Canter and former governors jim hodges of South Carolina and george allen of virginia hosted by college of william mary, this is about an hour and 15 minutes i. Thank you very much and we onhave an incredibly talented group of people to give you hopefully some real perspective you havent considered before on topic today, let me introduce them one by one, first the president , madame president of the National State legislatures representing illinois, senator troy hutchison. [applause] United States senator and former governor of the Common Wealth of virginia george allen. [cheers and applause] [music] the former governor of South Carolina jim hodges. [applause] former majority leader of the u. S. House of representatives eric canter. [cheers and applause] and finally a former Senior Adviser and deputy chief ofch staff in the white house for george w. Bush, the amazing karl rove. [applause]. I want to have you alllo exploe what it is at the federal level, what is at the state level that has made government so dysfunctional and problematic. How, looking forward, are there ways that all of you can help get past that. I graduated from college in virginia. I went right into my first job and worked for the virginia stateoa legislature. Talk about dysfunctional, first republican governor had just been elected as a democratic and wanted to be the democratic dominant. Capital square was a war zone just to walk between the Attorney Generals Office and the governors mansion. The phone rang while i was at the state capital in the press room and i would be interviewed to be a network correspondent. In 201,974 after four years in virginia, i go up and abc news sends me into the white house up north one, just after president nixon just left. The only president in history to resign. Talk about constitutional crises. Talk about times of when the american segment of our society being torn apart from the vietnam war watergate civil rights. Let me ask each of you now to come upom with some ideas or thought. Im going to go out of order and start with governor allen because im sorry, governor of South Carolina. You come from a state that is now not only reliably read in terms of voting for the democratic president ial primary can be decisive for the democrats. Talk a bit about not only your experience as governor but your experience of alk national safey cochair of obamas campaign. Thank you for choosing me first. Its great to be here. I enjoyed last nights presentation as well. Ye as you pointed out, everybody believes the time they operated in was better than whats currently happening. It seems like its different for people going out there. I think my observation, growing up in a small town north carolina, seeing some of the changes that occurred, i have an appreciation for while we have the trouble weav have, we are ia country that is politically divided, roughly 5050 when you look at elections and how people are in generally every election, which means people have starkly different views in our country. If you think of what weve been through in the past decade, you understand peoples lack of institutions. Weve had worse, the great recession, we have a situation where people were over 60 scoring jobs that seemed more permanent and now they are not. We loose defined benefit plans to sometimes retirement, we had people with increases for periods of time and you go through the list of things going on that Rural Communities in our country suffered a great deal. I think you begin too understand some of the issues out there and people lack of trust t in the institutions to solve this problem. St Corporate America or banks are elected officials like us, many of them believe they are down and they have a lack of confidence. The new attitude that, i know this is been talked about, we used to have some of this conversation around the three networks provided her with the newspaper provided in terms of news and now we have this dispersed opportunity to get what we wanted andnd we have the ability to shout out what we dont want. I think more and more people are choosing avenues where they have views and reinforce rather than being educated. Understand why things are harder now than they once were. He stacked on top of a system and it seems to be designed around keeping things from happening. I think is a good reason why things work better, every state has to punch pass a budget every year. You can jamt a lot of things io the budget and teachers pay raises and the environment and criminal justice and things are important. It makes states seem more functional. In many ways they probably are because they have to get these things done to keep things going. Your colleague, george, thank you are not always government but you had the experience of what democratic and republican Governor Legislature but you come up in washington and youve got the washington experience as well. You want compared the pace in the u. S. Senate when you got moving at the pace of a slug. Wounded sea slug. What . Well, thats true. I did say that. [laughter] generally, overall i look at our country into society and how i grew up which was in a football family. Everyone, regardless of background or release has it equal opportunity to compete and succeed on a level playing fiel. I like to see action to end things done. My first maiden speech in the senate was on behalf of a judicial candidate, roger who was in your Previous Panel on the judiciary, judge of the circuit of appeals, we met with him right after i got sworn in and he had been nominated by president clinton at the end of his term. Nothing happened but he was on the bench. The republicans were in control of the senate. President bush was soon to be inaugurated a few weeks later. Mike and i and chief justice, that is you, good. Thank you. Judicial recognition and anyway, i talked with the candidate to see what his philosophy was. I was so proud to listen to hime earlier today. I was glad to see everyone for plotting of his commitment to the rule of law and the constitution and Representative Democracy. I ended up, when i went in to see him, i was skeptical. I got to know him as a person. His qualifications and capabilities and my first speech on the senate floor was senate colleagues, rise