Stars and Strife

I don't know if you know this,

but there's some water if you need it at any point, okay?

So both cameras are rolling. We'll just slate it here.

- Is that a good spot, Robert? Yep.

Here we go.

- All right. Okay, we're rolling.

Okay, we're at a moment of crisis in this country.

But even before the coronavirus appeared,

America was suffering from another epidemic--

an ongoing epidemic of hate.

Will the bitterness, acrimony, and division

prevent us from ever coming together to solve our problems?

Why is there this rise in hate?

Something's gone very wrong

in the fabric of American society,

which leaves people vulnerable

to the appeal of the political hate industry.

We are living in James Madison's nightmare.

We live in a zero-sum world.

We are absolutely convinced

that for one side to get ahead,

the other side has got to lose.

We know what happens with empires

when they lose sight of the values

that made them great.

Historians suggest empires last, on average,

only about 250 years.

How old is America?

250 years old.

The statement, which was how horrible it is,

- is talking about-- No, no, that's what you--

I'm sorry, that's what you said.

- But you know what's horrible- You said

- that it was--it's okay. - When people who shouldn't be here

end up murdering the children of American citizens.

- You know what's horrible? Five days a week,

I am confident that the U.S. Constitution

will withstand whatever is thrown at it.

God damn it!

I thought the bitch was white!

Two days a week, I wonder if it must have been like this

in the later stages of the Roman Republic.

- Is Hamas-- - Sir, you invited me on here--

Do something about your dad's immigration practices,

you feckless .

Is that a patriot or a wannabe dictator's butt boy?

If you're a baby mama, you just might be a redneck.

When John Boehner played golf with President Obama--

It'd be like Hitler playing golf with Netanyahu.

They're the enemy.

Who's the enemy? - Obama and Biden!

Are you kidding? The three stooges!

I think you'd have to be

crazy or a hermit

not to be worried about the country at this point.

- ! We're living at a time

when the institutions created by our forefathers

are being tested.

If a tree falls in the woods,

how do we get Kellyanne under that tree?

America's like a dysfunctional couple

on the way to divorce court.

Say something funny and I'll laugh.

Okay, how's this? Knock, knock.

Who's there?

- I'm miserable every waking second.

Hilarious!

Nobody's making progress,

because everybody's on opposite ends of the spectrum.

I will not yield to the gentleman,

and the gentleman will observe regular order!

This is a political food fight.

Food fight!

I don't want to name any names,

but leadership of both of our major political parties

contains a lot of old people,

and before people reach the stage of dementia,

they often turn nasty.

We've always had partisanship.

We've never had this level of dysfunction

because of partisanship.

We do face this real danger

of a center falling apart in the country

being guided by the extremists on both sides.

We are right at the edge

where we have so many things going for us as a country.

The one thing that could take us down is politics.

Politics isn't broken. It's fixed.

When we look under the hood of the political system,

what we find is so corrupt and so rigged,

that the American political system

is flirting with a crack-up.

A lot of people are making big money sowing division.

Powerful people are getting rich and famous

and building their careers by making us hate each other.

If you look at the flash points in America,

whether it's terrorism

or dealing with rogue states like North Korea, Iran,

whether it's dealing with Russia and China, cyber...

Plus climate change, alarmingly high debt,

the worst drugs crisis in American history.

All of those ingredients are churning out there,

and the country is divided.

Six people injured,

including Congressman Steve Scalise, now in critical condition.

When you look at the threats to America, they're terrifying.

What if we faced a challenge even worse than COVID-19?

Our enemies now know how to penetrate our defenses.

Biological warfare, not missiles and tanks,

can kill our people and ruin our economy.

Cyberwarfare can destroy our democracy.

Can we come together and protect ourselves...

or are we divided forever?

[ "If You Are But a Dream" begins ]

Sinatra recording, take three.

Hold on, hold on. Who started this battle?

Somebody in for a lickin'?

You bet! We're gonna smear him!

- - Hold on!

- What's it all about? None of your business!

- Scared to tell me? - No, I'm not a-scared.

- I'll fight you, even! -

- Not if I can help it. - We don't like his religion.

- His religion? Look, mister.

- He's a dirty-- - Now, hold on!

Do you know what this wonderful country is made of?

It's made up of a hundred different kind of people

and a hundred different ways of talking

and a hundred different ways of goin' to church.

But they're all American ways.

Close your eyes and let me tell you about it.

I was in Munich, in Germany,

talking about international security...

And I looked around, and I thought,

you know, bad things can happen to good countries.

A terrible thing happened in Germany,

a Germany that was becoming modern

and that was increasingly dominant in the world

in the 1920s.

It encountered a populous movement...

That tapped a deep anger, resentment

in the German population.

It's very easy for our passions,

our resentments to become inflamed by politicians.

And when that happens,

even the best countries aren't immune.

Those of us who are of a certain age,

we worry about our children and grandchildren

and what kind of world we're going to leave them.

I'm frankly worried about the slime pit of partisanship

that's keeping Washington from getting anything done.

And most of all,

I'm worried about our country gorging on hate.

They brought the world economy and financial system

back from the brink,

but they haven't dealt with the fundamental problem

that got us into this difficulty in the first place.

That's very interesting.

You could move the market

- with a statement like that. Well...

David Smick was in the room in the 1980s

when tax reform was being hammered out.

I think America's going through an identity crisis.

We don't understand our heritage,

we're terribly worried about where the country's going

in the next 10 to 20 years.

Are we even allowed to think of ourselves as Americans anymore?

America is a story that was supposed to end well.

Is this is it for the Constitution?

Is capitalism finished?

Or has America only just begun?

There are a lot of people who believe that America's over,

that the only thing left is the fight over a dying carcass.

But I've always believed in the power of ideas

and creative solutions.

So I'm on a journey in search of answers.

I began by talking to people with unique experiences,

and a lot of them appear in this film.

My biggest question is,

why are we wasting so much of our nation's energy on hate

when we could be spending that energy

doing some amazing things?

I'm probably pretty sensitive to the notion of change.

When I was 14, our house burned down.

We lost everything. I was just absolutely stunned.

I had one valuable possession--

shoebox full of baseball cards,