As far away as newark, maybe farther. We are always delighted to welcome our visitors. We also want to welcome our viewers by cspan. I want to let folks in the room know that cspan is here to cover todays conversation. After doctor Alvin Felzenberg and i speak for a bit we will open the floor for q a. We will ask those who have questions to come down to the microphones that are just here. And ask your questions from the microphone. Speak right into the microphone so we can pick you up. Remember that you will be on screen as well as having your voice heard. So smile, look pretty [laughter] the Medicine Program here princeton is dedicated to providing students and members of the community with the best possible education. We believe as madison thought that only welleducated people can permanently be a free people. We want to do our part by contributing to the education of our fellow citizens. Students and others. When it comes to fundamental questions, american constitutionalism and thought. Of course Like Princeton University is a holy our Nonpartisan Organization and we welcome all points of view. In fact we encourage a wide diversity of viewpoints. We believe what many people preach but perhaps are not so strict about actually practicing as well as preaching. That is the true civil engagement of ideas. True civil dialogue. Including or especially among people that disagree. We know that in our society there are people who disagree. Reasonable people of goodwill that disagree about many many issues. It has always been the case in the United States. But we believe in common that the way to handle the agreement is by engaging each other and civic civil discourse by doing business in the currency of intellectual discourse. The currency consists of reasons and arguments and evidence. So we are proud here at the Housing Program to be contributing to that mission and by doing that we hope to do the common good United States. We are absolutely delighted to welcome back to princeton, one of her most distinguished sons, Alvin Felzenberg who earned his masters degree and his phd from princeton university. He had his bachelors degree from Rutgers University just up the road so he is new jersey through and through. He is a f the Annenberg School for medication at the university of pennsylvania. He served as the principal spokesman for the 9 11 commission. He served into president ial ministrations helped several highlevel in the 1980s new jerseys assistant secretary of state and administration of governor thomas h kane. He has taught at yale, princeton, Johns Hopkins and George Washington university down in washington d. C. He has appeared as a commentator on major Public AffairsTelevision Shows including cnn crossfire as you can see he survived crossfire. Cspan washington journal and altogether north more dignified place to be a commentator msnbcs morning joe we are nonpartisan. Talk of the nation and multiple others. His writings have appeared in the Washington Post, weekly standard, philadelphia inquirer, boston globe, Christian Science monitor. He has recently contributed to National Review online. A journal whose significance we will explore in this conversation. Us news. Com and political. The book that we will be discussing today was the new book, a man and his president s the political odyssey of william f. Buckley jr. This is published by Yale University press. Other writers include the leaders we deserve and if you didnt subtitled rethinking the president ial rating game which was published by basic books in 2008 and was a conversation of hours between the two of us here at princeton after the publication of that book. If you keep writing books will keep having conversations. And governor tom kane, the biography of tom kane. From the new jersey state house to the 9 11 commission that was in 2006. Please join me in welcoming dr. Felzenberg. [applause] william f. Buckley was the main man of the conservative movement. I think it would not be entirely unfair to say he was the founding father of the modern conservative movement. And yet, some of my students, i might even say many of my students perhaps most of my students including my conservative students do not really know who william f. Buckley was which makes me gasp. For many people william f. Buckley was a fixture in our homes. He was on pbs and a picture in our lives not only the lives of conservatives but liberals as well. He was a famous practitioner. The kind of civil discourse and engagement of ideas that we stand for here in the Medicine Program at princeton. His guests on firing line included not only fellow conservatives of various rights, traditionalists, libertarians and moderate republicans and so forth. But also people on the liberal and farther to the left side of the spectrum. In fact, i think his favorite guest host, subbing for him was michael kinsley. He was a famous for is a famous liberal commentator pierce a1a say a word about why our students should care about william f. Buckley. Who was william f. Buckley . First of all, is a great honor to be back in the program in this room. The inherent lectures. It is a pleasure. William f buckley was probably the most influential private transport in American History could never had a government job. He had a few honorary commissions. He got 13 percent he of course on the public stage at the age of 25 when he decided to write a book that criticized of all things his first major opponent was Yale University. They made one major mistake that i tell my students not to do. And more powerful subject should