Good evening. Thanks for coming out tonight. I work with the events here at this store in the half on the honors things for coming out. We just have a few logistics please turn off your cell phones or put them on vibrate. We are recording this event. The way it will work we have an hourlong presentation half given to the speaker the there have to your questions. We have one microphone over here and so it can be caught on the recording. Please follow up your chairs that will be helpful we will have the signing immediately following. It is my pleasure to welcome to politics prose, we love having events like this with the discussion better often not talked about. Or are considered taboo witches religion in politics and we will talk about both of those. And from the book he writes the reasons that is generally acknowledged by conservatives to be true. Because of the polarized nature with both houses controlled by republicans one has to wonder the Progressive Social strides made in recent years and to offer a comprehensive look at the flash points of culture in our nations history to demonstrate it is not unprecedented. Said it has been integral to shaping of what it means to be american. Studying religion from harvard in complex currently professor of religion he has other to a wellknown titles and other Media Outlets including npr and has been on the daily show in the cold air report called their reports and Everybody Knows them even though they are no longer on tv. [laughter] [applause] thanks for coming. I am glad to know that politics is a taboo subject here in town. [laughter] but this is lovely to be back in washington d. C. Where i have a first job after college as a doorman it is now called the renaissance hotel. So let me start with a great question from admiral stock daylit the vicepresident ial debate of 1992. Why am i here . [laughter] and why are you here . [laughter] havent you heard the culture war is over . Just right after pat buchanan warned delegates the 1982 National Convention of a culture war was waged on the soul of america, neil conservative columnist remarked i regret to inform him that those are over and the left has one. In 1997 the New York Times reporter said the term culture war is anachronistic as a leisure suit if you remember that reference. [laughter] but more recently in a 2015 book and intellectual historian wrote culture wars our history. The logic has been exhausted in the metaphor has run its course. One week ago i was in spain visiting my daughter if anyone hears i am from United States they would ask about donald trump. [laughter] why is a businessman so obsessed with mexicans and muslims in menstruation or more broadly, why in the midst of the runaway economic equality and the threat of Global Warming are they so obsessed with immigration and homosexuality and abortion . Why is this selection in shaping up as a culture war election . This book started a few years ago during the ground zero mosque controversy whether muslim gentleman who owns a skyscraper near ground zero could be retrofitted to be an islamic cultural center. I was safely and to wish the surprised and disappointed that mainstream political figures on the right were opposed when it seemed those to bedrock principles were arguing forcefully for the ability to do what he wanted. Sorry started to look back on the history of these battles over islam in this case and now the contemporary culture wars 70s through the 90s like sexuality and abortion and i decided to go back further stowe to make sense of the controversy in that is how the book came about when i discovered the culture wars are perennial in American History as apple pie. Early americans were united in their hatred of the british and love of George Washington but after the farewell address 1796 he warned us about the mischief of the spirit of Political Parties americans turned on each other about the meanings of their nation. With free thought and polygamy and homosexuality and the saloon americans denounced their fellow citizens as enemies of the state and of god almighty. You might remember reagans culture war with the moral majority against the bad 60s as he called them but he had a precursor from the roaring 20s. The 1920 election featured catholicism aimed at the governor of smith but that was a recycling of the smears on catholics to god and country alike but the culture wars brought justin during but expanding their footprint in recent years the modus operandi had spread from cultural politics to politics in general. The term culture wars had a distinction between culture politics in ordinary politics where the religious and moral questions the stand on matters of absolute morality in biblical truth. So negotiation and compromise are difficult but ordinary compromise shouldnt me and in recent years this has broken down. As moderates were purged from both major parties in the institutions that benefit from Political Polarization became more influential. Those left behind fought life and death battles over to be resolved unanimously. They operate reserved for disputes over family values led to debates over marginal tax rates. This expansion of the footprint of the culture wars, has made politics even more polarized and more partisan. Why liberals win is an effort of