above politics and process and so forth and judge Roger Gregory as an individual. Remember carl said was a fine speech you make on their and i said, i talked to him and i may be wrong but you all are to interview him as well and you will be just as impressed as i was. Even bush renominated him and others and it took forever to get the senate to vote on it. The most opposition wasen from fellow propositions. It doesnt matter, with got enough folks. One of them said im still upset, clean nominated us. Said, juste and i vote. Just take it to vote. We finally got the vote. Justice Roger Gregory was the first africanamerican to serve on the Circuit Court of appeals. I used that for that final vote. That desk is Jefferson Davis desk. Why dont you get, i said hey, by the way, im going to give a speech and we are going to finally get a vote by the first africanamerican on the Circuit Court of appeals and i will give the speech from jeffersons desk. Young mr. Thomas said, thats really cool. [laughter] thats how the senate operates, very slowly. Things need to be done as a federal government to get done. They need to have a balanced budget. Its a priority. You cant say yes to everything. Set priorities. Theyre going to be propelled. The federal government that finally has a balanced budget. Second, they need to get back to basics. Its awful. Wed be watching people when the government shutdown, government workers and im thinking, my goodness, in the real world, if you dont get your job done on time, you dont get paid. I think members of congress . Their salaries are to be withheld if they dont get a appropriations done on time and get back to the basics. [applause] and at the state level, we need redistricting reform. They are to be choosing their readers rather than politicians picking their photos. Thank you. [applause] as far as i know, you will run for office. Youve been there demonstrating my superiority. When you look at that ballot between the legislative and executive from your experience in the white house and campaign, what do you claim for that kind of dysfunction . First of all, thanks for having me. Second, i would do grave damage tose governors reputation by largely agree with him. We have a disruptive moment in american politics where the parties are at each others throats or doesnt seem to work where we are going through a populist moment but the good news, weve been here many times before. The first time there was a physical altercation on the floor of the u. S. Congress was in 17961 from griswold of connecticut went at each other and pulled out of the fireplace and the house of representatives chamber. We have this moment before. The probably went home on the first day of the meeting of the house and said to his wife, his got a fantastic temperance. Honey, you cant imagine what ba bunch of morons we have. This has been happening continually. If we think its bad today, there are times that its worse. Everybodys sitting around the fireplace singing kumbaya. Wegi had one. In 1889 and 90 were for five and half months, of the legislators option, the house of representatives doesnt have a single bill in the first nearly five and half months because democrats in the minority announced they will not answer the rollcall and by doing that, they will deny the house business. It takes a u. S. Supreme court oe five andnd half months if this doesnt shut it down, we dont give a crab what you will do. We will not allow business in house to move forward. This is continual, i think. We will have to work our way through this. I think one of the things thats required to work our way through is to have leadership at the white house that basically rises above the normal backandforth. We came into office in 2001 under slightly difficult circumstances, there was this thing called florida and as a result, bush was compelled to make sure his colleagues on the democratic side understood he was the president. So the first number of the house he met with was george miller, ranking democrat on education labor so he could talk about his education reform in the first member of the senate he talked to was not the republican lead leader. It was senator kennedy because he wanted to send a signal. One thing i learned in the white house, personal relationships between the president and congress, even with members actively and that cordiality. The president cannot run into this. He has to rise above it and be the adult in the room and take whatever hurled his way. Kennedy said july 4, 2002, bush lied about iraq. He knew that was a lie. He came to the same conclusion that bush and gave a speech and said we need to remove it by diplomacy, not force but he was the guy who kicked it off. That didnt keep bush from holding his plan, trying to set the record straight without getting personal and working closely with kennedy for three years. The president has to be that person. Its not an easy job. One time i got a call and he said i give a speech, i didnt read it beforehand, i just wrote it. I called bush a liar and a loser and i didnt mean to call him a loser. [laughter] tell him im sorry. I said well, senator ive got a schedule here, he doesnt have anything on his schedule, why dont you talk to him yourself . Hes like [laughter] but thats the job of the president whether they like it or not. Relationships matter. I cannot tell you how many people came up toti me and say,a couple of them said, if you told me id spend more time under a republican and democrat president , i would have laughed at you but i did. Thats because bush understood being able to look at a somebody as a human being and not some cut out you bought on amazon of your political opponent is seeking take them all to meetings and break them to their face. Its not often i get to say madam president. Madam president Tori Hutchison and also senator, youre here today representing state legislatures. Gi there is a sense among many people cap may be state work a lot better in terms of bipartisanship of the federal government but what have you seen how do you deal with both sides of the aisle, whats the secret . I had a secret i could sell, i wouldnt need to be doing this. A lot of people have mentioned this, National Conference in the state legislature, 