Latest in nonfiction books and authors. Funding for cspan2 comes from these Television Companies and more. Including comcast appear quick so youre thinking this is just a Community Center . No it is way more than that of a comcast is part of 1000 committee centers to create wifi enabled so students from lowincome families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. Comcast, along with these Television Companies support cspan2 as a public service. Let me conclude by introductory title at the lectern by introducing you all to fill. Phil is a senior fellow previously worked as a senior fellow at the institute and the Brookings Institution he also served as a fellow on the House Select Committee on the modernization of congress. And his doctorate in politics is the author of two books by congress and to the edge of thee legitimacy the responses of 2008 financial crisis. Is it daniel, and 10 is a distinguished visiting fellow of the Hoover Institution and social thought at the university of dallas. Here is that represents the Third District of illinois from 2005 until 2021. His career is quite distinguished. Congressman hunt Political Science from Duke University author congressionalcose communications, contents and consequences. In that middle we have the inaugural practitioner and Political Science the eighth district and the u. S. House of representatives of 201,122,017 and after trying from house congressman served as a ceo of the National Contractor association for five years. With that let me step away from the lectern and bring up our guest. Phil wallick. [applause] is to start by thanking everyone who braved the smoke today and is here in person. It is a real honor to have you all gathered together. And to thank the American Enterprise institute for providing really such a wonderful professional home for me where i could write this book. I want to start off by reading the epigraph of my book which seems like a strange thing to do. I find it prettys inspirational and helps give a sense of why i am involved in this project. At comes from this book in defense of politics. And it goes like this. Burdened with established truths was a great enemy of free men. So theres some excuse not to be clever and inventive in redefininghi things or to preted to academic unconcern or scientific detachment. But simply to try to make old platitudes pregnant. Politics can remain perpetually young, strong and lively so long as i can keep its feet on the ground of mother earth. So the great defender of politics as its own thing. And thats the very beginning of his book. The next paragraph he goes on to Say Something about how we should think of politics too often regarded as a poor relation inherently dependent and subsidiary. It is rarelyd clear the life ad character of its own. Politics is not religion, ethics, law, history or economics. It neither solves everything nor is it presentan everywhere and s not any one political doctrine such as conservativism communism i can campaign contain elements of most of these things. Politics is politics to be valued as itself. Not because its like a really is something a more respectable or peculiar. Politics is politics. Politics is often a dirty word in contemporary usage. Something is political that means it is bad. Part of my effort in writing this book is to rehabilitates the idea of p politics is something that free people do. And the best way we have to keep social peace in the context of profound differences between people of our country. We need to learn how to cope with difference, manage it and regulated and not hope we can suppress it or pretend it does not exist. And so a big thing of the book is whitee congress is the place where we need to deal difference white and the american Constitutional System Congress is the one institution that allows the many nests of america to have a say and to allow the different factions to come up against each other. Gu and hopefully in the process of having to figure out how to accommodate each other actually produce policies for the challenges facing our country better than any one group could come up with all on its own. So this is not a new idea is epigraph said. I dont pretend any inventiveness. This goes straight back to something surely most of you were taught in civics class at some point. From james mattis in federalist number 10. Madison and his coauthors of the federalist papers hamilton are very concerned with how are we going to make this country hang together . Because as the constitution like they were worried this younger project of the United States of america was not long for the world. They were centrally concerned with the problem of how can we get this diverse republic full of people divided by class interest, regional interest, how can we get them all to live together in relative harmony rather than falling to pieces . Provides theex very famous answr about the extendedd republic. He s talks about having sufficit diversity affection that they will essentially check each other keep anyone from predominating and thereby make sure we cannot have tyranny of the majority or tyranny of any one group. I will not go into that in detail because you probably all heard that suffice it to say given more credit for. Until the fact people disagree by somehow making us all into one people who agree on everything. I think madisons route is far more realistic and far more profound. But turning to practicality medicine pretty quickly found its not simply enough to put these factions m in contact with each other mix it up and hope everything turns out all right. And madison and the Second Congress became concerned amidst chaos the giant special interest of his day was coming to predominate. He worried about the bank of the ninth eighth and l. A. A specifically. Wrote to his friend Thomas Jefferson