Coming. We at p and p have been working with lizner awe tore yum putting auditorium putting on large author events. Were glad to have such a space schuss facility here in Downtown Washington and what terrific crowd this evening. I have to marvel at the size of this audience and what it says about dan rathers continued popularity. For those of us of a certain generation who grew up watching dan report the news on cbs for 44 years i can appreciate his appeal and the indelible mark that hes left on our consciousness but i see a lot of younger faces out there this evening and you all 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 via social media. His identity had been so tied up with cbs over so many years that when he left the network just over a decade ago amid some controversy he wasnt sure what ed do next but dan has always had a passion for reporting and he has kept at it, passed his 86th birthday which he celebrated lasthi week. [applause] he has said before may hear him say again this evening he feels quite e humbled and grateful for many people who follow his facebook platform, news and guts. [applause] which is, is named after his production company. Its where he offers updates on Current Events and reflects on an array of issues. A few months ago politico reported that news and guts gettingic on average more likes, comments and shares per post than buzzfeed, usa today or cnn. [applause] dans new book, quote what uniteste us, which he coawed thored with elliot kirschner. It is a collection of essays. The chapters sound pretty basic with such headings as the press, empathy, the environment, and Public Education but dan personalizes many topics wrapping in anecdotes from his storied life, reflecting on the qualities and trend making our country what it is today and offering thoughts what should be done to deal with current challenges. Dan is outspokenly patriotic but he made no secret about his deep sense of alarm, about trump, about shattering of important norms of american life, about entrenched partisanship growing inequalityty and persistent injustice. I remains optimistic believing in the fundamental integrity and honesty of americans. He bring as seasoned perspective and sense of balance and reason to a public discussion that now adays is all too often dominated byub politicallymotivated distortions and just plain untruths. Dan will be in conversation here this evening with jonathan capehart, i whos a member of the washington posts editorial board. He has been there for a decade now and he has also msnbc contributor. So ladies and gentlemen, please join me welcoming dan rather and jonathan capehart. [applause] thank you. Im going to add a little bit more the bio that brad gave. Im sure everyone knows who dan rather iss but as journalist tht i feeled need to say this, dan rather is journalist as journalist. He worked at cbs news for 44 years. 24 of those years you were beamed into our homes as anchor of the cbs evening news. After your departure from the Tiffany Network in 2005 you kept working. R still working as brad talked about, as all of you know news and guts, the company, news and gutss Facebook Page, your own personal Facebook Page. And now youre latest book, what unites us, reflections on patriotism. That ask what brings us here tonight. So on behalf of myself, on behalf of journalists my age and maybe a little younger who have looked to you as a guidepost, welcome to washington, welcome to George Washington university. Thank you very much, jonathan. Thank you. [applause] thank you. So, i mean, dan, and i can call you dan, right . Please. Your birthday was halloween. You turned 86. I got two questions. Have you ever considered retiring . I mean your have earned it. No. [laughter]. No, jonathan, its a fair question. But i like toqu work. Im the son of two very hardworking parents. I really liked to work, and i loved this work, which is to say i had a passion for reporting news. As long as i have my health, gods grace and somebody will listen, read or watch, then i really do like to work. Speaking of people who like to listen, read and watch, the other thing that is so fascinating is that you are wildly popular and wildly popular with millenials. I mean why do you think that is . Well the honest answer is, jonathan, i dont know. Im amazed. [laughter] i say this humbly, not a word generally present or past anchormen from television, but nonetheless, that im amazed by it. I dont understand it. As best i can make out that when we started the Facebook Page with my coauthor elliot kirschner, the goal was to give some context and perspective to the news and when possible when i felt i had any experience or knowledge to put things into historical context. So my guess is that in the havoc of the daily headlines that some people, and i have no illusions, we have a large audience, but it is not the largest audience in social media, that some people are looking for a steady, what they consider to be a reliable and experienced voice and partly pause, lets face it, ive been around a few years, and i have been a lot of miles as a reporter, that is the best i can do guessing what the attraction is. So when it comes to writing a book and releasing a book its not that you wake up on monday and by friday the book is out. No. This book took some planning, but it seems as though your timing could not have been more impeccablee. So im wondering when did the idea of this book occur to you . Was it pretrump getting into the race, or posttrump getting into the race . It was pretty much around the timet when President Trump got elected that we had been thinking about thehe book. I had no idea that we could have the book out frankly this soon in 2017. But the people that published the book approached me and said, listen, weve been reading your facebook o pieces. Would you consider doing a book . And i said, well, certainly i would but could we get