7383 legislatures across the country and theyre both democrat and republican. You could have a conversation with somebody for ten minutes and go, are you using or not . As opposed to what we are seeing across the country now where if you tell me you walked across the street, wait for the light work rules and order, if you cross the middle of the street, he might be libertarian, dont tell me what to do. You could look at everything through a partisan lens right now. We have rules and procedures and things put in place that you cant go around. A budget has to be done at a certain time. There are constitutional things that say you must do this at this time. That requires conversation and participation in a way we dont see when its constant like a rolling counter that never ends. We are all alluding to the personal relationships. A if ive known you and i know how long it takes to get to the capital and i know who just had grandchildren and whose diagnosed with cancer and i know why you ran for office, its difficult for me to stand up and call a liar and unamerican when i disagree with you because i know you. We are missing personal relationships with people or people talk about the oldti days we had ronald ragan saying they fight it out on the floor and tear and drink afterwards. My home state, our president makes it a point to have everyone over the course of the session. Every night we had dinner with somebody. The first thing we kick off in our senate is a joint dinner between democrats and e republicans. The very first thing we do after settling office. We add the fact that we are ocnot talking to each other and living in a place where everyone is screaming at each other but nobody is talking to each other, thats exacerbated by social media loop and echo chamber. That leads into the way ourre elections work which never means we never stop campaigning. If you never stop campaigning, its almost impossible to govern. So what we seek right now is endless loop all the way aroundf states to operate different than the federal government. One is closer to home and because we have procedures in place that makes us have to accomplish things by deadline. Fly out unanimously, no big issues, very quietly. Kind of understand that is not democratic or republican water, its just water. When you notice somebody in a kyle, you say i heard that you did you know you would have those conversations . That is earning 10 of things we do that are partisan arent significantly partisan. They are because so much of our National Issues nationalized our state policies at a local level. Theres a danger in that. In theit water can become republican or democratic water. We all know we need infra structure. Hard to be professional without infrastructure. Because of the things that didnt used to be partisan, endlessgh loop in right now, ste legislatures across the country that are determined to know has to compromise and work with their parent and understand you can be polarized but still get things done. Th they can speak differently about things. Polarization doesntt necessary have to have people realize. Gridlock is much harder at the state level. Li thank you. For the only one on this stage has been majority leader in the u. S. House of representatives. Talk about time to get things done. From your perspective, what you think maybe has worked in the past and how important is that relationship between members in the house of representatives . First of all, im not so sure theres one secret that will be of ales thatall affect our system today. I would say there is some validity to what thede senator s talking about in that process to know your colleagues, especially those on the other side of the aisle. Its very tempting right now to assume almost in a way like a posture of entrepreneur policy where you are in competition with the other side and ready and voted every day given the incoming results, attacks and whatever it is coming from the other side. I wouldnt overrate that element and maybe you call it social diplomacy because a lot of us grew up in that Ronald Reagan myth and reality back then about everyone getting along and having a drink at the end of the day together. Im not so sure, i think we be disappointed if we rely on that. First, maybe incrementalism, right now incrementalism is very underrated because in this age of no compromise, by definition, incrementalist progress as a comp mice. I think you need that in order build trust and respect among colleagues in a legislative body so you almost have memory muscle that its okay to work with other people thought may not come from your perspective. I saw in the federal lever in congress, this individual probably doesnt want me to take this right now but i can tell you i had a great working relationship with joe biden. He on the other side of the aisle as Vice President , when i was majority leader and we had a relationship where you can pick up the phone, call him and because weve had experience in working almost working matters. When we earned that kind of trust between each other, when it came down to it and if you recall the debt ceiling days and everything, wewe had to understd we would tell each other the truth and we could deal with it one way or another but there was no mucking around about it. I dont want to say no bs but it was a great productive relationship so second, the temptation right now with things being so binary, your side or the other, the temptation is i think to want to assume what moves the other side and assume that youre going to get their vote or not and the assumption takes the place of any real conversation. We saw this on the republican side of the aisle, break strongly in the original days that president Obama Administration and if you remember, it was right after the financial collapse and the economy was giving 400,000 a month and obama said he wanted to do a bill and was dubbed the stimulus bill and in the end, i was there at the time so i took the brunt, republicans didnt give up one vote for the bill. If you had one of the administration here today they would say, we were bipartisan but as we inserted things in the bill thatt your party originally supported. Theres no excuse for you to not support. We are all