Transforming the Party?: The Enduring Significance of Jesse Jackson for President panel

Hello everyone my name is and Lynne and

I teach here at the University of Michigan
Ford School of Public Policy I'm really

delighted to welcome you today to
the opening event in today's commemoration

of Reverend Jesse Jackson 50 years of
civil suits civil rights leadership.

When we 1st started planning this
conference last winter America was in

the midst of the presidential primary
season as the steering committee members

met and talked about the possibility
of this panel one of the people said

you know this will be really interesting
depending on who wins the election.

So I don't know that we expected to
make it quite this interesting but

if you think about it I'm Jesse Jackson's

then again in 1008 have
much to teach us today 2016

Jesse Jackson put together a progressive
left coalition that let us not forget

one of the great state of Michigan
in the Democratic primary caucuses

he showed that white voters could support
an African-American presidential candidate

a fact which Barack Obama later
confirmed in 20 years later

Jesse Jackson's campaign helped to shape
the Democratic Party but it's also

worthwhile to remember especially
in 2016 that Jesse Jackson ran for

president without ever having held up
another political office that his faith

and that his insistence on the importance
of black capitalism allowed him to find

common cause with black Republicans and
that his understanding of social justice

always reached beyond the U.S.
to Africa and to the Arab world.

We're lucky today to have a really
amazing panel to help us think about

what these lessons and what the legacy of
Jesse Jackson's Jackson's campaigns for

president were so
the full piles are in your programs so

I would just briefly say here that
Gerry Austin a political consultant and

strategist with the national
campaign manager for

Jesse Jackson 1800 the last being
who teaches at Emory University he

is director of the James Weldon Johnson
Institute for the Study of Race and

different legal right Ricker who teaches
at the Harvard Kennedy School of

Government and I will say that she is also
speaking again tonight at the Gerald R.

Ford Presidential Library here on
North Campus should be speaking about her

research on black Republicans and
then finally I want to introduce

Lester Spence Lester is from Johns Hopkins
University and we are really proud

to point out that he's a University
of Michigan be A and A and Ph D..

Each of our presenters is going
to speak for about 10 minutes

Well then give them a chance to start
a conversation by responding to each other

you can join their conversation by going
to the microphone which is over here.

After they have a couple of minutes to
respond well ask people who want to ask

questions to come up and we'll take 3 or

then ask the panelists to respond
to that group of questions so

we can sort of continue that conversation
allow them to put ideas together across

questions etc At the end of the session
we're going to close with a short

video with of Reverend Jackson himself
talking about his presidential campaign.

have box lunches available for

anybody who are us to this presentation
they were becoming around 11 o'clock

feel free to sort of trickle back grab
a lunch bring it back you can eat in this

room you're very welcome to eat in this
room you're welcome to hang out in this

room after the presentation and eat but
that 12 noon we have our 2nd panel which

will be student activists from across
different generations at the University of

Michigan that's going to be held on this
floor within the Rackham ampitheater and

you cannot bring food into that room so
grab your

lunch at some point enjoy it and finish
it before you go over to the 2nd panel.

So without further ado let
me welcome Gerry Austin.

Looking around this room.

I see a lot of members
of my generation extra.

For those of you in Generation X.

My remarks are going to
be you know Mr Alter and.

Storch.

For those who are not in generation extra
This will be some new information and

new adventure.

When a sailor Reverend Jackson
has just walked into the room.

With.

The Reverend Jackson being here this
gives me added pressures I never know

whether I'm going to say something
he likes or doesn't like but.

Anyway I mean we get sort of my premise
of all this because I'm a take you back

a number of years a lot
of you were alive in 1998

I how many people here I know or heard of.

A gentleman by the name of David Jenkins.

No Jesse Jackson 88 no
David Dinkins mayor at 89 how many

of you heard of a gentleman but him
a Paul Wellstone you know Jesse Jackson

Minnesota 1990 I may have heard of

Carol Moseley Braun 1st African-American
woman ever elected to U.S.

Senate no Jesse Jackson 88 bill
Carol Moseley Braun in 1902.

