Good evening, welcome. Im bradley, owner of politics and prose. All the folks here at listener, thank you for coming. We at pnp have been working with listener auditorium for a number of years now putting on a large author event and we are very grateful to be able to have access to such a spacious inconvenient facility here in downtown washington. What a terrific crowd this evening. I really have to marvel at the size of this audience and what it says about dan rathers continued popularity. You know for those of us of certain generation grew up watching dan report the news on cbs for 44 years we can appreciate his appeal in the indelible mark that he has left on our consciousness but i see a lot of younger faces out there this evening and you are a testament to dans amazing ability still to connect with and communicate to people of all ages. Dan himself has expressed surprise at the Significant Impact hes had in recent months especially be a social media in his identity had been so tied up with cbs over so many years that when he left the network just over a decade ago admits some controversy he wasnt sure what he would do next but dan has always had a passion for reporting and he has kept at it past his 86th birthday which he celebrated last week. [applause] he has said before and you may hear them say again this evening that he feels quite humbled by and grateful for the many people who now follow his facebook platform, news and guts. [cheering and applause] which is named after his production company. It is where he offers updates on Current Events and reflects on an array of issues. A few months ago politico reported that news in guts was getting on average more likes, comments and shares for every post and busby, usa today or cnn. [applause] dance new book what unites us which he coauthored with elliott kushner is a collection of s essays, the chapter sound basic with such headings as the press, the, science, the environment and Public Education. But dan personalizes many of these topics by wrapping and anecdotes from his storied life while reflecting on the qualities and trends that have made our country what it is today and offering thoughts on what should be done to deal with current challenges. Dan, of course, is outspokenly patriotic but hes also made no secret of his deep sense of alarm about trump, about the shattering of important norms of american life, about interest partisanship growing inequality and persistent injustices. Still he remains essentially optimistic leaving in the fundamental resilience, integrity and honesty of americans. He brings a seasoned perspective and sense of balance in reason to a public discussion that nowadays is all too often dominated by politically motivated distortion and just plain on prints. Dan will be in conversation here this evening with jonathan, member of Washington PostEditorial Board and hes been there for a decade now. And msnbc contributor so ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming dan rather and jonathan. [cheering and applause] thank you. I will just ahead a little more to the file that brad gave and im sure everyone knows who dan rather is but as a journalist i feel the need to say this that dan rather is a journalist journalist. He worked at cbs news for 44 years, 24 of those years you were beamed into our homes as an anchor of the cbs evening news and after your departure from the network in 2005 you kept working. You are still working as brad talked about and the news and guts and the news and guts Facebook Page in your own personal Facebook Page and now your latest book what unites us reflections on patriotism and that is what brings us here tonight. On behalf of myself and journalist, my agen age and your look to you as a guidepost welcome to washington, welcome to George Washington university. Thank you very much. [cheering and applause] thank you. Dan, i can call you dan, right . Please. Your birthday was following and you turned 86 and i got two questions. Have you ever considered retiring . You have earned it. No. [laughter] no, jonathan, its a fair question but i like to work. On the son of two very hardworking parents and i really like to work and i love this work which is to say ive always had a passion of reporting is so as long as i have my health, gods grace and someone will listen then i really do like to work. Speaking of people who like to listen and read and watch the other thing that is so fascinating is that you are wildly popular and wildly popular with millennials. Why do you think that is . The honest answer is, jonathan, i dont know. Im amazed. [laughter] i say this humbly, not a word generally associated with anchorman from television but im amazed by it and i dont understand it. As best i can make out that when we started Facebook Page might coauthor the goal was to try to give some context and perspective to the news and when possible and when i thought i had an experience i wanted to put it into Historical Context so my guess is that in the havoc of the daily headlines that some people and i have no illusion that we have a large audience but its not the largest audience on social media but some people are looking for a study what they consider to be a reliable and experienced boys. Partly because ive been around a few years and have a lot of miles as a reporter in the best the best i can do at guessing what the attraction is. So when it comes to writing the book and releasing a book its not that you wake up on monday and by friday the book is out. This book took some planning but it seems as though your timing could not have been more impeccable. I am wondering when did the idea of this book occur to you. Was it pre trump getting into the race or post trump getting into the race . No, it was pretty much from the time when President Trump got elected that we been thinking about the book. I had no idea that we could have the book out briefly this soon. In 2017. But the people of algonquin, the publishers of the book, approached me and said we been reading your facebook and would you consider doing a book and i said certainly i would but could we