction to this gallup survey on american pride, hitting a new low in their response rate. the number -- a number of

american saying they are extremely proud to be americans, less than 50%. the second consecutive year it happened. jane out of tennessee, a democrat. your reaction to those findings. caller: yes. . am not very proud at all wannabea dictator, a king and i am not very proud at all today. host: when is the last time you were proud to be an american? least 18t has been at years. host: why 18 years? caller: i said 8 or 10 years. host: why 8 or 10 years? caller: there has been so much corruption and discourse that i just haven't felt very proud. host: north carolina, rob is an

independent. happy: good morning and fourth of july. it looks like you all will have a clear day for celebrations. my opinion on why american pride has gone down, it kind of reflects something the other gentleman said. in the last 4 to 8 to 10 years the way politicians actually try to win elections is they divide us amongst our differences in religion, race, sexual preference, income level. it is more of an identity politics that they are forcing different sectors of our society different by those four or 5 thinks i mentioned so they can divide us and manipulate us for our vote. i think this is also caused

because we have a permanent political class in washington that is career politicians seem to get in there and they are wealthy, they have to be to run for politics. when a get out -- when they get out, they are multimillionaires and it would be better if they took the major problems they want to deal with. democrats, republicans, and one or two independents in the house and senate, they do not work on the problems that need to be solved because they make more money from lobbyists and donors if they stay divided and kick the can down the road. i think the american public is not stupid and they see what is happening. completely directly caused us to be less proud of our nation and our government. host: outside of the american political system, are there any other american institutions you take pride in? caller: i think some of our

our o-lineng, like manufacturing that produced planes and electronics is based out of the united states, even people that produce high quality food products and wine and beer and spirits, there has been a renovation and revival in a lot of those and we have microbreweries now. we have organic farmers and i am proud about that. what i am not proud of is it seems like because of the identity politics cards that have been played in the last number of years, i don't know if you can sense it, but when you get out in public, maybe not so much in washington, but out here in the hinterlands, all of us walking around looking suspicious and slightly angry at one another and this is very bad for our political discourse.

we cannot disagree anymore and have civil conversations. we side up in things like charlottesville and portland. some of our younger people lose hope that they want to commit suicide and take a bunch of people with them, that is very depressing. host: rob talking about some of the other institutions outside the political system he takes pride in. the gallup survey questioned responders to the survey about 8 u.s.fic aspects of government and society asking if they were proud or extremely proud of those institutions. if you zoom in on this chart, strong majorities expressing pride in 6 of the 8 areas. american scientific achievements, 91% saying that makes them proud. u.s. military -- american

culture and arts, economic achievement, 75%. sporting achievements, 73% and diversity in race and ethnic background and religion, 72% saying that aspect of america makes them proud. 37% saying the american health and welfare system makes them proud and 32% saying the american political system makes them proud. 68% saying it does not. a republican out of new york, good morning. caller: good morning. i have a few points and please don't cut me off, first of all. i am extremely proud to be an american. being spit onr is and called a baby killer and those were not republicans, those were democrats. those same democrats with liberal arts degrees and

teaching certificates are the ones that have brainwashed younger generations with this social justice nonsense. it is no big surprise to me the younger people are not part of this country because they have been brainwashed. as far as colin cap nick goes -- ick, he had a privileged life. i cannot believe this guy. goes for nike canceling those sneakers, i will producty another nike in my life. i am extremely proud of the political system because we finally had somebody that came to the gunfight with a gun and he -- his name is donald trump. he did not take the crap from the left. he put the courts back where they should be, not like sotomayor who thinks her decision should be based on her

life experiences instead of the constitution of the united states. host: that is matt out of new york. you mentioned colin cabinet, he .s the topic of a recent column colin cap and if, -- colin kaepernick, megan trump, what can they teach us about the state of american patriotism? being american and patriotic means confronting problems that, to her, bring american -- america to shame. an exhibit of military tanks, u.s. navy blue angels and other aircraft and trump's presence. trump believes real patriots should celebrate america's success rather than focusing on her shortcomings or problems because they figure patriotism

is about unbending respect. .erhaps that should be expected patriotism, after all, is a somewhat ambiguous term. to make it better, even during the fourth of july, that is left up to interpretation. speaking of the president's event today on the national mall, we will talk more about it . you can watch it on c-span. our coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. you can listen to it on the three c-span radio app. taking your calls as we talk about pride in america, that finding from gallup that american pride has hit a new low. bill out of pennsylvania is next. good morning. caller: hello. host: hi, bill. caller: i am proud to be an american. land of the free, home of the

brave. i am ashamed to have a president like trump. i am very upset about what he is doing to our fourth of july today with his militaristic political and narcissistic display. i will be traveling from hissylvania to protest corruption of the fourth of july, but i am proud to be an american. host: is this part of a coordinated event you are doing and where do you plan to protest? caller: i know there are going to be protests. i am traveling by myself. i feel so strongly about this. i am going to wear a t-shirt with a message because i don't think we are allowed to carry signs anymore. host: what is the message, bill? tanks forreworks not the fourth of july. on the back it is going to say "we don't need to mimic north

korea." host: have you ever participated in a political protest before? caller: yes, i have, quite a few. the march against violence. the vietnam war demonstrations in 1970, 1971. by the way, it wasn't the soldiers who were wrong, it was the leaders. host: why do you think it is important to participate in these protests? caller: because you have to speak up. i think president trump is making our country into something it has never been in so many ways and you have to speak up. host: one of our earlier callers said the weather seems to look good, but forecasts for this afternoon among possible thunderstorms and a weather alert day in washington, d.c.

we will see if and how that impacts tonight's events. coverage gets underway at 6:00 p.m. west virginia, independent. caller: good morning, john. happy fourth of july to all america and i am a very proud west and and proud american and i will say this, those polls with those graphs you are showing with all the percentages of the people of where they stand in this country of being proud or not, i know a lot of people and i have a lot of friends. none of us are ever included in any of these polls. know when i have ever talked to has been included in these polls . clearly they are skewed, so i don't put a lot of thought into those. host: what are your thoughts about american pride? caller: american pride? country cann any you stand up and say what we say

to the people we elect into office? where else can you say the things we say about our president? also, where do you have the freedom and go out and protest any and all things you don't agree with. it doesn't matter what it is, you cannot do a lot of the stuff we do here in this country. the pride we have, our military, they are strong. what trump is doing today, he is celebrating our military. for people who want to say he is changing into north korea, he is not. he is proud of our military, too, and trying to show it. host: this poll we are talking about conducted june 3 through 15th by the gallup organization. adults replying to that pole they happen -- poll

they have been conducting since back on 2001 and their findings this year, american pride hitting a new low. cornelius is next out of louisiana. republican, good morning. caller: good morning, john, and happy fourth of july to everyone out there. i want to salute c-span for showing all this stuff. you are showing what the real truth is about america. democrats and republicans and independents making this country great. i was a military police officer, so i served the country for 15 1994 in the979 to louisiana army national guard. a lot of times the military had not been treated right, like that vietnam vet who called in earlier and the guy from pennsylvania can go protest and stuff, that is why we have the freedoms we have.

without the military fighting for freedom, we would not have a fourth of july. iam a trump supporter and happen to be an african-american trump supporter. i was a democrat a few years back, but i left the democratic party because they have turned against the country, to me. a lot of democrats voting for trump. don't think democrats did not vote for trump. we need to honor our military because that is what made this country free, the military. thank you, john, god bless c-span, look forward to the fourth of july and fireworks and stuff. host: you mentioned showing a lot of stuff on c-span. one of the things we have been showing is the ongoing road to the white house and last night, kamala harris was in iowa at an event talking about this issue of america and american pride. here is a bit of what she had to say. [video clip]

>> tomorrow we will celebrate our nation's independence. we will reflect on the fact that we are a nation who derives its greatest strength from the fact by our our very nature, very nature, we are aspirational . we are a nation that was founded on noble ideals, the ideals that were present when we wrote the constitution of the united states and all of its amendments and the bill of rights and the declaration of independence and those words we spoke in 1776 that we are all equal and should be treated that way. we are aspirational's. -- aspirational. we are also clear eyed. we have not reached those ideals, but the strength of who we are is we fight to get there and so, fight we will and fight

we must and let's be clear, this is a fight that is born out of optimism. this is a fight that is born out of seeing and knowing what can be and believing in that, unburdened by what has been. this is a fight that is born not only of knowing we must fight for the soul of our country, but a fight born out of love of country and this is a fight, therefore, for our america and the america we believe in. host: senator kamala harris in des moines, iowa, yesterday. our coverage of the road to the white house 2020 continues today. joe biden and jill biden will be in marshalltown, iowa, for the fourth of july coverage of that getting at 2:30 p.m. on c-span and you can listen to it on the free radio app. back to your phone calls on this

gallup poll on american pride. out of greenville, north carolina, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning, john. thank you for taking my call. as long as mitch mcconnell is the majority leader in the senate and donald is our president, i will be embarrassed and ashamed to be an american. host: when were you last proud to be an american? caller: when obama was president. corruptionhave any in his administration, he demonstrated that he was a loving husband and father. i felt safe. i am 82 years old. host: is pride in america based solely on who occupies the white

house for you? caller: yes, absolutely. i have never seen anything like this in my lifetime. i know politicians have their ups and downs and some are good and some are bad, but i have never seen anything as disturbing as donald trump. int: this is dante california, independent. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. how are you? host: doing well. caller: i am just a college student and i feel growing up i was taught so many things. i was taught in terms of like the discovery of america, christopher columbus. i was taught that america did things for the good of the world for liberty, justice, whatever. when i look on the news and i

see and hear how much violence we have done in the name of our country and in the name of our values, it saddens me and i think that has caused many people in my generation to be against military or possibly against forms of violence or traditional american values. host: have you ever had a conversation with an older american about how you feel, this generational divide has developed? caller: of course. i have elderly grandparents and great-grandparents and when discussing politics, we have definitely compared in terms of -- diversity, for instance. my generation, we grew up with a much larger population with distinct values to where we had to learn differently. our education is different.

