1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:11,833 --> 00:00:14,792 (BIRDS CHIRPING) 4 00:00:14,875 --> 00:00:19,208 ♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 5 00:00:23,583 --> 00:00:24,625 (DOGS BARKING) 6 00:00:52,750 --> 00:00:54,541 JON MEACHAM: History tells us 7 00:00:54,625 --> 00:00:59,124 that this particular era is difficult but not unique. 8 00:00:59,208 --> 00:01:02,416 ♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪ 9 00:01:06,999 --> 00:01:09,875 The forces that are shaping 10 00:01:09,958 --> 00:01:12,458 the worst parts of us right now... 11 00:01:15,708 --> 00:01:20,124 are forces that are part of the American character. 12 00:01:21,917 --> 00:01:23,667 REPORTER 1: I just think we're the most polarized 13 00:01:23,750 --> 00:01:24,958 we've possibly ever been. 14 00:01:25,041 --> 00:01:26,458 REPORTER 2: No society has ever changed this much. 15 00:01:26,541 --> 00:01:27,708 REPORTER 3: Thousands more families 16 00:01:27,792 --> 00:01:28,958 were separated at the border. 17 00:01:29,041 --> 00:01:30,708 ALEX JONES: It is time for the return of men. 18 00:01:30,792 --> 00:01:33,083 REPORTER 4: ...an attack on women's basic human rights and civil rights. 19 00:01:33,166 --> 00:01:35,500 REPORTER 5: ...worst of the worst examples from the mainstream media. 20 00:01:35,583 --> 00:01:37,291 REPORTER 6: The number of hate groups has doubled... 21 00:01:37,375 --> 00:01:41,375 MEACHAM: I think that history gives us the ability to see 22 00:01:41,458 --> 00:01:44,333 what is the scope and nature of our crisis, 23 00:01:44,416 --> 00:01:46,667 how have people in previous generations 24 00:01:46,750 --> 00:01:48,583 addressed those crises, 25 00:01:48,667 --> 00:01:50,041 and are there lessons to apply? 26 00:01:50,124 --> 00:01:52,208 NEWS ANCHOR: Joining me now, NBC news contributor 27 00:01:52,291 --> 00:01:55,333 and historian Jon Meacham, giving a history lesson. 28 00:01:55,416 --> 00:01:58,291 It is a complicated and-- and fraught history. 29 00:01:58,375 --> 00:02:00,583 We have been in terrible spots before. 30 00:02:00,667 --> 00:02:03,333 What we have to figure out is how do we get out of them, 31 00:02:03,416 --> 00:02:06,833 and what lessons can we take to get through this? 32 00:02:06,917 --> 00:02:09,291 I'm not saying it's all gonna be fine, 33 00:02:09,375 --> 00:02:11,458 but I think it's on all of us. 34 00:02:11,541 --> 00:02:13,541 If we don't arm ourselves 35 00:02:13,625 --> 00:02:19,958 with a historical understanding of how complex our history was, 36 00:02:20,041 --> 00:02:22,375 we're not gonna be able to think clearly enough 37 00:02:22,458 --> 00:02:25,208 to react in real time to save the country. 38 00:02:34,708 --> 00:02:36,667 ♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪ 39 00:02:40,041 --> 00:02:44,166 (BIRDS CHIRPING) 40 00:02:47,333 --> 00:02:51,416 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 41 00:03:19,416 --> 00:03:20,792 ANNOUNCER: It is not unexpected 42 00:03:20,875 --> 00:03:23,375 that in these politically tumultuous times, 43 00:03:23,458 --> 00:03:24,833 we scrutinize our past 44 00:03:24,917 --> 00:03:26,583 in order to understand the present. 45 00:03:26,667 --> 00:03:27,958 -MEACHAM: Hey. How are you? -What's up? 46 00:03:28,041 --> 00:03:29,375 -Good to see you. Jon Meacham. -Hi. 47 00:03:29,458 --> 00:03:31,541 ANNOUNCER: Tonight's speaker has established himself 48 00:03:31,625 --> 00:03:34,583 as one of the most reasoned and enlightened voices 49 00:03:34,667 --> 00:03:38,875 wielding the literary scalpel examining history. 50 00:03:38,958 --> 00:03:41,792 Ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome 51 00:03:41,875 --> 00:03:43,541 to Jon Meacham. 52 00:03:43,625 --> 00:03:48,458 (APPLAUSE) 53 00:03:53,750 --> 00:03:55,500 MEACHAM: Thank you. Um... 54 00:03:58,708 --> 00:04:02,750 So, we're living in an era of politics as entertainment. 55 00:04:02,833 --> 00:04:07,208 Politics as an unfolding and insistent drama. 56 00:04:07,291 --> 00:04:10,875 And so, the question I get asked the most is: 57 00:04:10,958 --> 00:04:13,124 "Has it ever been like this?" 58 00:04:13,208 --> 00:04:16,083 Second question is: "How do we get out of this?" 59 00:04:16,166 --> 00:04:18,166 And so what I'd like to take are-- are a few minutes 60 00:04:18,249 --> 00:04:19,958 this afternoon is to talk about some moments 61 00:04:20,041 --> 00:04:23,416 that I think should give us a sense of proportion 62 00:04:23,500 --> 00:04:26,416 about the questions of the present time. 63 00:04:26,500 --> 00:04:29,124 Because we have been here before. 64 00:04:29,208 --> 00:04:32,917 If we had been here 101 years ago today, 65 00:04:32,999 --> 00:04:34,249 what would have been going on? 66 00:04:34,333 --> 00:04:35,583 ♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 67 00:04:35,667 --> 00:04:38,166 Woodrow Wilson would be president of the United States. 68 00:04:38,249 --> 00:04:40,625 We would be fighting the First World War 69 00:04:40,708 --> 00:04:42,667 with a huge part of the country wondering 70 00:04:42,750 --> 00:04:44,792 why our boys were going to fight 71 00:04:44,875 --> 00:04:47,750 for nations about whom we knew so little. 72 00:04:47,833 --> 00:04:49,500 (GUNFIRE) 73 00:04:49,583 --> 00:04:54,333 In 1919, 1920, you had a prevalent fear 74 00:04:54,416 --> 00:04:57,166 that radicals, socialists, communists 75 00:04:57,249 --> 00:04:59,416 -were taking the country away. -(HORSE WHINNIES) 76 00:04:59,500 --> 00:05:02,249 Woodrow Wilson cracked down on civil dissent 77 00:05:02,333 --> 00:05:03,625 and civil liberties. 78 00:05:03,708 --> 00:05:05,833 A. Mitchell Palmer, the Attorney General, 79 00:05:05,917 --> 00:05:09,291 launches a number of raids on suspected dissidents. 80 00:05:09,375 --> 00:05:12,541 President Wilson closes down 400 newspapers. 81 00:05:14,333 --> 00:05:16,917 Immigration was at an extraordinary high. 82 00:05:16,999 --> 00:05:18,375 It didn't really stop until 83 00:05:18,458 --> 00:05:20,917 the 1924 immigration legislation, 84 00:05:20,999 --> 00:05:24,041 which put quotas on immigration from different countries. 85 00:05:24,124 --> 00:05:25,500 (HORSE SNORTS) 86 00:05:25,583 --> 00:05:28,208 There was white anxiety about cultural identity, 87 00:05:28,291 --> 00:05:31,875 about economic opportunity, that inspired the rebirth 88 00:05:31,958 --> 00:05:34,208 of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. 89 00:05:34,291 --> 00:05:36,375 (BOOTS STOMPING) 90 00:05:36,458 --> 00:05:38,083 1925 and '26, 91 00:05:38,166 --> 00:05:41,708 50,000 Klansmen marched down Pennsylvania Avenue 92 00:05:41,792 --> 00:05:43,500 in what was a remarkable 93 00:05:43,583 --> 00:05:45,833 but not stunning public display. 94 00:05:45,917 --> 00:05:48,166 (CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS) 95 00:05:48,249 --> 00:05:52,333 It was a big, broad-based racist army, 96 00:05:52,416 --> 00:05:56,083 and what they wanted to do was make America great again. 97 00:05:58,917 --> 00:06:01,583 The governor of Georgia announced that he wanted 98 00:06:01,667 --> 00:06:04,291 to build a wall of steel as high as heaven 99 00:06:04,375 --> 00:06:05,917 to keep immigrants out. 100 00:06:07,750 --> 00:06:08,750 Huh. 101 00:06:10,166 --> 00:06:12,667 As Mark Twain once said, "History may not repeat itself, 102 00:06:12,750 --> 00:06:14,416 but it does rhyme." 103 00:06:14,500 --> 00:06:16,541 (LAUGHTER) 104 00:06:16,625 --> 00:06:19,208 MEACHAM: Nativism, xenophobia, racism, 105 00:06:19,291 --> 00:06:24,917 sexism, isolationism are perennial American forces. 106 00:06:24,999 --> 00:06:26,583 They ebb and they flow. 107 00:06:26,667 --> 00:06:30,500 ♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 108 00:06:30,583 --> 00:06:35,750 The story of race and fear and anxiety and violence 109 00:06:35,833 --> 00:06:41,625 is inextricably intertwined with the story of the country. 110 00:06:41,708 --> 00:06:43,999 It's not that the soul of the country 111 00:06:44,083 --> 00:06:45,375 has been captured 112 00:06:45,458 --> 00:06:48,375 by a particular group at a particular time. 113 00:06:48,458 --> 00:06:53,541 The soul of the country is, in fact, this essence, 114 00:06:53,625 --> 00:06:56,124 which is not all good or all bad. 115 00:06:57,124 --> 00:06:59,249 You have your better angels 116 00:06:59,333 --> 00:07:02,583 fighting against your worst impulses. 117 00:07:02,667 --> 00:07:05,541 And that has a religious component, certainly. 118 00:07:05,625 --> 00:07:09,541 It's also, though, a matter of historical observation. 119 00:07:09,625 --> 00:07:13,083 Our history is shaped by the extent to which 120 00:07:13,166 --> 00:07:16,792 those better angels or those worst instincts win out 121 00:07:16,875 --> 00:07:18,416 in a given period of time. 122 00:07:18,500 --> 00:07:20,541 ♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 123 00:07:20,625 --> 00:07:23,708 It was true in the 1760s. 124 00:07:24,750 --> 00:07:27,625 It was true in the 1860s. 125 00:07:27,708 --> 00:07:30,124 It was true in the 1960s. 126 00:07:31,041 --> 00:07:32,291 And it's true today. 127 00:07:32,375 --> 00:07:35,541 WHITE NATIONALISTS: (CHANTING) You will not replace us! 128 00:07:35,625 --> 00:07:38,667 You will not replace us! 129 00:07:39,124 --> 00:07:42,375 (CHANTING) 130 00:07:45,625 --> 00:07:48,291 (CHANTING REPEATEDLY) Hoo! Hoo! Hoo! 131 00:07:48,375 --> 00:07:50,041 REPORTER: A white nationalist blogger 132 00:07:50,124 --> 00:07:52,999 had called upon his followers to meet here in Charlottesville 133 00:07:53,083 --> 00:07:55,458 to protest the city's efforts to try to take down 134 00:07:55,541 --> 00:07:58,999 a statue of Robert E. Lee from a city park. 135 00:07:59,083 --> 00:08:00,249 (INDISTINCT CLAMORING) 136 00:08:00,333 --> 00:08:02,792 MEACHAM: When the Charlottesville riots happened, 137 00:08:02,875 --> 00:08:06,458 the neo-Nazi rally, and then the death of Heather Heyer... 138 00:08:06,541 --> 00:08:09,500 (PROTESTORS SCREAMING) 139 00:08:09,583 --> 00:08:12,124 ...the editor of TIME magazine at the time called and said, 140 00:08:12,208 --> 00:08:14,792 "Do you have anything to say historically 141 00:08:14,875 --> 00:08:18,083 about the history of hate in American politics?" 142 00:08:20,375 --> 00:08:22,291 So I started with Reconstruction 143 00:08:22,375 --> 00:08:23,999 and moved forward. 144 00:08:24,083 --> 00:08:27,249 And it became a book about the soul of the country. 145 00:08:28,583 --> 00:08:31,166 The fact that, in the 21st century, 146 00:08:31,249 --> 00:08:33,792 people calling themselves Klansmen 147 00:08:33,875 --> 00:08:36,208 are in Charlottesville, Virginia, 148 00:08:36,291 --> 00:08:38,041 the home of Robert E. Lee, 149 00:08:38,124 --> 00:08:40,166 basically fighting for 150 00:08:40,249 --> 00:08:42,625 an antebellum vision of the world 151 00:08:42,708 --> 00:08:44,458 is a remarkable thing. 152 00:08:44,541 --> 00:08:48,792 But it's not all that remarkable if you know American history 153 00:08:48,875 --> 00:08:53,291 and if you know that five minutes after Lee's surrender, 154 00:08:53,375 --> 00:08:55,416 the reaction sets in. 155 00:08:55,500 --> 00:08:58,208 White supremacy replaced slavery 156 00:08:58,291 --> 00:09:02,249 as the consuming concern of white southerners. 157 00:09:02,333 --> 00:09:04,958 Segregation replaced human enslavement. 158 00:09:05,041 --> 00:09:06,833 And so, when people say 159 00:09:06,917 --> 00:09:08,249 the Civil War never really ended, 160 00:09:08,333 --> 00:09:10,708 that's pretty much what they mean. 161 00:09:10,792 --> 00:09:13,416 ♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪ 162 00:09:20,541 --> 00:09:26,458 (PLANE ENGINE ROARS) 163 00:09:28,792 --> 00:09:32,249 MEACHAM: If the 2016 election had gone the other way, 164 00:09:32,333 --> 00:09:34,833 I wouldn't have written about the soul of America. 165 00:09:34,917 --> 00:09:37,667 Now I could just write books about that, 166 00:09:37,750 --> 00:09:43,375 or I could, as I do, try to talk about it in real time 167 00:09:43,458 --> 00:09:45,124 and hope that it has some impact. 168 00:09:45,208 --> 00:09:47,458 So, we have about 15 minutes until your talk. 169 00:09:47,541 --> 00:09:49,708 -MEACHAM: Oh, okay. -WOMAN 1: Yeah. 170 00:09:49,792 --> 00:09:52,458 Uh, is there some place I can just... 171 00:09:52,541 --> 00:09:53,833 -Be? -...sit? Yeah. 172 00:09:58,917 --> 00:10:00,625 (BIRDS CHIRPING) 173 00:10:07,083 --> 00:10:09,958 MEACHAM: The American story is a story 174 00:10:10,041 --> 00:10:14,583 of more generously applying the Jeffersonian idea 175 00:10:14,667 --> 00:10:16,833 that everybody gets a chance. 176 00:10:17,541 --> 00:10:18,999 Thomas Jefferson wrote, 177 00:10:19,083 --> 00:10:21,625 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, 178 00:10:21,708 --> 00:10:24,833 that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator 179 00:10:24,917 --> 00:10:28,249 with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, 180 00:10:28,333 --> 00:10:30,208 and the pursuit of happiness." 181 00:10:30,999 --> 00:10:33,333 Jefferson didn't mean everybody 182 00:10:33,416 --> 00:10:37,999 when he sat down to write that in June of 1776. 183 00:10:38,083 --> 00:10:39,625 He didn't mean women. 