well look at the rest of 70 years. philip is that kaiser or. opposition rallies break down in belarus after president lukashenko is sworn in for a 6th term dozens of people have been arrested. the russian foreign ministry accuses western powers of launching a dissent from asian campaign over the alleged poisoning of election a volley the opposition activist has now been discharged from the hospital in berlin. is ready to provide you with with top notch assistance what amir putin invites united nations staff to try a new vaccine a russian vaccine for free of charge adding that there have already been requests from u.n. colleagues and an r.v. correspond becomes one of the 1st to get the russians job as part of facing 3

trials. i got a call from the committee yes and i'm i feel can you take a look this is your vaccine there's not much in there looks like a couple of jobs ok i'm ready. one of those stories in just a few minutes over an hour to dot com in about an hour's time you can have my colleague kevin on he'll be here but now it's time to cross talk say with. a little welcome across not we're all things are considered. americans are divided not you by it it's all white music you shouldn't design you know citizens our

challenge ideologies become exclusionary and intolerant the supreme court is now the. realm of partisan politics and worst of all political opponents are deemed the enemy is there a way out of this downward spiral. cross knocking about in america i'm joined by my guest roy rightly topping in data entry is an attorney conservative commentator as well as contributor at the hill and in washington we cross to me show cross she is in a crowded strategist and a political analyst or across like rose in fact that means you can jump any time you want and i always appreciate it ok let me go to rory in dayton and preparing for this program about the divide in american politics. it came to my mind that before the american civil war we said the american the united states are

and after the civil war he said the united states is because in its very in it's a very interesting discourse of difference because when we look at it as a collective of states making a country and now after the civil war we look at it is unified here and it seems to me we're. digressing back because it's the united states are now because all of the divisions that we have and we have this mantra of blues daves red states and as i said in my introduction there's a lot of hostility to it to people that you deem as your opponent how do you reflect upon that well i'm glad that you brought up the civil war because as we talk about how polarized things are and how much we point to people as the enemy i think that's important historical context break up when people talk about this being unprecedented it's not really any in this country didn't fact have a civil war 170 years ago which in the grand scheme of history is not that long of

a period of time so i think that period is really. structed and the semantic difference that you brought out between seeing is in our unfortunately we've seen throughout history i was a history major in college so i love. i love history and i like to learn from history and irish perhaps more of our citizens felt the same way but when you when you look at that is how we're going back to it we can weigh now throughout periods of history in term sense whether we go through these periods that are more partisan less partisan and i think that this is kind of a natural progression of just building up lots of things that have happened since the civil war so i think that it's unfortunate and i think it's something that i wish perhaps maybe more people were paying attention to this is a topic that comes up repeatedly is that somebody who holds an opposing view from you doesn't necessarily have to be your moral enemy but as part of that we've seen

civil discourse has been waning when i you know i just referenced that throughout history we see some of these concepts wax and wane that's one that's waning and it's another thing that i think that people need to pay more attention to you know just because you hold a particular belief doesn't necessarily make it a universal truth and we can't as much as some people don't want to admit it we can learn from people who hold those absolutely and that's a that's my experience in media is i learn more from people that i disagree with and it sharpens my wit and my argument and i think it does for them as well you know this kind of statement this kind of discourse a problem that we have in our our discourse because. you know obviously during a campaign it's very boisterous and people like some. hyperbole and they and they have this tendency of using superlatives but you know i get really bothers me when what i hear you know you're a bolshevik europe communist you're

a fascist you know that and those are hard words to take back. ok and and i really worry about that and in bolton's this been hearing is that people have there's a lot of bitterness across the country and it's and it's not one single party i think i really lament that we could we can't just come together and say we we have a lot of bitterness and maybe we can use that anger in that presentation to actually open be honest and look at your opponent in an honus way insane and i understand why you're frustrated can you understand why i'm frustrated that's the part of the conversation that is not happening in american politics go ahead of it i would have to agree with you but i also think that we are in a very different mind frame in america much too late he seen this and absent blows over the years so i am always cautious to say that now we've seen the most vitriolic or the most artists and divided this country because it's absolutely not