never try minor critics. Yale reacted to his criticism as one person put it out there. With all of the rigor of an elephant terrorized by a little mouse. A Young Journalist also, the founder of 60 minutes, mike wallace. Had mike wallace on a Television Show 9053. One of the first questions was why is Yale University picking on you . [laughter] said think about somebody bigger and you launched a career. In many many ways. But i would say that i did commentator, as a political figure at the time and something i discovered as a religion into the papers, as a political operative. He was second to none. The only person i could think of very close to buckley was probably frederick douglass. In the last century. And why do i say that . He was an editor. He was a writer. He formed organizations. Bill buckley was not just a columnist. Someone asked me this morning who was william f. Buckley . I cannot think of any columnist or another goes out there with political movements and organizations and is out there. He founded cpac, the american conservative union. Whenever there was a cause, he was out there mobilizing. He was a campus politician and a bright into the Public Square in many ways on behalf of because he was a charismatic personality, with extraordinary sense of wit, he was able to mobilize audiences. The ticking of the young people. He loved talking to young people. He did 70 campuses a year in his prime. That plus a newspaper column editing a magazine running a show, the president s all came according. People wanted his endorsement. As much as the ever wanted for any political boss. And again, i, it is too bad he did not have a few more years to really perfect his he mastered every form of communication at his time. Where you working would find you. The radio, newspaper, pbs, whether news is being made that he is now residing in honorary board from nixons administration would make front page news. He had a tremendous impact. And we still see it today. My students, same thing as yours. When he died, they knew that an important person died. Because it kept getting little messages on the internet. Wherever they subscribe to. But so this was an important person america should stop and Pay Attention to. And wouldnt extraordinary life to bring back to open up a new for a new generation. The rest of us, have some nostalgia. Lets begin by talking about that first show. It was called god and man. And it was an indictment of Yale University. Now why . He was a student there. I knows my went back and looked at some of the reviews, which were written by the great and the good of the lost establishment of the United States. That the reviewers were outraged among other reasons. Because buckley had accused Yale University of abandoning its christian heritage. Yes. And adopting a sort of new religion. A pseudoreligion of liberal secularism. And so the responses of some of the great and the good were this is outrageous and by the way this is a catholic. This upstart catholic at yell at our University Comes in and accuses of abandoning the Christian University but the one thing that you know about Yale University is that it will never abandon its christian heritage. Well, let me begin by saying that you have to be under the Jefferson Memorial and theres a great quote. Buckley would agree with that but he would also say even a greater republican and what is moral equivalency . He explained it like this. Imagine a wheelchair bound person is about to cross the street. And a passerby appears and he pushes the wheelchair in the way of an oncoming bus. Terrible and personal the economics department. Remember this is 1925. Calvin coolidge is in the white house. Didnt say very much, he did not think he had to impose himself every five minutes on the American People like other president s. He was attacked for not saying much at all government did much less. America thought they had learned from this. Europe was trying very hard not to repeat. The world was at peace in the Country Economic situation was booming. Well, as bill is getting older, he is witnessing for the time of his teenage years the administration coming to power. A completely new world. When he returns from the army in 1945. Where suddenly we are talking about mixed economy, not free markets. Which he thought was really you know by another name. We had the aggressive kind that we saw. Parades and gis coming home after world war ii. Eastern europe so we had that form of tyranny. Then we had the benign time. The time it gets the free democracy and then suddenly they were teaching this at Yale University. Very few premarket economists were around. All of them talked about the societies have excessive regulatory state. More importantly, the relations department. Did not feel that they should teach one form of religion and to be a Religious School but he did feel that christianity or the judeochristian tradition was superior to the other forms. Why . Because in our founding nation, informed the founding documents. We were in judeochristian society. Judeochristian tradition teaches that we are all made in gods image. And therefore as a source of all freedom. All freedom from government, we are all equal in the eyes of each other. In the eyes of the state. And in the eyes of god. And thats what he believed. He said it is great of other religions, it is great to learn about other religions but do not tell us of some of the traditions of the sinhala islands that Margaret Mead was writing about our other traditions talk about untouchables and god knows what is the same as