political creatures. Leadership in the congress of the time has the obligation to look for priorities that aren membership had and our constituents wanted so we could go back and tell them and instead of a productive dialogue, there was an assumption made. T second, rather than engaging its probably an ale youou could probably easily repair. Last, the importance of remembering, this is something for me now in the commercial and business world, its very different because it comes naturally. You got to find a winwin situation if youre in business. You have to. Yo you got people who need boats to say winwin. We have to remember that in the political context because every single policy maker elected official, he or she will go home er and believe me,o the individual doesnt want to go home and say hey, i got taken to the cleaners on that deal but i voted for anyway. Thats not happening. Its my wayay or the highway, yu win its very difficult to see how you make progress. It dominates the discussion online, its a difficult thing to achieve right now when what we are really talking about is winwin for everybody. You wanted to add something . I never told you this but i had an interesting experience october 2001 who reflected on your visit to the cabinet room. We were supposed to have dinner in d. C. And he said carl, would you like to havehe dinner with Larry Summers . I said yeah, but he wont want to have dinner with me. He said no, hed love to meet you. Well, were sorry. We had dinner. Larry summers and his wife and he spends most of the dinner talking about the economy and im like, what was that all about . I want to show you the smartest guy in the room. In the evening, he says 11 publicans to vote for the bill, to zero. I think there was 11 in the senate. Let me ask you a couple e estions i said, were you in the room and the cabinet room when the president said to cut off the republican options by saying, i won . Her and heh, i was said did you see anything wrong with that . He said no, we went. Did you ever contemplate taking emings out of your program and asking for moroccans what they would like to have he said no, we have the right package. I said did you ever go to capitol hill and meet with the republicans and say what you want . No, we had National Economic council is made a decision what was best for the economy and i said why should you should be surprised nobody voted if you didnt give them au seat at the table . Sometimes step back and say ok okay, they may have some of your ideas but will put in your thing. They have to do that even with little or no anticipation of getting your vote. Saying i won, are not going to Pay Attention to you and this goes back to what tori said, you have to have them to deal with people as real people and sometimes the best is, no governor was forced to do it, you have to put in the side over the other side wants. I thought it was the dinner took place in a Korean Restaurant in washington d. C. Nobody is ever reflecting on this showing Larry Summers was not really followed around by the press. He did have an armor and suv i never saw. Ive told everyone that any card was a cheapskate. They were not allowing them to have portal reporter particularly if youre in the National Economic council. P he talked about gerrymandering lets start with governor allen. The question was on gerrymandering. Gerrymandering and we have one prime example on some of the problems in washington and in government generally, you need to listen to the other side. I learned a lot as governor in virginia and how they have to pay for genocide, something i knew nothing about. I wasnt an issue, i listened to people. Its best if you actually run an election based on agenda and ideas if youre given the honor of serving, keep your promises and that helps. There was another bill, we had to dig a democrat idea on that. Educational standards and juvenile justice is a prime example. We had a whole commission on juvenile justice, they treated it like they were feeling dumb. So we have this commission to make them safer and some juveniles are very dangerous. The democrats had another mission that looked at how you could turn kids around. Theres a structure in their life so they were ready for a big confrontation. Ours versus theirs. I said yours know, our group was looking at the dangerous areas. They are looking at the ones that can be turned around. Why dont we bring out the best of both . Take the rest of their ideas to turn kids around that needs structure and discipline in their lives take hours passing 95 two or Something Like that. On gerrymandering, the problem now, computers are great but they, these districts that legislatures are worrying about as a primary. They are not worried about the general election. Theyre getting knocked out. You have a majority leader from our commonwealth of virginia, he gets knocked out on the ri primary and he was accused of being in the Obama Administration. Then with all because you cortez in new york, theres that same fear and part of this is because of redistricting the politicians create these districts that are districts. I got hit by when i was in congress for 14 months. They probably should have left the district alone they wouldnt have had to deal withh that but its from so, the worry is, can i when my primary . Towards a situation that carl or eric or governor is talking about where you find a consensus, thus the consensus or compromise. We need to have districts that is more compact, they are stating, so many precincts. People dont even know who they are voting for. 15000 people divided into three senate districts. So who is responsible . One of the three senators in our district. In virginia, this has to be solved at the state level. Supreme court made this decision. Virginia has a really good process going on right now. You all past this and its outstanding. You need at least one from the others and if you pass it again next year, it goes to the voters fore ratification and it is absolutely essential to get it done next year regardless of who is in charge so we dont have in virginia federal judges unelected and commissioners from uc irvine drawing legislative maps here in virginia so the states need to take the lead. I like what