wrote the stock shoppers are becoming the band of the government. S on spiritual intolerance and overall emanations. They had a lot of flair back then. so what madison worries that theres not some kind of organization put on this interplay and the congress that he is a active member a leading member of, it is going to sort of open the door to predation by interest. And so madison, who worried so much about faction is a little bit ironically when the fathers of Political Parties and helps to create the Republican Party as a counterbalance to hamiltons a party essentially, the federalist in congress. Everything worked out smoothly in and of a itself the 1790s were in exceptionally nasty decade of politics in American History. Therefore my subject im just going to say we see a situation or ring to organize affection and congress. But partisan organization introduces its own problems. Let me fastforward about eight decades to another famous observer of congress. That is the political scientists road will woodrow wilson. Woodrow wilson is a doctoral student at Johns Hopkins university. Wrote a book that became probably the best celtic work of american Political Science and history. It is called congressional government. Most people remember it today for a famous pronouncement that congress and committees congress at work. Thats the most famous pronouncement. But wilson was not just writing a textbook. He is very concerned the congress of his day was again a place for special interests were predating on the American People. All sorts of deliberation was happening and Committee Rooms behind closed door there were no are noopen committees at that t. Much more substantive debate. Once again we have a situation the parties which wilson thought were rather bankrupt in terms of their principles running on fumes. Leaving America Politics adrift. Freight much different wilson once clean c lines so we can hae accountability he believes what we needed the parties can deal with faction anciently they can present the American People the clean choice. They will charge one of the parties which was given a clear message to implement its agenda and Pay Attention to the finer details of administration it is remarkable to the extent which prescriptions got followed in the decades after he rode. Well before he ever emerged as a Major Political figure in his own right. In the 1880s and 1890s we move toward a system of very strong partisan control of the house under speakerak read known as ae read. His successor on the first decade of the 20th centurys is one ofan the most colorful figures in American History really who i wish was not such an obscurity today. Joseph gurney canon. He was somebody who was raised in the wilds of western indiana in the 1840s here he was a dominant figure the first decade of the 20th century. He always had a good cigar hanging out the corner of his mouth and he played up his hayseed natures way of dealing with the prospect has a very shrewd political operator became the dominant figure in washington for a time. And if i can, i need a clicker. There is a quicker summer. Im not showing you a slideshow i was one cartoon thats my favorite of the whole book. This is a cartoon the caption of the, i better get it right the caption says the houston session according to the minority point o view. That is what is in the script at the top. For those of yours online, you could describe the picture this is Joseph Gurney canon presiding over the chamber of the house. That gentleman from illinois the house is full of him scores and scores of copy such that the house consist of doing what he wants. They followed the advice to a remarkable degree and ended up in the situation marie had a dominant party with a pretty clear agenda. After the party of the election of 1896. With William Mckinley and William Jennings bryan. Canon is for the business orthodoxy of the day he is the dominantt figure. But in fact comes with the problem of the stifling orthodoxy but this time of these secondal revolution very rapid social change. Congress cant keep up on things are trying to say how things should be. And eventually he faces a moment and congress, an insurgency from progressive republicans and his party who both joined forces with the democrats overthrow his dominance. He had been presiding over the rules committee in addition to being the speaker and stripped of that power. And soon enough things are blown open. Congress operates on a very different principle for decades of sacrosanct security principal Work Committee chairman rather than the speaker thats a decentralized model of congress the book tries to give a sense of congress as a place with a long history. It is a place in trying to tilt the problem of faction. Trying to make sense of how we can play factions off against each other in productive ways. We sometimes end up in the land like this we have cycling orthodoxy. Other times we end up feeling like the place has become a decentralized chaotic mess. And when you do start to reimpose through centralization. That is all he wanted to show for my picture show. Im going to jester at most of the meat chapters of the book. I 150 basic conceptual idea out there. Im sure well have time to talk about contemporary politics in the discussion. The main part of the book goes from 1970s to today and looks at how we have gotten from a place in the 1970s became a radically decentralized chamber to today is a place dominated by very canon like figures at least until very recently. Maybe things today are changing and we will talk about that. D it is a place where centralized leadership is called the shots to a remarkable degree structured the agenda and we dont really have a very interplay of factions. We have two clusters of factions who know how to yell each other and insult each other do not always know