And no Jesse Jackson and
no Barack Obama in 2008 so

let me take you back to the 984 was
a lection that I was not involved in but

I was a a voyeur and very much
interested because the person who ran

Reverend Jackson's campaign in

I want to pick the who also was from
Cleveland Ohio where I was from it was

it was a campaign that was not viewed as
a real campaign it was sort of a protest

movement didn't have a lot of money it
didn't have a lot of organization most of

the state directors were African-American
ministers I think the only media that was

done was maybe $10000.00
of radio in Los Angeles so

on came $1987.00 before $1908.00 and

Reverend Jackson decided that he would
take a look at running again and

what he did was he wanted to put together
people who were not with him in 1984.

People who were African-American leaders
at the time like the officials who had

supported somebody else and one of the
most prominent ones was then speaker of

the house in California Willie Brown
which supported Senator Alan Cranston

of all California 104 also
Congressman Bill Gray

from Philadelphia Congressman Mickey
Leland from Texas both supporting

Walter Mondale and
there were a number of others and so

when he when he went to the way Brown away
Brown said I will become chairman of your

campaign if you if you find somebody that
really knows how to run a campaign and

he said to Willie Brown we'll go
find me somebody and that led.

Speaker Brown to me but I was not the 1st
choice I would not the 2nd choice I would

not the 15th choice and
when they called me and

to a friend of mine in California asked
me if I was interested I said no I wasn't

interested because 94 campaign was
a real campaign and they said Well

would you would you come out to California
and meet with the speaker Brown.

He said sure so
I went to California those are you know.

Willie Brown he's up there studious
dresser and when I came to his office and

then waited for him he came out in a white
pinstripe suit with green pinstripes and

beautiful green tie and white and
patent leather green shoes and

he said I want to go to lunch and
we went outside and

he said will take my car his car is
parked in front of a fire hydrant and

he said this is my space and
I got in the car and I looked at it and

I said this is a beautiful car he said
you know it's a Cadillac a lot day which

is the 1st year and maybe the only
of the Cadillac made sports cars and

I said the beautiful car is again it's
a state car is that going to have a state

car that's a sports car it's in California
all legislators get state cars it's

American Car and Driver on day we went and
we and we met and we talked for

several hours and he said would you would
you meet would Assemblywoman Maxine Waters

before she became a congresswoman and
Los Angeles I did that the next I

went to Chicago and I met with
a bunch of supporters in Chicago and

Willie Brown said we'd like like you
to take this take this position and

I said that's great is one thing missing
was that as adamant Reverend Jackson yet

they did a good idea they said a good idea
so I went to New York and I don't know if

he remembers this but we met briefly
in a hotel lobby and he said come on we

get in the car we've got to go down
Wall Street I'm speaking to a bunch of.

McDonald's executives and

I got in front of the car he was sitting
the back a car in between 2 women who were

both economists and talking about economic
issues and you know I doubt you know

Reverend Jackson other than what I'd seen
on T.V. like most of us and went to this.

Meeting to meet the McDonald's and I was
blown away by a smart he was and and B.

how we hate had these McDonald's people
in the palm of his hands we went back and

we we talked and.

I basically you know took took
the job moved to Chicago and in

the 1st press conference we had announcing
my appointment as campaign manager and

Willie Brown's appointment as as
a campaign chair the reporter for

The New York Times this asked Reverend
Jackson that isn't it true that you

hired jury Austin because he's Jewish and
you've had a problem with Jews and

since 94 and I interrupted and said
Let me let me answer that question and

my response was that if I were in the
N.B.A. you would give me business I would

put in my resume a long time ago we
would begin the campaign and then I

want to take a couple stories which really
pit in my eyes is what that campaign was

all about it was about winning
the nomination goes about a lot more.

Jesse Jackson went places over his career
than nobody else ever went to you know

where there was a fire in Cary North
Carolina or there were my workers here or

there were people protesting this here he
was there many times any any publicity so

the 1st vent that I went
to him with was an A.F.L.

CIO convention in total and
up part of that

of that event was a meeting at a high
school with was called Booker T.

Washington High School and intones
Oklahoma and here all these high school

kids integrated high school and he asked
for the basketball team to stand up was

best of all season and he picked out
a young man and he asked the young man.

How often does he practice basketball
answer every day how many hours a day or

what else why spend hours so

working my own skills how
many hours a day the study.