virginia is doing. Other states have done it different. I think the virginia way is outstanding and festival. The legislature has to prove it. When i think about gerrymandering, i have an older brother in 1984, told me that he would be Ronald Reagan because everyone he knew was running and i told him, you need to get more out more often. You might see things differently. I think about gerrymandering in those terms because the perspective i have about this, i think he talks about a number of important points about gerrymandering but heres the thing thats most important. I have colleagues tell me when im legislature that they didnt believe poverty existed in South Carolina. I thought you know, you would be better served living in a district where you have rich people and poor people, corporations where you had to learn to navigate dealings with all those different constituencies. Found over the years, the best legislatures which im sure is true in virginia, they serve communities where they have to deal with lots of different issues and to navigate that politically and ballast those interests. I think that is the big danger of gerrymandering and how wee. Ho that. We are homogenizing districts in a way that people can communicate effectively and people dont understand whats going on in the state. The times we are in our sort of different, too thin when this first started. Since ive been in the legislative body a long time ago, 1991 was when i first started in the house of delegates and i tell you, if you look at what happened today, i think the figure is if you look at the senate of the u. S. Right vew, only nine states out of 50, only nine have a divided delegation means there are republicans and democrats together serving that state which then tends to say hey, its not gerrymandering in the senate, this is self electing. If you also forgot, i think its less than a quarter of the population of the u. S. Actually lives in a state where theres a divided government in the legislature. In a way, people are beginning to sort of live with or think like people they live with and choose to do that, which goes to the point that george made, if you stick to the priority and to be in Community Representatives and really make it so youre trying to Pay Attention to global boundaries, you naturally force to try and have an individual that can take into consideration more than just one thing of looking at things. Erofo this is a huge issue. We had a convention on and we studied it. I think wee are talking about te districts and when theres area mentoring conversations when i look at the congressional delegations versus whats happening in the state, whether or not there will be intervention, for get back to the states eventually. Right now, i grew up in a district in illinois were on paper it doesnt look like i should be a senator at all. Most people would assume they would have an all africanamerican district. White people can represent everybody but black people can only represent black people. I ended up having to learn to have conversation and listen better, harder and more. Talk to various people in ways before i was elected, ito didnt even know i have that muscle. You are forced to listen to people who do not look like you and district passing stop that. If you have an entire district for you only have tot. Deal with your base of people, you never have to gore outside of those things. You never have to think about how anyone else lives. Then you come to the body and youre faced with this reality. How do you negotiate with somebody you are supposed to be there with . Its really difficult. Theres no such thing as a negotiation. There is no trust if i dont know you. We talk on a regular basis, legislatures across the country and they are going to be in nashville, tennessee. When legislatures are charged to do what what we deal with, so many more things today, its going together that would have worked 20 or 30 or 40 years ago. There is this selfselection and people are moving in two places that they are comfortable with and they share common ideas with and all kinds of things. Theres nothing necessarily wrong with that, its just that its happening at the same time in the way we receive our media and information is also selfselecting. We can stay in our own bubble and stay in a place in his own glory listen to ideas that reinforce what we always think. Remember being at a meeting and i said who in here wants me to tell you the truth . The minute i Say Something you dont agree with, you start dropping. Thats the difference when youre campaigning, i need smiles and laughs and applause. When im done, i need to talk to people i dont agree with. I need to be in a room where people think different than i do. I cant do that if theres no benefit to my constituencies for them seeing me do that. You dont get a benefit for being bipartisan or compromising. You also havebi the large cognitive dissonance when they say at the same time, we just want you to get things done. You sent me to kill them but i cant negotiate or kill them or nothing. Nothing is happening. Weve all been so frustrated and we end up with these systems where most people will talk about having heat the institution. They note their person. They like their person. All politicians are liars. [laughter] we like you, youre doing such a great job. So that gets reinforced and shared and goes from facebook to instagram to twitter, its always really kind but also kind of heartbreaking when i walk in somewhere and they say, i enjoyed talking to you. I didnt know you thought that way. Or, i disagree with everything you said but i appreciate the fact that you said what you just said, ill give you a ten. Those encounters are being more and more aware because we are able to come back into our own corner and when i see another person, when i look at you see another person, imha hoping im not wondering whether or not, whether or not your democrat or republican, etc. You are a human being. Worthy of having a discussion with. My heart hurts where we are today as a result of that. I dont know all the answers to that but i do know its worth continuing to fight about and debate. Its worth being in the arena to try to solve it. Its the only place its going from. If