our society is different and i think because our society is completely different, the way we are going about doing things in terms of our political system is not going to work for people my age and people who grew up in that climate, so change has to take place. host: the gallup survey talked about the 8 different aspects of u.s. government and society they polled people on and whether they make them proud, how do you feel about american economic achievements? does that make you proud or no? caller: i would be proud of the economic achievement if i knew and if i was proud of the individuals that receive it. unfortunately, 3 individuals hold roughly 50% or more of all the economic wealth in the u.s.. while we are doing well as a only doing well for a very select group of

people. you have to take it with a grain of salt. host: does that apply for the american health and welfare system? take pride in it. caller: no, i don't. not at all. debatingthat we are about universal health care and we cannot even have a conversation with individuals about what is good for everyone, what is best in terms of society is upsetting because democrats don't want to listen, republicans don't want to listen and unfortunately that has become the norm to where so many people do not want to be engaged in politics at all. it is not worth it. i think, as some previous colors focus oned, we need to uniting, not necessarily caring about political parties and party lines, but instead

focusing on what is best for the nation and how the united states can be a global leader. host: thanks for the call. more of your phone calls in just a second. a few of our viewers this morning have brought up president trump's salute to america and want to focus on that for a second. joined now by white house reporter for the hill newspaper brett samuels this morning. good morning to you. president trump yesterday on twitter promised the show of a lifetime when it comes to his salute to america. can you explain the sequence of events and what to expect tonight when that event gets underway at 6:00? .uest: good morning, john basically the president has been promoting this over the last week or so. what to expect, it starts around 6:00 or 6:30. the president is supposed to give a speech, there is supposed

to be fly over and other military demonstrations and about an hour after this event, there will be an extended fly show that will last upwards of half an hour. this will sort of the the tail end of events today on the national mall. host: we know the president is going to speak, what do we know about other dignitaries, attendees, and vips we are hearing there is a specific section four? guest: the white house has not disclosed whether there will be additional speakers in addition to the president, but as far as those who will be joining him near the lincoln memorial, we --w there will be a vip area cabinet members, friends and family of white house officials and we also know the republican national committee and the trump campaign have been given an allotment of tickets to give out for that vip area.

we don't know exactly who they will give those two, whether it will be donors or lobbyists. i have heard of a couple lobbyists who got tickets and there will be troops and military officials in that area as well. it is certainly falling under criticism that this event that is supposed to be open to the public will have far more limited access for the better seats on the mall. from what are you hearing white house officials about expectation for crowd size? we know there is the possibility of thunderstorms tonight in washington, d.c.. here is a story from politico saying trump officials are anxious about this july 4 fest. guest: that is certainly something we know the president cares a great deal about. his administration started with this fight to assert his inauguration crowd side -- crowd size was the biggest ever when that was not the case.

the president talks about crowd size at his rallies a lot. that will be something they are paying attention to at the white house and particularly for the president. the weather may keep some people -- d.c. it is possible is a pretty heavily democratic area. it is possible some locals decide this year it is not worth it. we will see whether the crowd lives up to expectations for the president. said hee of our callers is traveling from pennsylvania to come down and protest the event. what do you know about areas that have been set aside for protesters? how close are they going to be able to get to the lincoln memorial and expectations for how big those protests will be? upst: we know about midway the reflecting pool toward the lincoln memorial, that area will be blocked off and that is sort

of the ticketed access only area. they will not to get -- not be able to get too close to where the president is speaking tonight. from what i understand, there are protests that are supposed to take place near the washington monument. depending on the size, certainly large enough to be noticed and seen and that will be something to watch, the number of protesters and the number of trump supporters that show up and that has been a concern for a lot of officials, basically that this will become either a rally or political event with protesters on one side and supporters on the other when that has not been the case traditionally. 1 host: what do we know it -- host: what do we know about the final price tag? guest: the pentagon and the apartment of interior have been tightlipped about specifics. the department of interior acknowledged anytime the president is involved in an event, we have to add security costs. the washington post reported the

parks service has had to divert $2.5 million from its fund of fees that are supposed to go toward restoring parks nationwide. i imagine the price tag is significantly higher than that, you have to pay for all the military equipment, to fuel it up, transport it. you are paying overtime for park police. i am sure that price tag will come out soon. you are looking at several million dollars for this event. host: brett samuels, white house reporter for the hill newspaper. thank you for your time and we will chat again soon. guest: thanks, john for a happy fourth. host: the president tweeting out the price tag will be worth the event, that it will not be large and his twitter account has been fairly active on a separate topic, that is the topic of adding a citizenship question two the u.s. census.

here is the story from the washington times. president trump's twitter account upended the census with government lawyers scrambling to figure out how to reverse themselves and add a citizenship question back onto the count a day after they told courts that would not happen. huntis the quote from jodi speaking to a federal judge in maryland after the transcript was released of the conversation the judges had. we have been instructed to examine whether there is a path forward consistent with the supreme court decision that would allow us to include the citizenship question on the census saying it is a fluid situation at present. the story noting the judge in that case gave the department until friday to make up its mind saying it would either need to promise no citizenship question will appear on the 2020 census or explain what the next steps

are as the administration tries this last ditch effort to get it added onto the census. we will continue to follow that story as it develops perhaps at the end of the week. one more story to note, congressman justin amash no longer a republican. here is his column in the washington post on why he is leaving the republican party. the former michigan republican saying at the end of his column published by the washington post today, we owe it to future and rations to stand up to our constitutional republic so americans may continue to live free. he has called for impeachment proceedings to begin against president trump saying preserving liberty means telling the republican party and the democratic party we will no longer let them play their partisan game at our expense. i am declaring my independents and leaving the -- my independents and leaving the republican party.

i am asking you to join me in rejecting the partisan loyalties and rhetoric that divide and dehumanize us to read we can do better than this two-party system. if we continue to take america for granted, we will lose it. calls talkinghone about that gallup survey out earlier this week finding that american pride has hit a new low. frank has been waiting in delaware. a republican. what do you think about that survey? caller: i think it is ridiculous. i think this is the greatest country on earth without a doubt . we have the greatest president ever and these people that keep fighting him and fighting him, they are a bunch of socialists and communists. they want to change our country the way it was. if you are a white person, you

are an endangered species. these democrats, all they want is to change this country, build their base up. being a 13-year-old boy back in the kennedy days and my father told me, this guy could get you killed. he is trying to get you into a war he had no business being in and my father was right because as soon as i turned 18 years old, in vietnam i was in the jungle and i promised myself i would never, ever vote for another democrat and i have not. i have stayed loyal to that and people out of there, you better watch these democrats because they are trying to change the country. host: you say earlier if you are white you are an endangered species and you lame democrats for that. aren't there a lot of democrats who are white as well? caller: yeah, but i am going to tell you, they are paid for.

they are bought people. they are trying to change the way america is. you have to be an idiot not to understand what is going on here. host: what do you mean they are paid for? caller: by people with a lot of money like the communist's and socialists and everything. host: that is frank in delaware. tennessee,xt out of a democrat. go ahead. if they can go sometisan on situations, situations, we will be fine, or whatever. i am proud to say 30, 40 years later, i am able to quote the --laration of independence not the declaration of independence, the preamble.

we the people of the united states in order to form a more perfect union and establish justice and ensure the mystic tranquility -- secure the blessings of ourselves and our prosperity. people, certain people in -- i cannot do nothing about it and saying hopefully the supreme court can put something in there that can stop people from being discriminated against. better than speak some people on some topics. they stop me from talking. host: you mentioned the supreme court. symptom -- just a system something you take pride in an america? caller: i take pride in america

because -- love everyone that came across me. i just want to say they have control of this conversation right now. there is someone secret in the government saying it is no secret anymore. i just want to say whoever wronged me with a device. they had a device over there. to tyson.ill move on good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for c-span. happy independence day to everyone. i would like to say i am quite the gallup poll saying america has a low self-esteem for his country. if you go to the emergency room and you don't have health care or insurance, you are covered, you get taken care of.

you can walk the streets, hold up a picket sign. independence and freedom is what people take advantage of in this country and i believe other countries are envious, truly envious of our freedom and independents. for the gallup poll to come out with something like that is quite astonishing. i am very grateful to be in this country. i am very grateful for my freedom. i am grateful for the potholes policee fixed and the and the military, everything granted to us by the constitution and being in this country. people in this country that work very hard, study hard to become american citizens and for american citizens to have a low self-esteem and take

advantage and have some sort of self entitlement for those freedoms is astonishing. floridam is next out of . republican. good morning. caller: good morning. pridek a lot of the low in the united states is probably based on race relations and what is being depicted in the press and it is really sad because i think united states is going through an acquisition not unlike what the religious people did to scientists when they tried to speak out about truth and they were executed because only the thought police at the time -- you sayt me ask you, you think it is based a lot on religion and the racial divisions as well. the gallup poll found 72% of

respondents thought diversity and race and ethnic background and religion was something that people take pride in. it does not. caller: absolutely, and i agree with that. let me throw out a few things that can make americans feel better about living together with regard to race. colonists that enslaved people from africa, they were slaves before they arrived on our shores. the united states did not have the power to abolish slavery until we became a nation. slavery had been in the united states some 150 years before we even became a nation and we were able to abolish it. what happened after the revolution?

states abolished slavery before the constitution was even passed. another thing is pennsylvania, which i believe is betsy ross's home state is one of the 5 states they immediately abolished slavery without any legislation whatsoever. the united states immediately started to abolish slavery. the import of slaves was stopped not in 1865, it was stopped in 18 -- 1808. flintthis is david out of michigan, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. and i can agree

l in the sense that a country this great has elected somebody that is so prejudiced. i think that is what is making a lot of people realize that our country -- for that many people to follow him and believe madething he says, -- that that dismayed a lot of people. i enjoy traveling through our country. to travel in our country. i enjoy going to all the different states. andink our country is great i am happy for the press because i realized something in these last two years. if it wasn't for the press, do trump could have completely took over this country and turned it into like

north korea. if it wasn't for a strong press to keep us balanced, i don't know what would happen in the united states. i am grateful for that and i love our country. host: this gallup poll getting a lot of attention. one other publication that got a lot of attention was this issue of american pride and american greatness. they released an opinion video that america really isn't that great. here is a bit of that video that has got a lot of attention. [video clip] >> of course there is no single way to measure greatness, but one good test is how we rank in the oecd, which is a golf club of countries. unlike most golf clubs, this one

has diversity. america is the richest country club, but we are also the poorest with an 18% poverty rate. speaking of kids, speaking of the level of high school science, we are -- math, abysmal and 30th. we spent more in health care than any other country in the golf club, especially out of our private pockets. lives, sit or -- sicker we are fatter and we are more die, but see newborns we have freedom in america and everyone is jealous or something. >> the enemies of freedom.