You know it's like a pause.

In our.

Study was headphones on this in music
yes the study talking to your girlfriend

Well yes and he went through you know talk
about how important education was in that

famous attention to the education party
like his as a school party light.

Because.

There were no fact that he was a great
athlete when he was in high school and

was offered a contract but his emphasis of
giants to pitching wound up at university

on the end of a football
scholarship we we then.

You know when 2 in a bed in Minneapolis

speaking at the Humphrey they did it he
was one of them but the main speakers and

what was amazing about about that was
not just the fact that the speech but

as I was sitting there in the audience I
watched as people came out of the back

the people who worked in the kitchen the
waitresses and waiters and stood there and

watching you know him speak and
it obviously occurred to me that this was

a historic moment for them to see somebody
you know who was much more like them than

anybody else was speaking about you know
what what was important to them and that

he possibly was going to be a presidential
nominee but he was running for

president of the United States we in
order to put together a campaign.

We had to basically have a campaign
strategy and my strategy was and

I'm a sports nut My strategy was based on
the Indianapolis 500 motor speedway race

and if you know anything about that
there are 33 cars in that race and

what normally happens is that
the car gets in 1st place and

never wins it's always it's always
a car that basically survives and

that was the pope premise of the campaign
that we had to do well enough in the early

states Iowa New Hampshire to basically
surviving get to the states where we could

do a lot a lot better when the things we
had his advantage was because he ran in

results in 1008 to 94 for instance

in Iowa in 1904 I believe one percent of
the vote in 1810 percent of the both.

Huge huge increase we call that
a victory in 1984 you got 4 percent in

New Hampshire 98 percent
again a huge victory one of

the other things we had to do was to show
the press that we were real campaign and

the credit the press is easy
very easy to basically.

You know.

Show evidence of and press them with
a real campaign what are they looking for.

They're looking for a campaign that sort
of runs on schedule they're looking for

a campaign that has a T.V.

spot on the air and I were even though
we had no chance of winning Iowa and.

What I decided to do was to put Reverend
Jackson on T.V. We went to do more in

the studio and recorded a spot and
I realized after several

takes that Jesse Jackson's forte
was not speaking to a camera for

thousands of people for 20 minutes and so

the kid that spot never went on the air
I went back to Chicago I already bought

the time and I was thinking what
am I going to do it on my desk and

in the way I had seen this before
was a tape I put the tape in and

the tape was of 2 farmers at a rally and

I was talking about why
Jesse Jackson was a candidate for

president to white farmers
who probably would 64 and

Jesse Jackson why he was their guy for

president I went to an added suite I
edited it never did any voiceover never

had anything other than the logo at the
end and put this on the air in Iowa and

it became the campaign spot
that ran all over the country.

And in places where there weren't
farmers and clothing Puerto Rico

where the one of the people in
Puerto Rico got to some free time on T.V.

I sent the tape there and
pay the Fed Ex charge and

we won Puerto Rico for $15.00 but

what what happened was that this campaign
became a little bit different than most

campaigns we didn't target states we
targeted congressional districts because

one of the things that Reverend Jackson
accomplish in 84 which has not been given

enough credit was pride in 1984 if you
want to congressional district running for

president you got all of the delegates
after 94 he petitioned the D.N.C.

and they changed that to proportional
which meant that you got a proportion of

those votes no congressional districts
based upon the vote you got if not for

that Barack Obama would not have won in

It states and if she would have if
that would prevail she would have been

the nominee because we want to take
all that was really very important so

we targeted some where they were 100
congratulations over the country also

we need to have a plane because that means
you know that if you're real campaign we

have a plane and I won't bore you with it
with the story about how I got a plane but

what happened was that we had to
be able to call for this plane.

By having installment payments because
they wanted $320000.00 a month for

a plane that the $707.00
had a 100 passengers and

in order to do that we had to raise money
and the difference between $1908.00 and

the days of Reverend Jackson running
around you know the South the civil rights

movement was they were passed I had to
raise money to get gas to put in the car

to get to the next county we were raising
money to put it into the tank of the plane

to get to the next state and we were able
to do that for 2 reasons one that in 1988

we became the recipient of matching funds
remember when we actually gave money and

got matched up with $1.00 of the $250.00
in cash it was Matt was matched and

so we had that money coming in plus
anybody who rode the plane and

those were press people and
Secret Service contingent

we can charge them 125 percent of
a 1st class ticket so we were we were

able to you know to accomplish that and
therefore had to have the commensurate.

