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

and behold made this is these more equal and so it's not a policy problem and that goes back to huey long i mean obviously he longs a complicated figure who i do not want to endorse without 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 a political obstacle 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 the debate we can have about what we really do want our social model to be. and what we wanted 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 minds go to our website of conversations with great minds dot com. and that's it for the big picture tonight as tom always says democracy begins with you get out there get active tag you're it we'll see you next week. with. science technology inn

you know, communists had a lot of support, and there were the extreme right wingers and louieand huey longpopulous views. i think economic uncertainty will increase the demand. another factor, which is operating, which is not limited to the economic situation at all, is that the growth of the electronic media have--has fostered extremism of all sorts. the problem is that people who used to have really extreme views on anything they didn't realize--they didn't think these views were widely shared. they evidence they were widely shared. so they were embarrassed about putting them forward. now every group has electronic community to support it. we occasionally get cases involving the nazis, klu klux klan white supremacist, really strange fringe stuff. it's very small, but if this are thousands of people who want to, you know, worship hitler, they find each other on the internet. they become a community. they reinforce each other. that's at the macro-level. at the larger level the people, the extremists, radio hosts so on they reach an audience, people who may have felt they had no spokesman,

huey long once said -- will call anti-fascism. what do we call this hard right in the country? not conservatives. they're the ones getting hit by the hard rightward swing in politics. last night in texas a cheered on hero of the right beat governor perry's candidate and can't be stopped. suddenly conservatism isn't right. you've got to be on the fringe that believe same-sex marriage is the work of the devil. and another neocon race towards armageddon. what happened to the party of lincoln? of ike? of reagan who put his whole heart into eliminating nuclear weapons. who thought the key of politics was tough negotiation across the aisle. not this crazed gang of the right who want nothing more than for government to fail so they can climb up to the capital dome, pound their chests and lead the charge for the victory over the remaining democratic opposition. to help me, john hileman and washington post's rising star malika henderson. went from 2% in early polling to trouncing texas lieutenant governor david dewhurst last night by 13 points in the race to take on a democrat for the u

huey long once said fascism when it comes to america will call itself antifascism.onservatives. they're the ones getting hit by this hard rightward swing in republican politics. last night in texas a cheered on hero of the tea party right beat governor perry's candidate and now can't be stopped. suddenly conservatism isn't good enough. you have to be on the farout fringe, where people don't believe in abortion, where same-sex marriage is the work of the devil, where government is bad, another neocon race toward armageddon. what happened to the party of lincoln? of ike? of reagan who put his whole heart into eliminating nuclear weapons. who thought the key of politics was tough negotiation across the aisle. not this crazed gang of the right who want nothing more than for govement to fail so they can climb up to the capitol dome, pound their chests and lead the charge for the victory over the remaining democratic opposition. to help me, john hileman and washington post's rising star in fact already star knnia-mali henderson. ted cruz went from 2% in early polling to t

huey long once said -- will call anti-fascism. what do we call this hard right in the country?ones getting hit by the hard rightward swing in politics. last night in texas a cheered on hero of the right beat governor perry's candidate and can't be stopped. suddenly conservatism isn't right. you've got to be on the fringe that believe same-sex marriage is the work of the devil. and another neocon race towards armageddon. what happened to the party of lincoln? of ike? of reagan who put his whole heart into eliminating nuclear weapons. who thought the key of politics was tough negotiation across the aisle. not this crazed gang of the right who want nothing more than for government to fail so they can climb up to the capital dome, pound their chests and lead the charge for the victory over the remaining democratic opposition. to help me, john hileman and washington post's rising star malika henderson. went from 2% in early polling to trouncing texas lieutenant governor david dewhurst last night by 13 points in the race to take on a democrat for the u.s. senate seat. and it was a vi

you're sitting in a room right now where the famous senator from the great state of louisiana, huey long an hour, many a meal. roosevelt campaigned off the back of this train in the early part of the 1900s. there were 10,000 private train cars. everyone that ran for the office did it off the back of a train. this was the cnn of the day. where you talk off the back of the train. grassroots. people could feel and see the politician eye to eye. >> you refurbished it. >> i took the whole thing apart. make sure the train runs off biodiesel. refurbished everything. and put what you would call state of the art electronic, behind the walls you can't see. >> you're here in tampa. will be in charlotte too. >> correct. >> you're bringing this train because of the symbolism. >> it is symbolism here. we go to each convention to give our speech out there. to let people know, hey, we love you out there, for one, but let's get back to what is america all about. america works. america is real. >> well, of course, the whistle stop tour isn't the only thing in danger of disappearing in american political l

not for the purpose of guaranteeing senators light straw that thurman war huey long did the right tofore the senate and prevent that said from the great thing. a mechanism 11 existed previously to allow the senate to end debate and bring matters to a vote. in 1917 and is true today, the united states said cannot act one is a majority is ready. he must save an investor than a little group of men representing no opinion of their own have landed the greek government of the united states hopeless and contemptible. i am given the the history, one per year. the fourth. the current senate rule allows the sun above or. it shifted from to. of a set that precedent voting beening had to be president and vote. if you upset it yourself and there were only 51 senators present. when you watched it all go away, you had to have a quorum and votes to vote. that is what led to the filibuster. it complex with the they are pass by the house, the senate, they must pass a second time by two there is a vote. it upsets the checks and balances. it allows the minority to prevent the majority from exercising it

be -- not for the purpose of guaranteeing senators like the late jesse helms or strom thurmond or huey long the right to hold the floor of the senate and prevent the senate from debating, but for providing a mechanism where none existed previously to allow the senate somehow to end debate and bring matters to a vote. wilson said in 1917, and it is true today, that the united states senate is the only legislative body in the world that cannot act when it majority is ready for action. he said then and it is true now that a little group of willful men representing no opinion of their own have rendered the great government of the united states helpless and contemptible. i've given you the history, one per year in the first 30 years after the cloture. the current senate rule allows the silent filibuster. that is the result of the 1977 amendment which shifted from two-thirds of the senate present and voting which means you had to be present and vote. if you ab sented yourself and there were 51 senators present, 26 senators could change the rule. when you went to 60 votes, then you had to have bot