so strom thurmond, south carolina. at that time, he was a democrat and he was governor of south carolina. correct. or was he senator by then? that is correct. now, he was he was governor of south carolina at that point. and later, of course, a long time republican senator. but what was his role in the convention? he did not really have a significant role in the convention yet. but what happened was the the democratic governors had met right after harry truman had proposed civil rights plan in early 1948. and they had drafted a report on the kind of the condition of the south, what south should do in, this new situation. and thurmond was selected to to draft it. so he did that and it came to the forefront of attention then and after the convention then the democratic convention the folks who thought that there should be a third party effort held a convention in birmingham just a week or two later. birmingham alabama. so thurmond was there. there were other governors, a few other governors there. it did not get the suppo

so strom thurmond, south carolina. at that time, he was a democrat and he was governor of south carolina. correct. or was he senator by then? that is correct. now, he was he was governor of south carolina at that point. and later, of course, a long time republican senator. but what was his role in the convention? he did not really have a significant role in the convention yet. but what happened was the the democratic governors had met right after harry truman had proposed civil rights plan in early 1948. and they had drafted a report on the kind of the condition of the south, what south should do in, this new situation. and thurmond was selected to to draft it. so he did that and it came to the forefront of attention then and after the convention then the democratic convention the folks who thought that there should be a third party effort held a convention in birmingham just a week or two later. birmingham alabama. so thurmond was there. there were other governors, a few other governors there. it did not get the suppo

before he died, strom thurmond had the largest black staff in america in the united states senate. voted for the civil rights act. things change. we are dealing with a totally different breed of cat kid the civil rights era was terrible but we have a group now that is literally and i'm not one prone to hyperbole but we have a group running, the maga republicans who have an antidemocratic attitude toward the way the constitution functions. they have virtually no regard for the constitution. first speech i made, when i got elected, when i got the nomination i spoke at independence hall. . i said are very democracy is at stake. it is not hyperbole. our democracy is at stake. about what happens if donald trump were to win this election. think about what it means. he has made it clear what you want to do. he is not joking about it. he is deadly earnest. he wants to change the way in which the so-called fake -- of the constitution are honored. you so what happened when those folks broke through the capital and told police officers. he calls them heroes. he wants to release them from pris

that with, like the southern strap it was going to be attributed to goldwater wallace even like strom thurmond before that? yeah. i mean i think these guys all i mean mccarthy was a very different sort of creature. and his his following was kind of north northern white ethnics. and it wasn't there was some ethnic stuff going on. but yeah, i think these guys view their politics as a synthesis. they viewed wallace as as a big precursor. they were very big fans of nixon's adoption of, the southern strategy, and that was buchanan's analogy said, well, we took some things from wallace, so why don't we just take some things from duke to. i think that they said all of those approaches, what they were going to synthesize in the right wing populism that they wanted to make. i do think what's happening in the book is that it's less a southern than a national strategy. so some of the things that were once, uh, purely regional now become national and like you have, you know, this makes sense because now you see confederate flags in places where the confederacy never was and where, you know, some of the pl

and how do you square that with say the southern strategy attributed to goldwater wallace or strom thurmond before that? >> yeah mccarthy was a different sort of creature in his following was up north and there were some ethnic stuff going on there but i think these guys give their politics and wallace is the precursor. nixon's adoption of the southern tragedy in buchanan's analogy that well we took some things from walesa what one that we just take some things from duke to? i think they said all of those approaches intensified in the right-wing populists. i do think what happening in the book is less a southern than a national tragedy. some of the things that t were once purely regional have now become national. this makes sense because you compare flex in places where the confederacy never was from the place like in pennsylvania why were confederate flag fared makes no sense. it's because politics were national. >> i was thinking about this idea of the romanticism theme in the godfather movie and it ties into that scene in part two and even the anecdote that you ended with the woman talki

that with, like the southern strap it was going to be attributed to goldwater wallace even like strom thurmond before that? yeah. i mean i think these guys all i mean mccarthy was a very different sort of creature. and his his following was kind of north northern white ethnics. and it wasn't there was some ethnic stuff going on. but yeah, i think these guys view their politics as a synthesis. they viewed wallace as as a big precursor. they were very big fans of nixon's adoption of, the southern strategy, and that was buchanan's analogy said, well, we took some things from wallace, so why don't we just take some things from duke to. i think that they said all of those approaches, what they were going to synthesize in the right wing populism that they wanted to make. i do think what's happening in the book is that it's less a southern than a national strategy. so some of the things that were once, uh, purely regional now become national and like you have, you know, this makes sense because now you see confederate flags in places where the confederacy never was and where, you know, some of the pl

