and jim ceaser, professor of politics at uva. next we'll hear from john halpin, senior fellow at the center for american progress. finally, matt spalding, vice president for american studies at heritage foundation. so, e.j. >> first, it's great to see so many people here. happy holidays. to those who celebrate them, merry christmas and happy hanukkah. i want to thank my friend bill schambra for putting together what is a genuinely fair and balanced event. which doesn't always happen in washington. bill and i have been agreeing for about a quarter a century on the importance of community and disagreeing about what progressives make of the idea of community for about that long. and it's just great to be with him. i just want to say something about each of the panelists. sid milkis's book on the 1912 election, absolutely everyone should read. on the way over here i was remembering the series of books. some of you may be old enough to remember them. they were history books for kids called landmark books that i think random house put

i want to salute jim ceaser for doing such a good job on behalf of the party of evasion because the party of evasion claims that the biggest problem fashioning our nation is a budget deficit, whereas the party of reality understands that the biggest problem facing our nation is the growing concentration of wealth that has afflicted us for almost 40 years. the party of evasion tries to argue that -- tries to protect the very wealthy by saying that elderly people who need health care in an increasingly expensive medical system are the source of our problems. the party of reality argues that the budget deficit has to be seen in the context of this economic inequality and the difficulties middle-class americans are facing in a new world economy that has added literally 2 billion people to the global labor force. i could go on like this and i'm perfectly happy to do so. i think jim underscored something that's actually very helpful for us. which is why did barack obama give this speech in osawatomie, kansas. and he gave this speech, i think, because he wanted to redefine what was the central i