and american partisanship. but what i don't think they can do is say that pope francis' points of view on social and economic justice and the teaching of jesus christ is inconsistent with the catholic faith. it is not. >> all right. i want to thank former boston mayor, former ambassador to the vatican ray flynn and sarah posner for joining us today. when you want to run for office but you're not popular where you live, what do you do? scott brown or liz cheney, you move. the art of carpetbagging. that's up next. turn to roc® retinol correxion®. one week, fine lines appear to fade. one month, deep wrinkles look smoother. after one year, skin looks ageless. high performance skincare™ only from roc®. take skincare to the next level with new roc® multi correxion® 5 in 1, proven to hydrate dryness, illuminate dullness, lift sagging, diminish the look of dark spots, and smooth the appearance of wrinkles. high performance skincare™ only from roc®.
wonderful about religion, what it has to offer people, not what it has to say about how you should behave. >> i want to talk more about who pope francis is and what he represents and pick up on a point with the ambassador that sarah raised about maybe a message of sorts being delivered or attempting to be delivered to the conference of bishops here in the united states. i'll ask the store about that when we come back. i don't miss out... you sat out most of our game yesterday! asthma doesn't affect my job... you were out sick last week. my asthma doesn't bother my family... you coughed all through our date night! i hardly use my rescue inhaler at all. what did you say? how about - every day? coping with asthma isn't controlling it. test your level of control at asthma.com, then talk to your doctor. there may be more you could do for your asthma. that's the sound of car insurance companies these days. here a cheap, there a cheap. everywhere a cheap... you get it. so what if instead of just a cheap choice,
angle. i can't help but think of lyndon johnson. he spent all those years, all those decades in congress and in the senate, going along, placating, doing the bidding of the conservative forces who controlled his immediate political future. this was the lyndon johnson who was the segregationist, but then when he got to the top, he became president, no one controlled him anymore. he was free to speak his mind and act on his conscience. this is the lyndon johnson who ended segregation. i find myself wondering if there is a little lbj in this pope, a conservative cardinal who infuriated the left in argentina and now as pope is becoming something of a liberal icon. here to make sense of who pope francis is and how he is shaping up our politics, we're joined by msnbc.com's benjy sarlin, sarah p posner, ana marie cox is still with us, and ambassador flynn as well. ambassador flynn, i'll start with you. you were an appointee of
the 1980s, his wife sarah, daughter of an fbi agent, grew more and more interested and impassioned about a simple question what could our government do what could law enforcement do, what could all of us do through our political system to prevent tragic stories like her family's? she worked on gun control issues in the 1970s, but never like this. in 1986, five years after her husband's shooting, after congress actually relaxed some federal gun restrictions, sarah brady was so moved she became the face of a group called handgun control incorporated. and she set a goal, a legislative goal, something that would be called the brady bill. seven-day waiting period for the purchase of a handgun. like we were saying, these things do take time. sarah brady spoke up, spoke out, pushed for the brady bill, and nothing happened. and then ronald reagan left office in 1989, and jim brady decided at that point it was time for him to speak up as well, and he did so in moving testimony before congress.
>> what would a congress look like that would have 20 -- >> there is one congresswoman from arizona that identified that way and then immediately disowned it. it is reflective of society where those are dirty words and secular society that was founded in part to run away from religious tyranny, i think that's kind of sad. >> sarah, our resident religion expert at the table, you have a religious unpopular -- >> i have a related unpopular opinion to sahil's, which is that politicians should stop talking about religion, god and the bible. >> so -- >> people would be less -- public polly would icy would be less on -- >> why is in no safe zone in politics? >> 20% of the american public is
12 years makes 12 months look like a sprint. and so i think that we need to be persevering and persistent, what has been most impressive over the past year, speaking very personally, are the strength and courage and resilience of these families who have dedicated their lives, just as sarah brady did, to making sure that america is made safer and better. and we cannot allow this undetectible firearms act to lapse. we're talk about plastic guns that have absolutely no use in hunting or recreational shooting. they're designed simply to kill people, and evade the metal detectors we have at our sports arenas, courthouses, schools, as well as airports. >> so, senator, that's the dispute right now, the dilemma, i guess, facing you and your fellow democrats in the senate, do you take the law as it is and as the house voted for it last
a week ago today in st. peter's square, bhamarking a wo aids day, a point that sarah was making, suggesting the possibility, we had the clip from his interview with the american catholic magazine in september when he seemed to be talking about de-emphasizing the social issues and talking more about economic issues maybe. not having to talk about abortion, homosexuality all the time. she was suggesting maybe that was a message to the conference of bishops in the united states, very's aggressive and volccal oe social issues. >> the reason why pope francis has become so popular across the world, among catholics and noncatholics as well, he's saying something politically and morally that no one else is
official heard of reagan's announcement, looked at the picture he kept on his desk and said, don't do this to me. but for all of that, reagan support's support by itself still wasn't enough. the bush administration came and went and still there was no brady bill. it took another election. the election of 1992, in which sarah brady, a life-long republican, the daughter of that fbi agent, she supported the democrat, bill clinton. she supported him because he supported the brady bill. and in the fall of clinton's first year in office, with clinton's party in control of the house and of the senate, it actually happened. >> in the east room of the white house today, it was not just an ordinary presidential ceremony, the end of a long road for jim and sarah brady, parents of the brady bill. >> that was a road more than 12 years long. but at last gun control supporters could smile. the brady bill was now law. >> and now we're here to tell the nra that their nightmare is