Address this. Fred . Its ironic situation that the upper middle class refuses to preach what it practices. What it practices is strong families, enormous attention to children, but wont preach that because to preach that is to be critical of someone else, and that would indict them and again, one of the racism, sexism, et cetera, et cetera. So, the moe important thing that can happen is might provide some solace for this bleeding is that theres a the deconstruction of this postmodern frame. So much of the up irmiddle class has bought into. The other thing that comes out of this the lady from wisconsin remind met of it is the intend polarization thats produces. The Democratic Party now could not win without the vote of single women. The cartoon about julia last night. Welfare mothers are married to at the government, the serial mon nothing my they engage mon nothing my monogan where they deal with. The people who live in states were married families are still predominant, wisconsin, theyre moving utah are moving in the other direction. So wore having a terrible polarization because we werent able to deal intel generally and honestly with the moynihan report. And let me bring up a word, i see me wife over there, some the word is feminism. Feminism has certain virtues. She kept her name. When people ask for for mr. Seeingle and theyre selling something on the phone i say there is no mr. Siegel, and hang up. But, but, feminism is another basis for not being able to talk honestly, not being able to talk about empirical young in wisconsin, a legacy of progressivism was this commission brought together to investigate election fraud. The name of the commission they had Midnight Raids on knocking down the doors and come up with nothing. But the only one who covered this is the wall street journal. What is this about . If its in the New York Times, ive missed it. I admit i read the times less and less as i shift to an online subscription because i couldnt bear to pay them so much. If these things come to the fore, we have a chance of achieving in progress. I worry that if Hillary Clinton is elected all of the problems that steve and i talked about will be baked into the body politic for a long time to come. I worry about it for myself and i worry about it for my grandchildren. Thanks, fred. I want to leave everyone with one last buckley quote. He wrote in a letter to Henry Kissinger what must have been fairly despairing moment in the cold war, that our task is to bring hammer blows against the bell jar that protects the dreamers from reality. The ideal scenario is that by pounding from without we can affect resonances will will crack through to the late ten impulses of those who dream within, bringing to life a circuit that will save the republic, and 50 years on, our task is style bring the hammer blows, and meese thank steve and fred for joining us at this point. Thank you. Applause. [applause] [inaudible conversations] youre watching booktv on cspan2, television for serious readers. Heres a look at whats on primetime tonight we kick off the evening at 7 00 p. M. Eastern with David Shields presentation of several years of war photographs from the front page of the New York Times. Then at 8 30, a panel on the life of recently retired librarian of congress, james billington, and at 10 00, on afterwards the daler callersed matt louis argues for the rebecca party to return to conservative principles or risk demise. We finish up at 11 00 with a report on the largest refugee camp in the world. Tonight on cspan 2s booktv. The smiley ten years ago this book came out, the covenant with black america and this is ten years later exfirst of all are, what were you trying to get at ten years ago. Guest first of owl, hey new years. Ten years ago we were in the midst of the bush administration, and in 2005 katrina hit and kanye west famously said that president Bush George Bush doesnt care about black people those black folk who lost their lives, this book comes out in 2008 because black folk had enough. We were sick and tired of being sick and tired as we put together an agenda that laid out the top ten issues of importance to africanamericans and what could be done through the National Plan of action to turn the tide against all those ills and ailments that were trying to take black america under. Everything from health to housing to criminal justice to the environment, to the Digital Divide. The top ten issues of importance to africanamericans, education, were in this book. The book comes out, makes history, goes number one on the New York Times bestseller list, and here we are ten years later and one has to ask the question, based upon the agenda laid out ten year ago, what progress has black america made a decade later so the book out now is the covenant of black america ten years later. Host in the introduction heres what you write it black america has lost ground in every leading economic category in the last ten years. Guest you have to go where the data takes you, where the facts take you. Unless youre certain president ial candidates which is a conversation for another day. At least in my writings i want to stay focused on the facts and the data tell us. What the data tell us what you just said, that the black folk have fallen behind in every Major Economic category. I went to Indian University to the school of public and environmental affairs, to ask them to give me the data i needed on these ten issue areas so this book is not my opinion. These are the data, this is the truth. If you want the truth about the state of black America Today and perhaps some statement about where the future is headed, this text lays that out. You can imagine, peter, how when the data started to come in to me and i started compiling what was in front of me, it hit me hard to realize in every Major Economic category black folk have lost ground over the last ten years. Host lets start with health care, the first chapter, written by david satture, former Surgeon General of the u. S. Lets go to uninsured, number one, and up at the top, hispanics remain uninsured 20 level. Black pop population in the last ten years has drop from 19. 