1948 we have this kind of three- way tie, truman, dewey and strom thurmond was also running on the ticket. on a different ticket, the dixiecrat ticket, so here we have three different polling organizations, so we went from literary digest and gallop to now journalists driving the story, so we had because we hearst newspapers doing polling in 1948. we had gallop still in business, working with 100 independent newspapers and we had fortune magazine kind of doing polling at the time. three different pollsters all polling in 1948. all three polls had a lead of dewey of five points leading into two weeks out and gallup had 50,000 interviewers, riverhead 15,000 interviews, all were saying the same thing. everyone is consistent. if we do a poll aggregator they are all saying the same thing, therefore that streets. turns out right, i'm relying on that, that's the fellow i was supporting earlier and his [ inaudible ] basically most voters decide who they're going to vote for during the conventions so they thought with a five point lead and dewey two weeks out, nothing could possibly change. maybe

impact forum where students brought on campus speakers that were very controversial at the time, strom thurmond. you can imagine the outcry of the local media when students brought these speakers on campus but my predecessor affirmed to the principal and we live by that principle to this day so think about that pillar one, open free-form expression. pillar number two. civil discourse. by that we mean we are members of one community that treat each other with respect and come together as numbers of the living earning community to try to convince each other through arguments and reasons that are based on fact and that have a commitment to a each other to listen and learn from each other so when our students arrive on campus, they sign a pledge, we call it the community creed that is signed at the same time as they sign the honor code to remind everybody that this is a crucially important component of what vanderbilt university stands for. the third component is called institutional -- institution neutrality. codified and identified and named originally by university of chicago in the 1960's. the

today in south carolina, my wife and i we went to the strong thurman or the block excuse me, when strom thurmond the blot peace and are only campus a universe south carolina full of volunteers. they were there assuring us around, making sure we got there correctly. no long lines shout out to them. but this isn't rocket science. we see it on x every single day. what elon musk has created with they've created is this echo chamber whereby people just come online and simply say, oh, it's hashtag too big to rig or they're doing this or elon will say something in quote, tweet something that is the most far out conspiracy theory ever in simply say, community notes, is this true? and we know that my five-year-old know that it's not true and the reason that they're doing this is to sow distrust in the elections. so that when kamala harris actually has the most votes on november 5, you see the tweets that say i have sources inside the campaign from a random god who doesn't exist, who doesn't. no one has ever talking to like, it's, it's all about sowing distrust so that people can say that kamala harris di

so 1948, we had this kind of three way tie truman history and strom thurmond was also running and on the ticket, on a different ticket, the dixiecrat ticket. and so here we had three different polling organizations. so we went from literally digest in gallup. so now we have the different again journalists driving the story. so we had the crosley hearst newspapers doing polling in 1948. we had gallup kind of still in business, still kind of working with 100 independent newspapers and we had wolper and fortune magazine kind of doing polling at the time. so again, three different pollsters, all 1948, all polls had a lead of do we vote five points leading into two weeks out and all announced him as the victor. right. so gallup had 50,000 interviewers. roper one had 15,000 interviews, all were saying the same thing. everyone's consistent like we'll get if we do a poll aggregator. they're all saying the same thing. therefore, that's truth turns out right. and i'm relying on that. they're relying on the word that's all as long. so that's the fellow i was quoting earlier and his long politic

we've had these figures in american history, the huey longs and joe mccarthy, strom thurmonds, but notabout nothing. after the riots, after the attempted insurrection -- and by the way, even people running donald trump's campaign after the insurrection called it an insurrection. but now, oh, much ado about nothing. so what's going to happen if they arrest nancy pelosi, throw her in jail? how many republicans will go, yeah, that's fine, because she said bad things about donald trump. what if he shuts down cbs news? do we have any confidence that the people that have heard these threats are going to really give a damn when he starts rounding up people who have said tough things about him? >> there will be a few lonely republicans and that would be it. and we all know their names. they've whitewashed january 6th. they've down played what happened. the rupert murdoch-owned "new york post" said trump was fundamentally fit to hold office. again, today they endorsed him on the front page. kamala harris will be in texas today doing so. trump will be as well. a congressman from that state, coli

votes winnig 28 stas and thomas dewey, 45.1%, 22 ml votes, 189 electoral votes and 16 states and strom thurmond, 16% of the vote and 1.2 million and 39 electoral votes of four stay south carolina, mississip, louisiana and alabama and henry wallace, fourth candidate of note. 2.4% of the vote, just under 1.2 million votes, 0 electoral votes and 0 states. voter turnout about 51%. pretty low. >> yeah, yeah. i it was pretty low. there's actual a school of thought in the world of political sciencece that the negative campaigning works to a degree, but it has an effective voter turnout to some degree. ... iowa, states that he had won, ohio. he had won in 1944 and did not win in 1848. he blamed the vote and good reason to think that contribute today that and truman was just a more down to earth kind of guy. he grew up on a farm. he understood that life in a way that franklin roosevelt did not certainly from experience and he wasn't being prosecutor or governor actually had a dairy farm so he engaged to farming to some degree. truman was credible spokesman and those were states that -- have counted on a