it out in 2017 . Somewhat to my surprise, they said,7t yes, we can do it in 20. But the answer to your question, at or about the time President Trump got elected was when the early seed of the book. One of the things that i love about reading your book, and i have my own copyright here. Bless you. Books to me are living documents. I write in them. I underline them. I write notes and the thing that i love about your book is from beginning to end how much it reminded me of who we were, we, as ae nation, who we were, and who we are and i finished reading the book before wednesday night so, it was wonderful to read something from someone that is as venerable as you, reminding me that the despite the situation that were in now, that we can get through this and so, this is one of the reasons why i was wondering why you wrote this book . Was this to be in a way a salve for a hurting nation, or was it meant to be, something where people can go back and in terms of history, be reminded of who we are at a time when were questioning who we are . Well, if you will permit me, ive been thinking something about that. Making this book tour, sort of desperate effort to sell the book [laughter] imse appearing at various plac, this is a very common question. So with your permission and only with your permission, i would like to read something i anticipated the question. Make this democracy. Should dan read what he wants to read . [applause] of course. One, i was, you know, as we have entered a very complicated and anxious time during this past year, i have been in reflective state. Those who know me well might say that reflective state is rare for m me, but ive been in a reflectivee state. Thinking back i over my life and career, i think about all the change and uncertainties that i witnessed as a child of the Great Depression and world war ii. Seeing the fever of the red scare, the fight for civil rights, vietnam, watergate, 9 11, and our current moment of history, and as i have been thinking about what it means to be an american, 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 was, what is patriotism in our time . And i know a lot of people confuse patriotism with nationalism. One of the discussions in what unites us is how important it is to recognize the difference between patriotism and nationalism. But those things were in my head. So i wanted to do a book that contributes to peoples thinking about whatri patriotism is. Im not an expert on patriotism but as much as anything the effort in the book is to start a conversation about patriotism, what it is in this time. And to make sure that people do understand that by dictionary definition there is a difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriot system of course a deep love of country but one key of patriotism and being a patriot is humility. If youre a true patriot you dont takee the view you go around beating on your chest saying were better than everybody else. Were the best, were the strongest at the time, that youre humble enough to know were in search of the more perfect union. Inn the very beginning our Founding Fathers in the constitution said in order to seekio a more perfect union. So thats patriotism. Nationalism carries inherent in it a certain amount of arrogance and conceit and the dankwer nationalism carried to extremes, you have, you can have extreme nationalism and also racial nationalism, as in aryan nationalism. We know one of the things i wanted to do with what unites us, remind people of the Historical Perspective that follows. Extreme economic nationalism, in the 1920s led to the Great Depression. Aryan nationalism, racial nationalism led us to adolf hitler. Im not suggesting were at this point. Im suggesting with the authoritarian nature of the present presidency, sometimes it is only a short distance to extreme nationalism which can lead tosh nativism, that leads o tribalism. And in our great historical, never before in the history of mankind experiment that is the United States that tribalism, if we ever descend into tribalism, then were through as the land of the free and the home of the brave. In your chapter entitled, steady, and for those of you with the book, im going to read from page 249 and 259, because you have this analogy of a pendulum, this fits in with what youre speaking about 249, you have had your rheumatic fever and youve been listening to edward r. Murrow on the radio and the war, youre listening to him reporting from london, and you write, i have witnessed the great pendulum of personal and National Fortune swing in the right direction and i was armed with the lesson of my father, highmy hero, murrow, and my country, stay steady. And then, 10 pages later you write, the pendulum of your great nationn is now and present day. The present pendulum seems to have swung towards conceit and unsteadiness once again. Our government is there to serve us,me not the other way around. And when i read that, it was just after the results on tuesday, virginia, and new jersey, and the Minneapolis City Council races [applause] and the mayors race in montana and charlotte. Wondering what do those results, what do those results tell you in terms of that pendulum swing . Is what happened on tuesday the beginning of the pendulum starting to swing back from what you wrote of our great nation swinging toward con seat of and unsteadiness once again . I think there are indication that is it is the pendulum swinging back. The metaphor i sometimes uses as ebb and flow to american politics, that sometimes we to, we lurch in one direction to the you want to call it that. Other times we lurch to the right, during the red scare time. But inevitably over our history, that ebb and flow steadies itself more other less in the broad middle. And i do think by any reasonable analysis, a reading of results of tuesday gives an indication that thesu country having swung very far to the