religions to make some sense of this. First things first what is a culture war . They have four features. Public disputes as a president ial speeches, a president ial record not just a private argument at the dinner table. Second to extend beyond economic questions of taxing and spending with the religious concerns federal less amenable to negotiation and compromise and give rise to the meaning of america and who was not a true american so the soul of the country is at stake. There fuelled by the rhetoric of war driven by the conviction ones enemies are also enemies of the nation. The term refers to angry or violent disputes and to address the meanings of america. That is what i mean by that term. So i would get five episodes per cry could have picked more there are more culture wars in United States history than this but i look at five. The first is the election of 1800. As we had the last couple people have said these are the ugliest elections in American History, the most vicious this is one job that historians have they raised their finger to save there was an uglier one. [laughter] election in 1800 was deal uglier one pitted john adams of the federalist against jefferson of the democratic republicans. Jeffersonian paper called adams blind, bald, crippled and toothless, it went on to say and call adams this is something that makes you wish that donald trump was calling you low energy. This put down character which had neither the former firmness of a man nor the gentleness of the sensibility of a woman. Meanwhile, jefferson called federalist enemies of our constitution and their time in power a reign of witches. Alexander hamilton, some of you may have heard of him, hes the star of a musical. [laughter] but that saving the United States, but the key issue was jeffersons religion, was he is a federalist opponent for massachusetts said the great arch priest of infidelity, or was he has the connecticut current a federalist newspaper said, a believer and the koran. Obama was not the first president to be accused of being a secret muslim. The second culture were in the book, is anti catholicism of the early 19th and 20th century. The chapter starts with the burning of the convent outside of boston in 1834. It moves onto the philadelphia bible riots of 1844. They riots of 1844. They are dozens of people were killed. Protestants labeled catholics moral villains, theological imposters, and traitors to the nation. In other words, they had words, they had an ethical, theological, and a put political critique of catholicism is a danger to community, nation, and to christianity. The third culture were i looked at was antimormonism. This occurs in the United States both before and after the civil war. This cultural crusade was initially a critique of the book of mormon which appeared in 1830 as a fake it, and Joseph Mormon as a faker. He decided to dig up some fake gold plates and make him rich. It extended extended over time to questions of polygamy and theocracy in the utah territory. Mormons called their critic its on american, for warring on religious liberty and trampling on the constitution. They defended plymouth polygamy on sociological and biblical grounds. If you have read the Old Testament . Has anybody read the Old Testament . Youll find the Old Testament is in favor of polygamy. So this is something that was pointed out by mormons. Another person by the way who is in favor of polygamy was martin luther, some of you may have heard of him. He had something to do with the founding of protestantism. He was in favor of polygamy on grounds of biblical because he read this Old Testament. The latter day saints a church was an enemy of the state, they were perpetrating treason against the government. And a total subversion of some people said mormonism wasnt religion at all in what we talk about islam that islam is not a religious but its a financial issue. This culture war against mormons involved all three branches of the federal government. By president s delivered speeches against mormonism. The First Supreme Court was delivered against mormonism on the Supreme Court. The governor issued a an extermination order, ordering the death of all mormons in the state. And a mob assassination killed the founder of the most successful new religious movement in American History, joseph smith. The fourth culture were in the book is the battle between drinkers and teetotalers in the prohibition and reform. That was in the 1920s and 30s. Here, the evangelist billy sunday who is famous as a former outfielder for the Chicago White sox, when he would come to give his revival he will come running from the side of the stage and slide in behind the podium. He was supposed to be the fastest base dealer in the major league before he quits his sporting and boozing it became an evangelist. He denounced prohibition as the mother of all sins. She would go in with a hatchet and break up the saloons and protest against drinks, but this culture word was just not about booze, is a wider culture war about jazz, organized crime, the automobile, sex, racial mixing and the speakeasies that emerged in the 20s and 30s. The court tension here was between diversity and monocultural lists, people who formed culture where they were holding onto a unified path, a division of the