Latecomers and please make room for them as they rave. In fact, i think this marks more than 50 soldout programs since the start of 2017 here the Commonwealth Club. [applause] yeah. It is something to be proud of. Even after 114 years how old we are the Commonwealth Club still serves a very vital purpose, promoting nonpartisan public dialogue, bringing us together to speak civilly about issues that then to divide us. Sometimes like tonight, with humor. I want to thank our dedicated members, our donors, volunteers, all of you, who helped make this important work possible. Thank you. If youd like to do more for the club, take a look the poster on the all on your way out. A generous family of members the Commonwealth Club pledged a Million Dollars matching grants. All gifts made onsite will be matched twice. Meaning 5 decide turns into 15. 20 turns into 60. So this support will go to finish our Capital Campaign for the new billing which is new building which will be opened this year. Contractors. Please now turn off your cell phones or any other noisy devices. We are live streaming, we have cspan here and dent dont want to disrupt our speakers. On april 4th, the governments secret experiments with esp with journalists an any annie jacobsen. May 3rd, Caitlyn Jenner. And may 23rd, will where i iie Willie Browns check lure. Always a lot of fun, a members only event there are question cards on the seats to p. J. Orourke and they will be clothe shed brought to mode ray moderator, copies of his book what the hell happened are for sale and he will be signing copies right after the program. Thank you for being clear and supporting the Commonwealth Club. You please welcome to stage, p. J. Orourke and melissa cain. [applause] hello, everyone. Thank you for being here. Im melissa kean, a poll kicks recorder for kpax change 5. Were here to talk about the new become how he the hell did this happen how a lot of people are feeling itch went to amazon. Com and read book reviews and one said i recommend this book to anyone who wakes up every morning not know whether to laugh or cry. Maybe some of youer in audience today. So, youre in the right place. The way this works is im going to give an introduction for mr. Orourke, although he does not need one, youre going to get one. Then he will pick for 20 americans and then well have q a for 40 minute. So send you questions up on the card. So, the way we start for official purposes, i get to bang the gavel three times. So much fun, and then well sort of launch into the sort of audio portion of the program. Anyone have any questions about how things go . All right. Cool. Lets get started. Good evening welcome to todays meeting of the Commonwealth Club of california. Placey youre in the know. Find us jacques at Commonwealth Club. Org. Im mel lisa cane, politics recorder for cbs 5 Division Division in San Francisco and its my pleasure to introduce our distinguished speaker, p. J. Orourke, the author of this new book how the hell did this happen the election of 2016 he was born and raised in to lead to, ohio, and attend its Miami University and Johns Hopkins and began writing fun funny things in the 1960s and then spent 20 years reporting for Rolling Stone and the atlantic monthly, going to wars, riots riots and rebellions rebellionse calls holidays in hell. Has la bryant on politics, cars, economics. He lives in new england. A long time diehard republican, pj endorsed Hillary Clinton for president in 2016. Declaring that america was suffering from, quote, the most severe outbreak of mass psychosis since the say. He witch trials 1692. One reviewer wrote, his hes acknowledge original thicker in ancient text. You cant google his stuff because its not there yet, which i the highest compliment this day and age. So welcome back the ungooglable, p. J. Orourke. [applause] its been a great year for political reporters which means its been a bad year for you. The thats to the whole truth of the news business. If it bleeds it leads. Woman goes church is not a viable headline. So, back in 2015, when this god awful election cycle began, i looked at all the candidates who want ted be president and i set out to answer this question who were these jack legs, high binders, wire puller, swellhead, battle artists, floor flushers and animated spittoons offering themselves as worthy of americas highest office. Did they take us voters for fools . Yes, of course, they always do. But where they also deluded and insane and receiving Radio Broadcasts on their teeth fillings, telling them they should be president . So, we muddled along and finally in americas political primary and caucus voters, a narrowed the field of fools down to five. Cruz, clinton, kashich, sanders, and trump. Now, thats not a list of president ial candidates. Thats the worst law firm in the world. Thats a law firm that couldnt get Caitlyn Jenner off on a charge of bruce general identity theft. The office the presidency attracteds only the leprechauns of public life or have the politicians shrunk until none of them can pass the carnival test. You must be taller then the clown to run for president. The beginning, it seemed as if the the two candidates would just inevitably be jeb bush and Hillary Clinton. Thats what everybody predicted and me, too and i trembled for my country, but a maybes would go into the voting booth and see the numbers bush and clinton and they would think to themselves, gosh, im getting forgetful. Did this already. And theyd leave without marking the ballot. Voter turnout would be six percent. The shuttle from the local Retirement Community would bring a few senile republicans to the polls, Democratic National committee bus would collect some derelict from skid row, and we would have the first president of the United States elected bay franchise limited to suffers from memory loss and