184 00:10:39,708 --> 00:10:41,625 He didn't mean people of color. 185 00:10:41,708 --> 00:10:43,166 He meant white men. 186 00:10:44,750 --> 00:10:47,083 But the story of the country 187 00:10:47,166 --> 00:10:51,458 is one in which we have more generously understood 188 00:10:51,541 --> 00:10:53,249 what that sentence meant. 189 00:10:54,541 --> 00:10:58,541 Where we were opening our arms and not clenching our fists. 190 00:10:59,375 --> 00:11:01,958 (CROWD CHANTING DISTANTLY) 191 00:11:02,041 --> 00:11:05,958 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 192 00:11:06,041 --> 00:11:08,999 REPORTER 1: On Saturday, one day after the presidential inauguration, 193 00:11:09,083 --> 00:11:12,500 thousands of women are expected to march in Washington, DC. 194 00:11:12,583 --> 00:11:13,958 REPORTER 2: A wave of protesters, 195 00:11:14,041 --> 00:11:16,083 many in pink knitted "pussyhats," 196 00:11:16,166 --> 00:11:17,500 gathered in the National Mall. 197 00:11:17,583 --> 00:11:20,166 REPORTER 3: An estimated half a million people turned out. 198 00:11:20,249 --> 00:11:22,208 WOMEN'S MARCH PROTESTER: I really believed that we were 199 00:11:22,291 --> 00:11:25,208 moving toward a world where there was equality, 200 00:11:25,291 --> 00:11:29,875 and I guess I was really disappointed that, um... 201 00:11:29,958 --> 00:11:32,208 (CLICKS TONGUE) ...the election showed that maybe, 202 00:11:32,291 --> 00:11:34,333 I don't know, maybe there was a backlash. 203 00:11:34,416 --> 00:11:37,667 MEACHAM: For those who think that the country can't change, 204 00:11:37,750 --> 00:11:41,458 I sometimes submit that a hundred years ago, 205 00:11:41,541 --> 00:11:44,083 more than half the population couldn't vote. 206 00:11:46,750 --> 00:11:50,041 To exclude women from voting was to move them 207 00:11:50,124 --> 00:11:53,625 to second- or even third-class citizenship. 208 00:11:53,708 --> 00:11:57,500 Our better angels tell us that if all men are created equal, 209 00:11:57,583 --> 00:12:00,458 then all men and women are created equal. 210 00:12:00,541 --> 00:12:04,291 To make that real is a victory for those better angels. 211 00:12:11,458 --> 00:12:13,708 ♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪ 212 00:12:13,792 --> 00:12:15,208 LISA TETRAULT: The women's movement 213 00:12:15,291 --> 00:12:17,958 out of which the suffrage movement arises 214 00:12:18,041 --> 00:12:19,792 really starts in the antebellum period 215 00:12:19,875 --> 00:12:22,958 in the United States, so in the 1830s, 1840s. 216 00:12:24,375 --> 00:12:26,875 By 1913 or so, there's this phenomenon 217 00:12:26,958 --> 00:12:28,333 called the "New Woman." 218 00:12:28,416 --> 00:12:31,041 And the New Woman is this young, independent woman 219 00:12:31,124 --> 00:12:34,249 who works for a while, forestalls marriage, 220 00:12:34,333 --> 00:12:37,249 sometimes has a fair degree of education. 221 00:12:37,333 --> 00:12:39,249 And people hold up the New Woman all the time 222 00:12:39,333 --> 00:12:40,333 to say, you know, 223 00:12:40,416 --> 00:12:42,249 "Woman has all the rights she could need. 224 00:12:42,333 --> 00:12:43,999 Why would she need the vote?" 225 00:12:44,792 --> 00:12:45,833 In the suffrage movement, 226 00:12:45,917 --> 00:12:48,291 the person who most emblemized this New Woman 227 00:12:48,375 --> 00:12:49,875 was Alice Paul. 228 00:13:01,249 --> 00:13:02,750 TETRAULT: She had gone to college. 229 00:13:02,833 --> 00:13:03,958 She was a social worker. 230 00:13:04,041 --> 00:13:05,958 She went to England. And while she was there, 231 00:13:06,041 --> 00:13:08,999 she became associated with the suffrage movement 232 00:13:09,083 --> 00:13:11,249 in Britain, which was quite militant. 233 00:13:11,333 --> 00:13:13,208 And then she would come back to the US, 234 00:13:13,291 --> 00:13:15,792 and launch a new chapter of the suffrage movement 235 00:13:15,875 --> 00:13:19,416 that was in your face and unrelenting. 236 00:13:29,291 --> 00:13:33,416 MEACHAM: Alice Paul launched a very direct campaign, 237 00:13:33,500 --> 00:13:35,917 focused on the White House, trying to get Woodrow Wilson 238 00:13:35,999 --> 00:13:38,166 to endorse the suffrage movement. 239 00:13:38,249 --> 00:13:42,333 When he arrived in Washington in 1913 for his inauguration, 240 00:13:42,416 --> 00:13:45,124 he actually asked, "Where are all the people?" 241 00:13:45,208 --> 00:13:47,917 And all the people were at the suffrage march. 242 00:13:47,999 --> 00:13:49,792 TETRAULT: There were floats and delegations 243 00:13:49,875 --> 00:13:52,291 from suffragists all around the nation. 244 00:13:52,375 --> 00:13:55,083 It's the largest parade to take to the streets 245 00:13:55,166 --> 00:13:57,249 in American history at that point. 246 00:13:58,249 --> 00:14:00,667 But the crowd becomes incensed 247 00:14:00,750 --> 00:14:01,667 because, of course, 248 00:14:01,750 --> 00:14:03,500 good, respectable women don't do this, 249 00:14:03,583 --> 00:14:06,416 and the crowd starts attacking the marchers. 250 00:14:09,958 --> 00:14:11,041 MEACHAM: If you're a white man 251 00:14:11,124 --> 00:14:12,917 susceptible to the appeal of the Klan 252 00:14:12,999 --> 00:14:15,583 in the second decade of the 20th century, 253 00:14:15,667 --> 00:14:18,166 "My God, immigrants are taking my job. 254 00:14:18,249 --> 00:14:20,792 Catholics are trying to change my culture. 255 00:14:20,875 --> 00:14:23,708 And now women want to vote. What's next?" 256 00:14:23,792 --> 00:14:26,583 You know, that was the view. 257 00:14:26,667 --> 00:14:28,541 TETRAULT: People are sent to the hospital, 258 00:14:28,625 --> 00:14:30,249 people have broken bones. 259 00:14:30,333 --> 00:14:33,917 And the police turn a blind eye. 260 00:14:36,249 --> 00:14:40,458 But Alice Paul keeps up this tactic of direct action. 261 00:14:44,291 --> 00:14:48,249 One of the things she does is start stationing picketers 262 00:14:48,333 --> 00:14:49,917 outside the White House. 263 00:15:02,750 --> 00:15:05,458 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 264 00:15:05,541 --> 00:15:06,833 TETRAULT: They had these banners 265 00:15:06,917 --> 00:15:07,875 and they would just stand 266 00:15:07,958 --> 00:15:10,166 silently outside the White House gates. 267 00:15:10,249 --> 00:15:12,708 We now think of this as a familiar tactic. 268 00:15:12,792 --> 00:15:14,291 That was brand new. 269 00:15:14,375 --> 00:15:17,500 MEACHAM: Alice Paul made a point of having people 270 00:15:17,583 --> 00:15:18,999 at every gate of the White House, 271 00:15:19,083 --> 00:15:21,583 so that the president would have to see them 272 00:15:21,667 --> 00:15:23,416 when he came and he went. 273 00:15:23,500 --> 00:15:28,249 She was determined to take the fight directly to him. 274 00:15:28,333 --> 00:15:30,625 TETRAULT: At first, Woodrow Wilson is 275 00:15:30,708 --> 00:15:32,124 cheerfully tolerant of them. 276 00:15:32,208 --> 00:15:35,458 "Oh, these cute little women, they'll go away after a while." 277 00:15:35,541 --> 00:15:37,458 And then winter comes, and they're still there. 278 00:15:37,541 --> 00:15:39,667 And then summer comes, and they're still there. 279 00:15:39,750 --> 00:15:41,875 And then World War I breaks out. 280 00:15:41,958 --> 00:15:44,375 And you do not picket a wartime president. 281 00:15:44,458 --> 00:15:46,124 That is unpatriotic. 282 00:16:01,249 --> 00:16:04,416 TETRAULT: The problem is that they are not breaking any laws, 283 00:16:04,500 --> 00:16:06,792 so they trump up a reason to arrest them, 284 00:16:06,875 --> 00:16:08,999 and they say that they have obstructed traffic. 285 00:16:09,083 --> 00:16:10,625 And they start to round up these women, 286 00:16:10,708 --> 00:16:13,792 throw them into paddy wagons, and assume they'll go away. 287 00:16:13,875 --> 00:16:16,416 They go to court, they refuse to pay their court fines, 288 00:16:16,500 --> 00:16:17,917 they go to the workhouse. 289 00:16:17,999 --> 00:16:19,124 More women show up. 290 00:16:19,208 --> 00:16:20,708 They throw them in paddy wagons. 291 00:16:20,792 --> 00:16:21,792 They go to the workhouse. 292 00:16:21,875 --> 00:16:23,291 So you start to have a huge crop 293 00:16:23,375 --> 00:16:26,208 of political prisoners in Occoquan Workhouse. 294 00:16:37,375 --> 00:16:39,792 MEACHAM: There were hunger strikes in prison. 295 00:16:39,875 --> 00:16:41,750 They were willing to risk everything. 296 00:16:43,124 --> 00:16:44,667 TETRAULT: The prison staff thought they could 297 00:16:44,750 --> 00:16:45,917 stop this hunger strike 298 00:16:45,999 --> 00:16:47,833 by force-feeding these women. 299 00:16:47,917 --> 00:16:51,583 They would put them in chairs and literally strap them in. 300 00:16:52,375 --> 00:16:53,999 And then you would have a tube 301 00:16:54,083 --> 00:16:57,124 -forced down your throat. -(WOMAN GROANING) 302 00:16:57,208 --> 00:16:58,667 TETRAULT: And then they would put a funnel 303 00:16:58,750 --> 00:16:59,958 at the top of the tube, 304 00:17:00,041 --> 00:17:01,500 and they would whip up eggs or whatever it might be, 305 00:17:01,583 --> 00:17:03,333 and then they would just pour it into the funnel 306 00:17:03,416 --> 00:17:04,500 and it would come down. 307 00:17:04,583 --> 00:17:05,541 The women would vomit. 308 00:17:05,625 --> 00:17:07,416 They had bloody noses routinely. 309 00:17:12,500 --> 00:17:14,041 TETRAULT: Alice Paul had stomach problems 310 00:17:14,124 --> 00:17:15,583 for the rest of her life. 311 00:17:16,333 --> 00:17:17,833 But the National Woman's Party 312 00:17:17,917 --> 00:17:19,416 knows what's going on inside the prison, right, 313 00:17:19,500 --> 00:17:21,249 and they start publicizing what's happening. 314 00:17:23,667 --> 00:17:26,291 (PRINTING PRESS WHIRS) 315 00:17:26,375 --> 00:17:28,249 TETRAULT: And this creates a great deal of sympathy 316 00:17:28,333 --> 00:17:32,208 in the American public because it was so brutal. 317 00:17:32,291 --> 00:17:35,041 But really it's a million things over time 318 00:17:35,124 --> 00:17:37,667 that eventually tip the scales. 319 00:17:37,750 --> 00:17:40,208 A bunch of suffragists go state by state 320 00:17:40,291 --> 00:17:42,583 and get "male" taken out of the constitution. 321 00:17:42,667 --> 00:17:44,041 That is a dual strategy 322 00:17:44,124 --> 00:17:46,124 working at the state level and working at the federal level. 323 00:17:46,208 --> 00:17:48,124 You've got two branches of the movement. 324 00:17:51,458 --> 00:17:52,625 The state movement 325 00:17:52,708 --> 00:17:54,291 starts to win a lot of victories. 326 00:17:54,375 --> 00:17:56,708 States out west and states in other places 327 00:17:56,792 --> 00:17:58,083 start enfranchising women 328 00:17:58,166 --> 00:17:59,999 and allowing them access to the ballot. 329 00:18:01,291 --> 00:18:05,583 It started to have a kind of insurmountable momentum to it 330 00:18:05,667 --> 00:18:07,625 that I think Wilson eventually joined. 331 00:18:07,708 --> 00:18:09,208 (SHEEP BLEATING) 332 00:18:21,416 --> 00:18:24,249 TETRAULT: In 1918, Congress takes up a vote, 333 00:18:24,333 --> 00:18:26,625 and it narrowly fails. 334 00:18:26,708 --> 00:18:28,416 And what the National Woman's Party decide 335 00:18:28,500 --> 00:18:30,166 is they're gonna go to those states, 336 00:18:30,249 --> 00:18:31,917 to those legislators who voted against, 337 00:18:31,999 --> 00:18:33,999 and they're gonna try to get them out of office. 338 00:18:34,917 --> 00:18:36,083 And by 1919, 339 00:18:36,166 --> 00:18:38,999 they've gotten a lot of those men out of office. 340 00:18:39,083 --> 00:18:41,625 They take a second vote in the House and the Senate, 341 00:18:41,708 --> 00:18:43,291 and it passes both. 342 00:18:48,166 --> 00:18:49,958 MEACHAM: Change in America comes 343 00:18:50,041 --> 00:18:52,166 when the powerful take notice 344 00:18:52,249 --> 00:18:54,999 of what the people have been saying. 345 00:18:56,833 --> 00:18:59,208 (INDISTINCT CHATTER) 346 00:19:00,291 --> 00:19:02,333 And when those two things intersect, 347 00:19:02,416 --> 00:19:04,166 that's how history is made. 348 00:19:05,041 --> 00:19:07,541 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 349 00:19:14,041 --> 00:19:15,875 TETRAULT: But the thing that we can't forget 350 00:19:15,958 --> 00:19:19,333 is that while this suffrage story is unfolding, 351 00:19:19,416 --> 00:19:22,208 there is simultaneously a suppression of democracy 352 00:19:22,291 --> 00:19:23,875 going on in the United States. 353 00:19:28,625 --> 00:19:31,500 During that massive 1913 suffrage parade, 354 00:19:31,583 --> 00:19:33,917 the great Ida B. Wells, journalist, 355 00:19:33,999 --> 00:19:36,375 anti-lynching crusader, feminist activist, 356 00:19:36,458 --> 00:19:39,667 comes in with her Illinois delegation from Chicago. 357 00:19:39,750 --> 00:19:42,166 But they're in D.C., which is a southern city, 358 00:19:42,249 --> 00:19:44,541 and there are gonna be southern congresspeople watching this. 359 00:19:44,625 --> 00:19:45,833 And so Alice Paul says, 360 00:19:45,917 --> 00:19:48,416 "No, we can't have you march with white women." 361 00:19:48,500 --> 00:19:50,166 And that's one example of the ways 362 00:19:50,249 --> 00:19:52,416 in which Alice Paul was willing to embrace 363 00:19:52,500 --> 00:19:55,375 and perpetuate racism in the service of the movement. 