Staff people to basically process all that
in addition we started to get you know

contributions small contributions and the
most important part of the contributions

was to get it recorded turn it around file
it at the Federal Elections Commission and

start to get the matching funds we wound
up having $24.00 hour operation with he

able to do that Jesse Jackson
out raised Mike to caucus

from the last 4 months of the campaign
Dukakis who won the nomination history.

As he was the last white man standing

he felt that if it was he
against Reverend Jackson that

he would get the majority of
those votes in a 2 way race our.

Strategy was to be you know one of 3 or

congressional most congressional

districts that we sort of and that worked
up until New York and when New York I

came about which Reverend Jackson won the
city $50.00 to $37.00 and the coalition he

put together when he New York one year
later elect elected David Dinkins the 1st

African-American mayor in New York
we won 5037 the open lost state and

Al Gore dropped out of the race and
with that we had 2 people in the race and

so we're getting 37 to 38 percent every
week but Mike to caucus was getting 62 or

in that race with the.

Opportunity to actually win the nomination
fading because we had enough money to do

it and Reverend Jackson said to me
the campaign may be over but the crusade

continues and that crusade obviously these
kids continued you know to to this day.

Barack Obama you know one in 2008 and
if you remember who

he beat in 2008 the presumptive nominee of
the Democratic Party Hillary Clinton and

why did he beat Hillary Clinton in 2008 he
took a Hillary Clinton because he was a he

was new he was fresh He was
articulate he was smart and

he put together an incredible
campaign we are a country

just a comment about what happened
last Tuesday we are a country if you

excuse 4 years of George H.W.
Bush that had Richard Nixon

as president who resigned followed by
Jimmy Carter who wanted a more gentle and

friendly America followed by Ronald Reagan
who wanted to basically change America

almost to make America great again
followed by a Bill Clinton a neo liberal.

Followed by George H.W. George W.

Bush a neoconservative by
Barack Obama by Donald Trump I mean

this country not schizo frantic I don't
know what I don't know what it is.

And so it's you know if you look at
history it should be a big surprise that

Donald Trump one of the words that
was there was a big surprise I let me

let me end by by making it you know
a couple of comments here that are that

are important to the Jackson
campaign in in 88 was

a coalition of lots of different
groups that you know will lead to

in later years election David Dinkins and
for those of you who don't.

Know or don't remember Paul Wellstone Paul
Wellstone was our Minnesota coordinator.

In $1980.00 and he helped put together
when the largest rallies in the history of

above politics which is on the Minnesota
Wisconsin border where it was basically

a farm ralliers huge huge rally
in 1990 I called Paul up because.

I'm keeping contact with folks and
I said what's going on he said

I'm going to the Senate and I said what
district he said no you more on the U.S.

Senate I said U.S. senator I said what I
want to I want to help and Paul Wellstone.

Former wrestler be a 2 time Republican
company Reebok shorts and in Minnesota.

There's an ingredient in politics that's
very important it's also a green light

it's called Luck sometimes good
luck sometimes of bad luck and

Minnesota Paul Wellstone was
Reagan's really by choice

only time in history Minnesota the 2 Jews
are going to use it against each other

in a state that a one
percent Jewish population.

had budgets ahead by 8 points he had

$7000000.00 Wellstone had $700000.00 and
for some stupid reason

bad luck for budgets good luck what was
done by Frist wrote a letter to Jews

in Minnesota one percent population
stating that Paul Wellstone was not a real

Jew because he was married to
a gentile all hell broke loose.

Became the dominant story.

By France's own rabbi go to go to
a letter at a press conference and

what happened on election days
post on won by a point half.

And just historic that that post and
I are a bit Humphrey type of

young Hubert Humphrey type of liberal was
going to the U.S. Senate 2 years later.

A woman named Carol Moseley Braun
who was Cook County Recorder.