that works, its in the states. I want to turn to [applause] want to turn to a question and we start with karl, is that communications, people finding their own comfort zone, cable news, internet sites, the influencenf of the influence and morning newspaper, is it the fault of media . I tend to blame the digital age these for changing communications. Technology is the enemy. We must take all the machines and break the internet. [laughter] restore electricity and turned back to a more faithful age. Social media is corrosive and bringing us back to a time where we cocooned in our own sources of information. On the other hand, weve been there before. The country began in an age which we got our information primarily from newspapers almost exclusively. There were party organs controlled by politicians. Off he went with john adams and he wanted to be rewarded with a cure in theio state department o he could continue writing hefty salaries. Then he proceeded to write the first editorial. Jefferson was higher than he. When we went through this c age, is technological change. Think about t the moment in the 1840s when suddenly information began toth be shared instantaneously across the country before it took weeks to get something from boston to new orleans and the telegraph brought about theea instantaneos National News network, if you will. Talk about the technological change in the 70s and suddenly we have a proliferation of every kind of newspaper. There are 13 daily newspapers in the city of new york in 1896 which is down from the previous side. Again, youre taking the information he wanted. Imagine the revolutions of radio in the 1920s and television in the 50s. Our entire countrys history has been one for how we receive information and process information, how we can check sources and authenticity challenged by the change in technology. I will admit, this is the most great change in technology because social media in particular is coerced into vulgar and coercive. The internet is such that one of the founders of a moderate Republican Party and he said she sendss around 200 blue haired republican women house and most extraordinary, Alexandra Cortez is the son of alien from mars. But thats not true oh, okay, ill send out an email to correct that. This goes on all the time and you have to worry a bit about it. I dont know thero answer but it is corrosive, theres no ifs, and or butts about it. We have to deal with it. T. I look at the internet is the greatest invention for the dissemination of ideas of information. Individuals, represent a democracy in the government and the people. The people decide. The reason newspapers are dying and there is biased information for free on the internet. The human beings have a provision, reporting to marge turns into problems and editorials. Even before all of those wonderful milestones in history, if it werent for the gutenberg press, who would have read those 95 Martin Luther nailed to the church in gutenberg . They got that idea out. It is a great baptist. I believe in jeffersons view in the first freedom of religion where drivers and said whether somebody believes in one god, ten god or no. God doesnt affet my pocket so religious freedom means believe what you want. But the internet, social media has changed compared to the newspapers, the letters to the editor, now its anonymous. Theres this hyperbole into media on top of it in the headlines, its now click bait. The more click bait you get, the more avenue revenue you get in. Its not just theil bloggers who do that, its all of them. Mainstream media. There is no proper. Itself freedom. People need to recognize just because its in the newspaper or on the internet doesnt necessarily mean its true. You need to trust but verify. We are about to see this go to the next stage when you got video that will be put together and make videos that go in and if you think its difficult to convince people what they arehe reading about aoc is not true, imagine the difficulty in telling somebody what they saw is not true. We are going to get to a point in a system of accountability. Theres a cautionary note in here about reforms. John mccain and his colleague and democrat fromm wisconsin enshrined a provision that said if you put an ad on the internet, you are not required, if you pay for advertising on the internet, you are not required to have this. You dont need to put your disclaimer on the today. We face not only the deep fakes of some kids sitting in a garage in suburban denver but in 2016, one of the main drivers of the internet were a group of kids and i think montenegro who figured out if they made up weird views on weird websites, it would be very conservative and manufactured information from public sites and they could get Advertising Money from putting up the website and driving traffic to it. The click bait might have only been 22. 50 a day but that goes a long way there. We are facing an International Threat to not really the trolls in st. Petersburg but we are facing 2020 likelihood that the chinese, koreans, north koreans and nonstate actors will claim the american elections as well as russia. So are you going to to really do that but the government is trying to remake it. You have a committee and facebook and other have to make that information public so unlike television or if you buy a bunch of tv ads, the providers know about it, now i want that we can allc so figure out who is that committee anywhere are they really registered with commission or are they a bunch of gr you trolls are a bunch of chinese agents trying to interfere with our elections . They are investigating all of this kind of stuff so we dont just indict 33 people, more just doesnt indict 33 people. I do think we are online product with the disruptive nature of what technology does. We are getting information the way we get it, thirst journalistic standards and now we have this new ability to say what you think. We dont have to verify any of those things and i dont think our slander i dont think this is where government will be able to do it. Its going to be absolute and i believe we are going back to the kinds of Disruptive Technology way back when centuries ago that society figured out a way to hold people to account. I