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>> my name is spencer chretien and the director programs. we're excited to have you here which promotes american perspective written by an one and our president. this book covers a lot of ground we are excited to be having this discussion tonight. adam and david both and pounding the pavement to spread the message of american perspective but tonight we get to hear from both of them, both on the same stage. before i introduce you to our colleague steve mora went to remind you all you have pens and papers on your chairs which you can use for questions for the q&a portion of the program tonight. i also want to help set the westage for this discussion by sharing some polling that we have done this month. polling we have commission on the american dream. that really is a fundamentally with the book is about. we work with our friend scott

rasmussen to find that 58% of americans say they feel very proud to beld an american. 65% say they would rather live in a system in which everyone has equal opportunity to succeed. some people end up successful which is the definition of a meritocracy. only 24% for a system where the government insures everybody experiences at roughly the same outcome. that is the good news. but there is some concerning findings as well. those get up the threats to the american dream which is also a theme of this book apart only 37% agree that america is a strong force for good at work. only 24% are very confident that we have as a nation the ability to fix the problems we face. i'm fully 2% believe america's best days have come and gone. so we are looking forward to exploring these types of issues more fully tonight. and in the future as wee contine to place american perspective but also want to say we are

excited to be joined by by emily jashinsky. she's host of federalist radio hour. she previously covered politics as a commentary writer for the washington examiner paid before the examiner emily was a spokesperson for young america's foundation for it she is has interviewed leading politicians and entertainers and appeared regularly as a guest on major tv programs. emily also serves as director of the national journalism center and his host of the hills weekly show rising fridays and a visiting fellow independent women's forum. originally from wisconsin she was a graduate of george washington university for but first i want to introduce our colleague steve moore her senior economist at freedom works.ts steve communicates our vision for growth economic agenda conducts a plenty of original economic analysis as well. you've probably seen him on tv. you probably read his columns. so that further ado here is steve moore.

[applause] maxwell hello everybody. it is a real privilege to be here for this unveiling of this great new book. my first thoughts about this, what is it about omaha, nebraska that creates so many amazing businessar minds. you talk about war and a buffet of course and joe ricketts and of course and one hailing from nebraska been incredibly successful businessman. maybe controls with the secret is, david about that area of the country. this is such a really well-timed book given the economic massacre that's going on in this country over the last 18 months. the fact we have gotten so many of these policies that are supposed to be advancing the american dream but are achieving just the opposite. we are actually depleting the american dream. we are depleting people's

economic prospects by the growth of big government policies. it is almost as if joe biden has done just the opposite of what you suggest in this book. what is really so exciting to me about this book is, it is not just a re- citation of all the problems we have it. we all know we have proms in the political class, the people down the street on both sides of pennsylvania avenue by the way. just this morning the unitednd states senate passed another $200 billion spending bill. can you think of anything dumbew than right now spending even more money? by the way past in a bipartisan way. our congressmen and senators need to read this book as well. really amys appreciative you gus are about immigration. because immigrants are so much part of the american dream. and they are the people who come to this country literally with

nothing and approve the american dream is still alive and well. we see hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people come into our country every year end achieve the american dream with nothing. that is really strong evidence that the american dream is alive and l well. we have lived for these. david you know this we've lived through periods where we feel despair, fill the countries in the wrong direction. will of the 1970s by the last episode of runaway inflation and felt like america place in the world have been diminished. every one of these instances that has proven to be not true. america has always prevailed. we will prevailt again. this is a book, american t perspective but is really the map, the gps map how we retrieve the american dream and american it will happen if all confident about every hope everyone reads this book.

adam, you and i have worked together now five or six years and built this incredible activist organization was several million activists around the country who believe in freedom, believe in free enterprise, believe in liberty. i am concerned about on those poll results of young people theyth do not seem to have the same type of appreciation for the greatness of america. i want to see this book put in libraries, put in schools so that young people can read this and learn from it. so congratulations on a great book. it's american and prospective thank you for c-span for covering this. i do i turn over too now? >> thank you for having me. >> thank you so much steve. a round of applause for steve moore. [applause] i write is my pleasure to be here. my thanks to freedom works for hosting me in hosting this conversation should be very