>> pursuing the enemies of freedom. >> it turns out a lot of country have freedoms. while we boast about them, using our rights is a different story to read only 56% of americans turn up to vote. year, -- dropped to a functional to a flawed democracy. what are we actually number one in? civilian gun ownership, mass shootings, tv watching, prescription drug abuse, prison oh, and almost number one on environmental damage edged out by china. oft: that video on the myth america as the greatest nation on earth. it has gotten a lot of reaction including from on capitol hill.

senator rick scott saying it is not worth engaging twitter trolls like the new york times opinion section. he asks his followers to retweet if they agree america is the greatest country in the world and asking them to reply with why they believe it. some other responses as well this week. we will show you more of those as we continue to get your opinions on this gallup poll on american pride hitting a new low. the other response from the conservative heritage foundation, this was their response to that new york times video. capitalism has done more to lift people out of poverty than any other system in history. free markets have cut the global poverty rate by two thirds, just more of the responses from that new york times video. you continue to call in in this first hour of the washington journal. of oregon, you are up next. caller: yes, good morning.

vietnam combat veteran and i was proud to serve my time and i a long was very proud of my service even though it was an unpopular .ar, it seemed just at the time -- the obama administration for 8 years, it i havesioned me and always voted democrat up until i was watching his speeches. -- i think he is doing a

great job and doing a service for this country and i think he is unappreciated by whatever generation they call this -- i don't know what these generations are, i am confused. i know i am a baby boomer. host: generations is something we will be talking about in our 9:00 our. you said you were disillusioned by the obama administration, were you still proud to be an american? caller: i was ashamed. i was ashamed for him bowing down to world leaders and he did videos of check the feet.kissing a dictator's he did not do that, but he

basically did. .e dishonored america i am glad he is out of office -- i hope trump can win and for 2020. host: the gallup poll finding when barack obama was in office, republicans extreme pride in america continue to be particularly high, it never fell barack obama was in office. today it is 76% of republicans say they are extremely proud to be american and that compares to 22% of democrats. frank is next out of florida. republican, good morning. happy: good morning and fourth of july to everyone. i am very proud of our nation. the noble goals expressed in our founding documents are so

inspirational and we have been moving in that direction. we have made a lot of progress, especially in recent years. we are not a perfect country, but i think we are the best. what scares me now is all this talk about socialism from the democratic party. as margaret thatcher said once, socialism works as long as the wealthy have money, until they run out of money. i am really scared about what has happened in recent years, especially things like abortion and gay marriage and going in that direction. to me, that is not what our country is all about. we have a way to go, but let's get there together. host: shirley is next out of ohio. i democrat, good morning. caller: i am a democrat, afro-american, and proud to be

an american. i tried to disillusioned myself and talking to myself that since trump has been in office that i am not as patriotic as i used to be. i set myself down one day and gave myself a good talking to and i am still proud and i run,ve after trump's people like elizabeth warren, i am so proud of her, representative clybourn, lewis, nancy pelosi, i know -- says we bel prevail and america will a great country. trump did not make america great, it never stopped being great. other nations are envious of us, but in the end when it is all said and done, we will be a great nation and everything that has been in disarray will all be put back in place. the constitution will prevail and i am proud to be an american this morning and thank you for

your program. host: when you had that conversation, when did you do that? had gottenjust -- i into such a state i would wake up in the morning afraid that we were being bombed by north korea. you can put yourself in situations where it will affect your mental health and physical health and i came to my senses like 10 months ago. america.s going to be after all, people need to realize after all the hatred being talked, there are people that have level heads and they are going to prevail. there are more people with common sense then no sense. be 709 years old, i will next month. i know america is going to prevail and it will be a beautiful country forever and

ever. thank you so much for your program. host: about five minutes left in this segment of the washington journal. about five minutes ago, president trump up and with a few tweets this morning showding talking about his of a lifetime, what he called the salute to america taking place tonight at the lincoln memorial. the president tweeting people are coming from far and wide to join us, saying that tonight is turning out to be one of the biggest celebrations in the history of the country, his salute to america and all day event culminating with a most-scale flyover of the modern and advanced aircraft anywhere in the world, perhaps even air force one, aircraft 1 will do a low and loud sprint. 9:00 p.m.,rly and at a great fireworks display.

i will speak on behalf of our great country. at 6:00.t set to begin you can also watch on c-span.org and listen on the free c-span radio app. greg has been waiting, independent. good morning. 202-748-8002 -- caller: you folks give all americans the opportunity to express themselves and today's --ic is another good topic made with president obama kissing the seat of foreign leaders and not looking and being objective enough to look at what is going on with president trump. i don't feel that sense of pride.

i don't feel that sense of pride because the constitution itself with all the english languages and the supposed nobility, we have not lived up to that at all. african by being african-americans and enslaved in this country is the only ethnic group to find themselves still under the iron hand of racism, prejudice, where laws are created to keep the african-american person down. there is nothing fair about this system with african-americans. we always seem to be blamed. all the issues that come up, there is never any fairness. -- there are a lot of great countries in the world, certainly some have had history

of doing things to other people. i think that has to do with race, that is still the issue in tryica that they refuse -- to address and there is a number of other people who don't look like me who try and they are vilified by that particular group built on hatred, rachel -- racial superiority. i think we have a long way to go. host: josh is waiting, republican. good morning. i have a lot of pride in america. what it comes down to is there are people who think betsy ross represents -- the betsy ross flag represent america and there is people who think it is all about slavery. host: where do you stand? caller: i am on the side of america. it is crazy. how could anyone think the betsy ross flag is a symbol of racism

and slavery. it is getting to the point where it almost feels like a bad marriage in this country and i feel that it would be better for a nice, peaceful breakup than a bad divorce. of america,spects what institutions do you take pride in? we lost josh. lewis is a democrat, good morning. veteran. am a vietnam honorable discharge and i don't understand these other veterans. our commander-in-chief is in bed with russia and korea. that is treasonous and how are they so proud of him? our own cia has no confidence. they won't tell him anything because they are afraid he will open his mouth and put our current people in harm's way in

iran. who is this guy to be proud of? he is treasonous. host: that is lewis, our last caller in this first segment. we will turn from a discussion on american pride to the american is still attainable, ty jeffrey of cns news will join us. and the youth vote impact on campaign 2020 with brent cohen of generation progress action. stick around. we will be right back. ♪ >> this holiday weekend on american history tv, saturday at 10:00 p.m. on real america, the 1970 film honor america day, the july 4 celebration at the national mall featured bob hope

and billy graham. >> she has never hidden her problem and false, with our freedom of the press and open communication system, we do not sleep our sins under the rug, if poverty and racial tension exists, if rights occur, the world knows about it. instead of an iron curtain, we have a picture window. >> sunday at 6:00 p.m. on american artifacts, hobbyist portrays a soviet calvary officer and discusses the soviet union in world war ii. , we hadth before d-day occupied 65% of the best german troops fighting us. if we had not done that, if they had not -- if we failed in moscow or stalingrad, all of those troops could well have been on the normandy beaches and it could have been a different outcome. the story that has to be told is

that is a contribution to winning the war. >> watch on american history tv on c-span3. over c-span's three leadership presidential surveys taken between 2000 and 2017, andrew jackson drops from 13th to 18th place and dwight eisenhower arises from ninth to fifth. where does your favorite president rank? about 44t and more chief executives in c-span's "the presidents. " available wherever books are sold. continues. journal" host: cns'terry jeffrey is back for a tradition on july 4, a

discussion on the status of the american dream. how do you define the american dream? , the idea intso the declaration of independence that all men are endowed with their creator with the life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. and also related to that is the pioneering spirit, which is brought -- what brought people to the continent, the pursuit of being able to own your own property and build your own home and take care of themselves. the first president's that we have -- principles we have from god, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the core of what america is all about. host: more opportunity than a specific promise of things? guest: yes. when people came from great britain and other places

originally to massachusetts and virginia, in massachusetts in the 1600s, they had to clear their own land and grow their own food and build their own homes. they built a community and had neighbors. they did not health a handout -- health care and a handout, and same thing in the early 1800s out west, you were on your own and may be a community was built up and you had neighbors. if you look at american communities moving west, when they had enough people they built a school and a church. does the federal government see its role as in terms of helping americans achieve the american dream? guest: you were speaking earlier, the first part in history was slavery, the original sin of the american republic which finally that those principles and put the nation at odds with each other with the north against the south.

warad a horrible civil where fast numbers of people's -- vast number of people were killed. our constitution forbid slavery and guarantees equal protection of the laws, the state must protect those rights for everybody. we have the right to vote and elect our own government. for the first part of our history we were on a trajectory of maximizing freedom. we did not start out with a perfect expression in political life of protecting those freedoms, obviously, we moved toward it. when the federal government became a force that moved against those freedoms. i think it started with fdr and the creation of a much bigger federal state that became much more significant in the lives of people. we went from the kite nearing spirit where people were in --

pioneering spirit where people took care of themselves and maybe help out neighbors and now the federal government who made people dependent on government which i think is an essential stopping of the american people. host: this is vice president mike pence at the freedom coalition gala last saturday in washington, d.c. and he spoke about the economy and the american dream. [video clip] vice president pence: you do not need me to tell you, 5.8 million new jobs since election day 2016 and the unemployment rate is at a 50 year low. [cheers and applause] pence: wages are rising at the fastest pace in a decade. wages are rising at their

fastest pace for working and blue-collar americans, the forgotten men and women of america are forgotten no more. the american dream is working again. for every american. the unemployment rate for women is at a 60 year low, the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for african-americans and hispanic americans. [cheers and applause] i can tellent pence: you in this room, firsthand, confidence is back. jobs are back. in a word, america is back. [cheers and applause] host: the vice president implying that if the economy is working, the american dream is working. guest: an important point he made, talking about

working-class americans having means of supporting themselves and making a living. under president trump, an increase in manufacturing jobs in the united states. a trajectory over the last few decades were manufacturing jobs have been disappearing in this country and american-based corporations have moved manufacturing overseas. after nafta they moved to mexico. apple assembles its iphone in china. is it an american product or chinese product? they assemble in a communist country and not creating jobs for americans. the founding fathers would not be pleased with that. there is a major question in american life in the recent decades about the declining income, particularly of people who do not attend college, high school graduates who used to have an opportunity in america to make a decent living and buy a home come and live the life.

it has become harder and harder. data put out by the senses , people whome data graduated from college are making less now than 20 years ago. economy, andr bringing manufacturing back to the country where we can create jobs that pay a decent wage to someone who did not go to college is an important thing. host: the american dream and whether it is still attainable is our topic for this segment of "washington journal" on july 4. terry jeffrey is with us, cns editor at chief and a syndicated columnist. we appreciate your time and calls. democrats call 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. lonnie from north carolina, a

democrat. good morning. caller: i have a comment and a question. i remember the i have a dream speech that one day my children will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. with that statement reverend dr. martin luther king quoted, see, i am not prejudice, quite america -- white america is doing their best, gerrymandering, to keep the quite republican in office -- whit republican in officee. how can a person of color make it as a prosperous person when you have people trying their best to keep the black man or person of color down? it is hard to get a business. an immigrant that is say

-- this country will give them loans to start a business. all down one block you can see them have businesses. where would that dream come in for the african-american where they can start a business inside their community? quotingou started martin luther king and he in his letter from the birmingham jail, one of the greatest documents of the 20 century and he was a great american hero, he reiterated the principle of the founding. rights and god given the state must recognize and protect those rights, that is where the legitimacy of government comes from.

if the government violates rights in that way, that needs to be repressed. america is the land of opportunity and we want our freedom so you can take your own initiative and happy pioneering spirit -- have be pioneering spirit. -- have the timing spirit. -- highly nearing spirit. -- pioneering spirit. racism needs to be addressed and people who immigrate here have the opportunity to do great things waste on their own initiative and hard work. host: those who argue for reparations say the historic discrimination has not allowed for current opportunity to be equal among americans. brenda lawrence was on this program and spoke about reparations and the role they could play in this country in evening the opportunity.