ours. We should teach that there is a difference. That there is not a moral equivalence. That is obviously got him into a great deal of trouble. And that was the name of the book. Because there was a song which is now their anthem at Yale University. The last one is for god and for yale. And he changed it meaning that was pushing man into the center and god of course a little bit of play on words. Okay, why is this important . Other than the religion and why was this important . What was going on at the time, to famous espionage cases. To share whatever information he possibly could because after all, he was alive with the uk. And so we got rid of the immediate minutes of hitler and not bring heaven on earth in the form of pure muscle. They learned marxism theory in the 30s. Just around the time of the traffic so what happened in the United States . In my generation the vietnam war was probably the most galvanizing issue. Bill crystallizes a tell me where you were in vietnam and also you how you voted in the election. And in 1945, 1946, 47 and 48 we had what was called the hiss case. His was a very prominent person. Have the best education that you can get. Harvard law school, clerk to you cannot do better than that. Social friend of Franklin Roosevelt. Form of future cabinet member may be the united nations. Well hiss in 1948, the bill would have been a sophomore then. Having been a spy for the soviet union and his accuser, chambers was a former communist and was the go to guy for the communist party. And eventually leaves the party. Buckley comes the conclusion that we need sterner stuff. Theyre getting to the crime of our youth. They have singled out the kind of kids that would go to yale at this time. Even i would say that the student body at yale were homogenous. And it was all male, probably all alumni children. It was not exactly what you would see now. The breakdown of the campus 60 percent for doing an 40 percent german. I dont think they have looked at any campuses them. But on the side of the faculty, it was truman and Henry Wallace. My students do not know who Henry Wallace is. Well, if your student and you dont know him we had to have a chat with your professor. Bernie sanders, and you have got it think that Bernie Sanders was a red star. Wallace was rather weird. Some of you. [inaudible] name, address, Social Security number. Henry wallace was the secretary of agriculture. His religion was there were people for the plans in the trees. He calls himself a mystic. And i can see Franklin Roosevelt shaking his martini glass saying what is that . He became a pretty good politician. And his father had been agriculture secretary. And roosevelt decides that when james garner by the way, roosevelts first by Vice President appears you have your own Democrat Coalition was with the northern liberal and southern conservatives. Youll see it again with kennedy and johnson. Garner decides hes not only going to oppose the nomination of roosevelt but hate going to run against him. Roosevelt. I think Vice President has thrown his bottle into the ring. And he runs with Henry Wallace. They win the third term and everything is fine that we talk about the change in the party system. Have Franklin Roosevelt four times and in the middle of world war is playing poker on the white house boat, the mayflower and sitting with him is a labor leader. The mayor of chicago, another union leader and a governor. And they tell him you know we cannot tell your friend Henry Wallace the word chicago where real people live. Where here many of the people. Its too close. And you cannot run with him. So he dumps Henry Wallace. In the middle of the world war. Imagine this well nominate a president and we packed and then we wait around to see you know what 4 from the west for Vice President. And these guys had the power to do this. Roosevelt dies, and truman is not present. Wallace begins to criticize trumans tough cold war policies. And truman fired him. And he runs for, im glad ray get into this because here we get to buckley in his watching all of this. And wallace runs as the candidate president. Buckley knows hes not going to the present but his terrified and maybe wallace gets one or two percent of votes part of what is terrified is probably 60 to 70 percent of that one or two percent of the road are going to be artists, writers and of course professors from yale. Ideas matter ideas have consequences. Wallace will not be important but his followers will be along for a very long time. And im going to sit in my own movement to resist that supporting duty and the yale republican club, his going around to various radio stations debating on various radio stations. And the fact that the communist party was that openly and now we know this, openly running president ial campaign and they have too many intellectuals peers the big you have to do the same thing. You have got us to an interesting point. One of the remarkable things about buckley, taking charge of the conservative movement as a very young man. He encountered a movement that he sought to transform a movement, to take over a movement here there really was a motley crew that included how shall we say . Cranks more than a few. People that have each other. One of the things that buckley did, quite remarkable achievement especially given his youth was to marginalize, sideline the john birchers, the racist, anti semite, there is a purge of these elements of the movement to establish the modern conservative movement. Of course this was before you got the neoconservatism with 11 Jewish American