364 00:19:55,458 --> 00:19:57,625 And I think the suffrage movement reminds us 365 00:19:57,708 --> 00:19:59,583 that we really have to be thinking constantly 366 00:19:59,667 --> 00:20:02,999 about the ways in which justice movements can do damage 367 00:20:03,083 --> 00:20:04,999 while they're also doing good. 368 00:20:05,083 --> 00:20:06,999 And I think that's a caution to us today 369 00:20:07,083 --> 00:20:08,375 because we're no different. 370 00:20:13,291 --> 00:20:16,999 (BIRDS CHIRPING) 371 00:20:23,458 --> 00:20:25,291 MEACHAM: I grew up on Missionary Ridge, 372 00:20:25,375 --> 00:20:27,999 a battlefield in Chattanooga, Tennessee. 373 00:20:32,958 --> 00:20:36,375 When I was little, you could still find Civil War bullets 374 00:20:36,458 --> 00:20:38,667 on Missionary Ridge and around. 375 00:20:38,750 --> 00:20:42,083 So, to me, the history was just right there. 376 00:20:45,625 --> 00:20:48,208 I met Jon when he was 19, 377 00:20:48,291 --> 00:20:52,166 and he seemed to me like he was 30 when I met him. 378 00:20:52,249 --> 00:20:54,416 He was just very much an old soul, 379 00:20:54,500 --> 00:20:56,041 and he was very wise. 380 00:20:56,124 --> 00:20:58,500 He was sort of someone who got on really well 381 00:20:58,583 --> 00:21:00,208 with older people. 382 00:21:00,291 --> 00:21:01,917 You could tell that this was someone 383 00:21:01,999 --> 00:21:05,124 who, at a very young age, was really engaged 384 00:21:05,208 --> 00:21:07,041 in the life of the mind. 385 00:21:08,833 --> 00:21:12,958 At age ten, he campaigned for Reagan. 386 00:21:13,041 --> 00:21:16,291 And he was fascinated by Reagan as a man. 387 00:21:16,375 --> 00:21:18,291 RONALD REAGAN: We, as Americans, 388 00:21:18,375 --> 00:21:22,083 have the capacity now, as we've had in the past, 389 00:21:22,166 --> 00:21:25,041 to do whatever needs to be done 390 00:21:25,124 --> 00:21:29,041 to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom. 391 00:21:29,124 --> 00:21:31,875 MEACHAM: I could have fairly easily ended up 392 00:21:31,958 --> 00:21:35,792 in some sort of young conservative ethos. 393 00:21:35,875 --> 00:21:40,416 But because I started in journalism when I was 18 394 00:21:40,500 --> 00:21:44,333 at the Chattanooga Times, I almost immediately saw 395 00:21:44,416 --> 00:21:46,833 that the world was a hell of a lot more complicated 396 00:21:46,917 --> 00:21:49,375 than either a conservative ideology 397 00:21:49,458 --> 00:21:51,583 or a liberal ideology would have it. 398 00:21:53,875 --> 00:21:55,958 KEITH MEACHAM: By the time we really got together, 399 00:21:56,041 --> 00:21:57,833 he was at the Washington Monthly, 400 00:21:57,917 --> 00:22:01,124 which was like boot camp for journalism. 401 00:22:01,208 --> 00:22:03,833 We would have Friday night dates that got cancelled 402 00:22:03,917 --> 00:22:06,166 because we had to drive up to the printer 403 00:22:06,249 --> 00:22:08,750 because somebody was late filing their stories. 404 00:22:09,999 --> 00:22:13,458 And then Jon ended up getting an offer from Newsweek. 405 00:22:13,541 --> 00:22:16,083 I was an editor at Newsweek, 406 00:22:16,166 --> 00:22:19,166 and the young Jon Meacham walked in, 407 00:22:19,249 --> 00:22:20,792 25 years old, maybe. 408 00:22:20,875 --> 00:22:23,833 We talked for a little bit, and I realized right away 409 00:22:23,917 --> 00:22:26,166 that I'd be working for him soon. 410 00:22:26,249 --> 00:22:27,333 You are how old? 411 00:22:27,416 --> 00:22:29,166 -I'm 29. -ANCHOR: Twenty-nine? 412 00:22:29,249 --> 00:22:31,500 What's it like to be a 29-year-old managing editor-- 413 00:22:31,583 --> 00:22:33,458 -Closing in on 30. -ANCHOR: (LAUGHS) Okay. 414 00:22:33,541 --> 00:22:35,708 What's it like to be a, uh, closing-in-on-30, 415 00:22:35,792 --> 00:22:38,750 uh, managing editor of, uh, one of the big news magazines? 416 00:22:38,833 --> 00:22:42,041 My guest tonight, the editor of Newsweek magazine. 417 00:22:42,124 --> 00:22:44,833 Please welcome back to the show, Jon Meacham. Jon? 418 00:22:44,917 --> 00:22:46,333 (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) 419 00:22:46,416 --> 00:22:47,583 EVAN THOMAS: I remember thinking 420 00:22:47,667 --> 00:22:49,166 he was a slightly ridiculous figure 421 00:22:49,249 --> 00:22:52,541 at Newsweek because people usually dress sloppily, 422 00:22:52,625 --> 00:22:56,166 and Meacham always wore kind of a neat suit. 423 00:22:56,249 --> 00:22:58,166 His hair was carefully combed. 424 00:22:58,249 --> 00:23:01,375 He had this slight waddle as he went down the hallway. 425 00:23:01,458 --> 00:23:04,541 He was kind of prematurely old and-- an old-fashioned figure 426 00:23:04,625 --> 00:23:06,541 surrounded by a lot of people trying to be hip. 427 00:23:06,625 --> 00:23:08,291 And I think he took some grief for it. 428 00:23:08,375 --> 00:23:10,833 I think people kind of laughed at it a little bit. 429 00:23:10,917 --> 00:23:12,958 But they weren't laughing when he was working on-- 430 00:23:13,041 --> 00:23:14,667 when he was working on their copy. 431 00:23:17,375 --> 00:23:18,958 MEACHAM: You know, I've written about people 432 00:23:19,041 --> 00:23:20,583 about whom much has been written. 433 00:23:20,667 --> 00:23:22,541 Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson. 434 00:23:22,625 --> 00:23:23,917 And I've written about people 435 00:23:23,999 --> 00:23:25,041 where it's kind of the beginning 436 00:23:25,124 --> 00:23:27,458 of the conversation, George H. W. Bush. 437 00:23:30,291 --> 00:23:33,541 On the primary campaign trail in New Hampshire once, 438 00:23:33,625 --> 00:23:36,375 he grabbed the hand of a department store mannequin, 439 00:23:36,458 --> 00:23:37,999 asking for votes. 440 00:23:40,124 --> 00:23:43,291 When he realized his mistake, he said, 441 00:23:43,375 --> 00:23:45,291 "Never know, gotta ask." 442 00:23:45,792 --> 00:23:49,041 (LAUGHTER) 443 00:23:49,124 --> 00:23:51,750 MEACHAM: I've spent most of my life... 444 00:23:51,833 --> 00:23:53,958 thinking about the past, 445 00:23:54,041 --> 00:23:59,833 and thinking about how the past became something 446 00:23:59,917 --> 00:24:03,875 either worth emulating or worth avoiding. 447 00:24:05,458 --> 00:24:09,333 ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 448 00:24:16,833 --> 00:24:19,291 MEACHAM: In the course of a year, I can do 449 00:24:19,375 --> 00:24:22,708 between sixty and a hundred speaking engagements... 450 00:24:23,667 --> 00:24:26,500 with people who care about the country, 451 00:24:26,583 --> 00:24:27,750 who care about history, 452 00:24:27,833 --> 00:24:30,208 and are trying to connect these dots. 453 00:24:30,667 --> 00:24:32,416 (APPLAUSE) 454 00:24:35,999 --> 00:24:39,291 MEACHAM: So, one sign of consistency in challenging times 455 00:24:39,375 --> 00:24:41,625 is I appear to be wearing the same necktie. 456 00:24:41,708 --> 00:24:43,792 (LAUGHTER) 457 00:24:43,875 --> 00:24:44,999 MEACHAM: So... 458 00:24:45,999 --> 00:24:47,625 My hair is grayer, however, 459 00:24:47,708 --> 00:24:50,291 so that may be because of the 2016 election. 460 00:24:50,375 --> 00:24:55,500 Uh, so 2016, uh, how did it happen? 461 00:24:55,583 --> 00:24:56,917 Two numbers, I think. 462 00:24:58,667 --> 00:25:01,041 One is 17 percent. 463 00:25:01,124 --> 00:25:03,208 That's the percentage of Americans who say 464 00:25:03,291 --> 00:25:04,958 they have trust in the federal government 465 00:25:05,041 --> 00:25:07,583 to do the right thing some or most of the time. 466 00:25:08,792 --> 00:25:12,750 That's down from 77 percent in the mid-1960s. 467 00:25:12,833 --> 00:25:15,416 So that's a huge trust gap. 468 00:25:16,124 --> 00:25:18,708 The other is $130,000. 469 00:25:18,792 --> 00:25:21,458 That's the number that some economists believe 470 00:25:21,541 --> 00:25:24,750 a family of four needs in annual household income 471 00:25:24,833 --> 00:25:26,999 to lead what they would think of 472 00:25:27,083 --> 00:25:29,667 as a classic post-World War II middle-class life. 473 00:25:29,750 --> 00:25:31,667 Annual income for a family of four 474 00:25:31,750 --> 00:25:33,958 is about 56,000 dollars right now. 475 00:25:34,041 --> 00:25:37,958 So in that missing income gap and in that trust gap, 476 00:25:38,041 --> 00:25:39,792 you have the ingredients 477 00:25:39,875 --> 00:25:42,958 for a kind of populist moment like this... 478 00:25:44,458 --> 00:25:47,833 where someone says, "Those people are to blame 479 00:25:47,917 --> 00:25:50,124 for the fact that you don't have this money." 480 00:25:50,208 --> 00:25:54,166 We are sick and tired of people disrespecting, 481 00:25:54,249 --> 00:25:56,166 coming over by the thousands. 482 00:25:56,249 --> 00:25:58,750 We wanna make sure that our borders are secure. 483 00:25:58,833 --> 00:25:59,958 (INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER) 484 00:26:00,041 --> 00:26:01,750 REPORTER 1: The US government is releasing 485 00:26:01,833 --> 00:26:04,333 new video of the child detention centers. 486 00:26:04,416 --> 00:26:06,375 REPORTER 2: This shows children walled in 487 00:26:06,458 --> 00:26:07,875 by a chain-link fence. 488 00:26:07,958 --> 00:26:10,541 CHILD: (CRYING) Mommy. 489 00:26:10,625 --> 00:26:13,625 (CHILDREN CRYING) 490 00:26:13,708 --> 00:26:17,124 MEACHAM: And so often, people in American history 491 00:26:17,208 --> 00:26:19,708 have felt that they were on a precipice, 492 00:26:19,792 --> 00:26:22,124 -and so they lash out. -Build the wall! 493 00:26:22,208 --> 00:26:23,750 MEACHAM: You saw it with white southerners 494 00:26:23,833 --> 00:26:25,875 after Reconstruction. 495 00:26:25,958 --> 00:26:28,750 You saw it with the second Klan and immigration, 496 00:26:28,833 --> 00:26:30,291 the shifting economy. 497 00:26:31,458 --> 00:26:33,333 You saw it in the 1930s. 498 00:26:34,500 --> 00:26:37,249 It's an incredibly powerful political emotion. 499 00:26:37,333 --> 00:26:39,792 And the great political leaders... 500 00:26:39,875 --> 00:26:41,999 are the ones who don't cater to it, 501 00:26:42,083 --> 00:26:44,500 who tamp it down instead of flame it. 502 00:26:46,458 --> 00:26:50,124 ♪ (OMINOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 503 00:26:50,208 --> 00:26:53,124 MEACHAM: The 1930s have a lot to say to us. 504 00:26:53,208 --> 00:26:57,041 It was a period of enormous ferment 505 00:26:57,124 --> 00:26:59,667 of anxiety about a changing world. 506 00:27:00,750 --> 00:27:02,833 Technology was changing the country, 507 00:27:03,458 --> 00:27:05,708 the rise of radio, 508 00:27:05,792 --> 00:27:07,833 people were moving away from farms, 509 00:27:07,917 --> 00:27:11,041 they were gathering in cities, they felt alienated, 510 00:27:11,625 --> 00:27:13,041 they felt lonely. 511 00:27:14,166 --> 00:27:16,333 If we look at the 1930s, we can see 512 00:27:16,416 --> 00:27:20,958 how economic anxiety, isolationist tendencies, 513 00:27:21,041 --> 00:27:25,458 nativist tendencies can lead to a genuine crisis, 514 00:27:25,541 --> 00:27:27,541 both at home and abroad. 515 00:27:27,625 --> 00:27:31,083 The country is in the throes of what becomes 516 00:27:31,166 --> 00:27:33,291 a global depression. 517 00:27:33,375 --> 00:27:35,833 We're paying the price for isolationism, 518 00:27:35,917 --> 00:27:39,208 paying the price for instituting immigration quotas, 519 00:27:39,291 --> 00:27:41,667 putting up high tariffs. 520 00:27:41,750 --> 00:27:45,333 By the spring of 1933, one out of every four 521 00:27:45,416 --> 00:27:47,875 adult American men was out of work. 522 00:27:47,958 --> 00:27:49,792 -(EXPLOSION) -(HORSE WHINNIES) 523 00:27:49,875 --> 00:27:52,041 There were riots in the Midwest. 524 00:27:52,124 --> 00:27:53,333 (INDISTINCT SHOUTING) 525 00:27:53,416 --> 00:27:55,041 There was a live question about whether 526 00:27:55,124 --> 00:27:57,958 democratic capitalism would survive the decade. 527 00:27:58,041 --> 00:27:59,458 (INDISTINCT YELLING) 528 00:28:02,500 --> 00:28:05,583 -(EXPLOSION) -(CROWD CHEERING) 529 00:28:07,583 --> 00:28:09,958 We face that crisis. 530 00:28:10,041 --> 00:28:13,166 We face it with singleness of purpose. 531 00:28:13,249 --> 00:28:18,208 So shall we win through to a better day. 532 00:28:18,291 --> 00:28:22,500 MEACHAM: Onto that stage comes Franklin Delano Roosevelt. 533 00:28:22,583 --> 00:28:25,208 (CROWD CHEERING) 534 00:28:28,500 --> 00:28:31,291 (CROWD WHISTLING) 535 00:28:32,792 --> 00:28:34,500 MEACHAM: One of the brightest young politicians 536 00:28:34,583 --> 00:28:37,041 in the Democratic Party, 1920, 537 00:28:37,124 --> 00:28:39,958 goes to Campobello off the coast of Maine, 538 00:28:40,041 --> 00:28:42,124 wakes up and can't walk. 539 00:28:44,750 --> 00:28:47,208 Wills himself back into the arena 540 00:28:47,291 --> 00:28:49,708 and becomes, in a way, 541 00:28:49,792 --> 00:28:52,875 the embodiment of the American notion 542 00:28:52,958 --> 00:28:54,999 that we can recover. 543 00:28:56,500 --> 00:28:59,375 He believed we could all walk again, 544 00:28:59,458 --> 00:29:03,249 not least because he had taught himself to walk again. 