right is in the process of swinging a bit more toward the middle. You and i know from having covered politics a long time overnight is a long time in politics. A week is forever. And now suddenly people are talking about, well maybe a democratic groundswell for 2018. I think it is early, too early to say that. I would tell you quite honestly personally, i think that some democrats are celebrating a little too early. They are doing their equivalent of moonwalking in the end zone. Youre right. Too early for that. In answer to your question, i this that the results not themselves, but the margin by which swung, within that most importantly, the difference of the vote this time in the suburbs, not just in the country, suburbs were key to trumps victory are swinging other way. I think there are early indications that pendulum may be swinging back the other way. Things toin watch. A very serious war overseas could change things, could change the public mood very quickly. And most people in the end vote their pocketbooks. Right. Todd if the economy continues to boom,om continues to do quite well, that will gravitate to trumps advantage. If the economy cools off or starts going the other way, that would be to his disadvantage. But, you know, one of the things that i hope people will take from, what unites us is that yen overall ted steadiness of the American People is one of our strength. We have weaknesses. We have vulnerabilities. Were far from perfect but overall in the main, any study of our history shows you that we may go through a period of Great Division during the 1960s with the war, race riots in some our major cities. We were certainly divided in the disasterous civil war but we got through and steadied ourselves. The spirit of this book is a hope that we can remember that, and if it needs to be said, im an optimist by nature and by experience. Im absolutely convinced while this is a very anxious time, in many way as perilous time for the country, were going to get through this it may be a long, dark valley, but well get through it and come out the other o indand medium, better o, im absolutely convinced of it. [applause] bring you back to patriotism in that, for those of you following along page 12, what is patriotism, this line that you wrote made me think of another controversy that we have been dealing with. And you write, i see my love of country imbued with the responsibility to bear witness to its faults. And when i read that line i was instantly brought to the Football Players in the nfl who are taking a knee, the young protesters around the country who have taken to the streets in the black lives matter movement. The women who flooded the streets of america on january 21st, the day after trumps inauguration to protest his incoming policies. The people who took to the streets the week after that when he proposed muslim ban. Right. And, when it comes to the nfl protests, you have the president tweeting, speechafying saying those people doing that bearing witness to our nations faults, are unamerican. They dont love the flag. They dont love the anthem. What do you, what do you make of that . Talk about that. I will talk about it with a short preface. I stand for the National Anthem and without apology i stand with my hand over the heart and i generally at least mouth the words and sometimes actually sing the words. Thatov is what is within me. That is what i feel when i hear the National Anthem. 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 dissent which i talk about what unites us, dissent over the long core has been one of our strengths in the country. Because time and again [applause] time and again dissenters have, in the beginning theyre called unpatriotic. Theyre called against the military, against the flag, what have you, but over time, they, when justice is on their side, people come around and say, you know what . The radical of yesterday was the prophet of tomorrow. Weve seen this time and again. Maybe, one example i would use, with womens suffrage. Those women who spoke out seeking the vote for women in the 19th century, if you read what was said about them at the time. Radical, they were unpatriotic. They were tryingun to undermine the culture and society. What took a while, it took too long but by the time, we were 1 5 finished with the 20th century, we finally, finally had women vote. That is one example. The Civil Rights Movement led by reverend dr. Martin luther king in the early 60s. Dr. King was accused of being a communist. He was seen as an extreme radical. Those were among the milder things, however, by continuing to stand strong for nonviolent protests in the face of injustice, we wound up by the midd 1960s, passing some of the most important Domestic Legislation in the country. The point being we should be very cautious of criticizing dissent. Conscionable dissent is patriotic and the president , and, im trying to be as respectful of the office of the presidency i can you about 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. It has to be. [applause] in fact, you write, on page 35, dissent is doubly necessary to resist the slide into greater autocracy. You said something just a second ago about your respect, your respect for the office, was holding you back from going full bore. So i will to maybe halfway into full bore. [laughter] toto me, as an american, and certainly as an africanamerican , watching the president of the United States on a tuesday in august in the lobby of his tower on fifth avenue give moral equivalence, make a moral equivalence sy 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. Itt was for me as well. That i thought that in that one action, donald trump ceded the moral authority of the presidency by doing that. Am i, am i going too far . No. No, definitely, not. [applause] this is exactly why in in what unite us, reflections on patriotism, and i didnt want to make it a sc