Harvard Book Store; WGBH Forum Network; Arianna Huffington: Third World America

Good evening everyone. My name is Rachel Kasem on behalf of Harvard bookstore It's my pleasure to welcome you to this evening's discussion with co-founder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post Arianna Huffington as she discusses her new book Third World America How Our politicians are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American dream. This evening's event is one of many that we're hosting through Harvard bookstore this this fall. We're excited to host a poet and journalist Eliza Griswold next week author of The Tenth Parallel Dispatches from the fault line between Christianity and Islam. She'll be speaking at Harvard bookstore on Wednesday the 22nd at 7:00 p.m.. We also have tickets on sale now for events later in the month with Robert Reich and with Stephen Brier. And we have many other exciting events coming up over the fall so I encourage you to pick up an events flyer at the book table on your way out this evening or visit us online at Harvard dot com. I'm very pleased to see evening to introduce Arianna Huffington. Arianna Huffington has been a major presence in

media journalism and politics for many years though for the early part of her career she aligned with conservative American politics including her support of Bob Dole's 1096 presidential run. She is now known as a stalwart of the Democratic Party. Most notably She is founder and editor and co-founder excuse me and editor in chief of The Huffington Post an outlet for blogging and commentary by liberal journalists and public figures on all aspects of politics and culture. She is also among many other projects co-host of the syndicated radio program left right and center and has written numerous books on subjects ranging from politics to spirituality to biography. Her new book Third World America examines how the actions of politicians lobbyists and bankers have created economic fault lines through American society and moreover how those fault lines are not affecting not only our political and economic systems but also our education infrastructure and standing within the global arena.

This evening's discussion will be moderated by Chris Leyden. Chris is the host of Open Source and internet and public radio based program focusing on the arts humanities and global affairs which has been run in partnership with Brown University's Watson Institute since 2007. After their conversation we will have time to take questions from the audience followed by a book signing here at the front of the hall. We do have books available for sale at the back of the hall and the signing will take place down this aisle to your left. I'd like to take just a quick moment to remind you to please turn off your cell phones and other noise making devices is this evening's event is being recorded. And now please join me in welcoming Arianna Huffington with Chris Leyden. Why this book that's the point.

Good evening Arianna Huffington and I. I think continuing a conversation that began in one thousand eighty eight with one of our first books about Picasso we talked about in WGBH television. And it's a pleasure to be continuing it. My first question is is for the audience I just want to throw it out there. How many people here would have paid $5 and filled the Brattle Theater to hear the publisher of The New York Times talk about his book. But the president of CBS whoever that is. NBC ABC OK we'll come back to that theme. That's not fair. It depends on the book. Look whatever the book. Well that's the sort of question we have a book here that I know Arianna Huffington wants to talk about but we have a person I have a sort of feeling that people here too. She's too

modest to even admit this but that may be more interested in her even than in the book. But first of all sell that book. Hi First of all it's great to be with you play. I just love talking with you. Thank you. And I love it when you write and you put it on the Huffington Post. Thank you. It's going to thank you this is my publisher after all. You should do that more often. And also I love this. I've never been here before and it's just beautiful and sort of read in and of history. And it doesn't exactly feel like Third World America but I could be right. So just very quickly I had made a promise to my family and everybody who cared for me. After my 12th book that I would never write another book. And then my

agent called me and said Roger shall from Random House has been reading what you have been writing about the middle class being under assault crumbling and wants you to write a book about that. And to cut a long story short I decided because I care so much of other stopper that I would write the book but I did not tell anybody because I did not want him to stage an intervention. So this was the first time in my life when I wrote a book in secret Have you ever tried to do that. I highly recommend it if it makes you feel very naughty. And so one of the reasons I chose this title is because my favorite heroine in Greek mythology is Cassandra. You know Cassandra tol the Trojans you may remember not to let the Trojan Horse in. And they didn't believe her and that turned out to be very wrong and very dead. So the idea here is to sound the alarm to say that we are in this trajectory that we have to see