Was asked to challenge Allen Dixon
a 2 term Democratic incumbent

congressman sorry senator from
Illinois who never lost a race

why was she asked to challenge him
because he had voted for Clarence Thomas

confirmed terrorist Clarence Thomas
he had voted against Judge Bork.

Now it's hard to explain how you
can vote against Judge Bork and for

Clarence Thomas Well the reason he
did that was he made a deal with

the Republicans that if he voted for
Clarence Thomas they would have a very

weak candidate against him for
reelection but Carol Carol took on

the challenge that never
expecting to win and

again you know right prevail because
a 3rd person entered the race and

that person's campaign consultant was some
guy I never heard of named David Axelrod

and what happened was the 2 white guys
with a lot of money down in the media

Carol Moseley Braun you know just stood
there always are a consultant and

we did one T.V.
spot the Thursday before the election.

That cost $1012.00 which case we said
that that Alan Dixon thought he owned

a seat hellhole field one of the by the
seat Carol Moseley Braun and want to earn

the seat it went on the air we had about
$300000.00 of media in Chicago and lo and

behold election night Carol Moseley Braun
not soft democratic 2 term Democratic

incumbent named Alan Dixon the point of
all this is that with those races and

Reverend Jackson's race in 88 gave him
hope to folks who didn't think that they

ever had a chance to run for office or
could win against great odds and

that led you know the years later to
Barack Obama I mean not only did he

win in 2000 a pretty
one reelection 2012 and

as we look forward you know to and I don't
use the word forward an affectionate way

to trump administration you know it's
it really means that that we need

to be shaken up and
waking up again I've done a lot of fun.

With missing of elections in foreign
countries in the Philippines and

in Chile and other places what I've
always seen is an incredible passion for

politics and passion for
people to get involved in.

Voting because they've been countries to
where the voting was either suppressed or

never happened where in a country where

are eligible to register to vote have not
registered to vote did not participate so

we're electing a President when are the
people of the country could vote electing

a president forget about the people
who who voted on on Tuesday and

I didn't both president or or you know
didn't vote at all because they stayed

home so you know in times like this it's
an opportunity to basically you know come

back together and say we still want to
fight start over the fight continues and

it's important that we
move forward Thank you.

Thank.

Good morning thank you for coming I
want to thank in for the invitation and

it's an honor to present to you and to
Reverend Jackson as well I'm going to talk

about leverage politics and
put it into context using

Jesse Jackson's candidacies for president
in 194988 I mean hopefully by the end will

be able to talk about some applications
to this most recent election cycle so

I come at this from an academic standpoint
and I'm grounding my understanding of

leverage politics and Ron Walters work
black presidential politics in America and

of course Ron Walters was a key advisor to
Reverend Jackson and his 988 campaign and

it provides a nice entry point into
understanding leverage politics

as Professor Walters explained it in an
era when an African-American was probably

not going to be elected president he still
argued that it was important for blacks to

run for president because there was
something to be gained from running for

president even if one didn't necessarily
win the office he argued and

Jackson's candidacy in $88.00 in
particular shows that you can run for

president and create opportunities.

To change partisan politics as a result of
one's candidacy and this helps to address

certain issues that were raised about a
decade later by our colleague Paul Farmer

at at Princeton where he talks about the
notion of democratic electoral capture for

those who aren't familiar with that
concept we understand in African-American

politics that the reason why
African-Americans vote overwhelmingly

Democratic had doesn't necessarily have
to do with them believing lock stock and

barrel with the Democratic Party platform
but that there's a recognition that there

are a perceptual differences between
the parties particularly on issues with

respect to race and ideologically speaking
though the Democratic Party's platform

is not completely concurrent with
the interests of blacks it is closer to

the interests of blacks than the
Republican Party and so even though many

African-Americans ideologically speaking
are to the left of the Democratic.