unified nation versus multiculturalists, whose vision of culture was more centrifugal. People who thrilled to the increasing diversity of the country. The last culture i look at our what i call the contemporary culture wars which is started as i read them in the 19 seventies, and are still going today. These began, i argue with a 1978 irs tax ruling that decided that segregation academies that emerged in the south after brown v board of education and particularly after the Civil Rights Act of 1965, were no longer able to claim taxexempt status because they were designed specifically to undermine federal policy of education and desegregation. But, the issue of the culture war of this time quickly pivoted from this question of race and education to questions of gender and family. In other words from abortion to homosexuality, and to defense of the patriarchal family with its breadwinner, male. They also shifted from this rachel beginning to religion, the accusations that the irs was discriminating against religion, that it was a vehicle of unconstitutional attempt to process what proselytize including many evangelicals cleverly defined themselves not as bigots but as a victims of bigotry. Here again, we see two different understandings of culture. One sort of American Family, or many. Doesnt our work like the infamous artwork doesnt have one meaning or many . Is the United States a christian nation or in the words of president obamas first inaugural, it nation of christians, jews, hindus, muslims, nonbelievers. Is this a country where only one race is at home one races at home or is it in the words of frederick douglass, a composite nation. That is the form of the book that looks at these episodes. Along the way it makes a few arguments. I want to talk a little bit about these arguments and then i will i will open it up to you for comments and easy questions. The first argument i have already mentioned is that culture wars occur throughout American History. Inky compromises meant to smooth things over between the original states in the United States, the founders left unsettled key questions that would flow with discord and rebellion in decades to come. One as we know as slavery, another is the relationship between church and state. So americans have been engaging in the cultural equivalent of war at least since the elections of 1796 and 1800. New england puritans, the forebears from massachusetts, where i live likely played a rolled here by twisting got in government tight and transforming their america into a land of moralist, ever ever on the lookout for demons in the ranks. Whatever culture wars were prosecuted in the colonies were muted in the early national. Until as i said earlier, George Washington exited the stage and we were free to start going eddie other tooth and claw. So how then to these culture wars proceed . My second argument is that culture wars are conservative projects. Here i will leave a read a little bit of a book because i understandably greetings youre supposed to read a little from the book. So instead of summarizing the argument i will read a little from the introduction from this argument that culture wars are conservative projects. It goes like this. Americas culture wars are conservative projects instigated in wage disproportionately by conservatives anxious about the loss of old orders, and the the emergence of new ones. What liberals see as progress, they see is loss. They are willing to fight to defend what is already passing away. Culture wars are battles between conservatives and liberals over conflicting cultural, moral and religious goods. At a deeper level they are conservative dramas. In which liberty laws are merely props. If liberals. If liberals were not there, conservatives would have to invent them. Truth be told, they often do. There is much debate about whether americas recent culture wars began on the left or the right, almost as much debate as there is with what the terms liberal and conservative means. Many liberals argue that the 60s movement the new left are broadly construed lot the first shops of the culture wars. This this argument was also a staple among conservatives who blame the left for starting the culture wars by banning prayer from the public schools, pushing for for multiculturalism in universities, are agitating for feminism or black powers. Conservatives are defending their turf. I object object that conservative christians started the culture wars. Say what you like, we we are the indians, youre the settlers. A longer view reveals the conservatives typically fired the first shots in our culture wars. Anti catholicism and anti mormonism were not backlash movements against revolutions from the left, they they were right winged reactions to catholic immigration and the invention of mormonism. And to the moral, theological, social, and economic, and economic threats those communities post protestant power. The culture wars of the 20s and 30s were conservative responses to the rise of the saloon. Two masks drinks and interracial mixing and to the cultural pluralism brought on by rapid urbanization and urbanization. Many now view the culture of victimhood so visible on the right and bill oreillys war on the socalled war on christmas for example. As a culture of leftwing identity