newly released book twilight of the elites america after meritocracy let's get back to it chris huey long back in one thousand thirty four said rather famously this was his is you know every man a king who spread the wealth of speech he said it is not the difficulty of the problem which we have it is the fact that the rich people of this country and by rich i mean the super rich will not allow us to solve the problems or rather the one little problem that is afflicting this country is refer to the depression because in order to cure all of our woes it is necessary to scale down the big fortunes that we may scatter to the wealth to be shared by all the people now if you go back just sixty years in time harry truman when he retired from the presidency went back to missouri and lived a very modest life you know he has net worth was never even close to being a millionaire walter cronkite was making sixty thousand dollars a year doing the c.b.s. evening news. since reagan dropped that top tax rate down below seventy four percent there's been this explosion in the nature of elites in the united

reservation but it goes it goes it goes back to huey long what he was saying before about the obstacle isn't a policy obstacle the obstacles are political obstacles the question is how do we build a national conversation political movements political discussion that is going to dislodge that power that's going to open up the boundaries of of the debate we can have about what we really do want our social model to be and what we want it to deliver and you've done a brilliant job of cracking open that conversation in your book twilight of the woods chris thanks so much for being with us. thank you really my great pleasure to see this in other conversations of the great lines go to our website conversations with great minds dot com coming up after the break billionaire casino mogul sheldon the ill son has pledged unlimited donations to mitt romney's campaign is that the end of democracy when billionaires can funnel unlimited sums of money into politics no questions at all that more internet ads big picture rubble. more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images seen

well you know huey long talked about that at some length back in the in the early part of the twentieth century and he got pretty popular for i mean he basically said let's put a cap on wealth period let's you know somebody as i recall his first proposal was five million dollars which today would be about fifty million dollars and he was like you know anybody who's got more in that. it goes to the government and it what does the government do with that money destroy it redistribute it to all the poor people so that everybody comes up a little bit and lets just like kind of balance things out it was actually very popular his every man's a king speech. i can't imagine it happening today though. that's it for your take my take tonight if you like your comments and questions here in this segment the big picture listen up we want to know your take send us your comments by visiting the tom hartman facebook page via twitter at tom underscore her or in the chat room on the message boards or through the blog at thom hartmann dot com you can also leave a message on our rant line at by three six f

his great enemy was huey long, and huey long was going to run against fdr as a third party.. so he became very important in government, and the people around him -- what's amazing about zamuri, everybody connects to him. so he starts with his ripe ba an as, and you wind up with fidel castro in cuba. tommy the cork corcoran. bob la-follet, all connected to zamuri and jerry wine traub has this thing, says there's always a guy. and sam zamuri was the guy or the guy behind the guy behind the guy. and my father who wrote this book when i was a kid called "you can negotiate anything" i felt like zamuri was his idea in action. power is based on perception. if you think you got it, you got it, be even if you don't got it. and that was it, he was a guy with literally zero. and it would be the equivalent of a guy pumping gas at the exxonmobil station, 25 years later he owns exxonmobil. that's basically what the guy did. >> you know what is amazing to this story, about samuel zamuri, the sub plot of the story, and it is the ublted fruit company. this one company, with its tentacles in

. >> look at you, huey long. good lord. i have something good for you next.he has a new address from the oval office on the daily show. you can't miss it. what happens when classroom teachers get the training... ...and support they need? schools flourish and students blossom. that's why programs like... ...the mickelson exxonmobil teachers academy... ...and astronaut sally ride's science academy are helping our educators improve student success in math and science. let's shoot for the stars. let's invest in our teachers and inspire our students. let's solve this. >> you remember fondly the daily show invited herman cain on and >> the crisis. >> okay, so reports have come in that nicholas cage has stolen the constitution of the united stes. look into that camera and convince nicholas cage to give that constitution back. >> nicholas, bring back our constitution. i respect you, cage, but get a grip. i have instructed the united states military, the fbi, the cia, to do everything in their power to bring that constitution back. >> okay, sir, i have an update. good

the ghost of huey long rises.ver where there is a factory being shut down by the candidates. i have been critical. >> don't tax. he tags the man behind the tree. >> i only make a point that romney needs to be more serious about this. the country knows that today is momentous. if the court strikes it down, where do you go from here? i think that's what the country wants. >> we need to have a more serious campaign and all mitt romney's fault. it seems to me as mika -- it's important because we are not belittling your team. we are belittling you. >> listen to you. >> i'm joking. >> mika said people call this the seinfeld election. there is no seriousness on either side. >> not in a keep and fundamental way, no. there is no fdr and reagan. even in a weird way it is more of a process election. either side has been willing to say we are going to throw our arms around simpson bowles. everything. joking aside, every election has to be framed as if it's destroyed. it's armageddon. >> as you told me earlier this week, this