correct but in the admin and he and social media and this might that might actually like lend itself because before you know they were generations past we solved really extreme. partisanship but today i think that you know the cable news the cable news cycle the 24 seventh's news cycle has helped to bolster this because the more outrage the war insidious the late waged the more aggressive the more you know click share and viewership these networks get so i think there is something that comes out of that see your point about bolsheviks and communists and that the name calling that we see throughout campaigns i think that part of that is done largely because the tour american public doesn't really have a concise idea of what those terms need so if they can give good maybe to their negative if you were to ask people what the tenets of communism or what the rules are that's where we were just do man on the street right now across america we're not going to find too many people who fully understand those terms i think that what we see now is a group of people on both sides but i will play on the republicans here because we

have a president who tweets these derogatory and strong language all the time in a way that we haven't necessarily seen come. president's partner said party politics we've seen time and time again there is typically a structure for the presidency that we have seen take it or are turned away from and i think that's also shaping the nation when it comes to how flowing people are with this type of late yeah but you know i don't know i didn't dig agree with you but you know i thought that you know if you're so if you have such a disparaging view about rhetoric why does the left participate in it on steroids ok it's not helping it it's making it worse rory you know i'm glad i brought up the civil war because the civil war was an existential threat to that country ok and we have both a political language now that talks about and sends them to oppress you know that the civil war happened for a reason and civil breakdown may happen in the u.s. were reason in war watching it with their own eyes the problem is that both sides

see the other is an existential threat it's not like when we end with it then that's a tradition in american politics we all can win somehow but what i'm going to situation is that no i'd weening you lose i win and you were a bank with snow day and a lot of republicans very few very threatened by some of the ideas that are coming out of the left not particularly from the by name went on in the democratic party and in elements of the progressive wing of the party which actually personally i like nothing to progressive because i've learned more really speak to this existential threat threat fear so i think that this ties in with the comment that he said just made about how cable news and social media are driving a lot of this it's think in the past where it had these periods of division we had more access to direct conversations with people that we can learn from like you were just referencing and now it's much easier to find yourself in an echo chamber

and i recently watched a documentary on netflix the social dilemma which talked about how basically people are shown. content based on what they view that pushes them further intruder down at a particular rabbit hole on certain concepts and rather than saying you know you watch this now for an opposing view i don't actually watch this it's just it hardens viewpoints and i don't think that that's helpful so i certainly think that there's a greater conversation about this existential threat has to do with both our cable news using habits and our social media habits and people aren't directly communicating the way they think they have in previous generations i think that's a big part of it and we hear the phrase keyboard warriors a lot when you talk about these neutrality conversations that you've been referencing or we view other people as the enemy so much of those conversations take place behind a screen a lot of those conversations probably would not take place if you were sitting face to face with someone and asking them questions about their their particular

viewpoints now of course we have seen some unfortunate events in person as well that have stemmed from nice social media interactions with some of the protests and things of various nature that we've had recently so that's something that i think we need to get a handle on but again i think when you talk about this existential threat we can't talk about that in a vacuum we have to talk about the role that media and social media in particular plays in furthering those decides you know a mission when it went to a lot of conservatives and members of the g o p are very critical of the liberal media and they can be seen by arabs over the protests because you know there are look there's a lot of misery associated there's a lot of misery associated with the lockdowns all across the country but protest that there is a certain political advantage been there allowed to happen but other people are or are ashamed in public over social distancing and all that how do you address that