drunken bums. Actually sounds pretty good now. Should have gone for it. What happened to jeb . He had it all. Jebs young, for a republican, a identify beta kappa, successful businessman and a former governor of florida. Where balloting and corruption are vital to the g. O. P. And he was roll like dirty dog in campaign tractions contributionn went away. And Hillary Clinton didnt have it locked down. He faced serious challenge frontal the commander of the vermont kong, bernie sanders. Now, bernie just came out and said he was so socialist, and now that may be fine in some parts of the world where theyre used to socialist, such as here maybe, but out there in red state america you say youre a socialize and what people hear is that guy is going to grab my tv and give it to guys in vermont. Bernie wanted to make america more like europe and im thinking great idea because europe has such a swell track record for 100 years, every since federal unanimous car federal nantzs car got a glad. Make america more like europe . Where do you go to get all the nazis and commies and 90 million dead people and you seek at bernies appeal was compared to hillary. Hillary carried more baggage than the belowing she used as secretary of state and every country that blew up in her face in the quest to fulfill the mission of the u. S. Secretary of state which which is could accumulate frequent flier miles. But the dalai lama on security duty at benghazi. The bag badge that to be weighed on Chris Christies bathroom school and then the ferret of herhusband might slip his leash and run up intern pant legs. So, that left us with donald trump. The abominable snowman, big mouth, bigot, liar, retch, mat, a rouse, twitter a nation to death, and a braggart, a rogue, villain that fight biz the book of steve bannon, plague on awe you hotels how much could a person like donald trump possibly become president in maybe just a matter of what the great political sat rhys said marchen elm miami know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard. Or, more likely, its part of something larger because here in the United States were not alone in having a political awkward moment. We seem to be in the midst of a global revolt against the political elites. The political elite poo created the post World War Ii National offered and have been running everything, running everything into the ground as far as a lot of ordinary voters are concerned. Internationally were seeing a rise in xenophobia, jungowism, authoritarianism and range from the faintly comic spectacle of the European Union you some shambles shambles to the sinister activities Vladimir Putin and xi jinping, taking measurements for a new iron curtain. Now you think that this would seem worse to ordinary voters than a mere standard issue political elitism of a jeb bush or Hillary Clinton. But the political elites did in part create their own problem. Over the past four generations the hallmark of the political elets has been the expansion of political power. Political power is expanded in size and expense. A third of the worlds gdp is now spent by the politicians in governments around the world. One out our every three things you make is grabbed by government. If your cat has three kit s, one kittens, one of them is a government agent. Political power has expanded in scope. Politics casts its net over every little aspect of life. Nothing is so private that it isnt tangled up in politics. Transgender bathrooms. We knew that politics is crap and now we fine out where we take one is a political issue. And i have to say to the political elites when are you going to realize guys and gals going to realize that politic us is just a twoway street. The elite politicians have spend four generations creating a powerful, huge, heavy, unstoppable, monster truck of a government, and then those same elite politicians get all shocked and weepy when a horrible politician gets behind the wheel, turn this truck around and runs them over. We need to make the truck smaller. Yank the engine and install foot pedals and make the government into a kiddy car so it only bangs news shins. People all over the world are saying, were sick of the elites. Tired of the experts, to hell with the deep thinkers who think they know what we should have better than we do and, who while theyre at it, are grabbing everything weve got. We see this in this revelocity in the breck sit vote and the rise of alternative Political Parties in europe. On both ends of the political spectrum, greens on he left and nationalists on the right. We can see it in brazil where almost every politician in the country, lefting are right, mid of the read, has been charged with corruption for the simple reason theyre guilty of it. Now, in the case after brexit, britains political elet, its Business Elite and its trade union elite were all opposed to brexit. And that is to say the people who supported the iraq war, plus the people who callses the 2008 Global Financial crisis, mouth the people who nationalized the British Automobile industry, they were all in unprecedented agreement on one issue and the voters felt they couldnt go wrong voting against this trifecta. It was latin america, colombia. The elites spend five years negotiating a peace treaty with a starving rebel of commune come guerrillas, the colombia voters asked, what, after 52 years, of murder, kidnapping, pillage, theft, and trafficking in narcotics, the gorilla las are getting re gerri lalls guerrillas are getting require timer benefitment. Politics in australia are so dull that the name of the conservative party is the liberal party. But australia has had five prime ministers in six years and the last election nearly resulted in a hung parliament. Must be hanging legislators is probably immoral and probably illegal, especially queensland irtheyre caught