the time to turn around but if we don't course correct basically the middle class is crumbling instead of our port mobility you have downward mobility that Paul said came out last week showed that two thirds of the American people now believe that their children are not going to do as well as they're doing. I'm sure you all know kids graduating from college who can't get jobs. People in their 40s and 50s losing jobs who are not getting rehired and infrastructure is crumbling. As we've seen with the natural gas lines and the disaster in California and we have a window but we don't have the sense of urgency. Remember Chris when Wall Street was threatened. Everybody came together all the political establishments and effectively said we can't afford to have the financial system collapse. We don't exactly know how we're going to save it but it must throw everything against the wall and save it. So I want to have the same sense of urgency about the

middle class about jobs about foreclosures say we don't have all the answers. There are multiple ways to do it but we need to do everything because we can't afford to have 26 million people out of work or underemployed and millions of people losing their homes. Who's the villain in the piece the villains here. How our politicians are Abandoning the Middle Class and Betraying the American dream. Too many That's too many parents know it's a very hands are those who basically allow themselves to be bought like in a banana republic you know their special interests are buying public bodies who had three examples most recently we had The Wall Street collapse who had been and who had the mining disaster. They were all examples of a broken system. You know a system where regulations don't work anymore. Remember they were regulators at the mine the day it collapsed. There is what is good known as

regulator recapture. There were regulars It sounds like Simon Johnson and state capture state captured exactly you had to have BPA the same thing. They remember the last after the last mining collapse in 0 6 who passed new legislation but nobody paid attention to their little paws. You know look paws are like yeast. You know you can't pass a bin without Look halts in the same way that you can bake bread without the yeast. So all this is no Paul has made it possible for Massey Energy to keep violating safety rules but not be closed down. OK I I'm just looking for a name or a handful of names or a few people those those giant trends you're writing about don't just happen there are people steering the boat in that direction. We thought we changed course in in the Obama election but who's to hold responsible and then what's to do.

And that's a very good point and we did think we changed course. And but what I'm saying in the book is that we thought Help was going to do it then we would elect Obama and then we would sit back watch television or read the How to hope with Clinton change it was hope hope and change it just as as Sarah Palin boards it how is that helping change a thing going. And I'm saying that it's now about hope 2.0 and hope to point out is about what are we doing that we can just look through the night on the white charger to come and save us we have to grow up and realize that democracy is not a spectator sport. So we really need to sort of look in the mater and discover the leader in the media or our own leadership potential and that's why I end up on an optimistic note because I believe if we do that you know you and I were talking backstage about Edmund Burke's little platoons you know he talked about how do you come together in communities and rebuild communities rebuild families and at the

same time keep being involved in movement building in citizen action to effect what politicians are doing OK. Well you mention a magic name Edmund Burke English statesman flushed at the end of the 18th century contemporary of Dr. Johnson and all these people. But tell me. I just rediscovered Burke Edmund Burke was William F. Buckley's great hero through the Cold War and including the platoon stuff which meant local government all business is local and that sort of thing. We're answerable to our neighbors and our families basically you know radical change its attitude. But Edmund Burke's really historic distinction to me was that he impeached where he tried to years in Parliament to impeach Warren Hastings who'd been the head the head of the East India Company in India and responsible for every kind of betrayal of of human rights and an Edmund Burke didn't succeed in impeaching him but he succeeded in making Warren Hastings an evil name

in human history which indeed he was to me. I keep asking myself this question where is our Edmund Burke. Where is somebody to impeach the Rumsfeld's the the George W. Bush's the Cheney's and maybe even the Larry Summers isn't the Robert Ruben's who seem to have. Taken over the Obama administration. That's what I'm talking about and I you mentioned but I didn't realize we were on the same ban again then pay from Edmund Burke but Edmund Burke is to me the missing voice in America today. And he talked about empire. He believed in Empire but he also believed in responsible the empire that cared as much for Indian people and Indian prosperity and Indian welfare as they cared about English. He said it was a betrayal of English English rights and responsibilities that English people had so abused Indian rights. OK.

