But i have a general statement about america because i was sitting watching television when the Trayvon Martin verdict came down for church cannot think of his last name and i was watching television with my best friend, a black gentleman, and he could not get himself together when the verdict came in. He paced the apartment to couple times and i kept saying, are you ok . He said, i have just got to get out of here. I talked to my therapist about it my very next visit and i tried to express to her how it affected me. She said, what does that have to do with you . I am a black woman. I sent as a black man. My best friend is a black man. My grandson is a black man. Says, from panama and she it sounds like you are trying to deflect today from your own problems. How could you say that to me . She works for the city, the Community Service forward. She is a senior therapist. Host this was this your therapist to said this . Caller yes, she said that to me in our session. She got i was trying to deflect my own problems about a verdict that did not have anything to do with me. Host gina is talking about the George Zimmerman verdict. Ohio, danny is next on the republican line. Caller thank you for taking my call. For as much as the democrats talk about republicans giving tax breaks to the rich, the democrats were the party of global internationalism. Their history has people at cordova hall with a general and basicallyrade said since we were a rich country, we should let people jump their products into our country. Yet, when we send our stuff to their country, we get a 30 or 40 tariff tax on them. They are global internationalists. They cannot get over the fact that we have a president now who wants to go back to being america. There is not a wrong with being american. Invented the automobile, the car. The airplane. The steam engine. Television. You know, we did all these great things. For the last test you had, i would like to make a comment. Do we have a problems with race . We have come along a lot better than any other country in the world. Before we were out of the threat from britain, Thomas Jefferson had written the independence declaration of independence by saying all men were created equal with unalienable rights. As early as 1817, we had american colonization, where we tried to abolish slavery. I we perfect . Are we perfect . No, but you look at where we are at and what we have done. Before we were even a country. We question is, are responsible for slavery that took place in florida . Host danny also talked about the tax reform measure passed week. A couple of front pages to think about it. The headline taxing times, more or less. The gop session signed into law and the burden on state residents could be drastic. Host also, the Washington Post on their front page concerning Charities Tax law could crunch charities. Filers. Duction for many they write that many u. S. Charities are worried the tax overhaul bill, signed by President Trump on friday, good philanthropy,n speeding along the decline of middleclass owners and transforming Charitable Gift giving into a pursuit largely left to the wealthy. Com. More at washingtonpost can the next on the independent line from california. Caller i wanted to comment on the guest on the divide we had throughout the country. I believe a lot of it generates from the present self. I base that on since the doctor doctrine, since it was repealed in the reagan administration, the media has gone through a divide and conquer. If you are republican, you listen to fox all day. If you are democrat, a listen to msnbc all day. Neither one is really providing true investigative journalism. They are just feeding what ever is the blimp of the day. I truly believe to the detriment of the country that tactic in itself, which is great for the corporations, but for the people, i think it has divided as, it has mushroomed on her ignorance, and in that, in that, the division and hatred it causes and that we see today. Host lets hear from memphis. Kevin is on our democrat line. Caller good morning. Yes, i was calling i wanted to congratulate the mayor in memphis, tennessee. Down. Inging those statues memphis is my home. I was born and raised here doing during the baby booming years. My mother and father fought for civil rights. I was glad to see them statues come down because in so you have walked in my shoes, that parties to be whiteonly. Down, these statues come it is a good feeling because i do not want i remember my ancestors, my granddaddy, grandmother, and greatgrandmother, who were former slaves. That is my bloodline. I do not want to see that jefferson davis, and the kkk founder. Yes, they need to come down. If you want, take them to your backyard. Thank you. Host in pennsylvania, it is open phones. We hear from abdul on the independent line. Caller hello. Just wanted to say good morning, tanks for taking my call. Thanks for taking my call. I respect them up society and love society. The caller was saying how many things that you, or he felt in this country, a lot of rings that were built in this country were built by black people. All he not know that, so thinks that his people, as he called it, bill, built, a lot , forings in this country instance [indiscernible] everybody wanted it. Was with all its wealth, was built on the backs of others. It is like saying, we did this, we did that. Basically, you did. You did not. It was built on the backs of people who were not benefiting from any of the wealth that is in the country. I was born and raised in the projects. We had a good home. I had a good family life. I was around civil rights in new jersey. A tank sat in front of our house. I know a friend of mines mother was walking past it and they shot and killed her. That we are things going through and now we are number 45. He is dividing the country. Goodgoing back to the old days. What are the good old days . Host abdul in pennsylvania talking about her previous segment with mr. Dyson looking at his recent book on racism in the United States and our previous discussion starting the program on the political divide. It is open phones now. 