545 00:29:04,750 --> 00:29:07,458 ♪ (TRIUMPHANT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 546 00:29:11,875 --> 00:29:15,124 FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT: Let me assert my firm belief 547 00:29:15,208 --> 00:29:19,333 that the only thing we have to fear is... 548 00:29:19,999 --> 00:29:21,458 fear itself. 549 00:29:21,541 --> 00:29:22,750 MEACHAM: So, when we think of FDR, 550 00:29:22,833 --> 00:29:23,917 we think of the great line, 551 00:29:23,999 --> 00:29:26,750 "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." 552 00:29:26,833 --> 00:29:29,625 The line that got the biggest cheer that day, though, was 553 00:29:29,708 --> 00:29:31,583 the current crisis is of such scope 554 00:29:31,667 --> 00:29:33,333 that he might require powers 555 00:29:33,416 --> 00:29:35,917 "as if we had been invaded by a foreign foe." 556 00:29:35,999 --> 00:29:38,249 ...invaded by a foreign foe. 557 00:29:38,333 --> 00:29:39,291 (CHEERING) 558 00:29:39,375 --> 00:29:40,999 MEACHAM: And the crowd roared. 559 00:29:41,083 --> 00:29:43,083 And it suggested to Eleanor Roosevelt 560 00:29:43,166 --> 00:29:45,500 that they were ready for a dictator. 561 00:29:45,583 --> 00:29:48,875 (SPEAKING GERMAN) 562 00:29:52,833 --> 00:29:54,500 MEACHAM: Dictatorship was on the march. 563 00:29:54,583 --> 00:29:55,458 (CROWD CHEERING) 564 00:29:55,541 --> 00:29:56,999 MEACHAM: Look at Germany, look at Italy, 565 00:29:57,083 --> 00:29:59,625 look at the increasing totalitarianization 566 00:29:59,708 --> 00:30:01,249 of the Soviet Union. 567 00:30:01,333 --> 00:30:02,458 What did Franklin Roosevelt do? 568 00:30:02,541 --> 00:30:05,166 -(CROWD CHEERING) -I have shown our determination 569 00:30:05,249 --> 00:30:08,458 in the past by action. 570 00:30:08,541 --> 00:30:10,792 MEACHAM: Franklin Roosevelt stayed in the arena. 571 00:30:10,875 --> 00:30:14,917 Action that is saving and will continue to save 572 00:30:14,999 --> 00:30:18,166 the constitutional representative 573 00:30:18,249 --> 00:30:19,750 form of government 574 00:30:19,833 --> 00:30:23,124 in which all Americans rejoice. 575 00:30:23,208 --> 00:30:27,541 He insisted that we had something worth preserving 576 00:30:27,625 --> 00:30:29,291 despite its faults. 577 00:30:29,375 --> 00:30:33,208 He fought against fascists, the German Bund. 578 00:30:34,416 --> 00:30:37,500 Madison Square Garden was filled, 30,000 people, 579 00:30:37,583 --> 00:30:39,416 a Nazi rally. 580 00:30:39,500 --> 00:30:42,583 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 581 00:30:43,416 --> 00:30:46,583 FRITZ KUHN: 582 00:31:06,667 --> 00:31:08,291 MEACHAM: The isolationist movement 583 00:31:08,375 --> 00:31:11,583 was centrally based on the idea 584 00:31:11,667 --> 00:31:14,667 that we should not be drawn into foreign quarrels 585 00:31:14,750 --> 00:31:17,208 because someone was always taking advantage of us. 586 00:31:17,291 --> 00:31:19,500 If you believe that this country 587 00:31:19,583 --> 00:31:22,208 should not enter the war in Europe, 588 00:31:22,291 --> 00:31:25,375 we ask you to join the America First Committee 589 00:31:25,458 --> 00:31:26,667 in its stand. 590 00:31:26,750 --> 00:31:28,416 (APPLAUSE) 591 00:31:28,500 --> 00:31:30,583 MEACHAM: FDR dealt with isolationism 592 00:31:30,667 --> 00:31:32,249 incredibly carefully. 593 00:31:32,333 --> 00:31:36,875 We are keeping out of the wars that are going on 594 00:31:36,958 --> 00:31:38,999 in Europe and in Asia, 595 00:31:39,083 --> 00:31:42,625 but I do not subscribe to the preachment 596 00:31:42,708 --> 00:31:47,291 that the United States should do nothing. 597 00:31:47,375 --> 00:31:49,708 MEACHAM: World War II was opposed 598 00:31:49,792 --> 00:31:51,291 by 40 percent of the country. 599 00:31:51,375 --> 00:31:53,750 Again, this is why I think history matters. 600 00:31:53,833 --> 00:31:54,958 The more we understand 601 00:31:55,041 --> 00:31:58,625 that it wasn't so clear cut even then, 602 00:31:58,708 --> 00:32:02,583 I would hope that would give us some hope that you can-- 603 00:32:02,667 --> 00:32:05,375 we can find a way to manufacture consensus 604 00:32:05,458 --> 00:32:07,333 to solve the problems of our own time. 605 00:32:08,833 --> 00:32:11,083 Thank you. I appreciate it. Hey. How are you? 606 00:32:11,166 --> 00:32:12,750 Hello. Thank you for coming to Westmont. 607 00:32:12,833 --> 00:32:13,999 Thank you. 608 00:32:14,083 --> 00:32:16,041 STUDENT: Yeah, I was just interested in your comments 609 00:32:16,124 --> 00:32:18,166 about the legacy of... 610 00:32:19,625 --> 00:32:21,875 forgive me, but, like, your generation and... 611 00:32:21,958 --> 00:32:24,416 -(CHUCKLES) -...older generations. 612 00:32:24,500 --> 00:32:26,291 Like, what kind of legacy do you think, like, 613 00:32:26,375 --> 00:32:29,458 your generation is leaving behind for my generation? 614 00:32:29,541 --> 00:32:31,958 Well, the jury-- Well, the jury is still out. 615 00:32:32,041 --> 00:32:33,958 Um... 616 00:32:34,041 --> 00:32:39,833 I think we've created an overly partisan... 617 00:32:39,917 --> 00:32:43,458 and overly reactive world right now. 618 00:32:43,541 --> 00:32:46,041 I don't think it's a great legacy at this point, 619 00:32:46,124 --> 00:32:49,208 but we have a little more time. (LAUGHS) 620 00:32:49,291 --> 00:32:51,166 -STUDENT: That is true. -It's close. 621 00:32:51,249 --> 00:32:53,917 ♪ (GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 622 00:32:56,875 --> 00:32:59,124 JOHN GRISHAM: We tried to line up a speaker for this fall, 623 00:32:59,208 --> 00:33:01,958 and nobody else would come, so I said, "We got Jon Meacham. 624 00:33:02,041 --> 00:33:04,875 -He's an old friend of mine." -(AUDIENCE LAUGHS) 625 00:33:04,958 --> 00:33:07,583 I'm supposed to introduce him, so I'm gonna be polite. 626 00:33:07,667 --> 00:33:10,792 Um, please welcome my friend, Jon Meacham. 627 00:33:10,875 --> 00:33:13,875 (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) 628 00:33:14,667 --> 00:33:15,917 Thank you. 629 00:33:17,875 --> 00:33:20,041 That was much nicer than usual. Thank you. 630 00:33:20,708 --> 00:33:23,750 (APPLAUSE CONTINUES) 631 00:33:23,833 --> 00:33:26,166 GRISHAM: So, let's talk about that book, The Soul of America. 632 00:33:26,249 --> 00:33:28,958 In it, you write about the darkest chapters 633 00:33:29,041 --> 00:33:30,249 in American history. 634 00:33:30,333 --> 00:33:34,999 So when was the last time the partisanship was this bad, 635 00:33:35,083 --> 00:33:36,875 we were so divided? 636 00:33:36,958 --> 00:33:42,667 I would say the isolationism versus the interventionism 637 00:33:42,750 --> 00:33:45,667 -of the late 1930s, early 1940s. -The war? 638 00:33:45,750 --> 00:33:49,416 There was more ferocity, more vitriol over what to do 639 00:33:49,500 --> 00:33:52,208 about Hitler than even about Vietnam. 640 00:33:52,291 --> 00:33:55,124 And it was solved for us by external forces, 641 00:33:55,208 --> 00:33:58,625 by Japan and by Germany's unilateral declaration. 642 00:33:58,708 --> 00:34:00,792 So it's not as though we woke up one morning 643 00:34:00,875 --> 00:34:02,416 and said, "Yeah, I think we are gonna 644 00:34:02,500 --> 00:34:04,166 defeat tyranny and project liberty." 645 00:34:04,249 --> 00:34:07,625 -♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -(PLANE ENGINES HUMMING) 646 00:34:09,291 --> 00:34:11,083 RADIO BROADCASTER 1: We interrupt this broadcast to bring you 647 00:34:11,166 --> 00:34:13,208 this important bulletin from the United Press. 648 00:34:13,291 --> 00:34:16,041 Flash, Washington. The White House announces 649 00:34:16,124 --> 00:34:18,375 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 650 00:34:18,458 --> 00:34:20,958 (RUMBLING) 651 00:34:21,041 --> 00:34:23,166 RADIO BROADCASTER 2: The attack on the Hawaiian Islands 652 00:34:23,249 --> 00:34:25,667 has caused severe damage 653 00:34:25,750 --> 00:34:28,875 to American naval and military forces. 654 00:34:28,958 --> 00:34:31,124 What changed everything was Pearl Harbor. 655 00:34:32,249 --> 00:34:34,708 Bombs had been dropped, Americans had died, 656 00:34:34,792 --> 00:34:37,708 war had been brought to us by the Japanese. 657 00:34:37,792 --> 00:34:40,875 ROOSEVELT: The number of our officers and men killed 658 00:34:40,958 --> 00:34:46,667 in the attack on Pearl Harbor was 2,340. 659 00:34:48,166 --> 00:34:53,875 Since the unprovoked and dastardly attack, 660 00:34:53,958 --> 00:34:59,249 a state of war has existed 661 00:34:59,333 --> 00:35:03,999 between the United States and the Japanese Empire. 662 00:35:04,083 --> 00:35:06,291 (CHEERING) 663 00:35:10,208 --> 00:35:12,249 MEACHAM: In the wake of Pearl Harbor, 664 00:35:12,333 --> 00:35:13,750 there were anxieties, 665 00:35:13,833 --> 00:35:15,416 particularly along the West Coast, 666 00:35:15,500 --> 00:35:19,249 that Japanese Americans might serve as agents 667 00:35:19,333 --> 00:35:21,708 of the Japanese imperial government, 668 00:35:21,792 --> 00:35:23,416 an enemy force. 669 00:35:23,500 --> 00:35:25,917 RADIO BROADCASTER 3: Word has just come that some 91 Japanese 670 00:35:25,999 --> 00:35:28,291 have been taken into custody in Northern California 671 00:35:28,375 --> 00:35:29,833 by the FBI. 672 00:35:29,917 --> 00:35:32,917 In Fresno, California, two Japanese were arrested, 673 00:35:32,999 --> 00:35:34,958 their automobile seized by police. 674 00:35:35,041 --> 00:35:38,958 DONALD TAMAKI: Within a day, the Secret Service, the FBI 675 00:35:39,041 --> 00:35:42,083 sweeps into cities and urban areas 676 00:35:42,166 --> 00:35:44,375 from Seattle to Arizona, 677 00:35:44,458 --> 00:35:48,500 arresting community leaders, martial arts instructors, 678 00:35:48,583 --> 00:35:51,500 Japanese school language teachers, Buddhist priests. 679 00:35:51,583 --> 00:35:53,291 MILTON EISENHOWER: Our West Coast became 680 00:35:53,375 --> 00:35:56,041 a potential combat zone. 681 00:35:56,124 --> 00:35:58,750 Living in that zone were more than 100,000 persons 682 00:35:58,833 --> 00:36:00,208 of Japanese ancestry, 683 00:36:00,291 --> 00:36:02,458 two thirds of them American citizens, 684 00:36:02,541 --> 00:36:04,500 one third aliens. 685 00:36:04,583 --> 00:36:06,999 GEORGE TAKEI: My parents met in Los Angeles 686 00:36:07,083 --> 00:36:09,124 and they married there. 687 00:36:09,208 --> 00:36:14,249 I turned five years old on April 20th, 1942. 688 00:36:14,333 --> 00:36:18,500 I'm the oldest, and my brother was next, a year younger, 689 00:36:18,583 --> 00:36:21,249 and my baby sister, Nancy. 690 00:36:21,333 --> 00:36:23,958 Here we were in the United States, 691 00:36:24,041 --> 00:36:28,416 and the country was at war with our ancestral land, 692 00:36:28,500 --> 00:36:33,792 and so there was great concern about what might happen to us. 693 00:36:33,875 --> 00:36:36,083 ♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 694 00:36:39,416 --> 00:36:41,667 MEACHAM: The Attorney General of California, Earl Warren, 695 00:36:41,750 --> 00:36:46,291 and others argued that people of foreign descent 696 00:36:46,375 --> 00:36:49,875 were dangerous, were potentially enemies of the country. 697 00:36:49,958 --> 00:36:51,750 EISENHOWER: No one knew what would happen 698 00:36:51,833 --> 00:36:53,792 among this concentrated population 699 00:36:53,875 --> 00:36:56,792 if Japanese forces should invade our shores. 700 00:36:57,500 --> 00:36:59,833 TAMAKI: By February 1942, 701 00:36:59,917 --> 00:37:04,208 President Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, 702 00:37:04,291 --> 00:37:08,041 and this empowered the military to take control 703 00:37:08,124 --> 00:37:10,416 of the eight most western states. 704 00:37:10,500 --> 00:37:12,458 (TALKING INDISTINCTLY) 705 00:37:12,541 --> 00:37:14,792 TAMAKI: General DeWitt is placed in command 706 00:37:14,875 --> 00:37:17,375 of that whole western region. 707 00:37:17,458 --> 00:37:20,541 General DeWitt, uh, said that Japanese Americans 708 00:37:20,625 --> 00:37:21,958 are an enemy race. 709 00:37:22,041 --> 00:37:25,500 MAN 1: He said very emphatically, "A Jap's a Jap. 710 00:37:25,583 --> 00:37:28,124 And a scrap of paper attesting to his citizenship 711 00:37:28,208 --> 00:37:29,833 doesn't alter that fact." 712 00:37:29,917 --> 00:37:32,333 TAMAKI: He began issuing public proclamations 713 00:37:32,416 --> 00:37:34,833 singling out Japanese Americans. 714 00:37:37,458 --> 00:37:38,750 TAKEI: A curfew came down. 715 00:37:38,833 --> 00:37:41,792 Japanese Americans had to be home by eight o'clock 716 00:37:41,875 --> 00:37:46,208 and stay home until 6 a.m. in the morning. 717 00:37:46,291 --> 00:37:48,833 The government froze our bank account. 718 00:37:48,917 --> 00:37:51,583 Rents couldn't be paid. 719 00:37:51,667 --> 00:37:55,917 My father's dry cleaning business fell apart. 720 00:37:55,999 --> 00:37:58,708 Everything was lost. Everything. 721 00:38:02,500 --> 00:38:04,999 And then the soldiers came. 722 00:38:08,875 --> 00:38:12,917 One morning, my parents got me up very early, 723 00:38:12,999 --> 00:38:16,583 together with my brother and my baby sister, 724 00:38:16,667 --> 00:38:19,083 and dressed us, uh, hurriedly. 725 00:38:20,999 --> 00:38:23,875 And suddenly, we saw two soldiers 726 00:38:23,958 --> 00:38:25,708 marching up our driveway, 727 00:38:25,792 --> 00:38:29,249 carrying rifles with shiny bayonets. 