[video clip] guest: we have found that, in america, the thing that most america think of the american dream as american wealth, we were denied it in slavery and in jim crow by not being able to own property and get certain jobs. we were denied education. the american dream is to get educated so you can achieve whatever you want. we were denied education. during jim crow, it was segregated and we were denied educational opportunities of others. today, disproportionally, in our has 3% or 4% african-american population of 40% of their prison population. the largest demographic percentages is african-american

in health crisis. when you look at educational heardes, some people -- i , why are you talking about this? everybody is not alive anymore. but look at america. we had a black president elected. but the overall percentages, something wrong in america. the first thing we need to do is to start the process of talking about this. assemble a commission. we did to acknowledge something wrong and not just walk away from it and i support beginning the process. guest: she is right that slavery evilsgregation are great and we did not stop segregation until the 1960's with the civil rights act. there is a question of culpability, can you punish somebody for someone else's crime or sin? you have people whose ancestors

joined the union army and fought against the confederacy because they wanted to stop slavery and supported the emancipation ofclamation and eradication the 13th amendment and some gave their lives, should their descendents be taxed to pay reparations for someone else for slavery that ended a century ago ivy sacrifice of their ancestors? i do not think so. i think we need a society that is free and where people are rewarded because we are a free society for their initiative. i would say to the congresswoman, she should support complete and absolute total free choice. i think every family in america, the local government should give the parents a voucher equal to the amount of tax dollars educating people and let the parents this site where -- let the parents decide where the child goes to school, let them

go to private schools where they are taught excellent academics but also values that will help them succeed in life. school choice would help people. host: kathleen, los angeles, republican. caller: good morning and happy fourth of july. this comment -- this idea as to whether or not -- i am a black american, not an african-american or a person of color. black americans are angry because they feel like they have not gotten the american dream. they will be facing zero median wealth by the year 2053. the issue is black americans have been relegated to a permanent underclass, not because of particularly slavery, but because of all the policies that have come after. i think the media, the policies like black code, sunset laws, you legal aliens, high

immigration, we are relegated to a permanent underclass in los angeles because 40% of the homeless in los angeles, nonlegal aliens keep wages flat. black americans need to conserve their families and businesses and conserve their money. the liberal ideology has destroyed block america over the last -- black america over the last six decades. guest: interesting point about aliens. politicians do not want to secure our borders. they want the illegal immigration flowing. who do the liberal politicians in washington have a shared interest with in moving those illegal aliens into the united states and stay here and violation of our law? the people who employ illegal aliens. the people who support common in

practical terms, support allowing illegal immigrants to stay here, they are saying that we will drive down the wages of working americans by making them compete with someone who every single day breaks the law in the united states. we will help that lawbreaker and work in partnership with corporations that hire them so they do not have to pay the wage the market would force them to pay to someone legally in the united states. that is the point about illegal gets thatn that lady the people in the tablet do not pay attention to. host: talking about the colonists experience. how important is the immigrant experience in this country to the american dream? is it ethical to what we view -- host: john -- guest: john adams had a great dissertation where

he talked about the high nearing spirit -- heidi nearing spirit -- pioneering spirit which was the spirit of the americas. why we are prosperous and free with self-sufficient people. we want immigrants who have that spirit and want to come here because they want to take the opportunity to enjoy freedom and to take care of themselves and to do so within the context of law. when you talk about a system where we reward people who habitually break the law, it discriminates against law-abiding people. take egypt, they want to immigrate and one person would never highly the law of the united states because they respect the nation and wants to enjoy freedom as a law-abiding person but the other person does not care about our law and a flight to mexico and go across the border and live here not legally. which person should u.s.

immigration law favor? a person who wants to come here legally and live here as a legal citizen? or the person violating the law every day? we need to favor the law-abiding person who wants to come here as a legal immigrant. host: charleston, south carolina, democrat. caller: thank you. so many different subjects that were brought up. i do want to say that, as far as immigration goes, there are a lot of people tried to come here to the united states. what is needed is understanding why they are coming. the reason they're coming is because of the trade agreements of wealthy countries causing chaos in their countries, that is why they have to flee to safety. what could turn the tide of illegal immigration is to change

treaty policies we have with some of those third world countries, most of which are in south america. about reparations, it is a complex subject but i would say why not make colleges free? doing it andes are they are less wealthy than the united states. why are we doing it? host: what part do you want to pick up on? guest: i have been putting my kids through college and i wish it was free. i think you have to pay for what you get and paying for a good education as part of it. host: jack, georgia, independent. caller: good morning. happy deep in this day -- dependence day, i say that because we have a party, your guest brought this up, we do not encourage the immigration he

says we need. i agree with part of that. we have an entire party, if you watched the debate, come to the and ithow up not legally is free, free, free and we will give you the right to vote. if that is the dream, it is a nightmare. the other callers talked about it, it hurts the native community, the black community. asked you earlier about the importance of the immigrant experience or the american dream but what about the refugee experience? guest: i think there is a distinction between a refugee and somebody seeking asylum in the united states than someone coming here illegally for a job or to smuggle drugs across the border. has a well-founded fear of persecution in their home country and they can get to the united states, our laws says we give them asylum.

i think that is a good thing. i think other developed countries with free systems should do the same thing. the entire burden of accepting refugees from around the world should not rest on the united states. and ak it is a good thing distinction between someone leaving isis persecution of christians in syria and someone who illegally sneaks across the u.s.-mexico border because they want to work illegally in the united states. host: what is the best way to youthe system to make sure figure out one from the other? guest: the first thing is will among the politicians, a lot of members of congress who have no illegally stopping immigration or securing the border.

president trump was elected because swing voters thought he was someone who would take action to secure the border and would enforce the immigration laws. it is vital for president trump to do that. that is big or of the mission he was sent to washington to accomplish. host: lewis, republican, new jersey, good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to comment on the previous callers. they are right. the main platform for the democratic party in history's was to keep blacks and other minorities unemployed. you can see that when they vote verify and school choice. ,he only way to break the cycle lower wage minorities start to get work and higher wages, is to flood the job market with illegals.

landscaping. i will give you an example. when donald trump was elected i worked at a landscape company with four other companies, downtown, in the oldest african-american community in the country. the mayor and everybody was of can american. -- was african-american. not one african-american work to their until donald trump was elected. and he started getting out the illegals. now we have young african american men working there in a community 99.9% african american. host: does your company use e-verify? caller: of course not. absolutely not. four other ones did not either but when trump was elected, a

lot of illegals, great people, but left because they were afraid of losing free benefits. in a community where 99% of african-americans, we have young black men working and are doing great. it is a good thing. guest: you ask a good question about e-verify. i have mentioned this on c-span before, when the employers who hire illegal aliens have to pay so so security taxes on them -- social security taxes on them number,s a name and a the irs gets w-2s where it the name and number does not match, most of the time it is an a false oren using stolen social security number to work at a corporation. they used to send letters to the employer's and saint you filed 2000 and match w-2s but they did

not do that under president obama. the federal government has a map , a detailed data map that shows employers who habitually higher large numbers of you legal aliens and file inaccurate double u twos -- w-2s. the government could go after the corporations for hiring illegal aliens but they do not. that is a classic example of they do not want to enforce immigration law. host: terry jeffrey of cns taking your calls as we talk about the american dream in this segment of the "washington journal." democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. another aspect of the american dream or at least something that gets rolled into the american dream is homeownership. ,n the house floor last month congressman glenn thompson of

pennsylvania was talking about the importance of homeownership and the american dream. [video clip] inhomeownership is essential achieving the american dream and since the great recession homeownership rates have dropped to historic lows. young families often find themselves not able to save for a down payment or gain access to adequate credit, especially for those living in rural areas. the u.s. government of agriculture places emphasis on helping role americans buy homes and the usda provides mortgage loans guarantees through partnerships with private-sector lenders to help low to moderate income rural home buyers. they have helped more than 4.4 million rural president by home since the national housing act was passed 70 years ago. mr. speaker, homeownership has widespread benefits, if fortified communities and creates jobs and strengthens local business to support our towns. i thank usta forest commitment to providing affordable housing for rural americans helping

hard-working americans achieve the dream it provides a strong foundation for more prosperous rural communities. host: terry jeffrey, do you think homeownership is part of the american dream? guest: it is central to it. you do not want to be beholden to someone else, you want to be self-sufficient and own your own home. that was one of the things driving the pioneers west, owning their own land, building their own home, taking care of themselves. it is central to the institution of the family, the family lives in a home. if you own your own home, you are more independent. host: tennessee, dolores, democrat. caller: i would like to ask him about the president's staging a parade when he is cutting food stamps.

money to pay the rent. funds in tennessee have been cut. this country is going down. host: we are talking about the american dream. how do you define the american dream? caller: i am talking about the american dream. elderly black people have worked all their lives and saved money to get their homes. and we find out they pay more for a home in the neighborhood then caucasians do. the american dream is no more. people are on the streets. guest: we do not want people on the streets. some of the people are homeless who are mentally ill and should be taken care of. that is a group of people the government should take care of.

does the government spend too much money? in my view they spend too much money on almost everything. rollback federal spending from my point of view. host: frank in west virginia come independent. good morning -- virginia, independent. good morning. caller: happy fourth to you, how have you been? guest: good. caller: you brought up laws in the beginning of this. lies, he ist violating laws and the constitution. he has that immigrant workers working at his country club -- he has had immigrant workers working at his country club. it is sad. why doesn't he give the documents congress has requested ? unless you have something to

hide. host: terry jeffrey? guest: if president trump had illegal aliens working at his businesses, that would be uncovered if the federal government released the non-match w-2s. if the documents showed president trump's businesses for doing that but let's see the evidence. host: the biggest threat to the american dream today? guest: one is that people are abandoning the fundamental principle. the founding fathers were different religions. thomas jefferson was a deist, not a christian, he believed in god and believed rights came from god. america is moving away from that fundamental belief in some sectors of our culture. we do not believe there is a god from which we get our rights.

john dickenson road that the rights are from the king of kings. thomas jefferson near the end of his life in response to a letter from henry lee explained that that view was the american mind. cicero, which came from a roman senator before christ, one threat is if we move away from the principal. another threat is the government that wants to put people depended and build the welfare state where more people on food stamps. we saw the democratic debate where they talked about medicare for all. that is socialized medicine. that is a threat to american liberty. host: terry jeffrey with us for 15 or 20 more minutes. com.or-in-chief at cns. what will they find their? information,nd

independent -- opinions from well-informed conservative people. host: the tagline, right news, right now. guest: i am a conservative but also a journalist and i think that, pursue the truth. i have been in this town a long time and have watched that institution for a long time. so many important stories in washington, the government spending money on things that are not constitutional and abusing liberty. you do not have reporters digging into it as most reporters focus on the same stories, the hot stories for the day or week while all these other important stories are not being told. i think they need to be told and the more journalists we have to bring their own set of values to what is important be better. host: john and columbus, ohio, democrats -- john in columbus, ohio, democrat.

caller: happy independence day. host: how are you define the american dream? caller: it is still attainable. i believe so. putnding on how you yourself in position. these are opportunities that we have when we come here as immigrants. , this month i will be 60 years old, i believe the that i could not get from other places, this country has provided those freedoms for me. host: you are an immigrant? caller: yes.