lively and enlightening. the book itself is' certainly is prevent the pleasure of reading it i can say it's moving and it includes so many helpful arguments. with a sense of moral clarity but is missing from a lot of our conversations right now. it was german ceo taken three companies public and chairman and ceo of mid- american energy holdings company presold that company to berkshire hathaway in 2000. he continued with berkshire hathaway until he retired in march of 2011 elected order to manage his family business. he is a member of the executive committee of the board of directors of the association of distinguished americans. over his 40 year career he has chaired five corporate boards and over one dozen charitable oh community boards. welcome david, thank you so

much. [applause] we are a doing also by david's co-authored the one and only adam brandon who is the present of freedom works he joined freedom works in 2005 in the press department gradually moved to the management role. his response or settings part priorities in the entire family of freedom works entities including a 5o1c3 foundation a kennedy: activision effort into political action committee nseized and published and quotd by fox news, wall street journal, the "new york times", the "washington post", forbes and the hilburn is not in a suit as he is right now, he can be found watching the cleveland browns, really? >> that is right. sorry about that. cleveland browns with his wife jacqueline and son pierce, adam welcome. >> thank you very much. [applause] and because omahapo is getting o much love i just have to point out jaunty rockefeller came from my hometown.

>> congratulations adam. [laughter] well, i'll move on to our first question. which is goingf to be the same for both of our guests. it is very simply, why did you decide to write this book? we'll start with you david. clark's first of all you could not put a business person in a less comfortable setting. i don't also acknowledge about a couple of other authors here. even more the great economists as well. michael and mark who just in addition to the documentary michael e did created justicerr thomas in his own words they just issued a terrific book and it summarizes in his life the other 30 hours of interviews they did on video. it is a fabulous book. thank you for being here. you know, i got to live the american dream. my grandparents came over fromwh poland. it was always about the american dream for you can do what you

want to do but we lived in rural nebraska lower income happy family. by today's standards peoplebu would say you were poor but we didn't know that if we were. but what i had was constant encouragement. all five of us kids. g you got to get a degree, figure out what degree are going to get because it's going to need to create a life for you to pay for your family the rest of your s life. and work hard. that was it. on sundays he would pass out clippings from the local newspaper about successfulus businessmen. and women not only what they did with their career but what they did in the community with their philanthropy. so to me it was part of who we were. i got involved with the association if you know celebrates people coming up from their bootstraps pulling themselves up from their bootstraps and creating a life in america. and provide scholarships to scholars. over the last 18 years i'vee ben

involved scholars get the american dream for they see it. these are kids whose background makes it virtually i have ever known -- they did not have a tough upbringing compared to these kids. they were just poor but parents killed each other. parents are drug addicts and prostitutes. they do not know kids live in thrown away container still shipping containers to get through high school. every one of them, they do not blame anybody and they believe in the american dream. but the question iwi often get when i meet with the scholars or mentor them is the kids we go to school with do not seem to believe in it anymore? those are two things motivated me.ch that and the fact less than 15% of american public schools teach civics today. that was not an option when i was a kid. and over half the public schools you don't have to take it. we got young people today i

cannot really blame them when they just read the papers and things to not understand why the mess we are getting into is there. we have not had the opportunity to really learn. hopefully this book will give some opportunity for people that imbalanced way to understand why america isut exceptional. next you say your browns fan b' your socks scream packers. [laughter] had to point that out. go ahead adam. [laughter] clicks the reason i wanted tofi write this book goes back to the very beginning the first notes. if you write a book there's the moment take all of your notes you throw them in a folder you think what am i going to call this folder? how about american perspective? you start gathering other notes. the reason the working title which ended up being the final title was american perspective goes back to we were taking all these stories and so much of

what david and his experiences mirrored in my own family even no one in my family taken a company public, a lot of his t dream too. but when you look at these stories is very similar. people come to this country and the hardship they experience. every great american story is about persevering and having hardship and having failure and having to reinvent yourself. and every great, whether it's a sports athlete or business owner it's kind of the most common american story. you start looking back through our history that is just not something that happens today. this happens from the very founding of the nation. so whenrs you start putting all those trials and tribulations into perspective it's a pretty incredible story. too often we focus on the negative. you focus on what is driving people apart and not the basic dna that unites all of americans. this was the most successful multiethnic country in global

historyy.ut it is an amazing thing when you think about that in light of thousands of years of human civilization. so if you think about it that way this country has had some rough edges for this country has had real tragedies. that's the basic values we have america tucker c, rule of law that is allowed us to reinvent ourselves time and time again. we are at one of those different. difficult period in history we are looking at a lot of different institutions. if you keep our history in perspective, what we have been through it is a map for how we move forward. >> are such an important commonality and what both of you just said. on that one hand students are not even learning the basics of american history. and on the other hand what they're being taught is s completely devoid of perspective. so adam also with you on thisse question for you and wondering how you think something's very legitimate threats to the american dream but it's her system of higher education,