politics. This goes back much further to protestants who saw themselves as victims of deism in 18 hundreds, catholicism in the 1830s and 18 forties, and of, and of mormonism before and after the civil war. Those who insist that the contemporary culture war started on the left can point to radicals. Who wanted to bundling fundamentally transform society and in so doing resorted to a discourse of war. But they missed this crucial fact, cultural cultural conservatives do not need a revolution to go to work. All they need is enough change to activate the anxiety that the world is passing away. This anxiety anxiety can be activated by a cultural revolution, but immigration can also do the trick. Or Supreme Court opening, or talkshow host. In the call and response of the culture wars conservatives almost always issue the call, liberals do the responding. As cultural product jacks, culture wars are not just instigated by the right however, they are also wage disproportionately by the right. The metaphor war conjures up to relatively equal sides, blue quotes and redcoats perhaps advancing on each other in relatively equal numbers. But most of the shots in the concords in lexingtons of our culture wars were fired by those who have the most to lose. As the nation opened its borders to iris and i telling catholics, and its arms to gays and lesbians. To be sure the left responded in each case, and provoked skirmishes of its own but if you are looking for the infatuation of violence both real and imagined that characterizes the culture wars, youre going to find it more often on the right. It is the right that is enamored of the rhetoric of war, culture war is its invention and its signature motor politics. From the french revolution for, the rhetoric of cultural decline is the most characteristic and consistent way conservatives have expressed their conservativism. Its not surprising that they give voice to america culture wars are weighted heavily toward thinkers of the right. And then, lets see just one more paragraph. Many have attempted to reduce modern conservatism to antiintellectualism. But modern conservativism modern conservativism has, at its heart an idea. That idea is not states rights or individual liberty, or free markets, or limited government, or federalism. Over the course of American History conservatives have argued born against all of these principles. The big idea behind modern conservatism is this, form of cultures passing away. It is worth fighting to revive it. What activates this idea, transforming it into action is a feeling, this feeling is akin to nostalgia but it runs deeper and is more fierce. As americas first conservatives looked across the atlantic to paris, they saw the french revolution not as a victory of equality over hierarchy, but as a victory of chaos over order. They fear their own reign of terror so they fought to restore their beloved past, they turned fellow citizens who supported the french into enemies and they labored to banish those enemies from the American Family. Animated by this narrative of loss and restoration, modern American American conservatism has elected affinities with evangelicalism which often offers meaning of loss and restoration, plus souls and revivals and of Christian America stolen away by secularists. Modern conservatism has elected affinities with biblical narratives too. As adamantly look over their shoulders on their expulsion from eden as they mourn their loss and plot its reversal, they become their first conservatives. [laughter] so that is the argument that culture wars are conservative projects. With culture wars, and this is another argument of the book, are won by pluralists and multiculturalists on the left. Culture wars may be conservative initiatives but in the end, gays and libyans get married, a papist and infidel gets the white house, in any case those who declared war on jefferson, catholics, mormons, catholics, mormons, or the sins on the 20s or the abomination of the 60s goes down to defeat. By the way i do not know this when i started the book. I figured this out and i was was surprised by it as i was researching. I thought that conservatives were winning the culture wars because i live in massachusetts and thats what all my liberal friends tell me. That is not how it goes. So there is an obvious paradox here, culture wars are conservative projects but they are one by liberals. How can this be . There is philosophical reasons, it for example the constitutional of liberty would be on the side of the left, there are also practical ones because the nation is becoming more catholic, or more or more brown as the stories are unfolding. But the most important reason liberals win as i understand it is because their opponents attached themselves to the start of the mosque causes. From 1800 to the 20th century conservatives pick fights they were already losing, and once a given fight was over, surprisingly they had lost. Conservative mobilize against catholics only when it was becoming clear that the catholic population was growing too quickly to remain on the margin. They attack gay marriage only when attitudes toward homosexuality were gravitating toward acceptance of homosexuality. In this respect, culture wars are to quote from a Washington Post columnist, a