The term public intellectual is banded about a little too much in our discourse, but it really

does apply to my friend E.J. Dionne, a columnist for the Washington Post, he's half newsman, half scholar.

In fact, he is a scholar at the Brookings Institute, author of five books, including the most recent,

why the right went wrong, conservatism from goldwater to Trump and beyond, which is really

topical as we try and puzzle through what's going on in the politics of our country.

Sat down with E.J. to talk about his fascinating journey and where we are today.

E.J. Dionne, welcome, always good to be with you.

You're the most interesting guys I know because you're a hybrid of scholar and newsman, and generally the two

don't aggregate in one person. But tell me, you've talked at times about growing up in fall, river,

Massachusetts, and how that was influential in shaping the way you look at the world.

Talk a little bit about fall, river, and growing up there.

Well, thank you. It's great to be with you, and sometimes I think the only difference between an academic and a journalist

is that journalists have to write a lot faster. That was a useful thing that I was forced to learn.

But no, fall river is really important to me in a lot of ways. Mary McGroory, the late com, this Mary McGroory once said that every

baby born in Massachusetts is born with a campaign manager's gene. And if you grew up at a place like mine, it's a factory town used to be big into textiles.

We were once upon a time long ago, the largest cotton town in the country then we went into shirts and dresses, and we were always on the wrong end of the economy.

But you know, a place like ours and towns like that all over Massachusetts, politics was part of everyday life.

You remembered state rep races the way you remember the red socks, penit race, and your loyalties ran deep.

Sometimes I joke that grudges and loyalties are often the only honorable motives in the politics of my dear home state, although I'm happy to look sometimes to Illinois or Louisiana for comfort about Massachusetts.

And it's kind of the epicenter of politics when you were growing up because of Kennedy running for president.

Exactly. And so in two ways, one is just a sheer love of politics. I actually had a, I guess he's a great cousin who ran on the Republican ticket of Massachusetts in 1934 for state treasurer when the Republican Yankees were running out of allies.

They needed new ethnic groups in. They put in a balanced ticket and Oscar Dion was on that ticket. So politics am I great French Canadians?

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