Well laughter now you see I think. America is in many ways is acting like a declining empire. If you look at Afghanistan for example all only a declining empire. Who has a perverse sense of priorities would be spending hundreds of billions of dollars contacting a war which is unwinnable and which is not in our national security interest even Leon Panetta the head of CIA admits that there are fewer than a hundred al Qaeda operatives in in Afghanistan and where we are basically propping up a corrupt regime. I mean this unlike military adventures that we cannot afford and that in no way are they in our interest. So that is like fascinating you know I quote Arnold Toynbee in the book who said that empires more often die because they commit suicide rather than from murder. And you imagine what would happen if that to a billion dollars a week that we're

spending in Afghanistan was abroad but here at home to help rebuild the country and get jobs for people and rebuild our infrastructure and you know what is so interesting. This is beyond left and right. There are many conservatives who think that. And as you said Barack was across every day I was on Morning Joe the other day and Joe Scarborough. Why saying that. And Tony Blankley saying that and George really is saying that and I pay anything that isn't in their upper language but he says they say yes and Pat Buchanan is saying that so the media are obsessed with seeing everything as a right left issue because you know what that makes them do it can make them be the ones we're in the center they're the wise ones who like you have the extremists on the right in the extremes on the left and they're sort of splitting the difference. But the truth is that the truth is often to be found on one side or the other. It's not like banshees firelock what is true of I don't know let's split the difference.

And the puppet puppet out of my head. Well connect the two. You know Marines at one million dollars a year per copy in Afghanistan. And the erosion of the middle class at home not to mention the disinvestment in public arts public schools public infrastructure etc.. Should we think of the Third World America in imperial terms. Well I think we need to think of the Third World America in terms of what's happening around us. You know I traveled around the country and if you go through Detroit or you go through Nevada or you go through Ras sceneries concept you're just stunned by what is happening by the boarded up houses by the foreclosure notices and. By the numbers of people out of work and we are doing something unusual on the having done powers we've created a new

section called Third World America. And on that section we have invited people to share their stories and it's kind of amazing. You know people are sharing incredible sorry stories of struggle and of overcoming obstacles and we are crowdsourcing my book too. So we asked people to send submissions if you have any ideas you can send them off what I should go next. And you want believe this sort of amazing things that are happening around the country. You know there are there are this group from Racine Wisconsin for example that sent me and invitation to go there and there they have 50 percent unemployment in Abyan areas that. They have ombre said that that infant mortality rates you know all that is going on in this country. And what is also ironic is that a lot of the solutions that were discovered out of necessity in the Third World you know like microcredit are now being brought to this country. It's like it said

the irony is that Washington seems to be oblivious to the brazen sort of finally walk up last week and acknowledge that we are not in their recovery Samberg remember that as they were going through a recovery summer and finally they acknowledged after unemployment went down GDP had to be recalculated downward. And the Census Bureau nouns that there were going to be reporting this week that poverty is not up to 15 percent. Which takes us to 6 to the 60s you know when we launched the war on poverty. That's the leaven we're back at. And. You said Larry you mention Larry Summers in the rubble but there is no question that the fundamental problem the Obama White House may did. Was to appoint. People whose view of the world was so Wall Street centric to run economic policy. And it was a little bit like. Having people pretty golly land people you know who believe that

everything revolved around the earth produced navigation maps. You know it wasn't going to work right that the ships were going to sink. I want to ask you a media question. And I know we don't want to dwell too much on media but to me it's important that you embody for all of us kind of the transformation you've been called the most powerful blogger in the world. People are here to hear you. Who wouldn't believe the New York Times in a certain way but who are we going to believe to tell us this story who's going to confirm in a kind of fundamental American narrative that we are at the grave a strong risk of being in a kind of terminal imperial moment. Well it's not I who you say that is really what is defined that's actually a very important question because what is different is that you are not a waiting for Sam