get it out in the 17th and somewhat to my surprise they said yes, we can do it in 2017. At or about the time President Trump got elected was when the early [inaudible] the book. One of the things that i loved about reading your book and i have my own copier right here and books to me are living documents so i write in them and i underlined them in the right notes and the thing that i love about your book is from beginning to end how much it reminded me of we were, we as a nation, we were and who we are and i finished reading the book for wednesday night so it was wonderful to read something from someone reminding me that despite the situation that we are in now that we can get through this and so is one of the reasons why i was wondering why he wrote this book was this to be, in a way, a salve for hurting nation . Or was it meant to be something where people can go back and in terms of history be reminded of we are at a time when we are questioning we are . If you permit me ive been thinking something about that because in making this book to work in a desperate effort to sell the book. [laughter] in appearing in various places this is a very common question. With your permission and only with your permission id like to read something that anticipated the question. Lets make this a democracy and should dan read what he wants to read . [cheering and applause] course. One of the times you know as we have entered a very complicated and anxious time during this past year ive been in a reflective state and those who know me well might say that reflective state is rare for me but ive been in a report to state and thinking back over my life and career i think about all the change and uncertainties that eyewitness in the child of the Great Depression and world war ii seen the fever of the red scare, the fight for civil rights, vietnam, watergate, 911 and our current moment of history and as ive been thinking about what it means to be an american and what it means to be a patriot in the second decade of the 21st century that really was the beginning of the idea for the book. What is patriotism in our time . I know a lot of people confuse patriotism with nationalism in one of the discussions in what unites us is how important it is to recognize the difference between patriotism and nationalism. Those things were in my head so i wanted to do a book that contributes to peoples thinking about what patriotism is. But one key being a patriot is humility. If you are a true patriot, you go out and you dont beat on your chest is that we are better than everybody else. Were the best, we are the strongest. Your humble enough to know that we are in search of a more perfect union. In the very beginning of our Founding Fathers in the constitution, it was said to seek a more perfect union. That is patriotism. There is a certain amount of arrogance and the danger with nationalism coming to extremes, you have, you can have extreme economic nationalism and also racial nationalism. And aryan nationalism. We know this. One of the things i wanted to do with what unites us is remind people of the Historical Perspective that follows. That extreme economic nationalism in the 1920s. Led to the Great Depression. And aryan and racial nationalism led to adolf hitler. Im not suggesting that we are at this point. I am suggesting that with the authoritarian nature of the presidency, sometimes it is only a short distance to extreme nationalism which can lead to nativism and then to tribalism. And there are great historical, never before in history of mankind in the United States that tribalism, if we ever descend into tribalism, then we have through as a land of the free and home of the brave. In your chapter entitled steady. And those of you with the bus, i will read from page 249. And 259. Because you have this analogy of a pendulum. And this fits in with what you are speaking about on 249, you had rheumatic fever and listening to edward r morrow and eliciting reporting from london and youre right, and witnessed the great swing in the right direction. And i was armed with the lesson of my father, my hero, morrow and my country stay steady. And then 10 pages later, you write, the pendulum of the great nations now is in present day, the pendulum of our great nation seems to have swung toward conceit and unsteadiness once again. But it is in our power to rest expected of government is there to serve us, not the other way around. When i read that, and it was just after the results on tuesday. Virginia and new jersey. And Minneapolis City Council [applause] i am wondering, what do those results what do those results tell you in terms of the pendulum swing . Is what happened on tuesday the beginning of the pendulum starting to swing back . From what you wrote . Swing us towards conceit and unsteadiness once again . I think it is indications of it swinging back. There is an ebb and flow of politics. But sometimes we go in one direction to the left if you want to call that. Often times emerge to the right as we did at that time. But inevitably, over our history, that ebb and flow studies itself more or less in the middle. And i do think that by any reasonable analysis, and that resulted tuesday it is an indication that the country having swung very far right, is in the process of swinging a bit more toward the middle. You and i know from being in pontus a long time that overnight is a long time in politics. One week is forever and now suddenly, people are talking about maybe a democratic groundswell for 2018. I think it is too early to say that. And i was a quite honestly, i think some democrats are celebrating a little too early. They are doing the equivalent of moonwalking in the end zone. Right [laughter] but i think not just the results themselves but the margin by which swung and most importantly within that, the difference of the vote this time in the suburbs. Not just in virginia which were katie, one of the keys to donald trump victory. They are swinging back the other way. I think it may be swinging back the other way. Things to watch, a very serious more over this could change things