728 00:38:30,333 --> 00:38:32,458 And they stomped onto the front porch 729 00:38:32,541 --> 00:38:33,833 and with their fists, 730 00:38:33,917 --> 00:38:37,166 -began pounding on the door. -(KNOCKING ON DOOR ECHOES) 731 00:38:37,249 --> 00:38:41,541 Uh, that sound still resonates in my mind. 732 00:38:43,416 --> 00:38:45,792 My father came out, answered the door, 733 00:38:45,875 --> 00:38:48,500 and we were ordered out of our home. 734 00:38:50,458 --> 00:38:52,041 We stood on the driveway 735 00:38:52,124 --> 00:38:54,958 waiting for our mother to come out. 736 00:38:55,041 --> 00:38:56,333 And when she came out, 737 00:38:56,416 --> 00:38:58,958 she had our baby sister in one arm, 738 00:38:59,041 --> 00:39:03,166 a huge, heavy-looking duffel bag in the other, 739 00:39:03,249 --> 00:39:06,917 and tears were streaming down her cheeks. 740 00:39:10,917 --> 00:39:13,291 ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 741 00:39:21,333 --> 00:39:23,917 TAKEI: We were taken by truck 742 00:39:23,999 --> 00:39:26,124 to, uh, the, uh, Buddhist temple 743 00:39:26,208 --> 00:39:29,249 in downtown Los Angeles in Little Tokyo. 744 00:39:31,583 --> 00:39:34,583 And that's where we were all assembled. 745 00:39:35,667 --> 00:39:37,500 WOMAN 2: The heads of the families 746 00:39:37,583 --> 00:39:39,583 were ordered to report, 747 00:39:39,667 --> 00:39:43,833 and we were given our family number and tag. 748 00:39:58,917 --> 00:40:02,999 TAKEI: And a row of buses took us to Santa Anita, 749 00:40:03,083 --> 00:40:04,541 where we were unloaded 750 00:40:04,625 --> 00:40:06,875 and herded over to the stable areas, 751 00:40:06,958 --> 00:40:12,291 and each family was assigned a horse stall to sleep in... 752 00:40:14,917 --> 00:40:18,667 still pungent with the stink of horse manure. 753 00:40:24,583 --> 00:40:27,458 We were there about three or four months... 754 00:40:27,541 --> 00:40:30,708 (TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS) 755 00:40:30,792 --> 00:40:33,416 TAKEI: ...and then we were loaded onto trains 756 00:40:33,500 --> 00:40:37,999 with armed soldiers at both ends of each car. 757 00:40:40,291 --> 00:40:42,625 (TRAIN WHISTLE BLOWS) 758 00:40:49,249 --> 00:40:52,792 We were transported two thirds of the way across the country 759 00:40:52,875 --> 00:40:55,124 to the swamps of Arkansas. 760 00:40:57,249 --> 00:40:59,416 There were ten camps altogether. 761 00:40:59,500 --> 00:41:02,833 Rohwer, Arkansas, was the farthest east. 762 00:41:04,249 --> 00:41:07,041 The camps were not camps, they were prisons. 763 00:41:08,708 --> 00:41:10,708 They lived in dusty barracks. 764 00:41:10,792 --> 00:41:12,541 There were cracks in the walls, 765 00:41:12,625 --> 00:41:14,375 so they had to stuff newspaper in 766 00:41:14,458 --> 00:41:16,333 to stop the wind from blowing in. 767 00:41:17,208 --> 00:41:19,917 They had common latrines without doors. 768 00:41:19,999 --> 00:41:23,208 The food was terrible, inadequate medical care. 769 00:41:23,291 --> 00:41:25,083 (BELL CHIMES) 770 00:41:25,166 --> 00:41:26,541 TAKEI: I did go to school, 771 00:41:26,625 --> 00:41:29,625 and I remember we began every school day 772 00:41:29,708 --> 00:41:32,958 with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. 773 00:41:33,041 --> 00:41:35,792 I could see the barbed wire fence and the sentry tower 774 00:41:35,875 --> 00:41:38,291 right outside my schoolhouse window 775 00:41:38,375 --> 00:41:40,124 as I recited the words, 776 00:41:40,208 --> 00:41:43,958 "With liberty and justice for all." 777 00:41:47,875 --> 00:41:49,667 TAMAKI: By the end of 1942, 778 00:41:49,750 --> 00:41:53,124 you had almost 120,000 Americans, 779 00:41:53,208 --> 00:41:55,041 people like my mother and my father 780 00:41:55,124 --> 00:41:59,208 who were born in California, who are citizens by birth, 781 00:41:59,291 --> 00:42:02,583 who had lost their property, they lost their freedom, 782 00:42:02,667 --> 00:42:05,041 some had even lost their lives 783 00:42:05,124 --> 00:42:07,667 without any trial, without any charges, 784 00:42:07,750 --> 00:42:09,291 and for no offense. 785 00:42:14,541 --> 00:42:17,416 We were incarcerated for the duration of the war, 786 00:42:18,208 --> 00:42:19,416 four years. 787 00:42:21,583 --> 00:42:24,583 When we were freed, we had nothing. 788 00:42:24,667 --> 00:42:26,041 For my parents, 789 00:42:26,124 --> 00:42:29,291 everything that they had worked for was taken away. 790 00:42:29,375 --> 00:42:31,291 (WHISTLE BLOWS) 791 00:42:33,208 --> 00:42:36,375 ROOSEVELT: We know now that if we lose this war, 792 00:42:36,458 --> 00:42:39,375 it will be generations or even centuries 793 00:42:39,458 --> 00:42:43,667 before our conception of democracy can live again. 794 00:42:45,083 --> 00:42:48,333 MEACHAM: It's one of our most shameful episodes. 795 00:42:48,416 --> 00:42:51,541 And a reminder that even in the midst 796 00:42:51,625 --> 00:42:55,541 of a global campaign to defend liberty, 797 00:42:55,625 --> 00:42:59,500 someone as otherwise remarkable as Franklin Roosevelt 798 00:42:59,583 --> 00:43:02,625 was able to make a decision that violated 799 00:43:02,708 --> 00:43:06,667 fundamental principles of both human and American rights. 800 00:43:11,541 --> 00:43:13,999 The internment's a cautionary tale. 801 00:43:15,166 --> 00:43:17,708 When we give in to the worst in us, 802 00:43:18,750 --> 00:43:22,833 we exclude, we oppress, we marginalize. 803 00:43:24,667 --> 00:43:26,958 Are we gonna look back at the child separation 804 00:43:27,041 --> 00:43:29,291 on the southern border in the same way we look back 805 00:43:29,375 --> 00:43:33,750 on slavery and segregation and Japanese American internment? 806 00:43:33,833 --> 00:43:35,500 I'd bet yes. 807 00:43:35,583 --> 00:43:37,999 ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 808 00:43:45,166 --> 00:43:47,041 ♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪ 809 00:43:48,416 --> 00:43:50,375 (PHONE KEYS CLICKING) 810 00:44:02,041 --> 00:44:03,541 (NOTIFICATION WHISTLES) 811 00:44:07,958 --> 00:44:10,541 ♪ (GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 812 00:44:11,667 --> 00:44:13,416 (PHONE KEYS CLICKING) 813 00:44:14,875 --> 00:44:15,833 MEACHAM: Hey, how are you? 814 00:44:15,917 --> 00:44:17,041 WOMAN 3: I didn't wanna disturb you. 815 00:44:17,124 --> 00:44:18,416 -You're just like... -MEACHAM: Good to see you. 816 00:44:18,500 --> 00:44:19,999 WOMAN 3: ...all the youngsters you see in the street. 817 00:44:20,083 --> 00:44:21,458 MEACHAM: (LAUGHS) I know, I know, I know. 818 00:44:21,541 --> 00:44:23,958 I'm trying to earn my living while on the road. 819 00:44:24,041 --> 00:44:26,333 -Everything's well here? -WOMAN 3: Oh, it's great. 820 00:44:26,416 --> 00:44:28,208 It just gets better and better here. 821 00:44:28,291 --> 00:44:29,291 MEACHAM: Excellent. 822 00:44:29,375 --> 00:44:31,833 WOMAN 3: The other day when you were on MSNBC, 823 00:44:31,917 --> 00:44:35,875 you were talking about Trump being so emotional 824 00:44:35,958 --> 00:44:38,500 and the Democrats sort of trying to talk reason. 825 00:44:38,583 --> 00:44:40,667 -Right. -WOMAN 3: It was such a simple-- 826 00:44:40,750 --> 00:44:42,166 -Reason versus passion. -WOMAN 3: Yeah, 827 00:44:42,249 --> 00:44:45,249 such a simple statement that you don't hear that. 828 00:44:45,333 --> 00:44:48,833 -I specialize in those. (LAUGHS) -WOMAN 3: You don't hear those. 829 00:44:48,917 --> 00:44:50,833 I try to be as simpleminded as possible. 830 00:44:50,917 --> 00:44:53,416 -WOMAN 3: It was so wonderful. -Well, thank you. 831 00:44:58,416 --> 00:44:59,500 MEACHAM: As Madison said, 832 00:44:59,583 --> 00:45:02,416 "Ambition must be made to counteract ambition." 833 00:45:03,333 --> 00:45:05,999 And reason was our best bet. 834 00:45:06,083 --> 00:45:10,500 That insight forms the core of what made this country 835 00:45:10,583 --> 00:45:13,375 and what makes this country, when we get it right, 836 00:45:13,458 --> 00:45:14,625 truly great. 837 00:45:16,208 --> 00:45:18,958 -(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -(SIREN WAILING IN DISTANCE) 838 00:45:20,958 --> 00:45:24,124 MEACHAM: Shh. I like this, shh. 839 00:45:24,208 --> 00:45:25,625 Hey, how are y'all? 840 00:45:25,708 --> 00:45:27,208 -KEITH GREENBERG: Hey, how are you? -Jon Meacham, how are you? 841 00:45:27,291 --> 00:45:28,792 -Hey, I'm Keith. -MEACHAM: Keith, glad to see you. 842 00:45:30,124 --> 00:45:31,875 Do we need a mic, or are we okay? 843 00:45:31,958 --> 00:45:33,249 We're gonna mic you up. 844 00:45:35,667 --> 00:45:36,875 So, just be careful when you get up. 845 00:45:36,958 --> 00:45:38,917 -I have this microphone up top. -(EQUIPMENT BEEPING) 846 00:45:39,375 --> 00:45:41,041 (SOFTLY) Okay. 847 00:45:41,124 --> 00:45:42,833 MEACHAM: We're at a moment in our history 848 00:45:42,917 --> 00:45:47,875 where we react to things because of where we stand, 849 00:45:47,958 --> 00:45:49,875 not because of what they are. 850 00:45:49,958 --> 00:45:54,291 And the issue becomes that the partisan reactions, 851 00:45:54,375 --> 00:45:57,917 the passionate reactions to incoming data 852 00:45:57,999 --> 00:46:01,083 are so strong, they're tsunami-like, 853 00:46:01,166 --> 00:46:05,667 that it's almost impossible for people to sort out 854 00:46:05,750 --> 00:46:08,833 in a reasonable way, in a data-driven way, 855 00:46:08,917 --> 00:46:11,249 what to make of a given report. 856 00:46:11,333 --> 00:46:13,833 One of the most significant shifts we've lived through 857 00:46:13,917 --> 00:46:18,458 is the move from a literate, reading print culture, 858 00:46:18,541 --> 00:46:21,083 which was the world of Jefferson and Lincoln, 859 00:46:21,166 --> 00:46:23,625 to radio, which was FDR and Churchill, 860 00:46:23,708 --> 00:46:26,041 to television, which was Kennedy and Reagan, 861 00:46:26,124 --> 00:46:29,750 and now digital and cable, which is Trump. 862 00:46:29,833 --> 00:46:31,750 It is increasing the likelihood 863 00:46:31,833 --> 00:46:35,249 that people will not engage with texts, 864 00:46:35,333 --> 00:46:37,792 they will simply engage emotionally. 865 00:46:37,875 --> 00:46:40,291 And that creates a political marketplace 866 00:46:40,375 --> 00:46:45,958 that is ever farther from reason and ever closer to passion, 867 00:46:46,041 --> 00:46:49,541 which is exactly what the Founders were worried about. 868 00:46:50,792 --> 00:46:53,875 We can learn a lot by studying the McCarthy era. 869 00:46:53,958 --> 00:46:55,291 I think the fall of McCarthy 870 00:46:55,375 --> 00:46:57,375 is an incredibly important case study 871 00:46:57,458 --> 00:47:01,541 in how reason can ultimately triumph over passion. 872 00:47:05,416 --> 00:47:08,667 Socialism has spread the shadow of human regimentation 873 00:47:08,750 --> 00:47:11,249 over most of the nations of the earth, 874 00:47:11,333 --> 00:47:15,792 and the shadow is encroaching upon our own liberty. 875 00:47:15,875 --> 00:47:18,667 MEACHAM: In many ways, the conservative movement 876 00:47:18,750 --> 00:47:21,458 that has a connection with conspiracy theories 877 00:47:21,541 --> 00:47:24,541 begins in the aftermath of the second World War. 878 00:47:24,625 --> 00:47:26,583 (THUNDER RUMBLES) 879 00:47:26,667 --> 00:47:28,875 NARRATOR 1: The Communist fifth columnists among us 880 00:47:28,958 --> 00:47:31,208 are working for world dictatorship. 881 00:47:31,291 --> 00:47:33,708 MEACHAM: There was anxiety about the way, 882 00:47:33,792 --> 00:47:36,083 uh, FDR had handled Yalta. 883 00:47:36,166 --> 00:47:39,041 Eisenhower was seen as a dedicated agent 884 00:47:39,124 --> 00:47:41,708 of the Communist conspiracy. 885 00:47:41,792 --> 00:47:43,958 George Marshall, the army chief of staff 886 00:47:44,041 --> 00:47:47,083 during World War II, was seen as a Communist agent. 887 00:47:47,166 --> 00:47:49,667 NARRATOR 1: Thousands of good, loyal Americans have been duped 888 00:47:49,750 --> 00:47:52,333 into actually aiding the Communists. 889 00:47:52,416 --> 00:47:55,917 MEACHAM: There was this ferment which plays in, yet again, 890 00:47:55,999 --> 00:48:00,750 to this recurring theme that there is some force, 891 00:48:00,833 --> 00:48:03,999 foreigners, powerful people, rich people, 892 00:48:04,083 --> 00:48:06,833 who are trying to undo the America 893 00:48:06,917 --> 00:48:09,249 that is most familiar and most beloved 894 00:48:09,333 --> 00:48:12,249 to those who are listening to the conspiracy theories. 895 00:48:13,333 --> 00:48:14,833 NARRATOR 2: Joseph R. McCarthy, 896 00:48:14,917 --> 00:48:16,792 the junior senator from Wisconsin. 897 00:48:16,875 --> 00:48:18,375 He was obscure in the halls 898 00:48:18,458 --> 00:48:20,124 where senators advise and consent 899 00:48:20,208 --> 00:48:22,333 until February the 9th, 1950. 900 00:48:22,416 --> 00:48:24,208 Even if there were only one Communist 901 00:48:24,291 --> 00:48:26,166 in the State Department, that would still be 902 00:48:26,249 --> 00:48:27,999 one Communist too many. 903 00:48:28,083 --> 00:48:29,625 MEACHAM: Joe McCarthy gives a speech 904 00:48:29,708 --> 00:48:30,917 saying he has the names 905 00:48:30,999 --> 00:48:33,625 of 205 Communists in the Department of State. 