host: when did you come to the united states? caller: 1985. host: where did you come from? caller: liberia. host: what was the process like in 1985? caller: i went to the embassy and apply for a visa and i came here and i worked hard. did -- host: what work do you do? caller: i help people mentally ill and physically ill. that is what i do. i want to say to terry jeffrey, we need to learn to have compassion. he is talking about christ. i am a christian. we need to have compassion. there was aliberia

military government. we were forced to go to bed at 6:00. we were sanctioned. we cannot go to certain places at certain times. ok? we have to have compassion. host: thank you for sharing your experience. guest: a great statement. an example of emigration working , someone coming for the american dream and leaving a country where he was not enjoying full freedom. you talked about the asylum issue. that is why we need asylum. if someone has a fear of persecution, we should be accepting of them. host: charlotte, north carolina, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i want to touch on an issue i have been thinking about quite a

bit as far as african-americans realizing the american dream. i look at it as african-americans vote, kind of like in the sports category of a free agent. you had your democrats and you had your republicans. but as african-americans i feel that the most important thing we should be doing is leveraging our vote. connected to be either party. if democrats are doing is right, one presidential cycle, maybe we will vote democrat. if republicans are doing is right, we will vote republican. most important thing is to leverage the vote. in this cycle, i feel like donald trump is doing more for african-americans. arenow that white people inherently racist against blacks in america because that is how

america was established. i would rather a snake on the sidewalk than a snake in the grass. i feel like a lot of democrats are snakes in the grass who smiled at african-americans and try to act like their liberal ideas and principles are for us. in the end the immigration comes in and they do not care about black people. lock usl create laws to up and put us in jail. i just feel like donald trump in this instance, we have some things in common. guest: interesting observations. from my perspective, i think people should vote their values. they should look for leaders to advance what they believe in in washington. hard to find leaders like that but that is what people should look for. looking for people who will try to extend those principles the

country was founded on. host: exploring the aspects of the american dream and we talked about education in the american dream. how important is going to college when it comes to fully achieving the american dream? guest: financial success, if you look at data, it is obvious that the longer someone stays in school, the more degrees they get, on median, the more income they make an high school graduates make less than college graduates. host: is that an argument for opening up the college system to more people? guest: if they are capable of getting a college education, they should go for it. think everybody in america will get a college education. we do want to have an economy. we used to be better for people who will not go to college and will not be a lawyer or doctor or engineer can make a living

where they can get the home and raise the family and be self-sufficient. i believe one of the reasons donald trump was elected president and one state like pennsylvania and michigan and wisconsin, a lot of times states that republicans do not win, people thought maybe he will stick up or those americans and help us make a better living. it is important that president trump follows through on that. by increasing manufacturing jobs he is doing it but he has a long way to go but he has the right idea. host: independent, baltimore, maryland. good morning. we lost her but we go to john in pennsylvania, democrat. caller: how are you? host: doing well. caller: speaking of illegal aliens, where was the outrage in whenouth by the whites they brought slaves into the picture?

poorould a white man, white man or middle-class white men in the south would fight the civil war for rich white people to have slaves. i cannot understand it. aliensway, the illegal did work for the trump organization on the building projects and hotels and in their resorts. he admitted to that. that is not fake news. host: talk about the american dream. how do you define the american dream? caller: freedom for all and tolerance, that is the big thing. if you can get past what your parents taught you, the hatefulness, maybe we can survive as a great nation. that is my big thing. behave a long way to go to

what you call a civilized nation. guest: i do not think all american parents are teaching their children hatefulness, many parents are teaching their children the right thing. the first and ultimate school is the family and i think that is court of the ability to remain a free country is the ability to maintain the family structure with parents teaching their kids the true understanding of right and wrong from the moment they are born. host: bill in pennsylvania, republican. caller: good morning. i want to tell you something, i agree with you 100% what you are saying. i have been here from 1952 from grace and i am 72 -- greece and i'm 74 years old -- 72 years old. years to wait three get a green card from the american embassy. then we flew 27 hours to new

york and from there we waited five years to become american citizens. democrats bringing all these people in illegally. donald trump is the best president we ever had since ronald reagan. the only way they get votes is the welfare department which is destroying the country, with kids, they get money, how are you going to raise a kid and built a country with a family like that? guest: another man with a great american story, coming from caller and earlier coming trump library and are enjoying our society, great american story. host: illinois, independent, good morning.

if you have aer: guest the body american dream they should be required to tell the american people how he or she attained that themselves. what did they do to make this country greater? your background should be included into what obstacles you had if you will talk about other people struggles. tell us about your struggle. host: let's give terry jeffrey a chance to talk about his background. guest: i was fortunate as both my parents were doctors, my father was a cosmologist and san francisco and -- cap apologist in san francisco -- pat o -- my parents did very well. i was born in san francisco and grew up in marin county. i was very fortunate in my

parents got me and ask on education and did everything they could -- an excellent education and did everything they could. my father grew up in republican city, nebraska and was born in 1922. his father was a methodist minister. he grew up in the dust bowl during the depression. his family had very little money that he made it to being a very successful doctor in san francisco. the always dream to going to california, he achieved his dream. -- he always dreamed of going to california, he achieved his dream. what motivates me in emulating him and the principles he fought for. host: how did you choose journalism? guest: i wanted to be a writer from the time i could read. i wanted to get paid to do it and support my family.

i was interested in politics always. i would notdult, believe i would be in washington, d.c. being a reporter here. it happened by a set of circumstances and i got an internship at the washington times in the 1980's and they hired me full-time. most of the time except for when i worked for pat buchanan, i have been a journalist and i enjoy it and it is a great profession. host: why did you leave to work for had beginning -- pat buchanan? guest: i believe he had the same values i grew up with, i may not agree with him on every issue but on basic core values i shared his vision of things and when i heard he was running for president in the republican primary against george herbert walker bush, i wanted to work for him. ofhought the experience

actively being involved in a presidential campaign, i had read a lot about campaigns and presidents and the opportunity to be a part of it and experience the democratic process that way was a tremendous thing. i enjoyed it very much. host: lots of calls for you. alvin in houston, texas, democrat. caller: good morning. i am an afghan american. -- african-american. most of black american is immature. buttigieg has good ideas but they rejected. they give the money to the preachers, billions of dollars but when somebody comes along because their lifestyle is different, they reject it. they need to grow up. lynn, maryland,

republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for speaking eloquently and rationally about the american dream. i am a public high school teacher who teaches an elective course, business, and the american dream becomes -- against with economics. without an income and money you will not own a home or be able to take a vacation. you will not be able to achieve the things in life that are so wonderful. i believe we need to start with public education. students are forced to take spanish in high school, literature for four years, great things but business should be a required course. entrepreneurship is the way out of poverty. we cannot all work for the government. sometimes people are afraid of hard work. hard work makes you feel great,

when you put in a hard days work running your business, having the freedom, providing jobs for other people, that to me is the american dream but we treat that in our educational system that is something that is optional. most kids today cannot tell you anything about basic economics. it needs to be a required course, all four years of high school. let's talk about changing the education system. host: thanks for the call. guest: i do believe people should learn economics and if the schools could encourage people to be entrepreneurs, it would be a good thing. i strongly believe that schools in the united states should teach people about history and literature and traditions. the more people who understand our history and traditions of literature with a well-rounded education, you can give someone in the first 12 years of school a well-rounded education.

the better we will be as a nation. host: do not do away with liberal arts degrees? guest: i am an english major so i am biased. host: jacksonville, north carolina, independent. caller: i see the american dream in four different colors, green collar, rich people, they usually get away with less tax and no laws. they write their own laws by paying off the lobbyists. you have your white color who make money off of other people -- white-collar who make money off other people and when they do wrong get slapped on the wrist. lou koller, middle-class -- blue-collar comedy while the work, pay all the taxes -- call blue-collar, do all the work, pay all the taxes.

free food and free housing and they cause the most trouble. ones achieving the dreams are the ones who are doing everything wrong, breaking the laws, getting away with things. host: your thoughts on seeing the american dream through that spectrum? guest: i do not believe in dividing people in classes. i talked about the census bureau data, something great about be a high someone can school dropout and start a business and become a multimillionaire. many people who are high school graduates who never go to college start their own businesses and make money and succeed and become independent and raise great families and have great impacts on the committee's. -- communities. to think of americans is

different classes is wrong as we all have the same rights and deserve equal protection of the law and we should not be divided in any sense. host: terry jeffrey, editor in chief at cns.com. .ee his columns there guest: thank you. oft: next, brent cohen generation progress action to talk about the youth vote in campaign 2020. stick around. we will be right back. ♪ >> today on c-span, we are a little former vice president joe biden and jill biden at 2:30 p.m. eastern for their july 4 presidential campaign stop in marshalltown, iowa. live at 6:00 p.m., donald trump at the lincoln memorial for the fourth of july celebration.

at 8:00, former speechwriter for bill clinton, george w. bush, and michelle obama discuss their work and white house stories at the university of chicago institute of politics. watch today on c-span. i am a cold war historian and friends of mine said, why do you want to tackle this issue? marriage and family. you are jumping into the culture war. do you really want to do this? >> author and college professor will be our guest sunday from noon to 2:00 p.m. eastern, his latest book is the divine plan. other titles are take down and the crusaders and books about the spiritual life of ronald reagan, george w. bush, and hillary clinton. join our live conversation with your phone calls and facebook

questions. watch with author live sunday from noon to 2:00 p.m. eastern on booktv. watch it next month with author lee edwards. watch booktv every weekend on c-span2. &a.nday on c-span's q >> 1962, 10 years later richard nixon would win a 49 state landslide. it all came apart. who served as a speechwriter and senior advisor to president is in, -- present nixon, talks about his new book. saying, i him a memo ohink you should get dean t

testify, i did not take the tapes would be that damaging, keep them, the stuff you need you should take and take the rest out and burn it. shutdown the special prosecutor now before this thing grows into a monster. i did not know it at the time in people toled entertain the idea he should burn the tapes and they said it would be obstruction of justice. i did not recommend burning subpoenaed tapes but they were his property and if he simply got rid of them as a fait accompli and said, in peace and be dammed he would have moved through it. nixon saidn said --

if he had burned the tapes, he would have survived and i think he is right. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern &a.c-span's q >> washington journal continues. host: brent cohen joins us with the youth vote in 2020, what is generation progress and what is the consent -- guest: the young adult engagement advocacy arm of the center for american progress. 18-35-year-olds to advance progressive solutions to the problems facing our nation and our generation. host: we will talk about generations, particularly millennials and generation z. guest: millennials are born 1996, we havend thought to have been the

youngest generation but generation z is of voting age. 21-year-old. host: every election cycle there is excitement about the potential for the youth vote. without fail they had the lowest turnout rate compared to other generations. 2018, it was 30% lower than 60 plus-year-olds. do you have expectations that pattern will change in 2020/ guest: absolutely. we had the highest turnout in 25 years in the 2018 midterms. 10% jump from 2014 midterms. nearly 50% increase overall. opportunity,great 69% did not so there

is huge opportunity for inroads and the movement and the advancement is hugely promising. host: how do you get to the rates of 60 plus year old who 2018?t 70% in will you ever get there? guest: systemic challenges to the youth vote well before millennials came to voting age, talking about automatic voter registration, same-day voter registration, things we know matter for young people who are the most transient in their lives. 60 plus people are not going anywhere. they have their house and have been there 30 years and registered to vote and vote at the same place year after year while millennials move. in college, out of high school, moved for a new job, you have to reregister each time even if you just go a few streets down but it is a new voting precinct. host: are any barriers being

lowered by the time we get to 2020? guest: they should be if mitch mcconnell was stop blocking hr hr one would increase access to voting for providing automatic voter registration, same-day registration. if you moved, you can show up and register to vote the same day. combating the influence of big money in politics. he called a power grab. what is happening is the desire to keep the power they have already stolen. guest: hr-1, before the people act. in the segment we talk about the youth vote for the next half hour. phone lines are split up differently this morning. they are split by age. 18 to 35, (202) 748-8000. 36 to 50, (202) 748-8001. if you are over 50, (202) 748-8002.