whether it is inflation, any of these economic problems, how can you talk to people right now who are really suffering while balancing that from every difficult institution that america is somehow irredeemable. >> on the topics we touch on a a little bit is something that i was raised with is what is his concept of the american dream? i think too often the concept of the american dream we are told it's a better car than what your parents drove it towards a than your grandparents a had. when you think about in that light that means the american dream is all about material goods and material approach but i believe the american dream is something larger than that. the american dream is about that freedom to dream. it's the freedom to chase whatever your heart desires and how you want to build your future and that economic prosperity. that is a byproduct of only chase her dreams.

>> when you think about that, david? >> i think part of the problem with all this negative if you will is we have lost the ability to communicate as a society. goes back to the fundamentals we discuss in the book for the founding fathers spent an enormous amount of time talking about consensus. amongst themselves that took them a great deal of time to decide on 75% approval for constitutional amendment. two thirds for impeachment. the filibuster, 60 votes for they very muchth understood the whole reason we have two senators per state but proportional representation in the house, they did not want areas of the country to overwhelm everybody else. and they knew that would be possible for there be large cities, rural areas. these are things you can read about between the letters back and forth and things of that nature. it is a government of we the

people that requires consensus. they understood we can elect people based on a plurality of votes. we can unselect them. we the people control the process. we are going to make manger at major changes to the foundation of the society it's got to be on consensus. they are into me is the biggest mistake we have made. adam made a comment i'm sorry steven did we are one of the only multicultural countries that have ever been successful big on cycles were trying to break that down trying to turn ourselves back into tribes re- attackto each other.sy we want to create this myth we are actually the systemically racist society that we are not but we are humans. we made a lot of mistakes over the years. what other country went towards itself in sacrifice 7% of its population to stop this scourge called slavery? it is that consensusbuilding last week i literally order the most disturbing things i've ever heard in the united states

president say as he stood by the podium in massachusetts and said well, the supreme court turned me down. congress won't pass what i want so i'm going to doat it myself. that is russia, that is china. that is a lot of places but that is not america. irrespective of theai issue of y republican president said that i would be just as appalled. but that is where we are today. we have got to get to where we communicate and get away from name-calling and we find consensus. we will not all be happy with it. consensus means in the case of a constitutional amendment three quarters of the states have to approve it. which meanst apparently a quartr didn't if that's all it was' that is what we are built upon. if we do not go back to that, we think the supreme court should be part of the office of the president or something, those checks and balances were put in 246 years ago have been incredibly effective.

they do get in the way though if one of us decides we should get our way all of the time. but that is the purpose. >> adam to just something to add? >> one thing we talk about in the book about success you mentioned slavery, i just love the story we talked about about nigerian americans. you look statistically how the nigerian american experience they are like the most successfulve subgroup in the entire population. so how can that be if you have this legacy there's this other group of recent arrivals or drinks out phenomenally well. i think what that shows is the power of a lot of folks that weren't born your calm here and take full advantage of the opportunities to chase their dreams. that shows me the strength of america and the strength of what this country has to offer. it is a continuum through history of these opportunities that are provided to folks here. >> this was an individual who came hear from nigeria, made an

enormous fortune by working hard and being very smart. when i asked him about -- and up we were together fishing. i said what you think about america being systemically racist? he said i am from nigeria, it is absurd. your country was formed byn western europeans on balance were white. and for a great periodd of time that was sort of how the country existed. and you morphed into this multicultural melting pot. acif you want to see a white privilege forget that but it's a black privileges. come to nigera and try to start a business. his point was that's not to say there's necessarily systemic racism against whites but is been a black nation for its existence. and the notion just because that is the case, your systemically racist is absurd. that is from a nigerian. >> assured the story of adam earlier today i was in northern mexico reporting on the border

recently there is a group oft haitian migrants that was gathered literally almost at the gate of the border. why the haitian migrants were asking him, they come from venezuela and chile had not in so from haiti, why they would risk sleeping on the streets huddled outside the border outside the gate? he said the american dream and turn to all the others there's dozens of haitians around them they'll start saying the american dream, the american dream, the american dream is very alive in other parts of the world which is highlighted by this book is a very powerful stories very powerful anecdotes. i wanted to ask both of you if you have a favorite story from the book that illustrates white america's best kept in perspective? what's my favorite story is how many of you in this room have heard of robert smalls? and should be up. this guy should be on the 20-dollar bill. robert smalls was a slave but he escaped he commandeered a boat