Walker Cronkite voice that is this is how he is. And this is what is new and what is exciting we all have to tell the story. We all have to tell the story of our time and we in people are saying it online so our job which is sort of collect these thousands of stories and create them oh say we have created two maps on houseboats at the moment one is a map where we put and. Signs when people come up with a story of struggle or a story of success with food style science of where in America the stories are coming from so you can go there and you can click and read that story or watch the video or see the pictures. And that's the way we're communicating with each other you know. You can go online now and see kind of amazing things the unemployed are self-organizing including to give back I mean this is amazing. Out of work lawyers

accountants in Philadelphia had started who are coming together to help people stay in their homes to help them avoid foreclosure just think of it. If you're out of work it's so easy to get depressed. So the one thing the one way to prevent depression and despair is action. And if you are helping someone suddenly you are transformed from being a victim to being a helper. If I may say I do want Walter Cronkite in a way to announce this or the gods of my youth Walter Lippmann and James Reston and page one of the New York Times to confirm in a certain sense what we all know but in isolation. And I'm looking for. I'm still looking. This may be a bad habit but I'm still looking for a figure that they'd be authoritative that in touch with the historical narrative kind of a broader base than than one also can write it in

commanding prose not just tell a story on a video screen but to assemble to change the overall narrative the overall narrative that people say is going to prevail in the in the election is this fall is that we're taxed too much that the government takes our money and and throws it away or something or that Obama is a Muslim or that some guy in Georgia or in the South wants to burn the Koran. We are we are awash in these basically idiotic narratives that have fundamentally out of touch I'm looking in a certain sense from the principal of the school to say this is not it's not that we're overtaxed it's that we're spending money in the wrong places green screens the you know I mean it doesn't I'm not going to happen. I can't get over it. There isn't going to be a Walter Cronkite to tell us how it is. Why not as well Imus Glenn Beck and nobody this is not like that's the point

Glenn Beck and the Tea Party movement is responding to their incredible abuse of power bar establishment. Now their response is potentially dangerous. But there is a lot of legitimate anger right. I mean if I were out of work even I had lost everything. How would I fare and I'm pretty angry and I still have a job. But I'm pretty angry about the fact that we bailed out with taxpayer money. The same people wrecked our economy without any strings attached without any conditions I could understand that we had to bail them out. But I would have put stringent conditions clause box for the people that they had basically stollen the money from in their own exotic ways. No bonuses having to lend back to the community. Anding too big to fail all these things that didn't happen so that

I'm going to fume if you scratch the surface of whatever the Tea Party is are saying underneath it is this incredible anger at the bailout. So right now they're going to be sort of to force us. It's going to be there is for the Tea Party response which very often becomes anti-immigrant anti-Muslim and basically scapegoating which is as being a response that we've seen throughout history. And then there can be a constructive response which is yes the system is screwed up and that we need to try and fix the system while we're fixing it. We need to see what can we do in our own communities with our own families to turn things around. Even we don't do that we are basically ceding the future. The FARs has a bagga that I really creating as you said is idiotic narratives to make sense of what has happened in our lives.

This is everybody's forum. Everybody gets a chance to speak in the new media and Huffington city so be ready with a question. And it's we're almost there. I just want to mention another I mean another take on the same phenomenon that I I read interest deg and I was reading her poll this morning. It was a Chris Hedges piece that really kind of shook me because it's almost what I what I believe in a lot of it came from Ralph Nader. But the the lead on the piece was that it's almost impossible to point at any big institution in this country now including Congress and the unions and media even and feel a kind of democratic voice to know that there is a kind of venting of genuine authentic experience. They're talking and this again is Ralph I've heard it from Chris Hedges to before.