you can go ahead and start calling now. you talked about the barriers to voting. what are the issues that will be driving the youth vote? guest: generation progress has organized issues around five key areas. climate change is huge for young people. we are the ones that will be dealing with the repercussions of climate change, the inaction, as well as our kids. criminal justice reform. we have suffered through mass incarceration. it is time to end mass incarceration. gun violence prevention. homicides, gun related homicides involve young adults under the age of 30. 15 to 29-year-olds. that is usually disproportionate. immigration. we have seen it with dreamers. we have friends, colleagues, classmates that are dreamers. having those protections rescinded was hugely impactful for us.

crisishe humanitarian created at the border impacts many of us personally, either we know folks or for older -- we see the young children in cages. it's egregious. and student debt. one in three young adults have a student loan. we know the rates around homeownership. student debt is a big reason why people are having trouble getting there. fan of theyou a plans to limit student debt? guest: we need a plan to limit student debt in this country, yes. host: there is the bernie sanders debt, elizabeth warren has a plan for how much the debt would be eliminated contingent on how much you make. guest: we put out report. cancellation is important. there is simplicity.

it needs to be simple for the borrower to receive that. equity. most at risk for other systemic depressions in this country. wage discrimination on the backend. not just a plan but is critical that happens here. editorialtoday's board after bernie sanders put out his plan last month said sanders in elizabeth warren are pandering to young voters with their student loan plan. here is what they said. to say isbvious thing proposals like these are arbitrary and inequitable and make fools of people who saved numer -- atean roomen noodles. guest: it is clear they don't understand with student loan debt is. that's the bottom line. the cost has risen eight times

faster than the cost of wages over the past 40 years. we are in a situation where we have for-profit colleges that are doing predatory lending. you have people who ate roman noodles and lived with five people who still ended up with a student loan and are trying to pay that down only to find out the level of interest has gone up more and when they first took out the student loan. i would encourage the editorial board to look into the issue and better understand it. host: when issue is criminal justice reform. this is something that will bring young people to the polls. act -- the first step what president trump has touted as his achievement on criminal justice reform. guest: there is some good victim of the first step act. sentencingtivity of was a hugely beneficial thing to happen. there are problematic things

like the expansion of electronic monitoring. the way it was written it expanded in ways the criminal theice -- expands criminal justice footprint. we have people under the control of the criminal justice system. what is more problematic is donald trump is not just touting the first step act. look what i did for black people . look what i did for people of color. every other policy has in fact harms the very people he is claiming he is here to help. taking yourcohen phone calls in this segment of washington journal. phone lines are split by age. we will put the phone numbers on the screen as we hear from betty out of virginia beach, virginia. go ahead. caller: good morning and happy fourth of july, although this will be a bad one with that rotten parade that trump is putting on. about the youth vote, the youth

vote -- i'm a progressive but i want to say one thing. i am still for joe biden. people in my age group, a lot of them are still for joe biden. i like a lot of these progressive ideas very much but in my opinion, just my opinion, some of the candidates that are far out on the left might win the nomination but they will not win the general election if they're too far out on the left. i am going to vote for whoever the democrats put out. i like mayor pete. i like kamala harris. i did not like her going after my guy joe but she had her point-and-shoot made her point -- she had her point and she made her point. host: you talked about going after your guy. i wonder what you thought about congressman eric swalwell going after joe biden, echoing john

kennedy and telling him to pass the torch to a new generation. caller: i love him. one of the reasons i love him, he would after joe, not as forcefully, but she had her point. she is fighting to win the election. swalwell because i'm very much for gun control. this is the third community i have lived in that had mass shootings. i'm originally from sandy hook, connecticut. then i lived in charleston, south carolina when that terrible shooting happened in the church. i went to the pastor's funeral. i had people in my building that went to that church. now we had one here in virginia beach. at least he is for gun control. look, half or more of these people that are out there don't have any chance of becoming the

president anymore than i do. they have a right to be up there. they have to have the right to run for president, but a lot of them are taking away time from people that are serious contenders. host: brett cohen? young people are going to be a large percent of the electorate. i think we have a wealth of candidates on the stage. what was impressive about the two nights as we had two days of policy conversation without name calling and throwing lies, a significant -- with the trump administration. whoever is running for president, it's important they are speaking to and connecting with a wide array of people, including young voters. host: when you say 37% of the electorate, you don't expect 37% of those who vote in november of 2020 will be under 35? guest: 37% of millennials and

generation z are eligible voters. how do we motivate and engage in turnout folks? the main way to do that is to speak about the issues that matter most to millennials and generation z and develop real concrete policies that address those issues. : mike, how old are you? caller: i am 35. just finishing up. i wanted to say to your guest, the democratic party has been pandering to black people since the 1940's. to say donald trump is pandering to black people because he does -- sen. blackburn: -- i'm a black man and i think that's ridiculous. let's have a conversation on solutions. not talking about the 20 democrats. now to the issue of student debt.

it is a real issue so maybe you could touch on this point as well. student debt is a real issue. i'm a teacher myself and i'm trying to go through paying back loans which i should not have to do. why are you not talking about the colleges who are raising prices? why are we not talking about colleges who are putting in all these unnecessary courses and classes that students have to take in order to get their degrees. serious in your organization is serious, why not talk about the colleges and not just complain about a loan program that was put in place to get people in debt by saying you can take all the loans you want? guest: absolutely. there were 2.7 raised. -- two point several raised. you need to look at trump's

stances on this holistically. i will leave at the factory continues to call for the execution and guilt of the exonerated five. that underlies what his policies have been on this issue. you look at the appointment of jeff sessions, bill barr. these are men who literally have fought every step of the weight any type of criminal justice reform. they don't think mass incarceration is a problem. in the case of bill barr, he wrote the book for mass incarceration. he literally wrote the memo on what it looks like to use mass incarceration. the need for the drug war and ramp up here, and has not disavowed that in the last 30 years who many people have. not even unintended consequences, but a level of consequences that impacted communities too harshly. it's important to look at the trump record in that context.

one more thing on that point, they tried to roll back justice reform so significantly that they were trying to prevent people going into a diversion program from becoming federal employees. diversion programs are set up by states and localities and courts specifically so people do not end up with a conviction record, so they don't get impacted by the collateral consequences. he wanted people to require to phila if they had been in one. 3500 people spoke out against it. a number of advocates on the right spoke out against it and the white house pulled it back. that is trump's record on. on college affordability you are absolutely right. i strongly believe any debt forgiveness, cancellation, needs to happen hand-in-hand with college affordability plans. college affordability has been part of the policy debate for years now largely because of efficacy led by young people.

more than 80 organizations have come together to say it is a huge issue. we need guardrails around what affordability looks like in four colors profits are not preying on the most vulnerable students. we need to make sure we have plans, whether it is debt-free college or community college, a multitude of plans out there beyond tuition that address college affordability going forward so we do not end up in the situation again. we need to recognize the system has failed over the last 30 years and put low income and middle-income students into huge amounts of debt that is not forgiven by anything, even a series of bankruptcy. marylandt washington, on the line for those between 35 and 60. pamela. caller: good morning. i have to disagree with brent when it comes to the difficulty of registering to vote. i don't think it is any harder

to register to vote for young people. i think it is easier because you have the advantage of online ofngs you can do -- advent things you can do online. they have a card when they renew their license. they can register at the dmv. when i was younger we had actually go to these places or actually send a form to these places. i don't see why that is any harder for younger people. withther thing i disagree is when you say that people that -- that areowe stationary, a lot of them are actually snowbirds and things of that nature. they still move around a lot. have defined places

four figure to vote out where they are living versus where they vacation at or live part-time of the year. --ust feel like host: let me give brent a chance to respond to that. guest: one of the policies pamela advocated for, going to the dmv and register to vote, that is automatic voter registration. it doesn't happen in all 50 states. that is a type of policy that would increase access to the polls. in regards to being stationary versus not, i will give my own personal example. in three years in college i lived in four different cities. i lived in richmond, california, oakland, berkeley, albany. that means four different voter registrations. for someone dealing with the

full course load of college classes plus work and trying to figure out where to register to vote, that is different. that is not saying anybody else does not have to figure out where to register to vote, but there are some inherent things to the younger generation today, not even comparing it to the generation from yesteryear that makes it less difficult for older folks. host: windham, connecticut. stephen, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm calling on the get out the vote effort. education,to secure we have to get out the vote. we have a large hispanic community. engaged and it took a long time to get them out to vote. then we won. waned in them he lost. to get out the vote in the hispanic community -- they've don't vote.

unless we get the women engaged, we lose. then't see any of candidates getting it or talking out getting out the vote in the debates. president trump, biden. i'm interested to see if either to talk about get out the vote today. if you want to win, you have to get out the vote. right: -- brent cohen, i've let it to that question. this is the turnout rates by race and ethnicity. this is 2016, the last presidential election. hispanic turnout rate was the lowest among those on the graph. just over 45%. non-hispanic blacks at about 60% in 2016. non-hispanic whites a little bit more than that. guest: we can't have a

conversation -- get out the vote is absolutely critical here. we can have a conversation about voter turnout rates by race without talking about voter suppression, which is alive and well. that is why abrams is not the governor of georgia right now. voter suppression. voter suppression but also election fraud where the throughout ballots from communities of color. if are going to have -- the same goes for florida -- a real conversation, we are engaging folks on the issues they care most about and helping provide the types of solutions that are concrete and will address those issues. it's about addressing systemic barriers and the machine of voter suppression and gerrymandering. we saw it with the census. the underlying reason to ask a citizenship question was to specifically and concretely underrepresented certain communities. it was very intentional and

intentional to the latino community in particular. there is a desire there for a power grab and we are seeing that in elections and things like the senses which determines how much money is spent in local communities. ohio, ais is matt in key swing state. to talki was calling about people who did not go to college. i have been in the trades pretty much my entire life right out of school. you guys want to talk about doing away with student debt. how are you guys going to pay for that? it is $2 trillion. the people that pay student debt -- i'm stuck paying for the stuff i got to pay. essentially it sounds like you will end up taxing us to pay for people's student debts. isst: i think equity

important here and being intentional about how we address the student debt crisis and recognizing the impact on the economy. goingk being cognizant forward about what this looks like so college affordability is an option for folks that want to go to college. people who determine college is not the path for them have opportunities to live a meaningful -- not just meaningful but an opportunity to ascend and be financially secure. both of those things have to happen hand in hand. this is in fact part of a broader approach here. for 18 to 35-year-olds, one third have student debt between 24 and 35. this is not a small sliver of the community. this is 1/6 of all americans of all ages with some student loan debt. we have people getting social security wages garnished to pay for the debt. this impacts quite a big group of people.