very quickly. And most people in the end go to their pocketbooks. If the economy continues to boom and continues to do quite well, that will gravitate to donald trump advantage. If the economy starts going the other way, that would be to his disadvantage. But one of the things that i hope people will take from what unites us, is that the general overall steadiness of the American People is one of our transport we have vulnerabilities and weaknesses. But overall in the study of the history it shows you that we may go through. Of Great Division such as during the 1960s. We were certainly divided in a disastrous civil war. But we got there it. And we studied ourselves. The spirit of this book is the hope that we can remember that and if it needs to be said, i am an optimist by nature and by experience. And im absolutely convinced that while this is a very anxious time and in many ways a perilous time for the country, were going to get through this. It may be a long valley to get through but we will get through it and will come out the other end and in the medium and long run better off. [applause] let me bring you back to patriotism. And that, for those of you following along page 12. What is patriotism . This line that you wrote, it made me think of another controversy that weve been dealing with. When i read your line i was instantly brought to the local players in the nfl for taking a knee. The young protesters around the country that have gone to the streets in the black lives matter movement. The woman that flooded the streets of america on january 21 the day after donald sums inauguration to protest the incoming policies. The people that took to the streets the week after that when he proposed the muslim ban. And with the nfl you have the president tweeting that the people doing that, bearing witness to our nations fault are unamerican, they do not love the flag or the anthem. What do you make of that . Talk about that . I will talk about that but with a short preface. I stand for the National Anthem and i stand with my hand over my heart and i generally mouth the words and sometimes actually sing the words. That is what is within me. That is what i feel. Having said that, i respect greatly, those who have had different experiences whose conscience dictates a different course. And they have every right to dissent. In fact i talked about what unites us to dissent is one of those things that have been one of our strengths in the country. Because time and again [applause] time and again, dissenters, in the beginning are called unpatriotic. They are called against the military, against the flag or what have you. But over time, when justice is on their side, then people come around and say do you know what . The radical of yesterday was the prophet tomorrow. We have seen this time and again. Maybe one example i have used is that women in suffrage. Those women who spoke out, seeking the vote for women in the 19th century, he can go back and read what was said about them at the time. They were radical, they were unpatriotic. They were trying to undermine the culture and society. It took a while, it took too long but before we were 1 5 finish with the century. And doctor king was accused of being an extreme radical. That was one of the milder things. However, by continuing to stand strong for nonviolent protests in the face of injustice, we wound up by the mid1960s, passing some of the most important domestic issues in the country. The point being that we should be very cautious of criticizing dissent. It is patriotic. And the president , and tried to be as respectful of the office of the presidency as i can. But this effort, to shift the Public Perception of these dissenters as unpatriotic and against the military and against the flag, is frankly unconscionable and that is what is unpatriotic. [applause] in fact, you write on page 35 dissent is doubly necessary to resist the slide integrator autocracy. He said something a second ago about your respect for the office. It was hope you got going full on. I will go maybe halfway into that. [laughter] to me, as an, and certainly as an africanamerican, watching the president of the United States on a tuesday in august, in the lobby of his autonomous talent fifth avenue, give moral equivalence, make a moral equivalency between the nazis, White Supremacists and the bigots marching on charlottesville with the people who came out to counter protest was a bridge too far for me. It was for me as well. I thought that one action, donald trump created the moral authority of the presidency by doing that. Exceeded the moral authority of the presidency by doing that. Am i going too far . [applause] no, definitely not and this is exactly life in what unites us, the patriotism. I did not want to say anything about the Trump Administration and his name is not mentioned anywhere in the book. It was to have a broader discussion. To put the two words after words give some context and perspective to what is going on with the national leadership. That this was unconscionable. But the president did. In making this moral equivalency. And sending the proverbial check with the neonazis and the ku klux klan. I hope that many of the people who support the president will read the book. Not because im trying to convince them that they are wrong about some of his policies. To understand combos and think all is need to understand, this is not normal. This is unique to this presidency. [applause] and i will give a specific example. There is Historical Context without taking back to sometime in the early 70s. Some neonazis paraded in illinois. You can go back and read this in the archives. At that time the president was richard nixon. It was unthinkable that the president would say nothing to make some moral equivalency. It was in the early 70s get richard nixon, it was just unthinkable. That a president would have anything that can be read by, from any viewpoint. Giving approval or given moral equivalency to those neonazis. Deep antisemites. And now we go forward to 2018. Or 2017 and this is why we have to recognize as a people, whether we