revolt from reality, a cry against against what is coming around the next corner. This strategy of prosecuting us causes make no sense of the goal is to win. But that is not the goal of cultural warriors. The goal is to gain political power by preaching the gospel of salvation to the fallen and the lost. By demonstrating just how far america has descended from the founding and promising to recover and restore light now threatened with extinction. The strategy is to speak of losing just enough to keep the base perpetually girded for battle but not so much as to demoralize them. This way way the culture wars are perpetually rising from the dead. Rather than being killed by any given defeat, conservative culture war seems to be revitalized, a loss on man man marriage as Stephen Colbert calls it only underscores the conviction that the nation is going to hell and stiffens the result to fight the new enemy in the name of a new cause. To conclude, i see in American History a cultural culture war cycle, that propels the nation from one cultural conflict to the next. The cycle begins on the right with conservatives anxious about some kind of cultural change they are experiencing as a loss. The anxiety is different in the country in each case. During the election of 1800, federalists were anxious about the country falling into the french revolution chaos. Protestants were anxious about the ways immigrants were remaking their society. The anxiety catalyzed the man anti mormon war concerns the breakdown of family values. The drama prohibition and repeal is about alcohol of course, but it is activated by an anxiety about the blooming, buzzing confusion of modern life. In the contemporary culture wars, conservatives give voice to their anxiety about the browning of our population and with it the demise of white, christian, patriarchal america. Each of these anxieties that conservatives launch an attack blaming their political opponents for the loss they are experiencing ever threatening the health and welfare of the nation. After the first step in the culture war cycle, i dont know im telling you all this because what is there left in the book afterwards . [laughter] i should just leave like a cliffhanger like other steps in the cycle. So the next step is some sort of counterattack from the left, some kind of response from the left the next come some sort of accommodation. We tend to think culture wars as no negotiation, no surrender stances and there is a lot of truth to that. But typically the way theyre resolved is some sort of accommodation. For example the Catholic Church softened its stance on the separation of refusal to acknowledge the separation of church and states. Mormons give up on political me, so some so some sort of compromise is involved. And the conservatives lose and the liberals went. Conservatives lost on tactic jensen were clintons impeachment, on school prayer, on the efforts to kill the National Endowment of the arts, they lost on marijuana, casual sex, on the on the traditional family, on samesex marriage. But, liberals did not just when the contemporary culture wars, all the culture wars explored in my book with their way. The federalists loss, the anticatholics loss, the anti catholics loss, the anti mormons loss, prohibition was repealed. So this may all sound like women do, gloom and doom. If you are a liberal it might sell my good news, fear conservative it might sound like good news because one of the area of conservativism is that liberals are taking over the country and we need to fight with them. But i do see a little hope in the story that they tell in the book. One piece of it for me at least comes from the fact that individual cultural wars actually do come to an end. Culture wars as a motor politics seem to be perennial, individual culture wars and battles do get resolved. The the may and the conflict it typically leads to some type of consensus and that consensus almost always about some greater inclusiveness of a what america is and who are real americans. We no longer question whether catholics are mormons could be good good americans. The fight over prohibition is over. Gay marriage is now a settled law. If we look through the lens of this culture war cycle at the battle against muslims being waged against president ial hopefuls in this election cycle it is reasonable to accept that this too shall pass. Social conservatives will continue to rage over the threats posed by islam to the american way of life, but eventually these populations will become large enough and the american principle of liberty will resound loud enough, and Muslim Americans will be welcomed into the American Family as were protestants, catholics, and mormons. At, and mormons. At least that is my hope and prediction. Of course this path to acceptances usually marked with poisonous partisanship, with hateful language, and with lethal violence. Still, to look at our culture wars over the longterm is to see not only how americans have been divided but how they have eventually agreed however grudgingly to defend their nation in inclusive terms. It is no longer liberal to include mormons as fellow citizens, that sort of toleration is now an american value. Soon soon it will soon be americans to embrace gays and lesbians as her neighbors and