United Health Group is simplifying health care by investing in tools to help patients know more and pay less. These tools help patients find providers and compare costs and save hundreds of dollars annually. Learn more at unitedhealthgroup.com slash commitment. All right, so you know what's exciting? I'm older than you, but I remember being in probably fifth or sixth grade during 1976.
And everything was 76. Everything was the cover of your light switch was 1776. Everybody was smoking back then. Everyone had an ashtray that said 1776 on it.
So we'll come to year 250. And I remember thinking a couple of years ago, are we even going to celebrate this? Because in America, there was so much anti-Americanism. We were pulling down statues that thought we were going to become a country of pedestals because nobody was worthy of a statue anymore.
So, Brett Baer, that probably prompted, I can't wait to get the answer on this, The Case for America, your brand new book, An Argument on the Behalf of Our Nation. It's amazing you had to do this, but you had to do this. I started thinking that ahead of the 250th, what was needed? And I thought just laying stuff out like you're making a case in front of a jury. And having written about six different presidents, you know, George Washington, Ulysses S.
Grant, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Dwight Eisenhower, and Ronald Reagan, each one of those had unique moments where they made the case for the America, for America in their presidency, in different speeches. And I thought, if I tapped into that and then got really interesting people, historians, business people, politicians, others, to talk about their case for America, maybe this could lay out something that people could look at and say, hey, this is a 30,000-foot view of where we are. And for all, it's not a sanitized view of America. We have major problems. But we have to look back and say, look, we've been in dark, dark places in our country before.
And despite how partisan We may be, there are amazing things that we have inherently in this country because of the founders at the beginning. Also, we've always been partisan. I mean, we used to shoot each other, right? I mean, Andrew Jackson wasn't president, but he got shot in a duel, right? And then Aaron Burb famously killed Alexander Hamilton.
I mean, this was brutal. We had Sam Houst beating other congressmen with his cane. We had a lot of people. How about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams? They run against each other in 1800.
Vice president takes on a sitting president. And we think campaigns are tough now. It was brutal. In the press, they called each other everything to the point where it was tied. Congress decided it after 36 votes.
Thomas Jefferson wins after Hamilton weighs in. And They don't talk to each other for 11 years. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. They start a letter-writing campaign in 1811 and they become the best of friends. By the way, they both die on July 4th.
And at The end of their life. Credit each other for the formation of this country and come back together after brutal, brutal rhetoric against each other.
So there are many stories where we've been through a lot of crap. And we come out to the other side because of resilience and optimism. And remember. I don't think any Adams ever showed up after they lost because John Adams, after he loses, does not go to the inauguration of Thomas Jefferson. And then John Quincy Adams, when he loses to Andrew Jackson, just leaves the White House.
And by the way, Andrew Jackson comes in and has a huge party. He wrecks the place.
Well, his friends wrecked the place. They had to go protect him.
So both those guys are kind of sore losers. They are. But still, that's part of America. Donald Trump didn't go to the inauguration. True.
But he wasn't the first not to go to the inauguration or have a disputed election.
So Condoleezza Rice is born in the South and black, right? Dad's a football coach. She sees the crosses on lawns and sees segregation, the brutal Jim Crow South. When you approach her about making the case for America, what's her angle? Oh, man.
She has such an amazing story. You know, it was not called Birmingham, it was called Bombingham because of all of the bombings at the time. She knew those girls who were killed in that bombing at the church growing up. And, you know, she. Talks about her family and how they were working to really work for the kids to have a better life.
And she lays it all out that the country. she sees is one that has made progress along the way and is always striving. And so she depicts standing in the State Department next to world leaders. Thinking It's hard to believe that I'm that girl born in Birmingham, Alabama, in the segregated South. And she says part of her case for America is that we are forever young and always striving to be better.
We're never perfect, but we're trying to be perfect. And I think her words are really, really powerful. Isn't home where we all want to be? Reba here for Realtor.com, the pros' number one most trusted app. Finding a home is like dating.
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Learn more at unitedhealthgroup.com slash commitment. Right, and at a time, and so interesting because you mentioned we're not perfect, right? And then we have a situation where we don't free the slaves even after the revolution, even though we promised. And then after the Civil War, I believe John Wilkes Booth did more damage to this country than any single human being. And you did a book on this.
If you put Frederick Douglass. And Lincoln and this heroic general, Ulysses S. Grant, together. They knew it had to be done. And that we would have the best chance to convert the South slowly.
And they talked about reconciliation.
So wait, you're d Former slaves. We're signed in on reconciliation. Frederick Douglass, born a slave, signed on on reconciliation. But 200 years later, we want reparations. If anybody wanted reparations, it was them.
They deserve reparations.
So people need a perspective. That's why your books, but this book in particular, is so valuable. I do think it gives you a prism of where we've been and maybe where we're going. You know, when we're talking about those statues being taken down, when I was writing the Grant book to Rescue the Republic, a Grant statue was being taken down because his Father-in-law had slaves. And he was part of that family.
Um This guy other than Abraham Lincoln, did the most for African Americans and blacks communities of anybody. I mean, he fought the KKK in the South. He had more black politicians, senators, congressmen, Than any other administration, and makes this big deal to save the country from falling back into a second civil war. But Mm. You know, he doesn't get credit for it.
His father-in-law and he got someone gifted him a slave. He went to court to get free the slave. Freedom. Ryan Reynolds here for Mint Mobile. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.
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