Farther, and were always delighted to welcome our visitors. We also want to welcome our viewers from cspan. Cspan us here to cover the conversation. After we talk for a bit, well open the floor for q a, and well ask those who have questions to come down to the microphones that are just here, and did your question from the microphones. Speak right into the microphone sew welcome pick downyoull be on screen as well as having your voice heard. So, smile, look pretty. The Madison Program here at princeton is dedicated to providing students and members of our community with the best possible civic education. We believe as madison taught that only a welleducated people can be a free people. So we want to do our part by contributing to that education of our fellows and others. When it comes to fundamental questions of american constitutionalism and basic political thought. Of course, Like Princeton University as a whole, were a 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, and that is the true civil engagement of ideas, true civil dialogue. Including or perhaps especially amongst people who disagree. We know that in our society, there are people who disagree, reasonable people of good will who disagree about many, many issues. Always been the case in the United States. But we believe in common that the way to handle disagreements is by engaging each other in civic civil discourse by doing business in the currency of intellectual discoursement that currency consists of reason and arguments and evidence. So were proud here at the Madison Program to be contributing to that mission and by doing that we hope to the common good of the United States. Im absolutely delighted to welcome back to princeton one of her most distinguished sons, Alvin Felzenberg who earned his masters degree and ph. D from princeton university. Earned it bachelors degree from Rutgers University just up the road so he is new jersey, through and through. A lecturer an enberg school of communication at the university of pennsylvania. Serve as the principal spokesman for the 9 11 commission. He served two n two president ial administrations, held self e several high level posts the United States hawse of representatives and in the 1980s was new jerseys assistant secretary of state in the administration of governor thomas h. King. A fellow at the institute of politics and has taught at yale, princeton, johns hopkins, and at George Washington university down in washington, dc. He has appeared at the comment tater on major Public Affairs twig shows including cnns crossfire. Survived crossfire. Cspans washington journal, on an altogether more place to be a commentator, msnbcs morning joe, and nprs sorry. Were nonpartisan and multiple others. His writings have appeared in the Washington Post, weekly standard, the philadelphia ininquirer, the boston globe and the Christian Science monitor. He hays regularly contributed to National Review online, a journal whose significance well be exploring in this conversation. U. S. News. Com and politico. The book that well be discussing today is the news book a man and his president s. The political ozzie of william odyssey of william f. Buckley, jr. His other writing including the leaders we deserve canoe we didnt, subtitled rethinking the president ial rating game, republic in 2008 and was the conversation between the two of us here after the mexico of publication of the book, and governor tom kaine. Please join me in welcoming dr. Al felzenberg. [applause] al william f. Buck lee was the grand man of the modern conservative movement. I think it wouldnt be entirely unfair to say he was in the founding father of the modern conservative movement, and yet some of my students i might even say many however my students, perhaps most of my students including my conservative students, dont really know who william if you were william f. Buck lee was, which makes me gasp, since those of us of a certain age, william f. Buckley was a fixture in our homes through this Television Program firing line which aired for 34 years. On cbs and a fixture in our lives, the lives of conservatives and of liberals as well. A famous practitioner of the kind of civil discourse and exchange of idea wes stand for here at princeton him guests on identify firing line including not only various stripes, traditionalists and lickber tareans and mod recall republicans and soing for but also people on the lib program and farther to the left side of the spectrum. In fact i think his favorite guest host, subbing for him, was michael a famous liberal commentator. Say a word about why our students should care about william f. Buckley. Who was he . First of all, its a great honor to be back, particularly at the Madison Program, and in this room. Attended many lectures in it, most recently a harvard professor. William f. Buckley in short, i think, was probably the most influential private citizen in american history. A few honorary commissions that he would serve on. He ran for office one time. Got 13 . He forced his way on the public stage at the age of 25, when he decided to write a become that criticized of all things Yale University. His first major opponent was Yale University. Yale University Made one major mistake, that i tell my students not to do. A more powerful subject should never try to squash at the time other minor critic. Yale, as one new yorker point it out, reacted to his criticisms with all the rigor of an elephant terrified by a little mouse. And of course the american sense of fair play, a Young Journalist also same age