think its going to be more marketbased. He got people out there now taking algorithms and trying to set veracity and i think will have a system that will develop out of the market. Any government that gets involved, you pick winners and losers. Things can be true but the exact same thing. We all need to be either or. Its one of those things where we must act. The government needs to require transparency. One of the largest twitter account hacked in the election course tnr ep. Tennessee robbins. It is run out of st. Petersburg. Our government did not find out about until afterwards in the private sector, they were the ones who allowed to set up in the Republican Party cap sank to twitter, this is not us, they refused to do anything about it. Its a soviet and russian its fraud. There are to be tools to allow private individuals but more importantly, the government to sanction people i think you are violating the law, impersonating a state political party. The problem with all of this, you begin not to trust any of them. You think everything is fake news. New york times, theeete weathere things you see on the internet, we have to get our arms around this. Nobody believes the information they see is real. We cant even agree on common sense of facts as to what problems are because of all the things going on with the internet. In the very humans we have left, could each of you come up with an idea or two of what not only government can do to change what he called uncharted territory, how dangerous it has become but come up with an idea of what not only governments might be able to do at any level or what the American People need to demand of the information and leaders they put out. Parttime legislators. I think one of the things about congress is it has become such a fulltime occupation that the people in congress dont have a chance to really engage as much with their colleague, and i think theres a lot to be said for a parttime congress where they spend more time at home feelings with people, talking to people about problems that exist in the community and went back to the system we had in the 50s and before. Thats one things that pretty good so as minor as it might seem, i think the system for State Government have where they spent a lot of time at home and shorten their careers, too. They get rid of their conditioning like in 1619. The question is, what can the American People or government due to get past this period of dysfunction and hostility. If you look at the leadership level in terms of legislative bodies at the state level or congress, i always say wera need to start seeing the practice of weaning together again so at tha legislative level, take an issue that may not be the most consequential issue but established pattern of working together. Norms or stop trying to go in and break up the norms every single day we wake up. Because theres actually some value in some of these institutions that have developed, and they have developed based on what the subject of these several days are here in williamsburg celebrating jamestown, it is those pillars of democracy, that balance of power, the notion that we dont want mob rule, which is what you got online we dont want mob rule which is what youve got on line right now directly impacting policy making so somehown there needs o be an intervention. Karl rove. Now ad ware started on agreeing with with toi hutchinson. Our legislature meets for 140 days every two years but we pay them 600 am month and brockerae every single penny we pay them andha we like every other state have a balanced budget requirement. Hheres the other thing we ougt to try to figure out how to do and this will surprise you. We doe not organize and we have not for 50 years organize the Texas Legislature on a partisan basis did when i moved to texas i moved from Richmond Virginia packed up and moved texas i went to work for the senior republican in the legislature. He was one of 13 out of 150 members of the house of representatives and he had been a Committee Chair tray today we have 88 republicans and a majority of the Committee Chairs in thehe house are democrats. When i moved there, there were three republicans in the state senate out of 31 and one of them was a Committee Chair and today we have 21 republican state senators in 10 democrats and we have Democratic Senate chairs. So i dont knoww how we get thee but we just pass the state budget. 1473. When we when every state had to cut its budget we had to cut hours not for future growth is based future growth of state spending we had to cut our biannual budget from 110 billion to 100 billion for the previous biand implicated by 9 . Past the house of representatives 1490 because the 1 members were working withn a limited time concerning 140 days. They were not organize on a partisan basis and wed fight over t partisan issues but let e say one other quick thing. Are going to we get out of this mess until we have different leadership and its probably not going to be until 2024 that we have both partys nominating somebody who says we are all in this together its the politics of the gilded age that i mentioned earlier. It was terrible. 20 years of divided government two years of republican and two years of democratic. To presence lose the popular vote. The third present with a majority ofa Electoral College and the popular vote but nationwide popular majority is 9000 votes in an ugly politics makes today look like they are singing come by yesterday was reading a debate in 1984 on the tariff measure and one democratic excoriates a member of his own party the former speaker of the first democratic speaker of the house in 19 years by calling the thief and a liar for having broken party rights p ranks to support this free trade measure and winning finally spiegel speaker rendell said ive had enough and repeal to the chair in the chair declaredia the gentleman from georgia out of order. He turns to thed former speaker and said i would not. [blank] you if youre a dog int four letters you can figure out what the word was that this was the part of the times. Before this reform minded president who they never paid any attention to break the deadlock 32 years of republican domination mark by a enormous. Bipartisan cooperation. Its