friends. The time i not be too far off when americans will also agree with my spanish friends that efforts to exclude our muslim neighbors from the American Family are simply local. So those are my comments, we have time for questions at the microphone. [applause]. An issue that conservatives are quite anxious about rain or Climate Change. It does threaten to such an extent that some conservatives have just not talk about it or tonight. Im wondering if you can extend that to where we are now with liberal nations. How do do you see that play now . I know in the International Summit of Climate Change came out the main argument republicans gave it was that was a waste of time. Why are we going to talk about this non issue when we had more important things like terror at home to deal with. So it seems to me at least my perception that conservatives as represented by the Republican Party president ial hopefuls are ignoring the issue and they do not really see any good to be gained from us talking about it. For me, the way i understand the Climate Change question is it seems to me a matter of science and politics. But one negative affect of the Political Polarization that has come as a result of the culture wars is what the reverend Stephen Colbert refers to as truth ynez. It used to be that we would all agree on matters and questions of science and truth and then we would debate politically about what to do about it. But the culture wars have pushed back so far into our conversations that now it is legitimate to have a Major Political party and a major western power that does not recognize the fact of human induced Climate Change. Were the only country in western civilization that does that. I guess that is how i would connect it. Do culture wars, whats the relationship between culture wars and institution of established . Do they strengthen them or deteriorate them in your opinion . I think it depends on the institution. I think one source of the power of culture wars is that we now have institutions that benefit from them, right . Right . I think both fox and msnbc benefit from the culture wars because you get a culture battle going like the ground zero mosque controversy or donald trump is going to build a wall, or even tunnel trump himself and that can just draw people in to your new station to watch your news program. So i think that you do have institutions dedicated to the culture wars. We do have an institution now thats concerned about the culture wars and thats called the Republican Party. The Republican Party is in a pickle because republicans have benefited at the local and state level and even at the primary level from playing the culture war card ever since ronald reagan. It has become a reflex but as the country has changed and the demographics have changed, particularly with regard to the participation of africanamericans in our politics and latinos and hispanics, that becomes more problematic. So if you years ago you had so many Republican Party leaders saying we need to get out from the immigration question we need to pass citizenship, et cetera, but now we are in this election cycle and this stuff pops up. So the anti islamic push is usually come every four years when republicans are running in the primaries. Because they are useful at that level. Its important with any of these cultural questions to look at who benefits, what individuals, what institutions and i think one of the interesting institutions to look at now is the Republican Party and see how it is going to deal with the rise of donald trump and even with the rise of ted cruz. With the fact that this culture election was so many messages out there are messages that the Republican Party does not actually want to go forward. It is is really fascinating and those living washington to have access to the Washington Post it is really interesting to see them. Each column by george gets more and more matted. There really is this sense that initially it was a sense that the party was in danger of splitting. I think now the senses that party is in danger of coming to an end. I do not think that is purely a of apocalyptic. Im working on an oped piece talking about this one way culture wars and is that they just go out of business. Because it pushes so hard and a lost cause and it clearly is addressing a minority population that is increasingly becoming a minority that it goes out of business. We thought in the Federalist Party in the know Nothing Party which is very powerful in the 1850s. So that is not out of the question. But yes the congress the presidency, and our conversations about politics also affect a lot of different types of institutions. Im always interested, when a historian refers to the American Party as the know Nothing Party. Its not the know Nothing Party, they didnt call themselves the know Nothing Party they called themselves the American Party. There is everybody else who called them the know Nothing Party. Thats actually true with most political groups of most religious groups. The christians didnt call themselves christians, the Republican Party doesnt initially call itself the gop. The know know nothings is how they refer to that party and it started with force greeley and so im not going to apologies for referring to it as that. But they dont ever