because as a conservative here i'd want you know that's it that's hypocrisy i mean you have a lockdown for health reasons you don't make exceptions because as exceptions are against. the the better. health of the of the community here i mean how do you address them. well 1st and foremost i think that you know it's important some of the guidelines in her round checking ourselves coronavirus i will say that when conservatives throw a protest at african-americans and supporters of that kind of americans who are out here in the streets protesting for their civil rights and civil liberties specifically the right to not be chilled by the whole leave without having a level of alarm on you i think that that is a very important. if you forgive me and when you're done you're saying you have to suspend those rules and that about social welfare i mean you know making that exception there if you make an exception for political reasons not for health

reasons and i think that there's a lot of people that are good reason to complain about now people complain about whatever they want i think you're twisting my words here what i'm saying is that the route history may have seen minority rights be trampled on now if they're adorable these officers who decided not to shoot unarmed black native women outside of coronavirus and then yes the protests wouldn't happen during coronavirus but we see you go after video and i think that it would be disingenuous for these african-americans people who look like me not take the streets not to get that attention in the election year what this is one of the things that people are voting on we're talking about police reports you cannot say that anyone has nothing to do with science right it has everything to do with the health risks that are associated with just being an african-american. it's all politics it's politics it is not every day like i can't make up my black eyes so that wasn't you having if you were an african-american being pulled over by the cops are very hot they are sick they're going. up will exhaust are you like i or your personality not what i'm

saying is that what americans have been at risk in this country for generations and have always stood up in protest that this is not you know you can all you suspend science or politics that's what you're saying you know what i'm saying is that black people are responding on a virus we already know that those levels are extremely high. i'm saying is that black people are also it risk when it comes to their interactions the police officers those are 2 risks that happen see right now be happening at the exact same time i don't think that one is more detrimental than the other i think that there are african-americans who have been i'm always on the street generation and quite frankly we have a lot to tell me about how many there are going to be armed black men were killed last year in america but police start how many on armed black men were killed by it's not just on our black men it's also. going to going to one heartbreak. we'll continue our discussion. with our city.

it's going to be hard to reclaim freedom and we're going to have to work at it but as people recognize from examples like. what repression and digital systems need to. i hope people will start fighting. saying we won't tolerate systems in our streets in our homes that can't possibly track what we're doing. welcome back to crossfire where all things are considered i'm purell about to

remind you we're discussing a divided america. ok let's go back to rory and dayton here let's talk about this fear element in the. election ok we've talked about the pandemic here. how does this undermine the legitimacy legitimacy and the faith in the political process here and we can throw in a new support go supreme court justice as well to add into the mix year i mean do you think both parties in the media are playing upon fear for political advantage because it seems quite obvious to me. i think that both parties have long played on people's fears or political advantage i mean if you watch what it all adds you know going back 4050 years we see the same thing when there was a similar social unrest in the sixty's i mean nixon's law and order campaign was all about preying on people's fears and so that's not

a new dynamic and i think that with regards to what we're seeing right now we certainly see that law and order element obviously there's a touch of irony in some of that being seen on the right but there is on the left as well about their sphere about if donald trump is given another 4 years as president what are we going to see in this country so i think yes we are seeing people who have legitimate fears on both sides but again both parties have exploited fear i don't necessarily think one party has the moral high ground on this issue of exploiting fear so it would be great if people were more at using their own critical thinking as opposed to just succumbing to these fears fears a powerful motivator it always has been and if it didn't work i don't think we'd see people on both sides continuing to use it in their political ads in defending the police designed create fear in your mind for citizens well i think that that's definitely something that presidents from the republican party are hoping for but

we've heard a certain segment of the protest but not all protesters that definitely not like lives matter large is 80 on the police statement what i know and what has been researched about even the police is that if they movement that has been going on since the eighty's there was lots of what we saw with the war on drugs. what we saw with the war on terror and even the police doesn't mean what republicans are going around telling people it does. it goes on as long meant making sure that the budgets of state and local governments goal toward helping those who are most often interact with by the police so whether that is the homeless population or those in need actors who programs those who need mental help assistance it means moving some monies away and funding things that actually will help these individuals other than excessive policing because what we do know is that there are police across this country my father is a police officer there are police officers across this country who are doing things outside of their job they are being called to take care of mental health cases they