5 to 11. 8. Whites, 7. 6 up insured rate. So theres some improvement. Guest there is no doubt about the fact that obamacare led to greater Insurance Coverage for africanamericans, number one. I think in the long run, not only will the president get great create for having gotten this. Appears its going to stand and i hope in the coming years we can improve this. It wasnt universal health care and something he prom mitt but something is better than nothing and i and i hope we can improve on that. The insurance rate ford black people have improved. The problem is most provisions have not kinged in as yet, the motor important one is the preexisting conditions prohibition. At the moment ten years later black health is not measurably better at number one, number two even obamacare didnt do anything about health disparateys. What you read about healthcare ten years later, black women continue to die disproportionately from preventible diseases. So we celebrate the passage of obamacare. Aawait the day the provisions kick in and hope to see the impact it will have on africanamericans beyond just being covered but the Health Disparities and the racial element involved there yip has yet to be address. Host is there a personal responsibility level when it comes to health care. Guest not just health care. Theres a level of that on every one of these issues. I just listened to your conversation with Robin Woodson no doubt about the fact that before black people or any people can hold others accountable, you must first hold yourself responsible. So, responsibility and accountability go hand in hand. Host covenant with black america ten years later. When it comes to education, the goal of providing an equal high quality education to all of america students has yet to be realized it. Guest there are pockets of progress on some issues and on education theres some evidence were making a bit of progress. Number one. Number two, one of my issues are with the way we approached education over the last ten years. This notion of racing to the top. Thats been the name of the program, race to the top. That always struck me as funny and interesting because to my mind education ought not to be a race. It ought to be a right. We put so much competition into the education equation so much money to be made off the competition, its become a race as opposed to a eight every child ought to have access to. And speaking of rights what we still have not accomplished is a way to guarantee every child to this Country Access to an equal highquality education. We have not figured that out. No matter what child, no matter what state youre born, in has access to equal high quality ookayed, something is wrong when you have to wait for the ball to bounce your way in a Lottery Machine and hope your number comes up. Something is wrong when you hope their pull your name and youre on a waiting list. People love talking about School School choice but its about how we make all schools choice, and so long as Public Education for africanamericans does not measure up we have a problem. Other consecutive vents that smiley writes about include criminal justice, economics and economic opportunity, environmental justice, Digital Divide issues, rural roots, and democracy and participation in our democracy. Well go through a couple more but we have to get to your calls. We want to hear your voices as well. Rick in fairfax, virginia, republican line, youre on with tavis smiley. Caller hey, tavis, according to the congressional budget office, overall federal taxation is on average you can google that with cbo distribution of taxes. So actually with the tax increase we had in 2013, increase the overall effective progressivity of taxation, i think that was all a diversion from the spending side of the equation, which was this year 5. 9 trillion, according to the bea, and if we wasted just 15 of that, that would be close to a trillion dollars a year. So, host rick, where are you going with this . Caller i mean, isnt it a diversion from the real problem of spending and the regulations . Because the average i dont know if your familiar with the confident of government, cost of got which is 51 of average income, which includes manufacturing income. So poor people cant get jobs because the total government related costs are so high, and so theres no business not enough business formation. Guest im not all toth sure of the point he was attempting to make. What i do know is this, dr. King said once that budgets are moral documents. Budgets are moral documents. Theyre not just financial transactions. Theyre moral documents. And so when you can say what you say but you are who you are and we know who you are, we see who you are when you put your bit on the table. So far the black folk over the last ten years, the problem with our Budget Priorities we have not prioritized the lives of those who are suffering the most, and so we could have a great debate about government pending, what we ought to spend more on and less on, but if king is right, that budgets are moral documents, then our budget and our priorities ought to Say Something about what matters to us and so again, over the last ten years we have not put enough suspend e spend neglect right places buzz thats a debate we could have for hours. Host malik, arlington, texas, democrat. Youre on with tavis smiley. Covenant with black america, ten years later, the