Party the Democratic Party is more
closer it's closer to their interests

than the Republican Party and

it explains the overwhelming
Democratic Party identification and

voting behavior but it also creates this
tension and it also creates the problem

that the Democratic Party could look at
African-American voters as a base vote and

this use that as an excuse to not campaign
in African-American communities or

not to address issues because they don't
have to worry about losing those votes so

Jesse Jackson's campaign becomes
a laboratory to develop and

test this notion of leverage so
in 1904 of course he runs for

president it's on a wave of black
dissatisfaction with the Reagan

administration there is a recession
during the 1st half of the 1st term

there are cuts in aid to federal cities
and the development of the block grant

program which really hurts cities
where African-Americans live and

Jackson's candidacy does spur excitement
Arlie colleague Michael Preston notes that

there's a 5 fold increase in the number
of black registrants in Chicago for

instance compared to whites and we see
in the 1984 race that Reverend Jackson

was able to consolidate African-American
support not in the way that he'll do

it in 1988 but it helps to set up
that 88 campaign it nicely and

we know from working Catherine Tate
that the Jackson coalition in 1984

included younger college
educated affluent blacks

while there was some opposition
from older blacks and

while he didn't necessarily consolidate
the support of black elected officials and

civil rights leaders he makes
an important impact in running in 1988

he wins 3 primaries that year overall it's
about 77 percent of the African-American

vote which translates into 18
percent of the overall delegates or

the overall delegates with

that percentage of delegates that's not
necessarily going to get the same type of

leverage that we're
going to see in the 888.

So in 1988 with the foregrounding
of the Rainbow Coalition Jackson

consolidate his support amongst
African-American voters went by primaries

percent of delegates and
from this he is actually able to leverage

certain concessions from the Democratic
Party the notable ones that we talk about

in political science often
our delegate allocation and

proportional representation we talk about
the notion of adding an anti-apartheid

plaint to the Democratic Party platform
and using leverage to ensure that

Ron Brown is selected as the Democratic
National Committee chair and there

is even this discussion in 1988 about
in the mid black turnout in the general

election hurting Michael Dukakis
the sending a message the Democratic Party

about ignoring African American voters
we know that Reverend Jackson isn't

the only person who has attempted
to use leverage candidacies but

the success of his 1988 campaign shows
the importance of making sure that

you're able to consolidate a critical mass
of voters in your constituency group and

that you have a strong showing in
elections and so where we have seen

other presidential candidates try to
mount leverage candidacies they haven't

been as successful because they
haven't been able to be a successful

in winning the black vote or also in
winning a large number of primaries and

we can sort of juxtapose as
an example both Al Sharpton and

Carol Moseley Braun's 2004 candidacy for
president.

So the lessons of leverage are that
there are multiple ways to win there is

winning the election right but then there
is also winning by making a point and

by having a long term impact on the
structure of one's particular party but

in order for blacks to have that kind
of leverage you have to have some

skin in the game you have to run to win
and so the takeaway is that a strong

losing performance actually can help shape
or Party's agenda and lasting ways and

I'll echo Gerri's point about the delegate
allocation changes that Reverend Jackson

ushered helping Barack Obama
win the candidacy in 2008.

That in their applications to
the selection I think the most obvious.

Connection to the $1988.00
campaign would be Bernie Sanders

campaign this election cycle if we look
at the similarities between the 2 of them

there are many They were both
insurgent candidates they both ended

up in 2nd place in their party's primaries
and they both withheld the indorsements

their endorsements of the eventual
Democratic nominee and tell they received

the platform concessions that they
knew they were going to get and

in some instances they were actually
arguing for similar types of platform

concessions so the notion about how
delegates are allocated was an issue

that came up during Reverend Jackson's
candidacies and of course is an issue that

came up in 2016 and it's an issue that's
still being discussed and debated today.

If we look at the notion of who is going
to be the D.N.C. chair Ron Brown becomes

the D.N.C. chair as a result of
Reverend Jackson's candidacies and

now there's a strong push to put
Keith Ellison in as a progressive and

as a Sanders allied in and
at the home of the D.N.C. and

of course this year we have seen the
movement of marijuana decriminalization

and a $15.00 minimum wage becoming part
of the Democratic Party platform and

those are directly attributed to Sanders
campaign now there are some limits.