chasing sheep. Politics in canada, even duller. Even duller than the politics of australia and yet in kid they have premiere who is a completely inexperienced dashing young celebrity named justin. Havent googles canadian politics because who would. I assume that justin is bieber. And of course here in america, obviously, we saw the revolt against the elites in the ridiculous rise of donald trump. Im thinking, okay, understand the desire to shake things up but why trump of all people . Well, trump may be a rich guy and member of the one percent but theres nothing elite about him. For sure. Nothing elite about the way he sound. Sounds like the rest of us except he sounds like the rest of us after we have had six drinks and doesnt drink. He is a jerk. The guy is a jerk. But you can imagine playing a round of golf with him. Cheats but so do i. Major a round of golf with Hillary Clinton. 20 harvard graduate caddies who have read all the books about golf but never been on he links and spend the whole match telling you, not her but you to what club to use the secret Service Makes sure you take her suggestions and after your chip shot, the cup and the pin of moved closer to hillarys lie and an appropriate term, to use, in a game hillary is playing and the score card is on her personal email server. Of course on the other hand i dont know if i could stand how long id last playing a round of golf with donald trump before i gave in to the temptation to whack a titleist into the back of his school while he is nudging this ball with his foot and creating alternative factions houston clove itself us to the hole. Global revolt against the elitees. Its a little puzzling itch didnt puzzling i. Didnt feel the pour of this myself. I was reporting on this and the beginning of the 21st century, seems like an odd time to have a revolt against the elets specially in country like uses that are going pretty well. Were not in desperate final straits. The Great Recession of 2008 pass baneful and wake up on friends couches after somebody took the house, butter these day but these days practically everybody in america has had a divorce, and if there were any breadlines during the Great Recession, sure warrant hangs out loafs of love the taste of thin slim. The obesity tries more than 11,000 combatants have died during the war on terror but more than 7,800 american combatants died the bat of gets gettysburg. Hippize arent sticking daisies in drones. We are culturally and politically polarized in america but no way that that startle an Old School History professor and jolt him awake from his nap. The year 1861, that was polarized. Fort sumpter isnt taking any incoming the moment and yet the American People are fearful. They blame their fears on the political elite, and one of the frozen this, important reason, is because the political elite have done a lousy job dealing with certain problems. The middle east, for example. Demons have been unleashed in the middle east. Elites failed to address the problems that caused the demons to be unleaders. Indeed elites seemed to have been breeding demons in the kennels of elite diplomacy and elit military strategy and then those elite turned these demons lose in the middle east as if demons were an endangered species and were trying to reintroduce demons. One result has been murder all over the world. Much further away from the quarrels and hate referred to the middle east could a person get than to be at latin night in a gay nightclub in orlando, florida. And another result, of course, of this mishandling of the disof the refugee crisis in europe. People say theyre not crowding the stairways and corridors jostling elites in the halls of parliament and arent building shantytowns on the courts of the private country clubs. To elites immigration means nannies and household staff and the elites dont see any similarity between the wall that donald trump is promising and the gated communities in which the elites live. And another problem the elitees have caused for themselves, theyre promised the politics can fix everything. Well, when you promise that you can fix everything, then everything thats broken is your fault. Political elets say that politics can fix climate change, then i want to see bill clinton shoveling my driveway. I know. Thanks to Global Warming my driveway only had a few inches of snow this winter. So what were seeing in this global revolt against the elites is the elites endings up getting blamed everything for everything, including the fact that we live in time of rapid change, and never mind that much of that change is good change. Number of people worldwide living in extreme poverty, living on less than a dollar a day, that has been reduced by half since the year 2000. Amazing, marvelous project. And yet also, despite some recent backsliding, theres been an overall growth in human liberty over the past 30 years, since then 1989 fall of the berlin wall. And you know to be fair to the elites, rapid change creates problems for them, too. Speedy transformation in social moore political givens confusions everybody especially those who thought day that are leading the parade. Mankind no longer has to march in lockstep. People are becoming individuals instead of masses on review and this is great but certain rickties arise on the operate grounds difficulties arise on the Parade Ground when the band breaks up. The tuba could be turned into a bong, and the trombonist using his slide goose coronet player. So, swift improvements in transport, in communications, and in technical capabilities have combined to produce this thing we call globalization, international trade, shrink the earth to a pluto sized planet. Thats great sometimes. We love having everything from everywhere brought right to our door, except when we dont. Like we love going yellowstone but