about a year and a half, moved to new york and came in contact regularly with bill buckley and frank meyer and brent bozell, intellectual giants, james burns abraham, tried to be like them and read everything, wasn't making a lot of progress what one point i made a conscious decision to focus on direct mail, we didn't have enough people like buckley who could write an debate but we had some, we had nobody's it could market them to the country. i had a wife and two babies and i said i think i've got something here that will change america, maybe change the world but i don't know it, got to study it. no diapers and no trash, no yardwork, she bought into it. for 7 or 8 years i made a deep dive in marketing and direct marketing, direct mail. the microphones of the country in those days, conservatives message against blockage, new york times, nbc, abc etc. couldn't get a message out but starting with direct mail we could go around this block into people's homes and that changed everything. i can make a case ronald reagan would not have gotten the nomination without direct mail, john conno

so you want somebody that occasionally gives in and you have a conversation with a and i bill buckley famously said he was a conservative, but not of the breed on saturday night, he's hanging out. john gilbert, truman capote, etc. . i am of the breed. i'm a my faith catholic. and as long as most catholics have been going to mass, they're not quite sure. when you stand up, when you kneel down, whatever. i can sit in the front row. i know, i know. at any conservative meeting to applaud when i am one with the audience and that makes a huge difference. i'm a i'm a true believer. many of your letters and those of us who have been involved in the media or politics over the years have received these and they're often one line paragraphs and then three or four pages, and they repeat. what's the effect that. the one of the many reasons why like direct mail is don't have to guess does this work for that work because we take a million letters and we split it and have 500,000 get this appeal, the short paragraphs and 500,000 get the long paragraphs and it's been tested billions and billions of le

for about aab year and half i moved to new york, and i came in contact very regulate with bill buckley and frank meyer and brent bozell and intellectual giant applicant james burns and accountability and a bit of thing. i thought, i was a make a lot of progress so at one point i made a conscious decision to focus on direct mail. we didn't have enough people like buckley who could write an debate and all but we had some. we had come nobody that could market them to the country. so i literally went to my wife. by then i had a wife and two babies and i said honey, i think i've got something that's going to change america, maybe even change the world but i don't know it. had to study. could i be relieved of all household duties? no diapers, no trash, no yardwork or she bought into it after seven, eight years i made a deep dive in marketing, direct mail. if this with the microphones of the country back in those days, conservative message went up against the blockage, "new york times", abc, nbc, et cetera. we couldn't get a message out. we were the tree that fell into force. we could go read

you have aon conversation with t and bill buckley famously said conservative but not greed.favorite is catholic and as longic as they're not quite sur, i could sit on the front row and i am one with the argument and it makes a huge difference, i am a believer many of your letters and those of us involved in media or politics over the years received things and one line paragraph three or four pages they repeat. >> i don't have to guess, does this work or does that work? we take letters and split it in half, 500,000 short paragraphs and 500,000 the wrong progress and it's been tested billions and billions of letters a good long letter will pull in a push letter. scan it through and look at this and look at that the longer, he would never give a salesman giving a refrigerator but you can speak 200 or 400 words, you speak until you make the sale so short words. if you read the new testament, jesus words are almost all one and two syllable words, very short words and short paragraphs. follow me and etc. mom runners but short words and sentences and short paragraphs. at my age, i

i'm a second-generation conservative, fourth-generation bill buckley, barry goldwater et cetera. 100% of second-generation conservatives, phyllis schlafly, falwell, myself et cetera. before we were conservatives, first we were anti-communists. that is m the glue that held the movement together in those days back in the 60s and 70s, 80s. >> what was that moment for you when it came to direct mail and mailing lists? you are visiting the national review office. >> i was fortunate i had two weeks summer camp national guard military base outside of chicago and first we were there for the two weeks everybody goes into chicago, richard stays in the barracks and small add about an inch or two for the for field directors, americans for constitutional action and it did no longer exist, but i had a friend who worked for the national review, a journalist, a writer so i could hear the cannons y and the guns going off in new york and washington. it was starting and i was desperate to get into the battle and find the global left in america. so i called my friend and said to david, i've got to get on

as bill buckley said in the "national review" mission statement, let us stand to thwart history yellingtop at a time when no one is inclined to do so. that is my riff. we'll get a report what is doing on the house floor in just a minute as matters unfold but first up joining me now, my old friend, mark levin, the great one, host of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, "life, liberty & levin." i like the pursuit of happiness too. on fox news, author of "the democrat party hates america," one of many best-selling books. mark levin, welcome back to the show. let me start with the book, it is so apocryphal what is happening today. one of the things i love in the book, your notion, your idea, that democrats quote want to be transformational, which is another way of saying they don't like america. if you don't like america you don't want to transform it, you might improve it, provide economic incentives, provide more opportunity but you dope want to transform the entire thing yet you hear this over and over again from joe biden, mark levin. what is up with that? >> you know, larry, i h

i'm reminded of a retort the late great bill buckley deployed in a debate when his opponent tried to have both sides of the cold war. he said, quote, that's like saying that the man who pushes a little old lady into the path of a bus is morally equivalent to the man who pushes her out of its path because they both push little old ladies around. if you want to know where this leads, take the american bar association. the organization that acredits our nation's law schools. at first the aba presidents called, quote, on both sides to show restraint and urged israel and hamas to, quote, settle their disputes in a peaceful and legal fashion. alas, but yesterday aba denounced israel's self-defense as, quote, collective punishment , forced displacement, and ethnic cleansing. mr. president, terrorism and self-defense are not morally equivalent. they're not morally equivalent. and you think the leader of america's higher education would understand that. some leaders in higher education have argued in recent days that schools should not weigh into political disputes. it is said doing so picks