because there was a change in the tone of the leadership at the top which matters a lot. Toi hutchinson. I was going to go to statesmanship many we need one person. I do think our body politic needs to reward statesmanship that when people think about why you go in Public Service in the first place, general conversation about the political discourse is another one of those loops. We hate government government doesnt work and we are going to participate. If all we are going to do is yell and scream we hate government because government doesnt work. Its an endless loop and i do think when youre having your own conversations at the dinner table and your families and everybody has a crazy uncle that says say to that to say that thanksgiving dinner. You know hes going to Say Something crazy. Today those kinds of things are splitting up whole families. They are changing neighborhoods and blocks. Like i cant talk to you once i find out what i think you believe politically right now. I just think in this day and age right now if we dont start to as a populace deal with the fact that our institution was created for a reason they need to be protected because they are fragile, they are fragilee. Democracies and as long as we allow this corrosive discussion to happen amongst all of us across the country that government cant be a power for the good andle we dont need people to come in like representative of democracy is somehow fallible in and of itself because people are always fallible. Theres only one person he los me completely and conditionally who i knewi we would do anythig in the world to me thats my mother and i dont agree with her all the time. I just dont. She knows that and i know that in our families know that. So looking for the person you agree with 100 of the time and anybody who opposes you is now the devil, this constant delegitimization of the opposition that we can even have come you cant have a debate with someone who i would acknowledge even has a genuine premise that i can argue from, we allow all of ourselves to do it at home. We do ite in our living rooms. We do it well may come from church. We do it all the time. It has been no surprise that when you show up and its election time and the ad start going and all the stuff starts spinning i that its in our pubc consciousness that this in and of itself is an evil institution so what im looking for and i hope we do is remember there is honor in Public Service. Theres there is a reason to go into Public Service. This is for some of us are calling and for some of us its a thing that we are supposed to be w doing when you care about something bigger than yourself and bigger than your own bank account your own neighborhood, bigger than you. Something that honors the Public Service and as long as we keep behaving as though the entire political system isnt even worth saving then none of us are going to fail the come together to solve the biggest complicated problems we have. We know we trust the institutions we have that are designed to solve those problems. Its time for us to start protecting the institutions we have right nowow because they ae all of us. Governor alice. All righ, cleanup. Thank you. [applause] i think any leader or anybody who cares to lead needs to lead by example in various areas that you can find common ground. Governor hutchinson and i were together month ago. He coauthored an oped that appeared in the South Carolina papers in support of United States mexico canada trade agreement. Its good for america. We need to be interconnected. Trade is good for jobs and our competitiveness so all of us whatever role is whatever state legislatures congress or elsewhere need to show that effort. The other message from this week in its remembrances trusting the people. Government closest to the people Representative Democracy is creative to protect our natural rights to freedom of religion and freedomn of expression for men and women ownership of property the rule of law where you have fair adjudication of disputes as well as protection of our natural godgiven rights. The states are those laboratories of innovation and democracy that is closest to the people. We can learn from mistakes. Everybody talks about washingtons dysfunction. Everybody talks about the 49 states that have a balanced budget requirement. The other thing is the folks who are Public Servants need to be in touch with the way normal people work things and honestly if members of congress do not get the one thing they are supposed to do done on time withhold their pay. People will say and i guarantee you they will get it all done on time. Thats the way it is in a row world so we can learn from mistakes. We can put in those structures of at the federal level. We can get a government that is reflective of what we the people want butpe ultimately its we te peoplefo and what we should inst on for competitive states in our competitive country from the very beginning until now until the future. If you want to be successful in your competition for jobs that innovation, Public Safety youve got to be willing to change to innovate and improve. Standing still will get you put behind so we the people need to be propelling our Public Servants to be willing to change and adapt innovate and improve and always advancing freedom and opportunities for all. And this is your panels way ofy saying we all depend on you as well as public citizens. After all, the powers in your hands. Please thank this remarkable panel. [applause] this is the story of how this whole new economy was built and ive always been really interested ever since i was working in washington and how business and government interact with one another. They have an antagonistic relationship and they also have a collaborative relationship. The real story of American History as one of public or the partnership in many ways and ways to sometimes are unseen and so this was a think the story is a great way to get into that. Thank you for coming out this morning. Its an exciting time at the Internal Revenue service. The mission mentioned are commissioners coming on his oneyear anniversary. We have got a lot of new people on constitution avenue in washington. The irs is hiring. There are a lot of new people