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488000 for democrats, and for all others, 202 7488002. And policee of race violence or incidents with police and members of the black community, the atlantic writing this week about training for police. The headline can cops, and their unconscious biases . Implicit bias training is spreading around the country. The theory it can influence officer behavior on the streets but it isnt clear that the classes work. That is from the atlantic. Curacao lake city, brian on the republican line here is called lake city, bryan on the republican line. Caller you guys need to check history. David barton is the guy who wrote a book that jefferson lies. You want to learn history, that is a great guy. He done a seminar, black history month, and he says, i am not going to put your picture up as nobody will show up. All of a sudden, everybody shows up in they succumb here is david barton. They say, here is whitey going to teach us something about history. They said he learned more about his lack history that he never knew. Caches black history that he black history that he never knew. In 1868, the Republican Party was founded. It was 100 30 black politicians and 40 white politicians that started the Republican Party. Charles sumner got up and said, hey, these black folk made their rights. He kept fighting for them. The democrats got up and beat him within one inch of his life in the almost died. And the democrats cheered him on. You guys need to go back in history and learn the republicans have been fighting. Host brian, you said it was called jefferson lies . Caller well, everybody thinks Thomas Jefferson had the black kids. That is not true. One of his brothers did. May you know, made some. Havent barton they proven genetically Sally Hemmings was an offspring of Thomas Jefferson, right . Caller yes, of his brother, not Thomas Jefferson. Lackwas all of the politicians black politicians. All of them said, hands up, dont shoot, that was a lie. Host here is john in new york on the republican line. Caller how are you doing . Like the other guy was saying, some people got to get a History Lesson. I am talking about the fbi. They say it is bad right now, but they should look up hoover, the guy who started the fbi. He had so many people afraid of him because of his little black book. He used to tell all of the congressional guys, even the president of the United States, and he used to blackmail them. That is how he got everything that he wanted for the fbi to start. Another thing, Merry Christmas to everybody. Also, they all say the President Trump is the worst president going. There were two other great president s in this country, another History Lesson, Teddy Roosevelt they did not like much because he was like President Trump. President trump is the only person, president , to be doubt Teddy Roosevelts executive board. And the other one was president a blink in. Abraham lincoln. They said he cant never be a president when he was running. He is a farm boy, and look what happened. That is all i would like to say. A lot of people in this country should get a History Lesson before they open their mouths about things they do not understand. Host heres the democrats line, mauricio and guthrie, oklahoma. Caller a lot of people are talking about history and how whites have made all these discoveries and did all these things and change the world, but everybody has forgotten about worst history. When you think about broughtd for 711, that the europeans out of darkness, that was boorish history. Moorish history. For people to be happy about christmas, do not forget it was constantine that did that in the first place. There really is no such thing as jesus. It is not even in the alphabet, j was not found in the english term. I wanted to let people remember. Host , in the topic on the washington journal until 10 00 eastern. Trump puts his slogan on the president ial coin the headline. It is not a new development, it is the redesigned president ial challenge coin, a custom dating back 20 years. They had been handed out to Service Members in commemoration of special achievements and milestones. President trump scoring, which many saw friday, is unmistakably different from its predecessors. The national motto, meaning out of many one. In his place, the president ial campaign slogan, make America Great again, which the administration has used unofficial white house documents. They give a look to the new president ial coin and three previous ones, just clockwise around the one from joe biden, the Vice President ial coin from him, mike pence, and barack obamas. And the new one in the center from president donald trump. Next in athens, georgia, independent line. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing fine, thank you. I want to start fashion like caller i would to start by saying, caller i want to start by saying, people need updated history by watching cspan and using wikipedia and google. All the information or the last 2000 years to 3000 years is that your fingertips. Use it for something other than social media and entertainment. I got up this morning and turned on cspan. Bill, i see you have a beard. You look snazzy. The third caller was from georgia. I met him three years ago in atlanta, fighting the good fight. I talked to him for a while and im glad he got in this morning. We will talk about the fact that from is not racist trump is not racist. For the last 40 years, he has been a new york liberal. He has been a new york liberal for the last 40 years. In 1988, he told the Oprah Winfrey show that if you ran your president , he would do that as a republican because they are stupid enough. That is what he said. I did not say that. Trump is not a racist. Black men have been rapping about donald trump since 1988. They want to be black trump. Of thewalker out university of georgia and signed into the new york general. That hetball league has, he tried to get mike tyson on contract to fight sibley in his kissing exclusively in his casinos. Gold this and gold that, the perfect segue when you think of his president ial coin. He is making America Great. With aNew York Times look at one of the president s closest allies in new york. A friendship of convenience after decades of weariness, Robert MurdochRupert Murdoch , and donald trump had become closer. Calls come at least once a week. He says, for decades, Rupert Murdoch has used Media Properties to establish a Straight Line to australian and british leaders. Bought44 years since he his first newspaper in the United States, yes failed to cultivate close ties to an american president until now. They both forged in new yorks tabloid culture, one is the owner of the New York Post and the other is the perfect subject. They have traveled in the same circles since the 1970s but did not come close until recently when interests aligned more than ever before. Since inauguration day, mr. Rupert murdoch has taught to mr. White housesing the chief of staff, who screens incoming calls. You can read a bit more from the New York Times on Rupert Murdoch. They write they are opposites and personal style. Mr. Murdoch preferring slovene newsrooms to mr. Trumps gilded towers, but they have much in common. Both were born into wealth but that the distance from the centers of power. Mr. Trump grew up in queens, the son of a real estate developer. So close but so far from glittering midtown, where he would make his name and home. Rupert murdoch, the son of a journalist, who became the owner of a newspaper chain, spent his childhood in melbourne, australia. They were both sent to military schools as boys before going on to outdo their fathers in the family businesses. Although both parlayed their inheritances into global power, they have viewed themselves as outsiders at odds with the establishment. In pennsylvania, independent line. Go ahead. Ander that is bertrand vandergrift, pennsylvania. Graduate, ande you start off the show with the statistics on what divides the country. I can tell you in no concern terms because i will go to two other subjects, but this is the main one. The fact of the matter is that we have been as you showed in stats, shows it was an ongoing issue, something that had started to build on itself. What made it even more power paramount was the fact that people think that there is taken news. Let me fake news. There is no such thing as fake news, just lazy minds. Flagship when it comes to political information. Important to everyone to look at all the news outlets and make up your own views. The truth is there. If you look at all the different news is, cspan first, and then then you docnn, and a large sample size, most of the time, you will have all the jews there. Cues there. Last calls indicated republicans did everything for the democrats. That was towards the civil war. Be changed in the 1950s. It changed in the 1950s. Host you started comments mentioning how we started the program, looking at the political divide in the u. S. , what is behind it, and what to fix it. Chargerge we used was a from the Pew Research Center on political polarization. In 2017, this is a look going year to 2017, the survey goes back to 1994. Back thene how much the difference is between the ideological center of the parties with them being much closer together. In pennsylvania, joy on our line for democrats, go ahead. Caller oh, my gosh. Thank you and happy holidays to everybody. I want to talk about and thank you for having Michael Dyson on. I love him. I do have a question for him even though he is no longer there. He does visit he is a professor at george washington. Host georgetown. Caller georgetown, sorry. I wonder if he has ever visited Morgan State University or Howard University because they are down the street . Host he is on twitter. On twitter if you want to ask that question. Caller i will definitely look into that. Also, i want to talk about race relations. I am a 35yearold black woman in kingston, in northeastern pennsylvania, outside of scranton. Most of my best friends are wiped so we always talk white so we always talk about race. They might not like it but i bring it up as i feel it is something we need to discuss. I know it makes people feel uncomfortable but it is real for me because i am a black woman in a predominately white area. There are things that i deal with that they do not on a regular basis and maybe they dont understand that. Host mr. Dyson talks about, do you hear windows conversations with their white friends, he talked about a blindness with white people. How does that sound to you . Do you notice that when you talk to your friends . Caller absolutely, and these have been my best friends since seventh grade. [laughter] i get it. Sometimes, they try and get it, but it gets to a point to it feels uncomfortable because they do feel they have not contributed to that. They are openminded people. We have been friends forever, and they are like, i have a black friend. The point is, i deal with the situation in my community and forever ago in this world, that they do not have to deal with. I feel like i always have to have that conversation with them. ,hether it leads to, hey, joy shut up, we do not want to talk about it, we have to talk about it and then bring it up. And then my last point is i do not want to