as we look at the $1 trillion tax cut that trump gave to his most wealthy friends, i would rather the money go in this direction. host: this is marsha out of florida. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to say that people e clumpedd older ar into one group where they millennials don't have it right. as far as i'm concerned our future depends on the millennials going back to what fdr had is the new deal. best when there were more government controls. it has been the goal of the republican party ever since justice powell, before he was a justice, wrote a memo that was a

guide path for corporations to have a bigger influence in government than the people. they have been systematically winning on that. we had nixon he was bringing in drugs, putting them into black communities, making the blacks look as bad as they possibly could and as dangerous as they possibly could. this was the goal because blacks primarily voted democrat. democratic influences prevailed the republican party shotheir swords out and whatever they could to keep democratic votes from counting. guest: marsha is right. she should be sitting up here. the only thing i would add to what marsha said is bill barr, the current attorney general played a role in making sure

nobody was prosecuted for iran contra, which is how they were laundering money and bringing drugs into black communities at the same time they ramped up their so-called war on drugs. bill barr is now the sitting attorney general of the united states. host: sarasota, florida. mary. good morning. caller: good morning. i think this judgment underestimates the power of the trump tax cut. for the first time in about 30 years we did not have to pay income taxes when we filed our federal tax return this year. it does benefit most people. it does not just benefit the rich. you are incorrect about that. as far as counting on millennials, i have a child, 28, married. another one just turned 30. they also benefited from the tax

cut. they paid for their college. they have minimal student loans, but like many of their friends they did not squander the student loan money. they were careful about what careers they prepared for so they could actually have -- the other thing that bothers me, why we do not want anyone who votes to have proper id? you always talk about voter suppression. "are you ae to have senses.izen?" on the states that promote illegal immigration should not be rewarded with my tax dollars. host: ready want to start? -- censhe senses, that us, that is counter to the constitution. the motivation here matters.

the treasure trove of emails is clear that the reason to include that question was to suppress the number of people who came out to be counted on the census as a means of getting more money into predominantly white communities. that is a huge problem. on the student loan debt issue, there is a mischaracterization in some ways and it assumption that folks squander this money. but we know is that a lot of folks who are going into the debt went to predatory institutions that went after the most vulnerable communities who believed in the american dream that if you go to college you will get ahead. you have a lot of single mothers who want to for-profit colleges will working full-time in an attempt to get ahead. folks from communities of color poorer had pooer k-12 -- k-12 education systems, they were cashing the short end of the stick by for-profit colleges

who did not lead to the type of jobs on the backend. we need to be clear about who is being impacted here. host: why wouldn't you want someone who is going to have proper id? guest: let's walk through the steps it takes to require that. todayn get on an airplane can get ont on it -- an airplane today because there s toother ways verify identities. what is it look like we have driver's licenses? in wisconsin there was voter suppression because they needed the house number to match up. was anrvations, it intentional attempt to keep you from voting. why don't you want people to vote? whyt's a democracy,

wouldn't you be pursuing policies that get the greatest number of eligible people to be able to vote? that's the part i'd never understand and i never hear a defense for. host: brent cohen with us for another 10 minutes. we are discussing the youth vote in campaign 2020. phone lines are sprint up -- split up by age. the age of the candidates matters the young people? guest: yes. i don't know if it is the determining factor between who wins the primaries and who doesn't, but the fact we have younger and some millennials candidates on the stage matters hugely. we are having a debate that includes our voices up there. elizabeth warren and bernie sanders may be leading on the student debt. julian castro also has a policy. none of those three are millennials. yet you have eric swalwell and mayor pete saying i have $100,000 in student loan debt. whether or not they agree with the particular policy issue,

they can recognize it is an issue. host: this is mayor pete from an event in des moines explaining what he thinks his age is an asset to his candidacy. [video] >> i believe it turned out to be an asset that i come from a different generation. that maybe i don't look the part in terms of having quite as many silver hairs as you expect a candidate to have. what i see, and i see in this room, is the potential to build a generational alliance of people who are focused on the future. [applause] >> we have to have a democratic message that makes sense, even when 2020 comes and goes. even when this presidency comes and goes. it has to make as much sense in and 2054 when god willing i come to be the edge of the president today.

-- the age of the president today. it can't be a message that revolves around the president. we all have strong reactions to this white house, and the campaign that brought this white house in. we have to confront falsehoods allowlicies, but it can't ourselves to let it be all about him. we have a chance to change the conversation. a horror show is a hard thing to look away from, but our responsibility is to change the channel and change it to something better. host: brett cohen? guest: he said a lot of good things there. 2054 he will be the same age as the current president. it is tough to look away from a horror show but we have to do it. we need to be building not just pre-trump. what does america need to look

like? who do we want to be as a nation? do we want to be in the business of torturing children at the border or something better? every candidate vying for this primary has the obligation to say, how do we create this multi generational alliance? how do we create a coalition of folks who save we are better than where we are right now? host: a lot of callers are waiting for you. florida forf start, those 60 and older -- stark, florida. caller: i'm old enough to know when the u.s. government paid college at 70% to cover student's debt, and now it is down to 17%. thing. i saw were a student had a debt of $37,000. he paid $10,000 of that and

still owed $20,000. what kind of loans are these? who is putting these loans out like this? it is like a mortgage. host: brent cohen? guest: absolutely right. the government used to subsidize significantly more the cost of college. the cost of college has risen eight times higher than wages, and get government investment has dropped precipitously over that same time. that is why the crisis is faced today -- crisis faced today is so much different than older generations faced. the context is usually helpful. we were told that was the way to get ahead in this country. that was the way to enter the middle class and upper middle class. yes, that is in fact part of this conversation here. les on the line for those -- caller: good morning. i want to touch base and is forgiving of the debt situation

for these college students. have you ever been forgiven for a debt? beeneither one of you ever forgiven for a debt? guest: i have not been forgiven for a debt. caller: my point is that when you are forgiven for the debt from the person that forgives you for that debt, that is a tax write off. in your name that goes into the -- that will be put on you as the yearly income when you are forgiven for a debt. i went through it with harley-davidson motor credit, which i never apply for one before. never in my life if i apply for a harley-davidson motor credit. when bank of america forgave me of the debt and harley-davidson somehow bought that debt, it was for a tax write off for them.

host: what did you want to jump into? guest: he is right. what needs to happen for any legislation to include forgiveness of debt, we heard from the previous caller about $10,000 and you now owe $20,000 more, is predatory in many ways and the government should not be making money off of the debt. it needs to be clear that forgiveness is not taxable income. before,question asked and it was asked this morning on twitter, what do we tell the millions that managed to pay off their loans? guest: with the assumption i did not do the right thing or that 43 million people at their did not do the right thing? the question really is, how do we have so many people doing the right thing and being treated so differently under the same system?

it's a systemic problem, not an individual problem. karen on those 35 to 60 years old. caller: what is the impact of our educational system that does not accurately teach history or youth?on voter apathy in guest: it is huge. we are partnering with organizations to make sure we are in fact making sure high school students get the type of civic education that is critical. in is hands-on education where it can be. that is why preregistration policies are important so civics education can be paired with something a 17-year-old can do right now which is go to register for preregistration and when they are 18 it becomes automatic. it makes it concrete and real. there is the modified history that is too often taught in textbooks combined with civics education. we need to be clear that folks matter.

it is not just about federal elections. it matters at the local election. if you care about immigration, it matters to your councilmember is and your mayor is because they determine sanctuary city policies. health care matters at the local level. we need to pair it actionable items like preregistration. out of florida for the line for 35 to 60 years old. caller: i would like the table -- take a couple of issues with her guest. let's talk about student loan debt. i have a younger brother that would to college and had student loans. he paid it back. my youngest daughter went to college and she has a student debt that she is paying back. it is called responsibility. everybody has a responsibility in this country. if you go to a bank and you borrow money, you need to pay

that loan back. have is you want to talk about voter suppression. i am so tired of hearing about voter suppression. most of the voting laws are regulated by the states. they go in cycles. if you have not voted in an cycles, in four or five you are removed from the voting role. if people are too lazy to get off their rear ends and go register to vote, that is their problem. that is not mine. i registered for the selective service and registered to vote when i was 18. i take pride in this country. agree.i i expected to be better than it is right now. that is why i'm working so hard for. interesting framing around too

lazy. it harkens back to some less than comfortable times in our history that are clearly still present. when were talking about voter suppression, i would like to not talk about it anymore either. we actually have to stop voter suppression. those things go hand-in-hand. on the student loan debt, yes, everybody has responsibility. that includes the lenders who are praying on young people who were trying to get ahead. that includes the for-profit colleges that are predators in this space. it includes the government attempting to make money off of young people going to higher education. you should not be paying $80,000 in student loan debt and owe more than what you started with in principle. responsibility goes across all sites here. host: print cohen from generation progress action and vice president for youth engagement at the center for american progress action fund. --ricanprogress data work.

americanprogress.org. topicl return to that that we talked about at the beginning of the program, the gallup poll finding american pride has hit a new low. getting your reaction and responses on phone lines. you can start calling in now and we will be right back. ♪ >> book tv has four days of programming this fourth of july weekend. troweat noon, james and peter trummy talk about the rankings of the presidents. notohn quincy adams, he's an easy person to like. he is hard. he can be terrifying in his vehemence. eastern, tony:20

horowitz on the reports in the south in the lead up to the civil war in his book "spying on the south." >> in the opening episodes of my travels i described the woman in a bar in west virginia who essentially sees right through me and says, i get it. you are a yankee boy down here spying on us hillbillies. the title was also kind of a joke on myself. >> saturday at 1:00 p.m. eastern, again "afterlife," alice marie johnson talks about her time in prison before president trump's commutation of her sentence in 2018. >> i stayed there for 15 years. you just imagine. i was told i would only leave prison as a corpse. i would take my last dying breath in prison.

do you think that was a recipe for hope? >> sunday from noon to 2:00 p.m. eastern, author and college ore will beaul kingl our guest. talks aboutovani "why young men." >> when we talk about other terms of -- forms of violence, often the narrative goes back to rhetoric. we have these politicians saying this and this and that is why someone hates immigrants and muslims. i do think rhetoric is an important piece of the puzzle in understanding these things. a $1 billion industry built on young black men talking about guns, is that rhetoric not relevant to the homicide rate in this country? >> watch book tv all weekend on c-span2.