But that the problem is a kind of a corporate strangulation of almost everything they've they've bought everything now. And I wonder if you would go that far do you. They tell on the same page with you did they. I wonder if we don't as they do have to sort of name an enemy before we're going to be there. Well. First of all I don't think the bought everything. I think I have an entire section which is about amazing acts of resilience creativity compassion all around the country that would move you to tears. You know that's why I spend so much time telling stories because I agree with you we can't just give people the data we've got them stories because the only thing that can save us ultimately is waking waking up our empathy is like if we don't wake up the empathy gene we all have the empathy gene. But for

many years it wasn't part of our survival right as their survival of the fittest. Well now it's going to be the survival of the wisest and we can't be wise if we're not and pathetic. So for me there has to be like a psychological transformation that happens if we're going to come out of this. Preventing Third World America and rebuilding our lives. And it has to happen at every level starting with tapping into our own resilience because I've seen so many people who are just crashed. But once they act I mean I have had the most amazing emails from people who've done a very simple thing. We launched this campaign that I write about called Move Your Money. Yeah. Which is are you angry at the big banks you know what move your money from the big bags. You know you can put your zip code on more of your money darting for and we've worked it out so that you can find out all the community banks and credit unions in your

area that are credit worthy. Your money is guaranteed up to 250000. No matter where you boarded. And it's a small act of saying you know I have some control over my destiny I can move that money. They're much more likely to reinvest in their communities. They're much less likely to. Impose on this hidden overdraft fees et cetera et cetera so. How do how is that campaign two million people have done it. Amazing and what is now wonderful is that now it's moving to see it is states pension funds you know institutions doing it. Interesting everybody's trying to stand up and I'll repeat the question for the GBH camera. Well incidentally I'm talking about bailouts Harvard. We recently received at the richest university in the world a hundred fifty seven million dollars stimulus money so I think there's room to be a little concerned about that too.

Bars. Corporations getting it. But the American public in the last 30 or 40 years particularly the middle class has consumed larger houses as their families decreased in size more expensive sophisticated medical treatments more and more larger cars. Does any of the blame lay at their own feet. Absent OK I think that has to be I repeat the question G.A.R. Yes it is some of the blame belong here the middle class which has overspent on the wrong things including bigger and bigger cars and houses. I mean there is no question that many people evacuate like addicts and I have actually bought the idea that there is a kind of no down payment no proof of income a shortcut to the good life. But there were street corner drug

peddlers paddling about. Right. And in any other area of drug addiction we punish the drug pushers more than we punish the drug addict. You got you have a longer prison sentence right. But here the drug pushers are doing great. You know they pushed all of these mortgages they pushed all these and credit cards with the teaser interest rates I don't have any of you here are students but you know our students are offered like this amazing interest rates and of course they don't read the small brained because credit card contracts are not 29 and 30 pages who's going to read the small brain. But in the small brain is the fact that your credit card rates will suddenly go up to 29 30 percent. You know which I usually rates right. So yes absolutely. People have a bias and responsibility and that's why am I believe you know in that Chinese

ideogram of crisis an opportunity that as things are falling apart I have an opportunity to re-evaluate our lives. So how do you prioritize what matters. So there is a lot of good that can come out of this. Can I just repeat the gentleman's question for the record. The gentleman asks What about blaming the middle class itself for overspending on the wrong things including mega mansions and big cars. Next question please. In the back. Seat I can hear a speech from the green rebel party just now. Why oh.

not. Oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh Point taken. Point taken. Thank you in the BB. You know. That's another question about middle class self heal myself or your of

our bad mental habits. Yes I mean it's again another question of our own personal responsibility. And quite Are we doing about the cars we drive all. I what kind of action do we take to reduce our own food brained and obvious things. And a lot of people our acting much more consciously So we are asking basically about putting the spotlight on all the ways we can. We can leave Marty sponsibility eat bad you know all these things then and there is a lot of that that's happening and that's why I was saying it depends on what you saw cause you know you can focus on what is dying. You can foster focus on what is being bar. And really I am encouraging you to do both you know have to focus on the acts of destruction and all that's happening there but then surely can turn us into a Third World America we can close our eyes to that. But we also need to focus and put the spotlight and that's my commitment on behalf of