is a bill buckley, you know him as the host and founder of 60 minutes, mike wallace. Had mike wallace on a radio show, 1953, and one of the first questions was why is Yale University picking on you . So, you have to pick a fight with somebody bigger and you launch a career in many, many ways itch would say that as a commentator, as a political thinker of his time, and something i discovered as i really get into the papers, as a political operative. He was second to none. The only person i could think of is very, very close to buckley, probably Frederick Doug douglass in the last century. Why . He was an editor, a writer. Bill buckler was not just columnist. I cant think of any column hiss who founds political moms and political organizations. Whenever theres a cause hes out there the founded the american conservative union, founded Young Americans for freedom. Wherever there was a cause he was out there mobilizing. He was a campus politician and many of those traits he brought into the public square, because he was a charismatic personalityive extraordinary sense of air i. R. A. Air wit. He loved talking to young people. Did 70 campuses a year. In this time. And a newspaper column, editing a magazine, running a show. President s came acourting. People wanted his endorsement. As much as they ever cultivated anybody else. Too bad he didnt live a few more years to perfect this skills on the internetment. He master ever form of communication. He would find you, or you would find him, whether its on your car radio in your newspaper, whether its watching on pbs, whether news is being made that he is now resigning on an honorary board to protest nixon roz nixon roz administration and he had a tremendous impact and we see it today. My students when he died they knew that an important person died because they kept getting little messages on the internet, but this is an important person that america should stop and take note of because they couldnt remember why he was an important person. I thought, what an extraordinary life to bring back to ill put it up for a new generation, the rest of us have some nostalgia. Lets talk about the bombshell book. Called god and man at yale, and it was an indictment of Yale University. Now, why . He was a student at Yale University. I went back and looked at some reviews wherein by the great and the good of the wasp establishment of the United States. The reviewers were outraged, mook other reasons, because buckley has had accused yale of abandoning its christian heritage and adopting a sort of new religion, a pseudo religion of liberal secularism, and so the responses of some of the great the good were, this outrageous, upstart who is archaic, upstart catholic at yale, our university, comes in and accuses us of abandoning christianity. One thing that yale it has not abandon and never will abandon its christian heritage. Let me. You go down to the Jefferson Memorial great quote of Jefferson Buckley would agree with that and also say, even a greater moral equivalency. What is moral equivalency . Well, he explained like this. Imagine a wheelchairbound person is about to cross the street and a passer buy appears and pushes the wheelchair in the way of an oncoming bus. A terrible end to the story. But imagine the person is halfway across the street, the lying changes the light changes and a bus is approaching be then and a good Good Samaritan appears and pushes the wheelchair out therefore way of the bus. Happy ending. Therefore both stores have a few things in common. Theres the wheelchair, theres the bus, that doesnt make their motives equivalent. He saw yale itses teaching this is the era after world war ii where if the Economics Department he was born in 1925. Think of 1925. Calvin coolage in the white house. Isnt disea much. Didnt think he had five minutes for their American People like other president s. He was attacked for not saying very much. Government did much less. America thought it had learned from its crusade in europe. The world was at peace and the countrys economics was booming. Well, as bill is getting older, he is witnessing by the time of his teen years can the Roosevelt Administration coming into power and a completely new world when he returns from the army in 1945. Were talking about mixed economy, which he thought was really we had the aggressive kind that we saw with remember, the parades of the g. I. Scoming home. So we that that tomorrow 0 tyranny and then the benign kind, the kind elected in a free democracy but then suddenly feels it has to rub more and more offer the economy. They were teaming his at yale. Very few free mark economists were around. All the textbooks talking about how successful societies have excessive robber state except regulatoriy status. More importantly, though in the Religion Department, he did not feel they should teach one form of religion. But he did feel that christianity, or our judeochristian tradition was superior to the other forms. Why . Because it informed us our founding nation, informed the founding documents, we are judeochristian society. Jew judeoextra train coached if we are all made in gods image, and, therefore, the source of all freedom, all freedom from government interference, all born equal, all equal in the eyes of even other in the eyes of the state, and the eyes of god. And that is what he believed. He said its great to have other religions, great to learn about other religions, but dont tell us that some of the traditions of the samoa island over Margaret Mead was writing about or other tradition