906 00:48:33,708 --> 00:48:36,291 NARRATOR 2: That discovery propelled him into the headlines. 907 00:48:36,375 --> 00:48:40,625 JOSEPH MCCARTHY: There is no remote possibility of this war 908 00:48:40,708 --> 00:48:44,917 which we're in today ending except by victory 909 00:48:44,999 --> 00:48:47,667 or by death for this civilization. 910 00:48:47,750 --> 00:48:50,833 MEACHAM: He then starts this campaign executed 911 00:48:50,917 --> 00:48:53,416 in the Senate through different committees, 912 00:48:53,500 --> 00:48:56,249 but mainly in the newspapers. 913 00:48:56,333 --> 00:48:59,667 McCarthy understood that headlines 914 00:48:59,750 --> 00:49:01,999 spoke louder than details. 915 00:49:02,999 --> 00:49:05,583 He would have loved Twitter. 916 00:49:05,667 --> 00:49:09,750 He is the master of making the sensational charge, 917 00:49:09,833 --> 00:49:12,166 often with very little basis to it, 918 00:49:12,249 --> 00:49:14,625 and the press amplifies it. 919 00:49:14,708 --> 00:49:18,375 TV HOST: And here is our guest, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. 920 00:49:18,458 --> 00:49:20,333 If you had to do this all over again, 921 00:49:20,416 --> 00:49:22,291 would you have changed any of your tactics? 922 00:49:22,375 --> 00:49:24,416 I'm not, uh, equipped to use 923 00:49:24,500 --> 00:49:26,958 lace-handkerchief type of tactics. 924 00:49:27,041 --> 00:49:28,958 Uh, we may have to use lumberjack tactics, 925 00:49:29,041 --> 00:49:31,291 bare-knuckle tactics. If those are the only kind 926 00:49:31,375 --> 00:49:33,375 of tactics the Communists understand, 927 00:49:33,458 --> 00:49:35,375 then those are the tactics we'll use. 928 00:49:35,458 --> 00:49:37,124 MEACHAM: There's an enormous number of lives 929 00:49:37,208 --> 00:49:39,792 that were wrecked because of these charges. 930 00:49:39,875 --> 00:49:43,458 PHILIP JESSUP: Senator McCarthy's charges and insinuations 931 00:49:43,541 --> 00:49:47,667 are not only false, but utterly irresponsible 932 00:49:47,750 --> 00:49:52,333 and, under the circumstances, reveal a shocking disregard 933 00:49:52,416 --> 00:49:54,458 for the interests of our country. 934 00:49:54,541 --> 00:49:57,667 MEACHAM: McCarthy, his own lawyer Roy Cohn said, 935 00:49:57,750 --> 00:49:59,291 was an opportunist. 936 00:49:59,375 --> 00:50:02,583 He wasn't really interested in the end 937 00:50:02,667 --> 00:50:04,458 of fighting Communism. 938 00:50:04,541 --> 00:50:07,792 He was interested in the means of fighting Communism, 939 00:50:07,875 --> 00:50:10,208 because the means made him more popular, 940 00:50:10,291 --> 00:50:12,166 made him more powerful. 941 00:50:12,249 --> 00:50:13,667 (CROWD CHEERING) 942 00:50:13,750 --> 00:50:16,166 MEACHAM: McCarthy's political base 943 00:50:16,249 --> 00:50:18,166 was a source of fear, 944 00:50:18,249 --> 00:50:20,583 particularly for other Republican senators. 945 00:50:20,667 --> 00:50:22,375 McCarthy gave the impression 946 00:50:22,458 --> 00:50:24,667 that he was leading this vast army. 947 00:50:24,750 --> 00:50:26,875 His other fellow senators weren't sure 948 00:50:26,958 --> 00:50:29,249 how big that army was, but if it was big, 949 00:50:29,333 --> 00:50:32,208 they sure as hell didn't wanna run afoul of it. 950 00:50:34,416 --> 00:50:36,750 NARRATOR 3: Acclaimed as an anti-Communist hero 951 00:50:36,833 --> 00:50:38,541 and denounced as a threat to civil liberties 952 00:50:38,625 --> 00:50:40,500 for his conduct of Senate investigations, 953 00:50:40,583 --> 00:50:43,291 Joseph R. McCarthy became the most controversial 954 00:50:43,375 --> 00:50:45,249 political figure of the period. 955 00:50:47,124 --> 00:50:48,500 MEACHAM: There was a huge amount of debate 956 00:50:48,583 --> 00:50:49,875 during the McCarthy era 957 00:50:49,958 --> 00:50:52,999 about whether a journalistic institution 958 00:50:53,083 --> 00:50:55,041 should simply report what was said 959 00:50:55,124 --> 00:50:57,625 without assessing its validity. 960 00:50:57,708 --> 00:51:00,208 It's the same kind of debate that goes on today. 961 00:51:00,291 --> 00:51:03,833 Just because someone in power says something crazy, 962 00:51:03,917 --> 00:51:06,041 do you have to report what that is? 963 00:51:06,124 --> 00:51:08,792 If you report it, do you say it's crazy? 964 00:51:08,875 --> 00:51:12,041 Or does that somehow violate the neutrality of the news? 965 00:51:12,124 --> 00:51:14,541 So, in the midst of the McCarthy scare, 966 00:51:14,625 --> 00:51:16,875 Palmer Hoyt, who was the editor and publisher 967 00:51:16,958 --> 00:51:20,375 of the Denver Post, issued a statement saying, 968 00:51:20,458 --> 00:51:23,166 "We are no longer simply going to report 969 00:51:23,249 --> 00:51:26,249 what Joe McCarthy says, unless we can confirm it." 970 00:51:26,333 --> 00:51:28,667 Hoyt's view was widely discussed, 971 00:51:28,750 --> 00:51:32,166 huge debates in newsrooms about what to do. 972 00:51:32,249 --> 00:51:34,625 Tonight's See It Now devotes its entire half hour 973 00:51:34,708 --> 00:51:36,792 to a report on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy, 974 00:51:36,875 --> 00:51:39,541 told mainly in his own words and pictures. 975 00:51:39,625 --> 00:51:42,708 Did the Civil Liberties Union supply you with an attorney? 976 00:51:42,792 --> 00:51:44,249 They did supply an attorney. 977 00:51:44,333 --> 00:51:46,708 MEACHAM: Edward R. Murrow's program would say, 978 00:51:46,792 --> 00:51:49,375 "The senator has said this, but he has no evidence." 979 00:51:49,458 --> 00:51:51,875 Do you know the Civil Liberties Union has been listed 980 00:51:51,958 --> 00:51:55,249 as a front for and doing the work of the Communist Party? 981 00:51:55,333 --> 00:51:57,917 The Attorney General's list does not and has never listed 982 00:51:57,999 --> 00:51:59,583 the ACLU as subversive, 983 00:51:59,667 --> 00:52:03,583 nor does the FBI or any other federal government agency. 984 00:52:03,667 --> 00:52:05,583 MEACHAM: I think when Palmer Hoyt, 985 00:52:05,667 --> 00:52:07,166 when Edward R. Murrow said, 986 00:52:07,249 --> 00:52:09,166 "This is what we think the truth is," 987 00:52:09,249 --> 00:52:12,333 they were living up to the best tradition 988 00:52:12,416 --> 00:52:13,541 of those better angels. 989 00:52:13,625 --> 00:52:16,458 The line between investigating and persecuting 990 00:52:16,541 --> 00:52:17,625 is a very fine one. 991 00:52:17,708 --> 00:52:19,875 And the junior senator from Wisconsin 992 00:52:19,958 --> 00:52:21,917 has stepped over it repeatedly. 993 00:52:21,999 --> 00:52:23,958 This is no time for men who oppose 994 00:52:24,041 --> 00:52:26,249 Senator McCarthy's message to keep silent, 995 00:52:26,333 --> 00:52:28,375 or for those who approve. 996 00:52:28,458 --> 00:52:30,833 We can deny our heritage and our history, 997 00:52:30,917 --> 00:52:33,917 but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. 998 00:52:35,917 --> 00:52:37,416 MEACHAM: If you're a journalist today 999 00:52:37,500 --> 00:52:40,166 trying to figure out what to do about a demagogic figure 1000 00:52:40,249 --> 00:52:42,333 who makes outlandish statements... 1001 00:52:43,249 --> 00:52:46,625 studying the McCarthy era is instructive. 1002 00:52:46,708 --> 00:52:49,458 BROADCASTER: In Washington, a Senate committee recommends 1003 00:52:49,541 --> 00:52:51,375 censure for Joseph McCarthy. 1004 00:52:51,458 --> 00:52:53,667 MEACHAM: It took a long time, four years. 1005 00:52:53,750 --> 00:52:56,375 But ultimately, McCarthy is censured. 1006 00:52:56,458 --> 00:52:58,833 BROADCASTER: McCarthy becomes the fourth senator in history 1007 00:52:58,917 --> 00:53:00,041 to be disciplined. 1008 00:53:00,124 --> 00:53:03,875 MEACHAM: McCarthy rose on screaming headlines: 1009 00:53:04,917 --> 00:53:07,124 "Reds under the bed." 1010 00:53:07,208 --> 00:53:13,041 He fell when some reporters, including Edward R. Murrow, 1011 00:53:13,124 --> 00:53:16,375 began assessing the validity of those claims. 1012 00:53:23,333 --> 00:53:25,375 Purists versus pragmatists. 1013 00:53:26,667 --> 00:53:30,333 In politics, we tend to want 1014 00:53:30,416 --> 00:53:34,583 candidates to be principled, 1015 00:53:34,667 --> 00:53:39,041 coherent, uh, absolutely devoted to a certain platform, 1016 00:53:39,124 --> 00:53:40,625 and they're gonna do everything they can 1017 00:53:40,708 --> 00:53:42,792 to enact that platform, right? 1018 00:53:42,875 --> 00:53:46,750 The issue is, if you're in a position of power, 1019 00:53:46,833 --> 00:53:52,750 if you are totally devoted to that purist principle, 1020 00:53:52,833 --> 00:53:55,583 you have less of a chance of getting through the day 1021 00:53:55,667 --> 00:53:56,958 and getting something done. 1022 00:53:57,041 --> 00:53:59,708 I would argue some of the greatest moments 1023 00:53:59,792 --> 00:54:02,875 in American political life have resulted 1024 00:54:02,958 --> 00:54:06,166 when people in power have changed their minds. 1025 00:54:07,124 --> 00:54:08,375 Hmm. 1026 00:54:08,458 --> 00:54:11,083 Abraham Lincoln on emancipation. 1027 00:54:11,166 --> 00:54:13,458 Ronald Reagan on the Soviet Union. 1028 00:54:13,541 --> 00:54:15,750 Richard Nixon on China. 1029 00:54:15,833 --> 00:54:18,249 The country was built by people 1030 00:54:18,333 --> 00:54:20,750 who were willing to learn from their mistakes. 1031 00:54:20,833 --> 00:54:23,917 We looked the facts in the face, 1032 00:54:23,999 --> 00:54:25,458 and we thought, "You know what? 1033 00:54:25,541 --> 00:54:28,166 What we thought was true and good yesterday 1034 00:54:28,249 --> 00:54:30,500 is not true and good today." 1035 00:54:30,583 --> 00:54:31,999 Thank you, all. 1036 00:54:32,083 --> 00:54:33,875 That's not a partisan point. 1037 00:54:33,958 --> 00:54:36,875 It's about the capacity to say, 1038 00:54:36,958 --> 00:54:41,416 "I want to live in a country that looks and feels like this." 1039 00:54:41,500 --> 00:54:44,500 ♪ (UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1040 00:54:51,333 --> 00:54:52,667 Get outta here. 1041 00:55:00,083 --> 00:55:02,083 Ooh, wait, look. 1042 00:55:02,166 --> 00:55:04,917 Hmm, Fanta Zero, that sounds glamorous. 1043 00:55:06,875 --> 00:55:08,249 Unavailable? 1044 00:55:08,333 --> 00:55:09,667 (BEEPING) 1045 00:55:10,083 --> 00:55:11,583 Ooh, cherry. 1046 00:55:11,667 --> 00:55:13,500 It's Friday, we're going for cherry. 1047 00:55:13,583 --> 00:55:14,958 (MACHINE WHIRS) 1048 00:55:15,041 --> 00:55:17,291 CHOIR: (SINGING) ♪ We are praying, praying ♪ 1049 00:55:17,375 --> 00:55:19,500 -♪ We are praying, praying ♪ -♪ Ooh ooh ♪ 1050 00:55:19,583 --> 00:55:22,124 ♪ We are praying In the light of ♪ 1051 00:55:22,208 --> 00:55:23,958 ♪ The light of God ♪ 1052 00:55:24,041 --> 00:55:26,041 ♪ We are praying, praying ♪ 1053 00:55:26,124 --> 00:55:28,375 -♪ We are praying, praying ♪ -♪ Ooh ooh ♪ 1054 00:55:28,458 --> 00:55:31,833 ♪ We are praying In the light of God ♪ 1055 00:55:31,917 --> 00:55:33,958 MEACHAM: So we have a formidable group of people here. 1056 00:55:34,041 --> 00:55:35,917 You got a lot of members of Congress here, 1057 00:55:35,999 --> 00:55:37,999 you've got a lot of engaged souls 1058 00:55:38,083 --> 00:55:42,041 in the fight of this moment going forward. 1059 00:55:42,124 --> 00:55:44,333 What's your best advice, given what you've seen 1060 00:55:44,416 --> 00:55:46,166 and what you've done and what you've fought for 1061 00:55:46,249 --> 00:55:47,917 and what you've hoped for? 1062 00:55:47,999 --> 00:55:52,041 What's your best advice for folks in the arena today? 1063 00:55:52,124 --> 00:55:55,124 I think a part of the direction is to go the way 1064 00:55:55,208 --> 00:55:59,500 of the Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King movement. 1065 00:55:59,583 --> 00:56:01,458 Because love is powerful. 1066 00:56:01,541 --> 00:56:05,500 Love is not an empty, uh, quiet force. 1067 00:56:05,583 --> 00:56:11,041 It's a force that we have not yet begun to really explore. 1068 00:56:11,792 --> 00:56:12,833 And so, 1069 00:56:12,917 --> 00:56:16,917 that nonviolent movement was rooted in that. 1070 00:56:16,999 --> 00:56:20,917 So I think that that's one of the things that I would push, 1071 00:56:20,999 --> 00:56:24,375 so that we can be pushed hard to recognize 1072 00:56:24,458 --> 00:56:27,625 that we are people on a journey, 1073 00:56:28,500 --> 00:56:31,625 and that that journey does demand 1074 00:56:31,708 --> 00:56:33,458 a certain kind of behavior. 1075 00:56:35,583 --> 00:56:37,500 Anything doesn't go. 1076 00:56:37,583 --> 00:56:39,333 (APPLAUSE) 1077 00:56:43,667 --> 00:56:46,041 MEACHAM: The hundred years from the end of the Civil War 1078 00:56:46,124 --> 00:56:47,917 through the civil rights movement 1079 00:56:47,999 --> 00:56:51,083 is a vivid case study in the struggle 1080 00:56:51,166 --> 00:56:53,792 between our worst instincts and our better angels. 1081 00:56:55,083 --> 00:56:58,875 In the civil rights legislation of '64 and '65, 1082 00:56:58,958 --> 00:57:00,541 our better angels won... 1083 00:57:03,375 --> 00:57:07,041 in a ferocious struggle with our worst instincts. 