gumballs to all the incredible acts of creativity innovation and empathy because by doing that to inspiring others to do the same. And it's almost like I'm awesome. The more we exercise it the stronger it gets. Please in the back of it. Let. Let. Let. Let. Let. Let let. Let. Let. Let. Me

get. A little. Bit. Right. The question is can unions help. They say are they shrinking too fast to be relevant. Or what can they do even at a shop level. Oh absolutely they can help and Richard Trumka that I presume you're talking about and he's going around and both speaking out and putting money in there in the in part on the races. And then of course they can have I think the ability of workers to

organize has been instrumental in many of their of the advances we have seen. And at the same time you know the unions need to acknowledge that say supporting teachers who are not able to provide the right education for children and. Protect them even when. There are the disadvantage in the children that that really need the best teaching possible is not good for education and there is a great documentary I write about in the book that's coming out later this month called Waiting For Superman by Davis Guggenheim who directed An Inconvenient Truth and it's really powerful because it will break your heart to see the children in the documentary that will follow from the beginning. And basically by the end having to wait to see if they can win the lottery to go to a better school. You know so basically the American dream which is so based on education

has come down to. A game of chance. You know that's very an America. And that's really what what I'm writing about the fact that we can't just trust that simply by working hard by and doing everything that we are supposed to do we are going to be able to advance in life. So from the heart of your. Work. Yes. Yes. There you. Go. That's. Just. The anti-tax. Guy about the drivers. What. I wonder. Next. While this think highly of the. Country. In the 1920s tax rate for the wealthiest. Was. Ninety. Four percent

today by the tax rate goes up by. The. Way one might. Not want to pay another thousand dollars dollars. Is that it. Can't have. Already. Helped us people to take risks. But. You can't have. People. Like. That. Question being who's going to pay for ending for stopping preventing Third World America. In this anti-tax context how do you explain in a tax context. Well. I think I think. The lady was the question got it right that a lot of the did that the latest version of the anti-tax. Movement has to do with the five of our taxes who are misused in bailing out the banks I mean this is has been incredibly damaging

because you know there's been an anti government far far since the Reagan years. But this is the first time when people have real evidence that government was the problem. You know it took our money and gave it to Wall Street and Wall Street turned around and did extremely well and. Did not return the favor by bailing out Main Street by lending by doing all the things that they should have that. So. And what is interesting is that this bailout was the product of Republicans and Democrats coming together through the financial elite the the shadow elite that made all these decisions and that basically made them out of the you know fear you know part of that was remember that there was this atmosphere of fear that if we didn't do that the world would collapse. Fear is an incredibly. Dangerous Marty Vater

and we see that in the Tea Party movement because the minute sort of people become afraid they operate from their lizard brains instead of their rational brains and they can believe anything they can believe that Obama is a Muslim or that are that basically would overturn the 12th of Mammon but we're going to be in trouble. Allow the community Islamic community center to be built near Ground Zero you know this should be desecration you know all those things can be believed in an atmosphere of fear. Yes. Why are the Galloway what they say. You know everybody knows that Larry Summers doesn't like that. Phrase here but what you know

what would make you different. Well you know a lot of the Golly Lemme sound the back of my book because they've endorsed my book I'm happy to say here that people like Elizabeth Warren who has written brilliantly about the tricks and traps as she calls it in our mortgage contracts and come see what we now call credit card contracts and who. Has star Leslie work to make possible the Consumer Protection Bureau that is going to become a reality and who haven't and bosses reporting tonight when you go home that I am under consideration to be at least the interim head of the bureau. With this sort of imminent announcement I mean Simon Johnson that you mentioned Joe Stiglitz and that same tally who rode the Black Swan You know and Nouriel Roubini and.

Paul Kruger. You know there are a lot of Cali land economies that's why I found it amazing I have the section in the book about how people always say when they have gotten it wrong they're you they're kind of a way of justifying it is to say who could have known. Who could have imagined. You know who could have imagined that the levees would break. Remember with Katrina the fact that many people had predicted that this levees would break. Doesn't matter. And now we had Robert Gibbs. Three weeks ago saying who who could have known that unemployment would be so stubborn. Who could have known the stimulus would not have worked well. You know a lot of people had said that I actually personally Rodek call a blog who when they announced the stimulus quoting Lloyd George of the English prime minister who said you cannot jump across a cause I'm in two leaps.