>> washington journal continues. our program, we are talking about american pride. pride in america has dropped to its lowest point in nearly two decades. gallup began polling on this issue of american pride back in 22001. just 45% of americans say they are extremely proud to be american. 25% are very proud. 80% say are moderately proud. percent say they are moderately proud. on partisan and generational lines. 76% of republicans say they already stream the proud. that compares to just 22% of democrats. independents, 41% are extreme the proud.

staying on that a stream the proud to be american number, broken down by age differences, younger americans, 24% are still the proud. old, 38% ares extreme the proud to be american. it goes up to 57% among 50 to 64-year-olds, and 63% among those 65 plus. we want to get your response and thoughts on this independence day on the issue of pride in america. robert out of memphis, tennessee, a republican. are you with us? caller: yes. hello? host: what do you think about that gallup poll? caller: what do i think about the gallup poll? i support the president. -- i'm just wondering.

all these democrats and stuff like that, we have established over 200 years here to make of the most perfect government in the world. turn aroundnd -- and these people keep putting the president down and trying to tear the united states down, stuff like that. i don't know. you say that you support the president. are you going to watch the president's salute to america tonight? caller: yes. all these people that are talking on the phone and trying to tear the united states down and everything, they are always talking about -- how many women wear on the continental congress continentalhe

congress was established under white leadership? host: what are you implying? yeah, i am white and proud of it. host: speaking of the president's salute to america, our coverage begins at 6:00 p.m. you can watch it online at c-span.org. you can listen to it on the free c-span radio app. this afternoon more coverage on c-span on the road to the white house 2020. our event today covering joe biden and his wife jill biden in martian tell -- marshalltown, iowa for their fourth of july event. that begins it 2:30 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span.org, in the c-span radio app. loretta out of tacoma, washington. a democrat. good morning. are you with us? we will go to kathy out of

arkansas, independent. caller: hello. american. to be an i am proud of our president. president trump. i hope and pray people lift their eyes to see that trump is the best president we've ever had. he is trying to do things right but congress will let him, especially these democrats. open your eyes and vote these democrats out that are destroying america. host: why do you think he is the best president america has ever had? caller: he is trying to help america. congress is stopping him at every step. i cannot blame president trump. it is congress. the democrats are destroying america. they need to be gone. host: most surveys on presidential achievement put abraham lincoln, george

washington at the top of the list. why do you put donald trump ahead of abraham lincoln and george washington? i was not here when they were here. that is why i say trump is, because he's my president. i was not even here when they was. les in bismarck, north dakota. a democrat. are you with us? florida.son, caller: i dona how anyone can live in the united states -- i don't know how anyone can live in the united states and not be proud to be an american. poll, the younger they got in the less proud they were, i don't understand that. it is like -- i just don't

understand it. it is illogical to me. host: what institutions are you most proud of as an american? jeez.: oh institutions? i guess you go more for people and institutions. i would go for more like ben franklin invented the eyeglasses. now i will end up with a blank brain. george washington carver and the peanut, et cetera. host: that survey we are talking about broke down the responses along specific achievements and specific aspects of american society, as americans if they were proud were not proud of certain things. american scientific achievements, 91% saying that makes them proud.

just 8% saying it doesn't. the u.s. military, 89% saying they were proud. 85% saying american culture and arts. 75% saying american economic achievements. at the bottom, the american health and welfare system, just 37%. the american clinical system, just 32% saying it made them proud. 60% saying it does not make them proud. owen out of grand junction, colorado. good morning. caller: how are you doing? i wanted to say it will be just a matter of time until they get the pitchforks and the torches out because they did a number on our city out here. .hey made it gay week they?who is day? -- caller: the city council.

host: you are talking about pride month? caller: if it is something that it says in the bible that is not right and our freedom comes from god, our rights come from god and the decoration in such, i think we are losing that. we just need to figure out how to legally put a lock on these cities from doing that kind of thing. host: jim at of lawrence, massachusetts. caller: good morning. i wanted to make a comment. the last gentleman that was on talking about the pride hitting a new low, the last gentleman did not tell you he belonged to an organization on the board of directors with stacey abrams and john podesta. this was no bipartisan think organization the guy claimed to be. this is 100% resisted.

host: you are talking about the center for american progress? he talked about his group's affiliation with the center for the american progress in his first answer. caller: i guess i missed it because he did not mention who the board of directors was. host: we did not get into the board of directors. caller: you guys have one of the greatest archives i've ever seen but you never use it to show an example of any other argument. i am a democrat but i like to see all sides of the story and the truth. you had a guy on last wednesday, butterfield. you don't dig at his archive and you show with the idealism of everything going on with migration. in the last two minutes of his dissertation was we want illegals to know it is democrats that are fighting for them.

this country is divided. show another one of joe biden at mccain's funeral when he said all this discord started in 1996. everybody is trying to blend trump for this. obama caused most of this. he wanted to support -- faults not all trump's and that's all i'm trying to say. let's be fair about the whole deal. once you present it a little bit more favorably, like you showing the beginning of your show all the cable companies that supported. i would like to see people go visit every of their homepages and see what they are doing to the president and doing to the united states. hi support the president now. i did not before. all he is trying to do is show america is great. if it stinks so bad, how many people want to come here? host: we appreciate your praise

of the c-span archives. they are available for anyone to explore, one of the great gifts of the c-span programming. we make it available to anyone on our homepage at c-span.org. events,y individuals, by specific quotes and it will pull up everything in our archives. speaking of c-span's programming, our programming continues this weekend with our c-span cities tour on c-span 2 at american history tv on c-span3. we will be visiting missoula, montana. here is the mayor discussing the economy, natural landscape and original settlers. [video] >> it is central montana. it was a painful transition. this was a place built on millwork and the commerce that

supported that industry. resource extraction is the story of montana and its history. in the 1970's and 1980's, the community made a difficult transition from that resource-based economy to a service economy. there is a lot of egalitarianism around missoula and that's associated with deep appreciation and respect for the natural environment which has in some ways recovered over the course of the last four decades as a function of environment elective is him. we are home -- environmental activism. we are home to the university of montana. whether it is somebody who is an sciences or technology or someone who is writing the great american novel, they are all living and working and playing here. he creates a much apollo 10 feeling in a relatively small

environment. lesson wesignificant forget by virtue of time and sits onis this office peopletoric lands of the that were here a long time before any people of my color here. those people have been systematically oppressed. when we remind ourselves of this people here here before, how they lived, the value they placed on the natural environment and the value they those areeach other, good lessons for us. we need to remind ourselves haslarly because time inded that cultural impact

our urban areas. certainly as we think about the environment, both natural and built, acknowledging the history of the place and the people is kind of the lease we can do. -- least we can do. host: you can watch book tv tomorrow at noon eastern. american history tv sunday at 2:00 p.m. the c-span cities tour explores the history and literary life of missoula, montana. about five minutes left in our program today. we are talking about that gallup poll finding american pride has hit a new low. omar at a brooklyn, new york. good morning. caller: i'm calling because i can't see how any black american can be -- can have any pride, any american pride. if you guys -- specifically black americans, but all americans should really read

ofderick douglass' speech what the slave is to the fourth of july. i will not quote it but that's a great speech referring to having american pride. this country was built on slaves building this country. everybody else gets the benefit from the american -- the black american slaves building this country. we are the last economy trying to survive in this country. it is hard for black americans to survive. how can we have pride? most black americans want to have american pride but it is so difficult to be get racism at every corner. it is hard to find jobs. most black americans have two or three jobs while people go and have great careers with one job for 20 years without an issue. we have to switch jobs and we

are not even getting paid what we are supposed to get paid. host: barbara at of alabama, republican. caller: yes. thank you. good morning to everyone out there. i want to say i am so proud to be an american and i have never seen a president of the united patriotic andre work as hard as our president does now. need to just go ahead and own up to it and run on making america foul. there are a lot of cap runic -- calling cap routing -- people that are not thankful to god for our liberties and justice, and

the economy and so many things we have got to be thankful for now. americans should keep working hard at getting further. host: that is barbara out of alabama. speaking of republicans and president trump, there is one less republican in the republican party today. that is congressman justin amash of michigan. this is his column in the washington post announcing he is leaving the gop, saying our politics is in a partisan death spiral. the firstnow him as and only republican to call for an impeachment proceeding to begin against the president. president trump, after the

column came out today from the washington post tweeted about it just a little while ago. "great news for the republican party has one of the dumbest and most disloyal members in congress is quitting the party. no collusion, no obstruction. knew he could not get the nomination to run again in the great state of michigan. already being challenged for his seat. a total loser." linda is out of california, a democrat. good morning. caller: i want to say i'm extremely proud to be an american. i am one of that 22% of democrats. i think our country is not perfect. the history certainly against the native americans and blacks, especially during jim crow, a lot of bad stuff. hopefully we can continue working on those issues. i think what makes our country great is that we can work on those issues.

people should read more world history to know about slavery and discrimination in other countries. just as bad, some not as bad but pretty >> people have been abused and stuff. it is great that we are working on these issues. i am very proud to be an american, and proud of our military. andusband served 41 years, it is a great country. host: that is linda. caller: good morning. i am from missouri, and i just want to say that this is a great country. and, we have an issue with our president. he lies constantly, he told the people that it was going to be this way, i will give money to

the average people, and he gave it to the rich people. he wants to be a dictator, and hopefully we do not let him become that. thank you. host: our last caller. we will be back here tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. happy fourth of july. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ travelingpan buses across the country asking folks what does it mean to be american. >> i think being an american

means that we come with tremendous privilege that we live in a country that allows us to express who we are and what we believe in. elevatedlace that is by its capacity to welcome people from around the world and to be inclusive, and to show love, respect, kindness, and compassion. we foster that community everywhere we go. sometimes we struggle and sometimes we do less good, that is something that we are trying for. >> it is pride. flag, wemy country, my live in the land of the free because of the brave. we work hard, to the right thing, and make a better life for our children. >> what i think it means is having the right to choose your own future, whether it means choosing where you live, picking whatever job you want, spending your money however you want. that it what it means, having the right to choose your own destiny. >> being an american means that

we share a sense of calm rana d that another places -- we we have because different -- because we are different states, but we are american. one, but we are also individuals. >> voices from the road, on c-span. >> it is independence day, coming up former trump , administration national security advisor hr mcmaster on the threats to free and open societies. highlightsngs you across the united states. after that kamala harris takes her presidential campaign to iowa. joe biden and his wife spent the fourth in iowa.

>> book tv has four days of programming. trout andoon, james peter, contributors to "the presidents," talk about their rankings. >> john quincy adams is the person that i think a lot of people, and i think you have expressed this well, he is not an easy person to like. he is hard, he can be terrifying in his famines. -- in his vehemence. >> the late historian tony horwich on the reports from the south in the lead up to the civil war in his book "spying on the south." in the opening episode of my own in als, i describe a woman bar in west virginia who sees right through me. you are ai get it, yankee boy down here spying on us hillbillies.

this title was a joke on myself. >> saturday at 1:00 p.m. eastern, in her book "after space life," ashley marie johnson reflects about her time in prison. built, a new prison was i stayed there for 15 years, just imagine, i was told that i was only going to leave prison as a corpse, that i would take my last dying breath in prison. do you think that that was a recipe for hope? >> sunday from noon until 2:00 p.m. eastern, paul kengor will be our guest. authorerwards" an examines the rise in violence committed by young men around the world. professorrviewed by bennett. >> we talk about other forms of