1084 00:57:09,708 --> 00:57:13,041 And if we want a model for how to move ahead, 1085 00:57:13,124 --> 00:57:16,375 looking at those years is instructive. 1086 00:57:17,291 --> 00:57:20,291 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1087 00:57:27,999 --> 00:57:32,625 During the '60s, we felt the stain of segregation 1088 00:57:32,708 --> 00:57:34,667 and racial discrimination. 1089 00:57:38,208 --> 00:57:40,667 And when you see something that is not right, 1090 00:57:40,750 --> 00:57:44,124 not fair, not just, you have to do something. 1091 00:57:44,208 --> 00:57:46,541 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: We cannot continue to accept 1092 00:57:46,625 --> 00:57:48,875 these conditions of oppression, 1093 00:57:48,958 --> 00:57:51,708 for this is not a struggle for ourselves alone, 1094 00:57:51,792 --> 00:57:54,958 it is a struggle to save the soul of America. 1095 00:57:55,041 --> 00:57:57,166 JANICE WESLEY KELSEY: When I participated in the movement, 1096 00:57:57,249 --> 00:57:58,583 I was 15. 1097 00:57:58,667 --> 00:58:00,667 It would not have been successful 1098 00:58:00,750 --> 00:58:04,291 had it not been for ordinary little nobodies 1099 00:58:04,375 --> 00:58:07,249 doing their part to make it happen. 1100 00:58:07,333 --> 00:58:11,375 MEACHAM: By 1963, the full panoply of segregation 1101 00:58:11,458 --> 00:58:12,958 was under attack. 1102 00:58:13,041 --> 00:58:16,458 It begins to culminate on the streets of Alabama. 1103 00:58:16,541 --> 00:58:17,958 REPORTER 1: The campaign was directed 1104 00:58:18,041 --> 00:58:20,291 against racial discrimination in Birmingham, 1105 00:58:20,375 --> 00:58:22,792 the most totally segregated big city in the south. 1106 00:58:22,875 --> 00:58:25,667 I had a made-up mind that I could handle 1107 00:58:25,750 --> 00:58:28,917 whatever was coming, and be nonviolent. 1108 00:58:28,999 --> 00:58:30,625 (SIRENS WAILING) 1109 00:58:30,708 --> 00:58:32,500 MEACHAM: In May, thousands of children marched 1110 00:58:32,583 --> 00:58:34,583 against segregation in Birmingham. 1111 00:58:34,667 --> 00:58:37,333 MAN 2: The city is determined to maintain order. 1112 00:58:37,416 --> 00:58:40,249 MEACHAM: They're attacked by fire hoses, 1113 00:58:40,333 --> 00:58:42,541 -by police dogs. -(DOGS BARKING) 1114 00:58:42,625 --> 00:58:45,416 KELSEY: To see children treated like this, 1115 00:58:45,500 --> 00:58:47,958 the whole nation rose up in arms. 1116 00:58:48,041 --> 00:58:49,667 REPORTER 2: The events in Birmingham 1117 00:58:49,750 --> 00:58:52,166 have sent a chill through most Americans. 1118 00:58:52,249 --> 00:58:54,541 MEACHAM: What the movement did is dramatize 1119 00:58:54,625 --> 00:58:56,958 the stakes between good and evil. 1120 00:58:57,041 --> 00:58:59,124 GEORGE C. WALLACE: I will be present to bar 1121 00:58:59,208 --> 00:59:00,750 the entrance of any Negro 1122 00:59:00,833 --> 00:59:04,041 who attempts to enroll at the University of Alabama. 1123 00:59:04,124 --> 00:59:08,625 MEACHAM: All of these incidents have a slow, cascading effect 1124 00:59:08,708 --> 00:59:10,625 on the opinion of the country. 1125 00:59:10,708 --> 00:59:13,708 -KING: I have a dream today. -(CHEERING) 1126 00:59:13,792 --> 00:59:16,958 MEACHAM: And honestly, the opinion of President Kennedy. 1127 00:59:17,041 --> 00:59:20,375 JOHN LEWIS: I remember President Kennedy saying to us 1128 00:59:20,458 --> 00:59:24,333 on one occasion, "We now understand." 1129 00:59:24,416 --> 00:59:26,667 JOHN F. KENNEDY: This nation was founded on the principle 1130 00:59:26,750 --> 00:59:28,708 that all men are created equal, 1131 00:59:28,792 --> 00:59:31,208 and that the rights of every man are diminished 1132 00:59:31,291 --> 00:59:34,124 when the rights of one man are threatened. 1133 00:59:34,208 --> 00:59:36,541 Now the time has come for this nation 1134 00:59:36,625 --> 00:59:38,541 to fulfill its promise. 1135 00:59:38,625 --> 00:59:40,500 MEACHAM: Kennedy and Johnson propose 1136 00:59:40,583 --> 00:59:43,041 a far-reaching Civil Rights Act. 1137 00:59:43,124 --> 00:59:45,875 It was not going particularly well. 1138 00:59:45,958 --> 00:59:47,208 REPORTER 1: It appears as though 1139 00:59:47,291 --> 00:59:49,291 something has happened in the motorcade route. 1140 00:59:49,375 --> 00:59:52,958 MEACHAM: Kennedy is shot to death in Dealey Plaza. 1141 00:59:53,041 --> 00:59:55,875 REPORTER 2: It's official now, the president is dead. 1142 00:59:56,917 --> 00:59:58,999 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1143 00:59:59,083 --> 01:00:00,750 OFFICIANT: I do solemnly swear... 1144 01:00:00,833 --> 01:00:02,583 LYNDON B. JOHNSON: I do solemnly swear... 1145 01:00:02,667 --> 01:00:05,917 MEACHAM: Johnson takes the oath of office on Air Force One, 1146 01:00:05,999 --> 01:00:07,208 becomes president. 1147 01:00:07,291 --> 01:00:11,583 We have suffered a loss that cannot be weighed. 1148 01:00:11,667 --> 01:00:14,541 I ask for your help... 1149 01:00:15,291 --> 01:00:16,333 and God's. 1150 01:00:17,667 --> 01:00:19,041 ♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪ 1151 01:00:19,124 --> 01:00:21,667 MEACHAM: That night, Johnson is lying in bed, 1152 01:00:21,750 --> 01:00:24,375 and he's listing off things he wants to do: 1153 01:00:24,458 --> 01:00:26,249 foreign leaders that need to be called, 1154 01:00:26,333 --> 01:00:27,750 funeral arrangements. 1155 01:00:27,833 --> 01:00:31,500 But in the midst of this, he says he wants to pass 1156 01:00:31,583 --> 01:00:34,083 the administration's civil rights bill 1157 01:00:34,166 --> 01:00:35,875 without changing a comma. 1158 01:00:37,625 --> 01:00:39,291 And it was kind of a remarkable moment 1159 01:00:39,375 --> 01:00:43,375 because Johnson had a presidential race coming up. 1160 01:00:44,583 --> 01:00:47,416 No more political man ever drew breath 1161 01:00:47,500 --> 01:00:49,208 than Lyndon Baines Johnson. 1162 01:00:49,291 --> 01:00:53,291 Johnson had been a senator from Texas, a segregated state. 1163 01:00:53,375 --> 01:00:56,041 A lot of debate about to what extent he watered down 1164 01:00:56,124 --> 01:00:58,708 civil rights legislation in the '50s, but he did. 1165 01:00:59,958 --> 01:01:03,917 He was in no way a leading progressive. 1166 01:01:03,999 --> 01:01:07,458 And so, you wouldn't have bet that Lyndon Johnson 1167 01:01:07,541 --> 01:01:10,625 was gonna try to finish the work of Lincoln. 1168 01:01:10,708 --> 01:01:15,999 Everything about that moment would have led him politically 1169 01:01:16,083 --> 01:01:18,999 to have made all kinds of promises, 1170 01:01:19,083 --> 01:01:21,625 all kinds of rhetorical nods 1171 01:01:21,708 --> 01:01:23,708 to the civil rights legislation, 1172 01:01:23,792 --> 01:01:25,583 but not to pursue it. 1173 01:01:27,083 --> 01:01:31,083 There was something in Johnson's soul 1174 01:01:32,249 --> 01:01:34,416 that led him to believe 1175 01:01:34,500 --> 01:01:36,750 that this was the moment to strike. 1176 01:01:37,166 --> 01:01:40,083 JOHNSON: 1177 01:01:51,708 --> 01:01:54,124 KING: 1178 01:02:04,333 --> 01:02:06,917 JOHNSON: 1179 01:02:13,750 --> 01:02:16,875 LEWIS: Lyndon Johnson was a strong, strong leader. 1180 01:02:16,958 --> 01:02:19,124 He made a commitment to those of us 1181 01:02:19,208 --> 01:02:21,041 in the civil rights movement, 1182 01:02:21,124 --> 01:02:25,166 that he would pick up where President Kennedy left off. 1183 01:02:26,458 --> 01:02:27,625 And he did. 1184 01:02:27,708 --> 01:02:30,708 MEACHAM: Lyndon Johnson risked just about everything 1185 01:02:30,792 --> 01:02:32,166 for civil rights. 1186 01:02:32,249 --> 01:02:33,625 As he later put it, 1187 01:02:33,708 --> 01:02:36,291 "What the hell is the presidency for 1188 01:02:36,375 --> 01:02:40,166 if not to do the big things that other men might not?" 1189 01:02:40,249 --> 01:02:42,750 (CROWD CHEERING AND APPLAUDING) 1190 01:02:42,833 --> 01:02:45,249 Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to pass 1191 01:02:45,333 --> 01:02:47,750 the civil rights bill because it's morally right. 1192 01:02:47,833 --> 01:02:51,083 MEACHAM: What Johnson then did from '63 to '64 1193 01:02:51,166 --> 01:02:53,833 is he created a remarkable coalition 1194 01:02:53,917 --> 01:02:56,083 of Republicans and Democrats 1195 01:02:56,166 --> 01:02:59,249 to pass a law that would finally undo 1196 01:02:59,333 --> 01:03:01,917 what had been the racist reaction 1197 01:03:01,999 --> 01:03:03,917 to the verdict of the Civil War. 1198 01:03:03,999 --> 01:03:05,750 JOHNSON: I promise you here and now 1199 01:03:05,833 --> 01:03:09,041 that we are going to pass a civil rights bill. 1200 01:03:09,124 --> 01:03:11,750 MEACHAM: Lyndon Johnson was one of the great persuaders 1201 01:03:11,833 --> 01:03:12,833 in American politics. 1202 01:03:12,917 --> 01:03:14,667 The "Johnson treatment," it was called. 1203 01:03:14,750 --> 01:03:17,708 JOHNSON: We will pass the strongest civil rights bill 1204 01:03:17,792 --> 01:03:19,792 -in American history. -(APPLAUSE) 1205 01:03:19,875 --> 01:03:23,124 MEACHAM: The trade-offs, the deals cut 1206 01:03:23,208 --> 01:03:25,458 to get to a legislative solution 1207 01:03:25,541 --> 01:03:26,958 is the work of politics. 1208 01:03:27,041 --> 01:03:31,458 NARRATOR 4: July 2nd, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson 1209 01:03:31,541 --> 01:03:34,458 signed the civil rights bill into law. 1210 01:03:34,541 --> 01:03:37,124 JOHNSON: I urge every American 1211 01:03:37,208 --> 01:03:39,291 to join in this effort 1212 01:03:39,375 --> 01:03:43,625 to bring justice and hope to all our people 1213 01:03:43,708 --> 01:03:46,583 and to bring peace to our land. 1214 01:03:50,208 --> 01:03:52,249 MEACHAM: The Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, 1215 01:03:52,333 --> 01:03:55,875 taken together in '64 and '65, 1216 01:03:55,958 --> 01:04:01,541 represent what concentrated acts of citizenship can do 1217 01:04:01,625 --> 01:04:04,708 when they intersect with the attention 1218 01:04:04,792 --> 01:04:07,375 and the skill of those in power. 1219 01:04:08,999 --> 01:04:12,917 Lyndon Johnson heeded the work of Martin Luther King, 1220 01:04:12,999 --> 01:04:16,041 the work of Rosa Parks, the work of John Lewis, 1221 01:04:16,124 --> 01:04:19,792 the work of innumerable people whose names we will never know, 1222 01:04:19,875 --> 01:04:23,999 who stood up in the streets and courthouses and schools 1223 01:04:24,083 --> 01:04:25,917 of the American South 1224 01:04:25,999 --> 01:04:30,458 and undid, as best he could, American apartheid. 1225 01:04:31,875 --> 01:04:34,625 And if America wants to do some big things 1226 01:04:34,708 --> 01:04:40,041 about education, about climate, about economic inequality, 1227 01:04:40,124 --> 01:04:45,625 you can do a lot worse than to look at 1964 and '65 1228 01:04:45,708 --> 01:04:49,708 and see how even in a complicated, 1229 01:04:49,792 --> 01:04:53,917 ultimately fallen universe, you can make progress. 1230 01:04:55,291 --> 01:04:57,999 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1231 01:05:11,667 --> 01:05:13,625 MEACHAM: 8:05, so what time is it? 1232 01:05:13,708 --> 01:05:15,708 ♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪ 1233 01:05:15,792 --> 01:05:18,625 Oh, we got seven minutes, this is perfect. 1234 01:05:18,708 --> 01:05:20,541 It's actually really useful in speeches. 1235 01:05:20,625 --> 01:05:25,333 It's my godfather's. Herbert Stephenson Wentz. HSW. 1236 01:05:25,999 --> 01:05:27,416 All right. (SIGHS) 1237 01:05:27,500 --> 01:05:30,958 All right, let's go dazzle 'em. Let's go save America. 1238 01:05:35,416 --> 01:05:36,917 It may take a little more than this. 1239 01:05:36,999 --> 01:05:38,541 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1240 01:05:38,625 --> 01:05:40,667 REPORTER 1: There is seemingly no US institution, 1241 01:05:40,750 --> 01:05:42,750 big or small, that is off-limits for Trump. 1242 01:05:42,833 --> 01:05:45,166 REPORTER 2: The president of the United States is lying to us. 1243 01:05:45,249 --> 01:05:47,833 REPORTER 3: They referred to journalists as the enemy of the people. 1244 01:05:47,917 --> 01:05:49,833 MEACHAM: I do think there are certain norms, 1245 01:05:49,917 --> 01:05:51,083 there are certain conventions, 1246 01:05:51,166 --> 01:05:54,999 and those are under fundamental assault at the moment. 1247 01:05:55,083 --> 01:05:57,041 REPORTER 4: The president's attacks on the FBI... 1248 01:05:57,124 --> 01:05:58,917 REPORTER 5: The president charging the department 1249 01:05:58,999 --> 01:06:00,833 as part of a so-called "deep state." 1250 01:06:00,917 --> 01:06:03,792 MEACHAM: So we can't count on the American president 1251 01:06:03,875 --> 01:06:07,958 to play the role that many of us had become accustomed 1252 01:06:08,041 --> 01:06:10,249 to that president playing. 1253 01:06:10,333 --> 01:06:13,124 So I wanna talk about three characteristics 1254 01:06:13,208 --> 01:06:16,917 that in my mind are great leadership characteristics 1255 01:06:16,999 --> 01:06:19,750 but are as important for citizens. 1256 01:06:19,833 --> 01:06:20,999 One is curiosity. 