pretty freed himself and a bunch of others, came up north convince lincoln to allow blacks to fight in the civil war. then becamee a multi millionair, founded the republican party of south carolina. to top it all off he bought the plantation he was enslaved in. that's like it's only in america incredible story for it is such a story of overcoming. it is such a a story of meeting adversity. it was a lot of fun to try to take the guy like that, his story. this is something a movie it should be made of. >> i agree. doing a lot of the research what are things adam and i agreed with with every detail that's in the book has tonf be referenced. because unfortunately today people think you have a perspective they don't like and they'll find something to tear it apart. in doing that, as we went through a lot of the research on the history realized we kept using the term self-healing.

when things that's amazing what the founding fathers of the self-healing nature america to get at oddsth with itself among find an answer through that. and go forward. to meet us on the story necessarily in there but is the reality that we have this unique form of government and society that has been self-healing through theset years. that's not to say there weren't a lot of things to heal from. one thing we do not gloss over in the book as there was racism. and there was jim crow and a lot of other things. those are bad nobody on the stage is going to defend them. but we worked our way through them as a society by the one criticism we could all have is it takes too long to do those things. but i think that is part of consensusbuilding of multicultural backgrounds. we don't all see the same things for the back of freedom of religion as we may disagree on things that seem pretty obvious toom somebody.

but for religious reasons we still have to find that consensus. that self-healing piece we should never use lose sight of. this is a a great country the opportunities today are as good as they've ever been. but 30 trillion in debt i'm running our economy the way we are running it we are going to end up -- i hope we can avoid too many people said to me the only way this gets fixed is if we have a catastrophe. and unfortunately the very people that getd get hurt the most of the lowest income. thus the wrong way to solve thie problem. after talk about argentina most bills they should talk about venezuela. i think the argentinian story is more interesting from an american perspective. if you go back 100 years ago argentina's rights are the nine states and the economic tables. you go back 100 years ago france, germany, argentina basically the same country. back to 1945 they weren't bombed

your population was on deck argentina should be in thehe g7. this should be where the most powerful countries on earth. and they lost it for the last of us are into messes on their basic fundamentals. they had a lot of the same things we had and they lost it. what that shows me is the prosperity and the stability this country has. it's not something that was just a pet policy decisions you can become the next argentina. you can actually look back 50 years from now, 100 years now we can look backs and say that was the moment when the united states decided they're going to go in this other direction. you become a great regional power insteadhe of what you tald about were the haitians are at the border screaming the american dream.

commitment to rule of already to go under more utopian direction and the papers i talked about this a bit self-healing natureno of our system through the great question from the audience. nonfiction writers often learned a lot in the writing of books. what is most interesting thing you learn while writing this book? i'll start you david. consensus. m iid was startled to find always been a history buff on the american presidents in founders and that is not until a friend of mine kind of every letter he ever wrote there printed up in volumes. adams had similar files. you go back and start reading these things, they understood exactly what they wereey doing.

that population centers back then. the reproach over whelm rural process of different religious areas of the country. that word is emblazoned inside of me. we think of them as being geniuses in their own right. real genius was as a group. they did not all agree. they talked and several of their papers or goal to write the constitution was to be unanimously agreed on every word. they effectively made that other than the area regarding slavery. you think about that, think about our congress today. drafting a nice letter to somebody and agreeing on every word. they argued for it wasn't that they didn't argue but that ultimately found words they could all make work. so consensus would be the one thing for quite some one thing would want to add is that did

not even get intofe the book. a i few of the staff and our don out of you remember the spear walking out of your house and returned you and just asked point-blank what is one thing to know if you want to run a successfult business? without it beat you said that's easy fire every pessimistic person on your staff. have a car read back to the airport was really positive of everyone that was in the car. but that has alwaysto stuck with me because it does apply to where you're going as a country. if your country is really negative and down on itself it's not going to be a success. it is not going to meet its challenges. but when' people kinda see that opportunity and that positivity i think that is what that's looking to keep going back to your patient at the border down there. ike think that's what they were looking for was that positivity. i'm going to have the opportunity to improve. no matter what is thrown in my weight. >> of a few minutes left to have

