By Lynne Cheney |
GLENN: Stu and I, this is probably the biggest bone of contention that we have had,
STU: I don't..
GLENN: Yes, it is, Stu. And we've had it since 1999 because I've been saying since 1999, look out because if you don't look out, something's going to happen and then, boom, you're listening to Hitler. And so and Stu has been, "Never gonna happen, never gonna happen, never gonna happen, never gonna happen."
STU: This is ridiculous.
GLENN: And I have been, the sky is falling, the sky is falling, the sky is falling. We can play both sides of that.
STU: Neither of which is true. But we have Lynne Cheney on the phone and we don't have much time. So we need to get to her.
GLENN: We have Lynne Cheney on the phone?
CHENEY: Sure do.
GLENN: How are you?
CHENEY: I am just great. Thanks for having me on today.
GLENN: You bet. We chatted, what was it, two nights ago?
CHENEY: We did, talking about my new book, and I really enjoyed our conversation.
GLENN: The name of the book is We the People and Mrs. Cheney, as you and I discussed, you know, on and off the air, I have real concern about our country because I don't think that we are even teaching the truth about our founding fathers anymore. We're not teaching the truth about our Constitution anymore. Even our attorneys are no longer studying the Constitution.
CHENEY: No, that's a really good point. What we're teaching instead is a story of gloom and despair and we forget to let little kids know how incredibly fortunate we were that things went as they did in our past, that we had the wisdom and bravery of the framers of the Constitution and the persistence. We need to tell them the story with warts and all. We all agree on that. But basically the story is such a good one and that's what I wanted to tell them.
GLENN: Right. This is what timing this is for We the People. I mean, it is it really has actually the first time I thought about it, it brought me to tears. I was thinking, how do we solve all of these problems. And then I realized, oh, my gosh, these guys were so brilliant. It wasn't a, "Hey, you're using the wrong font size" problem. Nobody said, hey, you are not going to fit it all into one page if you make it that big. That was a clue to us of the answer.
CHENEY: It is amazing when you think about it. Both Washington and Madison said that the Constitution was a miracle, and I think that's not too overwhelming an assessment of it. There were so many different interests that had to be brought together. There were huge and horrendous fights at the convention. There was also fortunately Ben Franklin who, a grandfatherly type. He had to be carried to the convention every day in a sedan chair, he was so old and feeble, but his mind and his spirit were great. And he kept urging the delegates to think beyond themselves, to think beyond their own interests and to understand that if we couldn't hang together as a union, we would surely be hanged separately as states. You know, if they hadn't succeeded, we would not be a union today. I'm convinced of it. We would be a number of different countries. And imagine how much less full and rich our lives would be.
GLENN: Do you at all feel at times that we are, because we're not learning our history that we are becoming separate countries in many ways? I mean, I travel this country and there's a difference between California and Texas and a difference in the way we see America. We're all good people, et cetera, et cetera, but we see America differently because we're not remembering what a republic is. We're not being taught the truth about our founding.
CHENEY: That's a really good point. Of course, the charity of America and her people are one of our strengths, this great homogenous stew out of which genius comes. That is our strength, but it will fall apart if the center doesn't hold, and the center is our past. It is the Constitution. It is the fact that, you know, all around the world we're regarded as a beacon and light and we forget to teach our children that own message. That's been something I thought was so important over these last seven and a half years, as I've written books for children.
GLENN: Yeah.
CHENEY: To talk about what a great and good country this is and to talk about the values that hold us all together, the love of liberty.
GLENN: I have just yesterday I happened to look up your books and see how many books that you have sold, children's books. You are a very big seller of children's books, and there's a good reason for it. They are really good, they're beautiful books and I'm going to read yours, in fact, to my son tonight.
CHENEY: Oh, that's nice.
GLENN: When I tuck him into bed. It's called We the People by Lynne Cheney.
Real quick I have 30 seconds. Any thoughts on Sarah Palin?
CHENEY: Isn't she just terrific? And no matter how often she's attacked and how viciously, she just keeps right on going, and I admire her so much, look forward in November to welcoming her and her whole great family to the vice president's house.
GLENN: That's great. Thanks a lot, Lynne.
CHENEY: Thanks, Glenn.
GLENN: Lynne Cheney.