refer to it as the American Party. My question had to do with the current battle in the culture wars and that is the socalled gun rights advocates versus the socalled gun control advocates which does not seem to be one that the liberals are winning and how do you perceive that going and fit in with your general. To think thats a culture were question . The gun question . Yes. How so . Because theres different cultures have different attitudes. Urban versus rural, conservative versus. Yeah okay good. I agree with you. Its a little tricky tricky because it is a constitutional question obviously. And i agree with you. I i think there are issues on which conservatives and there are culture where issues where conservatives have one. The 11 that i would put ahead of the gun question is the role of religion in public space. So jefferson forward people who we now refer to as liberals have one of the public space to be essentially a secular space where religion would occur in the privacy of peoples homes in the privacy of their churches so people would not invoke religious reasons for public policy. That would be out of bounds. But the Democratic Party really went long with that. Once the Republican Party decided it wanted to be a religious party and the line with in the late 1970s and they wanted to bring more values and the bible, and jesus, something they had not done before. They had this one party and then they said look why are we the antigod party, that seems to be a not very good strategy. So democrats like Hillary Clinton and barack obama started to connect their Public Policies to the bible. Making arguments against, making arguments for Immigration Reform youre supposed to take care of the foreigner in your midst associate we take care of our the foreigners and our midst thats the christian thing to do. I think on that issue to conservatives one, i would believe that conservatives have one on the gun issue. Conservatives one on the era which is a culture culture war issue even though the Republican Party was in favor of the equal rights amendment for 20 or 30 years in the middle part of the particularly with betty ford who is out front with the equal rights amendment. Conservatives one on that. So it is not that liberals when every single time, but they would most. Im not sure how hungry to raise this, but certain aspects something we have all heard of called Political Correctness. I never heard of that actually, could you explain what that is. [laughter] okay. Im just kidding. Was seems to happen is many universities there is not nearly an attempt to disagree with one Political Party but to shut them down, to ban them from public discourse. There seems to be more a function of the left and a function of the rights. One example which is a canadian example is the human rights is that someone speaks of biblical verse against homosexuality they can be fined. It seems like theres retribution sun universities like Marquette University for that type of behavior. Is there a culture where were liberals are reverse in their own sense. And let me ask you something. What you think they affect of the complaint the Political Correctness is . In other other words, what is the goal, when one complains that all those people are just enforcing, whats the operational effect . What i tell you how it affected me. I believe in free speech for everybody. I dont believe in political retaliation, i dont think people should include its their job. What i see political question doing is enforcing a dialogue that people lose such issues as freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Of course i want to hear of other side but i cannot approve of anybodys political so i am a big freedom of speech person, im also a big religious liberty person. I probably right about religious religious liberty more than any other issue. I think the claim of Political Correctness is a somewhat facetious in the fact that it seems like its person purpose is to ironically shut down the claims of the other side. In other words it has a weird effect that the complaint is you are shutting me down from saying what i want to say but the purpose of it when we hear it from donald trump for example who mentioned it in every single one of his speeches, is that it is to tell the left to shut up about that particular issue that it is complaining about. That said, im a University Professor and im very concerned, im opposed to speech codes and universities, very concerned about the argument that seem to be liberal argument, the left argument that are going against free speech. So i share with you that concern. I also will that there is a sort of political advantage to be gained from harping on these events. At Boston University where i am, i dont think there is a problem we had a of islam in public space and the first person to stood up he made a Political Correctness complete. Theres no venue for conservatives here to talk about our views about islam, we, we think it is a dangerous religion. It is kind of ironic because he was standing there in front of everybody saying what he was saying, we gave him a microphone to stand up. We did nasa people at a time a time what they wanted to say. So my senses i am not really worried about this yet at Boston University but i am keeping an eye