how to Work Together except when they absolutely have too. And to be fair than they do. The argument of the book is that we are in a moment for the stifling orthodoxy centralized leaders give our politics a sense of not being adequate to the challenges of the moment which are very real. They tend to push policymaking elsewhere in our government. If congress does not act the executive branch largely picks up the slack and unfortunately the executivece branch is not a good place to represent the readiness of the country. Went up per profoundly just me problems we try to have agency bureaucrats solve all of our problems through creative interpretation of old statutes. We need to continually renew our self of selfgovernment, take ownership for what happens with the federal government does and the best way for us to do that is to feel like we trust the members that we sent to congress. And we believe in the process by which they mix it up with each other and work outmo accommodations and find solutions. It will not always be pretty solutions they will not always be good laws my argument is not that if we empower congress a better and got to be more assertive branch it would always do the right thing. That will be a crazy argument to make. I do not believe that. But overall, why congress . By investing in the political process, by investing in this idea of selfgovernment that is how we renew our commitment to being a free people. That iss how we secure social peace better than any other way we know. That is really how ourct constitutional system is meant to function. We need to make the choice once again. In order i think to keep our country from falling to pieces but i will leave it at that and look forward to the discussion. Thanks. [applause] think you phil. We will first start with congressman, spoke of congress and especially the house as being a place that is supposed to be a bunch of diverse interests being piled into the same form and then having to work things out amongstph themselves which can go to basic ways. Either they cancel each other out and nothing happens. M or they somehow bargain out a compromise that enough of them can live with thing and then move onto the next chamber. Was that happening when you are in congress . Was it happening much, a lot, not at all . What was your experience . Let me start, let me read this from a distinguished academic and public servants. The blurb on the back of the book. While few can claim contemporary congresses United Nation are solving our most vaccine problems, why congress lays out a convincing case this is exactly what the institution was designed to do, has done in the past, and can do once again. And let me tell you as we all know it is not doing that right manow. So many different thoughts come to mind wait to many. Our singing did anyone do that we do that cartoon with nancy pelosi . That wouldve been absolutely perfect. I have said the biggest change i have seen. I studied congress before iran for congress as a political scientist. The biggest change i think happened over the last few decades is it used to be after every election every two years, everyone into Washington House members, senators would look around and say okay, who has a majority in the house question or coup hasas majority in the senate customer who controls the white house . What can we do over the next year end a half work on the betterment of the country . Before we fight it out in the next election. Who controls what what can we do in the next two years . So our party can get control of everything and shoved down the throats of the other side exactly what we want. This is not how congress is supposed to operate. Congress, as i was coming over here i saw a tweet from scott perry was asked today about, have they resolve the impasse . Right now the house is stuck. Block the rule on some bill of republicans wanted. They asked scott perry has not been resolved . He said it doesnt matter that much. That was just a messaging bill. And they said thats all the house is doing right now. The house is taken itself the big problem is, as phil said is a congress is supposed to take in all these ideas this book is just incredible. Its i the book i wish i would have written. Im glad phil put the work and to do it. He did a better job than i probably would have. It is so important but so few people understandta this. But the role of congress is supposed to be. Supposed to be representative of the views of their constituents to washington. The constitution set up congress to debate, to deliberate come to some consideration. And it is not doing that. Some may say its just because the country is so split. That is part of the reason but congress was meant to fill sis in this book i could help bring the country together if we let them do their job instead of having a roadway or a blue way and there is no other choices. Individual members do not get to have too much of a say in it. We are in the minority were not trying to have a say. Were not trying to shame the other side. So we can win the next election. The two of usim can go for a log time so will shut myself up here. The best illustration 2013 Government Shutdown october of 2013 for theres a group of us i was a member of the Problem Solvers Caucus. The democrats and republicans forget what can we possibly put forward to help get us out . To get us funded again. Went understood the republicans had painted themselves in the corner. The House Republicans that get rid of the Affordable Care act. Where the government does not get funded. We are trying to figure out some way through this. Some of the democratic members, not me because leadership knew they could not sway me. I was too independent to hear from a democratic colic i got a call from leadership to stop trying to do this. We dont want the government reopened. Th