1257 01:06:21,083 --> 01:06:23,208 We have to listen to each other more. 1258 01:06:23,291 --> 01:06:24,875 Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, 1259 01:06:24,958 --> 01:06:26,249 if you're on that side of the aisle 1260 01:06:26,333 --> 01:06:27,708 and I'm on this side of the aisle, 1261 01:06:27,792 --> 01:06:29,667 I'm gonna disagree with you. 1262 01:06:29,750 --> 01:06:31,166 But here's the difference. 1263 01:06:31,249 --> 01:06:34,291 If you get up and I listen and I think, 1264 01:06:34,375 --> 01:06:36,750 "Huh, maybe you have a point," 1265 01:06:36,833 --> 01:06:39,708 I would submit that America at her best 1266 01:06:39,792 --> 01:06:43,875 happens when you say, "Huh, maybe you have a point." 1267 01:06:44,958 --> 01:06:46,583 The second is humility. 1268 01:06:46,667 --> 01:06:48,792 Humility in the sense of being able to acknowledge 1269 01:06:48,875 --> 01:06:50,958 a mistake and learn from it. 1270 01:06:51,041 --> 01:06:53,208 Most of us wouldn't be here if John Kennedy 1271 01:06:53,291 --> 01:06:55,333 had not been able to admit that he'd screwed up 1272 01:06:55,416 --> 01:06:57,833 the Bay of Pigs in April of 1961. 1273 01:06:57,917 --> 01:07:00,083 KENNEDY: There are from this sobering episode 1274 01:07:00,166 --> 01:07:02,249 useful lessons for us all to learn. 1275 01:07:02,333 --> 01:07:04,458 MEACHAM: After the disaster in Cuba, 1276 01:07:04,541 --> 01:07:07,166 Kennedy reaches out to the one person on Earth 1277 01:07:07,249 --> 01:07:09,375 before whom he least wished to appear 1278 01:07:09,458 --> 01:07:12,583 to be in need of tutelage, and that was Eisenhower. 1279 01:07:13,750 --> 01:07:15,500 Eisenhower walked him through what had happened, 1280 01:07:15,583 --> 01:07:17,875 he realized that Kennedy had never held a meeting 1281 01:07:17,958 --> 01:07:19,041 with all the stakeholders, 1282 01:07:19,124 --> 01:07:21,750 so he couldn't weigh their arguments. 1283 01:07:21,833 --> 01:07:23,750 He said, "You have to do that." 1284 01:07:24,875 --> 01:07:26,792 Cut to October 1962. 1285 01:07:26,875 --> 01:07:29,999 KENNEDY: A series of offensive missile sites 1286 01:07:30,083 --> 01:07:33,208 is now in preparation on the island of Cuba. 1287 01:07:33,291 --> 01:07:35,625 The purpose of these bases can be none other 1288 01:07:35,708 --> 01:07:38,541 than to provide a nuclear strike capability 1289 01:07:38,625 --> 01:07:40,416 against the western hemisphere. 1290 01:07:40,500 --> 01:07:43,291 MEACHAM: Kennedy remembered what Eisenhower had told him, 1291 01:07:43,375 --> 01:07:44,625 and he held what became 1292 01:07:44,708 --> 01:07:46,375 the world's longest committee meeting. 1293 01:07:46,458 --> 01:07:48,124 It lasted 13 days. 1294 01:07:52,500 --> 01:07:54,750 We came through that crisis, 1295 01:07:54,833 --> 01:07:58,291 not least because Jack Kennedy had the power to admit 1296 01:07:58,375 --> 01:08:00,625 he had screwed up and needed to learn. 1297 01:08:02,500 --> 01:08:04,500 And if we can't find a way 1298 01:08:04,583 --> 01:08:06,750 to admit that we changed our mind, 1299 01:08:08,249 --> 01:08:09,958 we're not gonna make progress. 1300 01:08:11,375 --> 01:08:14,041 The third characteristic is empathy. 1301 01:08:14,124 --> 01:08:15,875 We have to be able to see the world 1302 01:08:15,958 --> 01:08:17,291 through other people's eyes. 1303 01:08:17,375 --> 01:08:19,999 -(CROWD WHISTLING AND CHEERING) -MEACHAM: Cut to November 1989. 1304 01:08:20,083 --> 01:08:22,667 Good evening. Live from the Berlin Wall 1305 01:08:22,750 --> 01:08:25,291 on the most historic night in this wall's history. 1306 01:08:25,375 --> 01:08:27,500 MEACHAM: The most vivid symbol of the deadliest standoff 1307 01:08:27,583 --> 01:08:29,583 in human history, the Berlin Wall, falls. 1308 01:08:29,667 --> 01:08:32,166 GEORGE MITCHELL: To acknowledge the tremendous significance 1309 01:08:32,249 --> 01:08:34,917 of the symbolic destruction of the Berlin Wall, 1310 01:08:34,999 --> 01:08:39,375 I urge President Bush to travel to West Berlin. 1311 01:08:39,458 --> 01:08:41,083 MEACHAM: Democrats, everybody's pounding on Bush 1312 01:08:41,166 --> 01:08:43,500 to go to Berlin and declare a great victory. 1313 01:08:43,583 --> 01:08:45,541 It clearly is a good development 1314 01:08:45,625 --> 01:08:47,083 in terms of human rights. 1315 01:08:47,166 --> 01:08:48,333 MEACHAM: Bush won't go. 1316 01:08:48,416 --> 01:08:50,208 Lesley Stahl is pounding on him. 1317 01:08:50,291 --> 01:08:51,833 LESLEY STAHL: You don't seem elated, 1318 01:08:51,917 --> 01:08:53,416 and I'm wondering if you're thinking-- 1319 01:08:53,500 --> 01:08:56,333 I'm elated. I'm just not an emotional kinda guy. 1320 01:08:56,416 --> 01:08:58,750 MEACHAM: He was thinking about Mikhail Gorbachev, 1321 01:08:58,833 --> 01:09:00,750 who had a hardcore right wing 1322 01:09:00,833 --> 01:09:03,375 that did not wanna see Soviet greatness go away, 1323 01:09:03,458 --> 01:09:06,041 and if you doubt me, I refer you 1324 01:09:06,124 --> 01:09:09,416 to a young KGB officer named Vladimir Putin, 1325 01:09:09,500 --> 01:09:11,917 who was part of that right wing. 1326 01:09:11,999 --> 01:09:13,291 Bush knew that if he showed up, 1327 01:09:13,375 --> 01:09:16,166 it was gonna make Gorbachev's life harder. 1328 01:09:16,249 --> 01:09:17,750 And so, he took the hit. 1329 01:09:17,833 --> 01:09:20,958 REPORTER: His low-key reaction of yesterday was another case 1330 01:09:21,041 --> 01:09:23,249 of what critics have called timid leadership. 1331 01:09:23,333 --> 01:09:26,583 MEACHAM: Christmas Day, 1991, the Soviet Union disappears 1332 01:09:26,667 --> 01:09:28,041 without a shot being fired. 1333 01:09:29,458 --> 01:09:31,875 He was empathetic enough to know 1334 01:09:31,958 --> 01:09:34,792 that our national interest was being served 1335 01:09:34,875 --> 01:09:38,124 by his seeing the world through Gorbachev's eyes. 1336 01:09:38,208 --> 01:09:41,083 (AUDIENCE APPLAUDING) 1337 01:09:41,166 --> 01:09:45,792 We have to create a climate that gives enough permission 1338 01:09:45,875 --> 01:09:47,667 for people who are in office 1339 01:09:47,750 --> 01:09:50,958 to actually make that compromise or two. 1340 01:09:52,083 --> 01:09:53,583 I mean, that's on us. 1341 01:09:54,583 --> 01:09:55,792 Thank you. 1342 01:09:55,875 --> 01:09:58,750 (APPLAUSE) 1343 01:09:58,833 --> 01:10:02,375 ♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1344 01:10:02,458 --> 01:10:06,458 Jon has a desire to see what is good in America 1345 01:10:06,541 --> 01:10:08,291 and to let people know it, 1346 01:10:08,375 --> 01:10:12,833 while being realistic about what's not so good in America. 1347 01:10:12,958 --> 01:10:14,291 Absolutely spectacular. 1348 01:10:14,375 --> 01:10:15,708 -MEACHAM: Thank you. -It was special. 1349 01:10:15,792 --> 01:10:17,541 -I expected nothing less from you. -MEACHAM: Oh, thank you. 1350 01:10:17,625 --> 01:10:18,541 But it was a special evening. 1351 01:10:18,625 --> 01:10:19,875 -MEACHAM: Thank you, sir. -Thank you. 1352 01:10:19,958 --> 01:10:23,208 But he has, above all things, a sense of redemption. 1353 01:10:23,291 --> 01:10:25,416 That even if we're stuck in a dark place, 1354 01:10:25,500 --> 01:10:28,416 there is a way out, and that history shows 1355 01:10:28,500 --> 01:10:31,375 we've done this again and again and again. 1356 01:10:31,458 --> 01:10:34,249 KEITH MEACHAM: I think there's a real pride in America 1357 01:10:34,333 --> 01:10:35,625 and a belief in America. 1358 01:10:35,708 --> 01:10:37,708 Like, I think Jon really, really believes 1359 01:10:37,792 --> 01:10:42,083 that the American experiment is flawed but ultimately 1360 01:10:42,166 --> 01:10:45,583 better than anything else we've seen anywhere else. 1361 01:10:45,667 --> 01:10:49,958 It gives him a sense of duty to go out and... 1362 01:10:50,041 --> 01:10:52,375 and preach what it is he believes in. 1363 01:10:52,458 --> 01:10:54,249 MEACHAM: The work of citizenship 1364 01:10:54,333 --> 01:10:56,041 at this particular moment, 1365 01:10:56,124 --> 01:10:58,917 if you believe that we need a change 1366 01:10:58,999 --> 01:11:00,833 in the presidency of the United States, 1367 01:11:00,917 --> 01:11:04,917 the work becomes convincing the right number of people 1368 01:11:04,999 --> 01:11:07,583 in the right number of states that you're right, 1369 01:11:07,667 --> 01:11:09,249 and they need to agree with you. 1370 01:11:09,333 --> 01:11:12,833 And so, the work of citizenship now is, in fact, 1371 01:11:12,917 --> 01:11:15,541 the work of democracy in its purest sense. 1372 01:11:16,999 --> 01:11:22,166 I think our role as citizens is to become civically engaged. 1373 01:11:22,249 --> 01:11:23,999 (INDISTINCT CHATTER) 1374 01:11:24,083 --> 01:11:26,249 TAMAKI: If the Japanese Americans have anything to say 1375 01:11:26,333 --> 01:11:27,458 to the public about this, 1376 01:11:27,541 --> 01:11:30,416 is don't take your liberties for granted. 1377 01:11:30,500 --> 01:11:31,999 They can be taken away from you. 1378 01:11:32,083 --> 01:11:35,958 PRO-TRUMP PROTESTOR: We are going to build a wall! 1379 01:11:36,041 --> 01:11:36,999 MEACHAM: What's at stake 1380 01:11:37,083 --> 01:11:38,750 in this political and cultural moment 1381 01:11:38,833 --> 01:11:42,166 is the nature of the democratic republic. 1382 01:11:42,249 --> 01:11:45,083 ANTIFA PROTESTORS: Nazis out! Immigrants in! 1383 01:11:45,166 --> 01:11:47,583 MEACHAM: Our reality is farther away 1384 01:11:47,667 --> 01:11:49,541 from the American ideal today 1385 01:11:49,625 --> 01:11:51,291 than it was three or four years ago. 1386 01:11:51,375 --> 01:11:53,333 BRIT HUME: People think the other side is evil 1387 01:11:53,416 --> 01:11:54,917 and must be stopped. 1388 01:11:54,999 --> 01:11:57,541 TAKEI: The internment that we went through 1389 01:11:57,625 --> 01:12:00,999 is history now, 75 years old, 1390 01:12:01,083 --> 01:12:05,249 but I feel like it is current news. 1391 01:12:05,333 --> 01:12:08,124 REPORTER: These facilities have now been repurposed 1392 01:12:08,208 --> 01:12:10,833 as detention centers for families. 1393 01:12:10,917 --> 01:12:13,625 TAKEI: What's happening on our southern borders 1394 01:12:13,708 --> 01:12:16,625 is the same kind of irrationality. 1395 01:12:16,708 --> 01:12:19,416 PROTESTORS: (CHANTING) Lock her up! Lock her up! 1396 01:12:19,500 --> 01:12:21,958 Lock her up! Lock her up! 1397 01:12:22,041 --> 01:12:23,416 MITCH MCCONNELL: She was warned. 1398 01:12:23,500 --> 01:12:25,333 She was given an explanation. 1399 01:12:25,416 --> 01:12:27,999 Nevertheless, she persisted. 1400 01:12:28,083 --> 01:12:29,999 TETRAULT: One of the things that the women's movement 1401 01:12:30,083 --> 01:12:32,041 fought for in that early incarnation 1402 01:12:32,124 --> 01:12:34,333 was the idea that women should just be able to 1403 01:12:34,416 --> 01:12:36,708 stand up and speak of politics. 1404 01:12:36,792 --> 01:12:40,208 We cannot, we will not, be silenced. 1405 01:12:40,291 --> 01:12:43,458 And that's something we're still fighting for today. 1406 01:12:43,541 --> 01:12:45,750 KELSEY: What I see going on today 1407 01:12:45,833 --> 01:12:51,458 is so reminiscent of what I saw in the '60s. 1408 01:12:52,541 --> 01:12:54,999 There's so many forces today 1409 01:12:55,083 --> 01:12:58,166 that are preaching hate and division. 1410 01:12:58,249 --> 01:13:02,458 We need leadership now to lift us, to inspire us... 1411 01:13:04,124 --> 01:13:07,208 to be guided by better angels. 1412 01:13:07,291 --> 01:13:09,416 (APPLAUSE) 1413 01:13:10,541 --> 01:13:12,375 MEACHAM: We've always grown stronger 1414 01:13:12,458 --> 01:13:15,291 the more widely we've opened our arms, 1415 01:13:15,375 --> 01:13:17,958 the more generously we've interpreted 1416 01:13:18,041 --> 01:13:20,208 what Thomas Jefferson meant when he said 1417 01:13:20,291 --> 01:13:22,875 that all men were created equal. 1418 01:13:22,958 --> 01:13:27,792 If we don't make that case, if we don't tell that story, 1419 01:13:27,875 --> 01:13:32,375 then we're gonna be perpetually in two armed camps 1420 01:13:32,458 --> 01:13:34,291 staring at each other, 1421 01:13:34,375 --> 01:13:36,750 and neither side wants to blink. 1422 01:13:36,833 --> 01:13:40,249 ♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ 1423 01:13:51,333 --> 01:13:54,291 The question at this moment is: 1424 01:13:54,375 --> 01:13:57,917 "Will we continue to pursue a more perfect union, 1425 01:13:57,999 --> 01:13:59,833 or will we settle into 1426 01:13:59,917 --> 01:14:02,500 a constant state of tribal warfare 1427 01:14:02,583 --> 01:14:06,166 in a ferocious struggle with our worst instincts?" 1428 01:14:09,999 --> 01:14:12,541 How do we get to 51 percent? 1429 01:14:14,750 --> 01:14:17,999 How do we do the right thing just enough of the time? 1430 01:14:22,375 --> 01:14:24,041 Dark forces are perennial. 1431 01:14:25,541 --> 01:14:26,500 (ELEVATOR BEEPS) 1432 01:14:26,583 --> 01:14:27,750 The good news 1433 01:14:27,833 --> 01:14:30,750 is that the forces of light can also be perennial. 1434 01:14:32,083 --> 01:14:34,999 And let's just see how we can get that side to win 1435 01:14:35,083 --> 01:14:36,500 a little bit more often. 1436 01:14:42,458 --> 01:14:45,458 ♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪ 1437 01:14:45,541 --> 01:14:48,667 ♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