You know you fall into the abyss. So Don give us an inadequate stimulus because it's not going to work and here is the really the ultimate irony because it didn't work. You now have Republicans who can say you say the government spend all that money it didn't work it didn't work not because the government spend my way but because. The government didn't spend enough money. But you say they gave them this other militia because they really should have known better. They should have known that we're dealing with a transformation of the American economy are not dealing with a cyclical problem. We're not dealing with what Larry Summers kept calling unemployment being alive is an indicator. I just asked our video editor today to just go and find every time all these wise but eagerly learned economists told us that unemployment is a lagging indicator. But it's not. You know we've lost our manufacturing base. A lot of these jobs are not coming back. And we need to be realistic about that because you know we have becoming a country that has

stopped making things and is making things up. The question is do we really need the Department of Homeland Security or is it just another boondoggle a waste. We actually need the Department of Homeland Security much more than we need. What we're doing in Afghanistan because we need it here is the truth is that terrorism is now in some of the different centers terrorists can come from so many different centers whether it's Yemen or a place here in America. So the idea that somehow you have to go hand them down in the mountains of Afghanistan is another pretty

golly an idea it's like again that's not what the modern kind of Terry's maze. And you know our leaders talk about. How winning hearts and minds as a way to kind of manage to separate moderate and Islam from those who are turning into Jihadists. But in fact this is not what our actions are doing. OK. Please. You are. My own transformation. Yes. So my transformation which happened in this sort of round nine to six which had a lot to do with Al Franken because he was he and I

I did something in 96 called Strange bedfellows and I've And if you watched it and it has been Maher's idea and we basically did political commentary from bad. During politically incorrect or the days of what had to be and Greg from the conventions. And and it was a lot of fun and I got a lot of fantastic very tax free. By the chorus of kind of doing all that and we we kind of argued about everything I was on as a social moderate on issues like abortion gay rights gun control. But I was very misguided about the role of government and I really thought that we could solve all our problems if we actually a citizen is they that part and then I realized that in fact you also needed the raw power of government appropriations that in fact the problems were too big to be solved just with individual and community actions but I also as

you've heard tonight Don believe we can just solve them through government. I think do I think we need both. So that was really in a not my own political transformation. The. Great news. Well there are some good things that have happened since I became president. And I mean they have care Bally's very imperfect but it did take some important steps I think. Again if they had not under-estimate of economic crisis they would not have done that first because they

consume the noms amount of political capital and that what they are doing on education is very important. I think the race to the to the top and and there and faces and real innovation I think that's extremely important. And there are good things happening here. Here's my problem my problem is that the solutions that they're offering are inadequate and the solutions that Republicans are offering are laughable. So the American public is in a bit of a bind. You know in Nevada they have another choice called none of the above. And this may be the salvation of Heidi Reed because people who bought can't bear to vote for Harry Reid but they also can't bear to vote for Sherry angle I mean how can you vote for her candour vote for none of the above so if enough people vote for none of the above rather than Sharron Angle Heidi Reid wins.

Please on the far left of this thing. Right. Here. Right. Now. $5000 is is for a small a day it is. What it's that's cheap that's a small office with a hat. Well in fact. How to break the stranglehold of political money. You know you're absolutely right and I'm in my Section 5 which is how do we save ourselves from a third world future. The first solution to the

first part is about the what we can do at the national level the second part is at the person and community level. The first part of what I call the mother of all reforms is addressing exactly your question and it's about the absolute imperative need for public financing of campaigns. There is no other solution. All only want to have public financing of campaigns will be able to bring that break that stranglehold because right now we have 26 lobbies for every elected official. I mean why the chance to the American people have you know long after we stop paying attention to or be there they're behind the scenes undermining it. You know it's we are seeing it with the financial reform bill the financial reform bill by the time it's free it would look pause. I don't know what good it's going to do so that's an ongoing process and that's ultimately the only solution and the last thing. And they caught in the fakes Congress