name of the book. Caller hi, mr. Smiley. Guest how are you. Caller doing good. First i would like to say i agree with what youre saying, the problem with black america is our Family Structure has crumbled. We have destroyed our Family Structure, black females have decided for the last 30 years to have out of wedlock child births and its 77 of all black children being born now being born out of wedlock. Those children are going to live in abject poverty because theyre no Family Structure no more husband and wife. And most of the time the black females, their families are being subsidized by the federal government. Section 8 houstoning destroyed working class black communities. Home ownership and the tax revenue from Home Ownership would go to improve schools, but because our neighborhoods are crumbling, not because of government, but because of our own behavior, there is no more room on the shifting tax revenue na leak malik well get an answer but what due you do. An electric instrumentation technician at a manufacturing plant, for ten years. Guest thank you for your phone call. Let me say three things quickly. He had a lot in his statements. I want to start with the fact im not sure that we can say that most women who are single mothers, most black single mothers on government assistance. I want to caution us on that. Dont know that most single black mothers are on government assistants. Number two, i would not at all argue with you about the breakdown of the traditional and Nuclear Family as we know it. What i would add is when you talk about the American Society and how its changed over the last 50 years were becoming a Single Parent Society across the board. Not just a black thing. Were becoming a Single Parent Society. Put another way. The problem is that black folk dont get married. Thats the point you made. Black folk dont get married and white folk cant stay married and thats the problem. Black folk dont get married, white folk dont stay married. Divorce rate off the Child Support and we have become a Single Parent Society. What i dont like is we have this conversation as if black folk are the only ones who are leading the way, leading the charge, for us becoming a Single Parent Society. To the issue of housing and funding for schools i hear you loud and clear and im starting to rethink whether or not funding schools through property taxes is the best way to do it a lot of folk no longer have kids or kids are groin and out of the house and they have a problem paying property tacks nice dont see how theyre being benefited by their money going to schools. So you see people now starting to rise up against paying property taxes. I dont know i know all the answers. But im think we need to rethink whether property tacks are the betts way to fund education. Host correcting the criminal Justice Reform theres been movement in the area no is there has. Eric holder before he left as attorney general, made some good decisions about how theyre going to go forward and prosecuting these drug crimes. Ive always thought that these so mean of these drug crimes are health offenses first. A Health Crisis more than it is a criminal justice issue. I think that before he left the ags office he made good moves in turn terms of sentencing and what kinds of crimes they were going to prosecutor. I celebrate that. Still disappointed for not going after anybody on wall street. We have gone through another eight years and nobody has paid the price for the reying and pillaging of the raping and pillaging of the treasury that brut ordinary country. Wall street are making more money than ever now but nobody has paid for the crime of what the did to bankrupt, try to bankrupt this country. But on criminal yates, and progress has been meat. I think Going Forward the only area i can come up with in this book of these ten issues is on the issue you raise, the criminal Justice Reform. You sea rand paul and cory booker and other senators starting to express support for some reasonable, sincible, limited reform to criminal justice. I think theres a lot obviously a lot that can be done and i highly recommend Michelle Alexanders brilliant book the new jim crow. Highly recommend it but it think theres finally starting to be some shifting of opinion on the hill. Sometimes we do the right thing for the wrong reason. The right thing for the wrong reason. The democrats who are talking about criminal Justice Reform are doing it because they care about justice. And reforming the way we do this in the country. Im not saying republicans dont feel some of that but my sense it most of their concern is fiduciary. The finally figured out we cant spend our way out of this and be the most the nation that leads the world in mass incarceration because were spending so much money doing that. So for one group it may be a justice issue. For another it may be a fiduciary issue but at the end of the day, at my cage i dont care how we get there, ill take it. Host where do you think the Koch Brothers guest on that issue . That a good question. I dont know them and even when question peoples politics and who they support, i never want to question their motivations. I dont like their practices. I dont like their strategies but i know them to say anything their motivations. Host ann in louisville, tavis smile isy listening. Caller yes. I want to say i think it was interesting how he diminished the previous callers points by divert what the caller said about the black family and started talking about the divorce rate among whites. I just dont think that was a good answer. But i wanted to call about was what i see its a situation to where when do people start caring more about their own situation and their own destiny than allowing someone else to care about it . When you get to t