are not mental health professionals they are being called to take care home the situations they are not in the in the be made up taking care hours and that's not what they are trained to do so when you have officers who are doing more often times things that have nothing to do with criminality at all and they're not trained to they're not specialized in it all that does is cause further problems what we also know is that state and local budgets are not meaning that as much as we've seen there be extra bloat. how much police officers monopolies opposite policing into teams getting their budgets that means that you're automatically cutting something else the 1st thing to get cut are afterschool programs mental health centers clinics for the poor and homeless shelters and programs like that what we're seeing and what they're saying with the police is not the same as eradicating police funding what it needs what we've seen in context is that just 10 percent of police funding going towards homelessness going towards mental health going towards afterschool programs can solve and reduce a lot of the crime that we do see as our communities across the country that's what

they're asking here weren't you can we have the case of minneapolis where they actually did to fund the police and crime so are ok and then you had members of the public complaining to their elected officials that crime is soaring where are the police and this is what you know well what we just heard from a mission. i agree with a lot of it here i think the police are asked to do things that they're not they're not equipped to do they're not educated to do i agree with that completely here but you know they're part of the the the rhetoric of the phone the police is the are is the police are the enemy which i don't have any tolan's for there is there i don't know the number of police officers that have died this year but it's up very very high because of all of these protests and violence here so. quick to speak to that there i mean this is a political cudgel from the police and i think the media gave us a very very nuanced explanation of what it is but that's not how it's being used in this campaign or well there's certainly an element of irony with what we saw in

minneapolis in terms of how this issue was approached and i'm glad that you just used the word nuance to describe mrs response because that was actually what i was getting prepared to say is this is a complex topic in it requires want solutions and i think we often see this our government is a lot more reactive than it is proactive so we need to have more nuanced conversations about what defunding the police means i mean i personally feel like government spending in a lot of areas is out of control i would love to have a more nuanced conversation about reining some of that in particular areas and if the police is one of those absolutely but it can't just be the pendulum swings this way now it's long this way because as we saw in minneapolis that's not effective so we need to take a harder look at this budget and say what are we funding what are the results that we've seen and if we're not seeing the results which in many places arguably we are not how can this money be better spent obviously this is intertwined with

a lot of mental health topics other social issues and we talk a lot about the social determinants of health in the big picture of how we can get people to a place where they don't necessarily need to call police so again i go back to the outward nuance that you use because. it's not something that are. they tend to get more support from the public when they speak in these broad generalities and things that invoke emotions like fear is we just discussed and that's not most effective in terms it's effective in terms of campaigning it's not effective in terms of good policy choices and governing so just back to that i think we need to have a more serious conversation in this country not just in minneapolis really across the country in the solution is going to look different in different places and i think that we have to acknowledge that too in a small town what the police budget can handle and what they do is going to look very different than it is in a major metropolitan area like new york or los angeles so those conversations are

nuanced for a reason and it's not a one size fits all solution and so let's get serious about that let's put some policy commissions the place i mean you know again going back to history i talk about the current commission quite frequently back in the sixty's and perhaps you know we had implemented some of the solutions that the current commission had recommended but l.b.j. wanted to fund the it not so this ties into another topic government spending out of control we see that a lot on the t. o. d. in the military side all of these things kind of fit together so why do you. think it all do i'm good i'm going to probably inadvertently. agree with the mission make her happy is that you know because we don't have a real discussion about health care in america is tied in also to what's going on with what the police should and shouldn't be doing here so i have to put their list change gears here i mean how much what is our political language going to change