a really great question from a e audience. specifically asking about some people who are in the crowd. that sense of optimism seems toc be such an important context to keep this in. advice to the younger members of audience going forward as they are being told the country's irredeemable. they are pink saturated in pessimism, what is your advice? >> read this book. [laughter] just recognize that we got here as a nation that argues with itself and self-governance. untill the fact we don't always agree does not mean we are bad, it does not mean the other side is bad. and do not let the pessimism get in the way. to me it is cancerous. it is what is causing our problem it's not fixingi problems. take the immigration situation. i am just a business guy, i got that. but i've got to tell you if we

went not to a browns game. [laughter] but a kansas city chiefs game playing the browns in kansas city and we threw darts in their and picked 15 people and we got them together and gave them genuine facts unbiased advisors, they could come up with a bill to rationally resolve theti immigration situation. now that bill would have to go in front of the american people. with all due respect it's not that complicated. but we have turned it into political tool to bash people. it's things like that for the young people need to understand we need them to demand more of their elected officials. that is how you change this but it is changeable. in fact for most of zen here, ronald reagan change the attitude of this country in six months. very pessimistic my first mortgage was 16%.

it think it's depressing to be young person today, five and half% looks pretty good. but literal in six months and my first vote was for his predecessor. he was an engineer, i am an engineer it's going to be a logic is going to run this country well. i thinkbe jimmy carter might be one of the nicest people in the country but he was a horrible president. but optimism -- medical ronald reagan's enormous optimism. and his unwillingness to break things down and have 55 to have one fight at a time. we got to solve this, it got to get inflation down it with got growing.e economy he did not pick a fight with everybody. we've got to get back to leadership, leadership matters. frankly i don't have an answert for but we need to get away from the professional politician world we live in today. the current administration to me

is troubling. steve wrote a very interesting piece but it is obvious when you look at it, this is in administration of identity politics. i do not really care personally about someone's gender, about someone's sexual preferences on that. i will quality people. in our country you can good what you get promoted. that is that nation of having run a business. experience matters you take the issue potentially shifting our entire energy situation from our current fossil fuel i would have every expert i could get my arms around helping me figure out how to do this. they don't even meet with you. the obama admin so she wouldn't meet with you, they only meet with folks who want to tell them

what they want to hear. politically that may be great. i like the old abraham lincoln, the cabinet of rivals. it's really smart people with a lot of experience. so young people to me i'll be the ones of the pick up the mess we're leaving them. >> one of the numbers i looked up there around there is a number you can remember is the year 1983, 51% of americans were bored after 1983. think about what that means for people in their perspectives. berlin wall come down in 1989. if you're born in 1983, talking about constructs and all you are going to miss some people in that. it's important to make sure there's a whole new audience for us to engage with. >> think you both so much for your remarks and for this wonderful book.

i mix decided to bring spencer back up to the stage help us continue with the program, spencer. >> thank you all. thank you adam and david. and emily. we are going to be doing a book signing with a david and adam right next door in just a few minutes. i want to take a moment also to recognize a couple special guests who have joined a street center paul and mr. larry kudlow. [applause] really are grateful for your partnerships with us. thank you so much for your support of what we do here at freedom n works. i will now turn it over to everybody foror the book signing andho reception once again. thank you all, thank you to those who joined us online. ♪ american history tv saturdays on c-span2 exploring the people

and events that tell the american story. at 12:30 p.m. eastern on the presidency, revealing the life of first lady martha washington from surviving personal letters with fraser author of the washington. and catherine garrett research editor at the papers of george washington project at the university of virginia. at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures and history hillsdale college professor richard gamble talks about american churches and religion during world war i. he shares our american pastors, ministers and rabbis spoke about the great war. after the u.s. entered the conflict exploring the american story. watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2. fi a full schedule onou program guide or watch online anytime at c-span.org/history. book tv, every sunday on c-span2 futures leading authors

discussing their latest nonfiction books. 8:00 p.m. eastern former texas sender phil gramm and mathematical economist john earley take a critical look at economic disparity in the united states with their book the myth of american inequity. at 10:00 p.m. on after words, arce ber of bloomberg news assures his book white,, and's subscriber look at the growth of youtube how to change our society. he is interviewed by politico technology policy reporter rebecca. watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 find a full schedule on your program guide or watch online anytime at booktv.org. accrue weekend cspan2 or intellectual feast. every saturday american history tv documents america's story and on sunda and book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. funding for cspan2t