on it and im keeping an eye on speech codes that say you can say this but you cannot say that. I think it is largely maybe 70 just an effort to rule out a bound certain liberal claims in the same way Political Correctness are ruling out conservative claims. I would rather talk with you about this afterwards rather than continuing this and see if you have other questions. I would be be happy to talk more about Political Correctness. This will be the best question because you saved it for last. I would like to know how you see hispanics in this president ial election, how do you see the Democratic Party and the Republican Party battling over the votes of hispanics . I think that battle has already been won and lost. I think the Republican Party was hoping for a battle for the votes for latinos. Theyre hoping that marco rubio would emerge as the establishment candidates who would show that the Republican Party was open not only to white people but also to hispanics. I think that that hope is now naive and marco rubio is racing as fast as he came to the right as his numbers are going down in the polls. Just within the last week he has been trying to get to the rights of ted cruz on the immigration question which is a very difficult thing to do. So i think there is even a piece in the New York Times yesterday about which i had not thought about but its obvious when you see it but just because you are mexican does not mean you want to vote for a cuban. That is is another issue that is there. I think the country, i think latinos are actually very well positioned to become republicans, if the Republican Party could get its act together to appeal to them, latinos are more christian then why people in the United States. They tend to be catholic, they, they tend to be conservative catholic. They tend to be conservative on abortion and they tend to be very important on education. They naturally blogging more in the Republican Party than in the Democratic Party. The republicans have done so much with the immigration question, the mexican rapist issue, and, and whatever trump is trumping up that i think they have lost it entirely for this election. By the way we have seen these shifts before. The muslim boat initially went to george bush. , overwhelmingly went to george bush. Then the muslim v ote went to the democrats. So these swings are very possible in a short amount of time. I just think the re publicans are botching it right now. Will i just want to say is a native new mexican whose in democrat that hispanics are republican and there still some better democrat and so it is like 50 50. So i do believe there are a lot of factors to consider for the latino votes. I do too. I would guess the hispanic vote is going to go something close in this election, i would be surprised if it goes close to two one or 70 30, i think its good to be overwhelming on the democratic side. If the republicans didnt play their cards differ not i think it couldve been closer to 5050. Thank you very much for coming. [applause]. Cspans washington washington journal, live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up tuesday morning, frederick a Scout Campaign finance reporter for usa today, talks about the anti trump super pack. The location of the democrats and republicans highest donations and fundraising by Supreme Court interest groups. Then lori mccann, lawyer for the Aarp Foundation Litigation Team discussion is age discrimination in employment. Washington post fred hiatt, talks about the positano with republican candidate donald trump and recent editorials on campaign 2016. Be sure to watch cspans washington cspans washington journal beginning live 7 00 a. M. Eastern on tuesday morning. During the discussion. It has been five years since the start of the syrian civil war. Tomorrow will bring you discussion on how the conflict has escalated and what the International Community is doing in response. That is live at noon eastern on cspan. Later in the day president obama travels to atlanta for a Prescription Drug abuse summits. You can. You can watch his remarks live on cspan2 at 2 30 p. M. Eastern. This years student can contest the students produced documentaries telling us the issue they wanted the candidates to discuss during the president ial campaign. Students chose the economy, equality, education, and immigration were top issues. Thanks to all of the students and teachers who completed this year and teachers who completed this year congratulations to all of our winners. Every weekday on april starting on the first, one of the top 21 winning entries will air at 6 5l winning entries can be viewed online at student kim. Org. Well senator daschle and senator, thank you for joining me today to talk about your new book as was described in the opening, crisis point. As i travel around the country, i watch the current affair shows which i dont watch many these days, but many people on both sides of the aisle think that there is a crisis point. However, people can say the house needs to be burned down but you actually know how to build it back, you all have actually been in the stomach of the beast and have had to navigate the different personalities and egos that you deal with on both sides of the aisle
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