when trump leaves if that's in january or 4 years from january is it really all about trump because as much as they hate the left vilifies him he has such an amazing. bottom line to top it for them to go. after i mean this ratings ratings ratings it's wall to wall go after the president and of course he convinces people that hate trump but i don't think it really helps our our our conversation about politics because he's a man he's more like he's not going to always be with this when a lot of the problems we have in the country we are with in the going to get worse and i really wish you would stop focusing on that one man and talk more about policy as we have done on this program you know i absolutely agree with you there and there are a lot of things that i. inadvertently take credit for it even if there even if there are comments from the left that i think existed in america for presidential

candidate president trump credit or you know for racism or hope for peace the taliban or these other instances that we've seen for generations also for trump ever came into office along with or in some cases trump with you know court into this world so i think that we have to look at this from the vantage point like you say he's not going to always be here whether he wins in november or doesn't end the day i think that there has been a seismic change in american politics in american diplomacy specifically it not only about how we talk about each other in terms of our some politics but also the ways in which the bailout that this recall and a lot of heat anx to come out it has gotten beyond policy and i think that you know you kind of brought up in your introduction earlier but for every you know policy is what matters the most when i recognize from talking to people on the streets is that this is the type of thing may get spokes going they're not going to sit home and read the policy pretty soon they're not going for any any person who's running for office what their specific policy platforms are just aren't you know in those things are accessible online or when they're caught fast or other things about and

that's just not something that's in the regular form of things to do for me or and every day it's just not happening what they do latch on to is these nit picky when i think that donald trump tapped into very well might be that politicians before him did as well was to note how people interact with each other and what. a lot of what gets their attention the most to donald trump's credit i think because he came out of that reality is he because he came out of the entertainment world he knows how to work and i think he uses that to his it in the same way that we honestly saw 7 bill clinton do it in the ninety's he also knows how to work a crowd so i don't necessarily think that working a crowd is a bad thing i do think that we are in the air and politics now blaming all social media and if people knew that was where people say things that they would not by saying in public. at all and i'm not sure that regardless of who gets in a november this november or 2020 or we're ever going to go back to an era of stability in politics i don't think that's ever going to happen regardless of who

is running on either side i think we have had a watershed moment in this country that is built largely because of the anonymity that we've seen with you know the by other things on social media that we're just not going to come back or you know i guess it was just serendipity that you know we go back to reuters is there a duty on my part to think about the civil war because if we just you know what i mean if you just said they're going to doesn't give us cause for optimism ok i'm sorry i'm not very optimistic i think they're ok but what i really i really truly lament is that on the issues of like health care about policing and things like that if you take all of that toxic charged rhetoric i bet you could get a lot of progressives and conservatives and don't say yeah i agree on the so it's how do we get this done see if you take out all of the toxic noise i think a lot of people actually agree on a lot of things but what good is a mission to be in here and i agree with there is that there is kind of cherry picking to set people off and you know what when you said to people well you lose

the conversation about policy go ahead lori well i think that's an interesting point because one of the things that has changed is people used to be applauded when they did trying things that they could come together on saying work across the aisle pass this he says i partisan legislation we saw that dynamic. even through a couple of years ago and now what we're seeing is that when somebody on one party groups to work with somebody across the aisle on an issue they're instantly labeled a sweet air or call a traitor and dick cheney doesn't matter baier yeah yeah yeah that's an element that i think it's relatively new and that's going to be hard to overcome i think that even in rehab these these very partisan periods before there is always certain topics you know i work a lot in veterans' affairs and that was always something about me to be bipartisan about helping veterans and that's gotten very highly polarized politically toxic lately so to your point about if we could just get rid of the rhetoric i think that is the $1000000.00 question of how do we get to

a point where we can strip that rhetoric out and that's a separate conversation from some of the actual issues that you were talking about 6 health care supreme court police etc reason focus 1st on how do we get rid of that rhetoric and quite frankly i don't know the answer right now i think you do it all the answer either but the 3 of us have an excellent conversation and i'm looking at you know looking at myself no one's hair is on fire we're making some progress color a fire because they're going to put in by the way but yes in washington and they did and i want to thank our viewers for watching if you don't you see an exciting remember awsome.

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