campaign is extremely important Iran bought. Ironic now I ask you a last question because al-Assad there are two disconnects that we haven't addressed one is this tremendous loss of traction of the hopes around Barack Obama. And to me this is sort of a parallel question about media we've democratized media from the bottom up all sort of thousands of people can write for your wonderful blog including me and I'm privileged to be able to do it. But it's a privilege that all sorts of people can have. And in general we can. You can be your own broadcaster as I as I am you can be your own publisher as she is with a little whipped and hard application. But we haven't changed the story. Glenn Beck who we think is a lunatic is is telling this story that even the New York Times takes as its as its lead now. What's

missing in both of these transformations. The change in the White House the promise of change in the White House. But I think the country really wanted and the transformation of bottom up voices. In place of the old media. Well I think part of it is that historically when you are a student of history you realize that fundamental reform that challenges the status quo always is harder and takes longer than we think. Inevitably without question you know my favorite story that I have in the book is Martin Luther King meeting with Lyndon Johnson in March 65 and asking for the Voting Rights Act and Lyndon Johnson saying we don't have the votes which is what they all are say. And then came the Selma march and a few months later we had the Voting Rights Act. So citizens have to just continue. Working hard to

make a real. Transformative change happen then. And we saw that it's not enough to just elect somebody. And like Barack Obama the movement has to continue building and demanding change and it's almost like you know politicians what they're for even the best ones put their finger up. And see which way the wind is blowing so we have to change the way the wind is blowing. And you said yes one other thing about the media so yeah I'm not I'm I'm still a great big believer in transformation of media by opening up the conversation. Yes. And yet it seems in a certain way to be stuck maybe maybe one way to ask it I was thinking but to ask you what is what is the difference now and in the future but even now between you know this is your nation on the Huffington Post and this is your nation on.

The old mainstream media and I know the GAC and valley want what's changed and what is what put what bigger change can we hope for. First of all there is a lot of bigger change coming. And secondly I think the key difference is that. Maybe mainstream media suffer from a DD unite them and that as a disorder you know they break a lot of important stories and then they move on. And that means that. We don't have enough time to process the dog and. Bring about. Real change you know doesn't have enough time to have real impact. Online media Savva from our city obsessive compulsive disorder like we take a story and we stay on it and we stay on it and we stay and we like look at you going the Harvard and boss now you will just not be able to escape Third World America stars of success stars of struggle. He takes time to build and we recognize that on any star that we

cover when we covered the in the mining disaster we stayed on the story we stayed on the story and even after you could no longer read anything about the story in the mainstream media because they were done with it you know it's like we did that. We stayed out of the story. I mean like BP has broccoli disappear from the mainstream media but we're staying on the story about what's happening. So that is really the hope. We can't just lose interest and just move on to the next big story. And that is ultimately going to be the way you can build and. The kind of media that can have the impact that we want and bring about real change. In the whole way back. I.

Was. Like. Well. Who is it who is our model in fighting for third world. Well first of all let me just say that I as an immigrant to this country there's not a country would rather live in. I mean this is an amazing country. And so. I don't think there is any particular modern that we can just import. I think we need to reinvent what we are doing and we need to come together in different ways all across the country and and there are so many different ways people are doing it that is what is so exciting I made from

things that are happening online. I mean go and check out a side like how I got laid off dot com already session wired dot com or project bounce back or we have time to have our you know is just and next you're going to leave inspired even though you're going to be saddened by the stories of loss of jobs and loss of homes the fact that people don't give up is so inspiring and the fact that people on the political level continue to work for the change despite the disappointments. I mean that's how change happens and so I don't think there is something that we can impart. We just have to created their own way both at the political level the national level and at the community level. Arianna again thank you and thank you want to order. Thank

you. Thank you. Thank you.