that talk about untouchables and god nose what, is the same as ours there is a difference. Theres not a moral equivalent. That is obviously got him into a great deal of trouble. That was the name of the book because theres a fight song, which is now the yale anthem, the last line is for god, for man and for yale help turned it to god and man at yale, meaning that secular humanism is pushing man to the center between god and of course yale. A little bit of a play on words. Why was this important . Other than the Religion Department and why was this important . Well, what was going on at that time, two famous espionage cases for going on. One in the uk, you have heard of the cambridge five. Names like kim and the best and brightest of their generation. Recruited by communists to do two things. First of all to infiltrate British Intelligence to help the britts crack the code and do many things to win the war, and also to share whatever information they possibly could with stalin because, after all, he was aligned with the uk and we get rid of the immediate men narks hitler and now bring heaven o. Earth in the form of pure marxism. What happened in the United States . In my generation, probably the vietnam war was probably the most galvanizing issue for those who were politically engaged. Bill crystal likes to say tell me where you are in vietnam and ill tell you how you voted. In 1945464748, we had whats called the his his s case. High school injury hawaii algier hawaii was a very prominent person, the best possible education you could get. Groom to be a former future cabinet member or maybe even the head of the u. N. Well, algier hiss is accused in 1948 bill would have been a sophomore then, maybe junior of having ban spy for the soviet union, and his accuser was a fellow named Whittaker Chambers. And chambers was a former communist, hiss goto guy for the communist party, and eventually leaves the party. Well, buckley comes to the conclusion that we need sterner stuff. Theyre getting to the prime of ouring you. Theyve singled out the kind of kids that would go to yale in 1948 for this kind of activity. So so even on the then i would say the student body at yale is more homogenous now than all. All mail, all alumnus children. The break ground of the campus, 60 for dewey, 40 for truman. So, i dont think when you look at any campus since then, dont think republicans have done as well. On the faculty, mind you, it was real tight between harry truman and not tom dewey. Harry truman and Henry Wallace. My students dont know who hard e Henry Wallace is. We have to have a chat with the professor if che dont know who he is. Franklin roosevelt think bernie sanders. With a red star on this coat jacket that he didnt know about it. Wallace is if you ever get the Current Administration decides to appoint people and some of you get tapped for a senate committee, they ask you question, name, address, Social Security number, maybe your religion. Henry wallace was the second of agriculture under president roosevelt. His religion was mystic. Figure that out. There are people who talk to plants, who talk to trees help called himself a mystic and i can see Franklin Roosevelt shaking his martini glass, what the hell is that . He became a pretty good politician, very good at handling congress and very good at handling republicans because hi father had been agriculture secretary, and roosevelt decided that when james garner roosevelts first Vice President was james garner, the former speaker of the house you have your old Democratic Coalition between the northern liberal and a southern conservative. Youll seed begin with kennedy and johnson. Garner decided hes not only going to oppose roosevelt force his third nomination but he is going to run against him. Roosevelts grate comment was, i see the Vice President has thrown his about spool his bottle into the ring, and they win a third term and everything is fine. Talk about the change of the party system. We have Franklin Roosevelt, four times a candidate for president , in the middle of a world war, is playing poker on the white house boat, the may flower, and sitting with him is a man named kell yes, labor leader, a mayor of chicago, another union leader and a governor, and day the him we can tell send your friend Henry Wallace in the ward. What ward. In e the wards of chicago where real people live. The think hes too close to the redsment and you cant run with him. So, he dumps Henry Wallace in me middle of a world war. We nominate a president , we think we do and then wait around to see who what name will fall from the list for Vice President. And these bosses had the power well, roosevelt dies, and truman is now president. Wallace begins to criticize trumans tough cold war policy, and truman fires him and he runs for heres glad were getting to this, the begin of buckley is watching this at hes at yale. And wallace runsing a Progressive Party candidate for president. Buckley knows that wallace wont be president but is terrify that about maybe wallace will get one or two percent of the vote. He is terrified of probably 60 to 70 of that one or two percent of the vote will be artists, writers and of course rail professores. Well, ideas matter. Ideas have consequences. Wallace wont be important but his followerred will be around for a very long time. And im going to set up my own movement to resist that and push the kind of politics i want. So, even though he is technically supporting dewey and a member of the yale Republican Club and all of that stuff, hes going around var