In terms of what you can
do with candidacies and

so you know I would argue and I'm surely
is going to touch on this in a minute

that Republicans could also take some
lessons from Reverend Jackson about how to

run a leverage candidacy and I think their
failure to do so in some instances may

explain some of the party dynamics that
we've witnessed over the past year and

a half I would argue that never
trump had the opportunity to mount

a leverage campaign maybe not by
running an insurgent candidacy but

by withholding their own votes
they could have consolidated

around the candidacy of Evan McMullan
they could have the window the field and

decided which of their candidates was
actually going to be the one that they

would field against Donald Trump and
and they could have withheld votes from

Donald Trump in the general election
to teach the party a lesson and

to have a hand in reshaping what the party
would look like in the future but

they chose not to and so
by choosing not to exercise any leverage

over Republican Party politics they find
themselves in a pretty precarious and

vulnerable position at
least in the short term

Now there were a number of factors that
could potentially explain this one

the never trump camp was never
particularly unified and

they had different interests that they
never seemed to be able to reconcile and

Donald Trump was able to reach out
to individual never trucker's and

co-opt his opposition So for
instance his tete a tete with

Ted Cruz whatever was promised was also a
way to reach out to evangelical voters and

to promise Supreme Court
nominations as a result.

Being able to minimize opposition that was
coming from some evangelical camps not all

about Trans Canada see his vulgarity
except her and then also if we look

at Paul Ryan's decisions his equivocation
on whether he would support Trump

versus not supporting trump every time
Trump said something that was racist or

completely sexist so that they were
interested in short term power but

that they didn't recognize that
sometimes you win by losing.

So I think one of the big lessons that
you can learn from a leverage candidacy

is something that's actually really ironic
that sometimes you have to be willing

to lose in order to win it

that the focus isn't necessarily in the
immediate future or the next election but

that there may be long term goals to be
gained by running a protest candidacy or

by consolidating a vote a gets
a particular candidate or

you know against voting in
a particular election as a and

I do want to go back to standards and talk
about some of the ways that you know I

would caution the standards camp about
interpret ing the election results so

I'm going to show a couple of slides and
so this is my back of the on the Lopes

scatter plotting that I did this
morning using Michigan as an example so

you know there definitely is an argument
that Sanders might have been a better

candidate candidate than Hillary Clinton
and that she might have been able to get

white working class voters we're
going to be studying that for

a long period of time there
are survey questions that we have yet

to examine that will actually help us
gain some leverage on this issue but

let's just look at the vote now so if we
look at the percentage of the primary vote

that Sanders got in this state versus
Hillary Clinton what we'll see is that

there really isn't much of a correlation
there at all so just looking from a by

a very good standpoint and we know that
in general Clinton's performance relative

to Obama's performance is that
the county level is correlated but

of course Clinton just gets fewer votes
and she gets a smaller percentage of

the votes than Michigan those and

this is why even though it has been
officially projected yet we will predict

that Michigan votes red this time
around I'm going to skip these but

I want to look at actually I do want to go
to because one of the other things I want

to talk about is this notion that Sanders
voters might have actually been willing

to vote for Clinton as opposed to voting
for Trump here's where I don't want to

because we still have to examine
some things a little bit more I.

I want to look at this idea and
kind of question it so

Michigan has an open primary system where
Democrats and Republicans are free to vote

in each other's primaries if they choose
so it's not a question of hard already

registration if we look at at these
voters and I'm going to go back to

this one we can actually see how many
votes absolute in absolute terms.

Bernie Sanders got versus the number of
votes that Donald Trump got and in most

instances Donald Trump actually won more
votes in counties than Bernie Sanders

did so even though Sanders is going to
win the Democratic primary more people

turned out to vote for Donald Trump and
in some instances turned out to vote for

Donald Trump and he ended up in 2nd or

take the outliers out so those are the big
counties like Wayne and Washington.

And we look at the smaller counties
where the margin in terms of

the absolute number of votes per candidate
is going to be less than a 1000 votes

Well we'll see is that there are more
bold above the line above the X.

axis than there are below the X.

axis and what that means is that those
are the counties where Donald Trump in

absolute numbers had more people
turning out for him in the spring

then turned out Poor Bernie Sanders So
that still addresses this problem of what

does the Democratic Party stand for and
in particular what does that multi-racial

coalition look like are whites going to be
a part of that multiracial coalition so.

To conclude I want to reaffirm
the impact that Jesse Jackson had on

our national politics I think he teaches
us that there are multiple ways to win

of course you can win if you outright
win elections and you win primaries but

you can also win concessions from your
party that can have a lasting structural

impact on the party and can have
an impact on what parties stand for

in the issues that they take up so
if you're going to have leverage I

think we need to realize that some people
aim to have leverage and don't succeed so

they're just a couple things that
you have to be clear about and

in particular candidates and their bases
have to be clear about what their goals

are and they have to be
consistent in the execution

even if in the short term it doesn't
look like it's going to be fruitful So

with that I will close and
I look forward to the rest of the panel.

Thank you.

All right so.

Thank you to everyone for having me
here and friends writing me to this

symposium it is a pleasure and
a real honor to be here today and to

actually be speaking in front of Reverend
Jackson I have to say that actually it was

Reverend Jackson who gave me the idea for
my 1st book the loneliness of the black

Republican not because he is a Republican
because he is not but instead because

actually while I was here doing some
research at the Ford Library I came across

a document featuring Reverend Jackson that
I really couldn't make heads or tails of.

That ended up becoming really the meat
of my book and much of my research.

Know recently I've been wrestling somewhat
unsuccessfully with the notion of

democracy and black political power
I think it's particularly urgent that

we think about this in this in this
particular historical moment that we're

in right now over the summer
a colleague for me and

it afforded me a note from Reverend
Jackson entitled Democrats don't get

a blank check from black voters within it
he concluded that Democrats are going to

have to work to earn black votes again not
simply inherit them now I was intrigued

because one this is not necessarily a new
idea either in black political thought or

within Jackson's political thought but

I think it's one from at least from
a historical lens that we've both

focused on and haven't really devoted too
much attention to now as a historian and

again I'm really intrigued by this
idea of what can history help us think

help us focus on within the present
within power and within democracy.

And to quote I think to
quote Reverend Jackson here

shunning both the Republican in
the Democratic party parties or

not having actual true democracy for black
voters thinking about how devastating that

can actually be to the broader political
process I think we saw that play out

a little bit in the 2016 election which I
think I know I'm happy to talk about I'm

sure all of the panelists
are happy to talk about as well.

So I just want to start off my remarks
really focused my remarks around a quick

story this is also the story that
really launched my book as well and

it's rooted in a meeting
that happens in January 1998

we see Republicans from across
the nation traveling to Washington D.C.

National Committee now upon their arrival

a few delegates or visit with a shot
to see Reverend Jackson standing behind

the main podium minutes after the session
was called to order Reverend Jackson

desolate his audience with nearly an hour
of political gospel rock and tasting

the Gelly delegates with the notion of
an influx of millions of black voters for

the Republican Party and future political
elections now I just want to read a quote

here from the speech black people need
the Republican Party to compete for us so

that we have real alternatives to
meeting up for meeting our needs

I'm not just speaking theoretically
when I say blacks will vote for

the Republicans who appeal to their vested
interests and engage in recipe prosody and

just a quick note this is actually
true we see this on a state and

local level even to this day
particularly amongst candidates who

are Republican candidates who are strong
on issues of civil rights and

managed to divorce themselves
from the overarching identity

of the Republican Party as
we understand it today.

Not just another quote I think
that is important to consider here

from that speech African-Americans must to
pursue a strategy that prohibits one party

from taking us for granted and
another party from writing us off

the only protection we have
against political genocide.

Is to remain necessary now it's this kind
of rhetoric that I really want to explore

in my remarks and it's also one that
resonates amongst the Republican delegates

in this meeting this 978 meeting it
brings the leaders to their mark and

by our leaders to their feet and

by all accounts Reverend Jackson
received a 5 minute standing ovation.

I think just kind of to
summarize that remark.

To summarize the moment and
see Chair Bill Brock would later remark

I really really wish we had
Republicans who could talk like that.

No I don't think this moment is
necessarily as shocking as it feels right

now it feels surprising because of
the context of Donald Trump but

it also feels surprising because of
the context of the modern Republican party

right the way in which we understand it
and the way in which we understand black

partisanship and
kind of black block voting behavior but

in that moment 1978 this kind of
behavior these kinds of attitudes

were well within the context of black
political decision making and behavior

the idea of using black folks has as under
just reminded us as a bludgeon to shift

the balance of power for African-Americans
to force the parties to compete for

their votes and in the way we see the
party in much the same manner that we see

the see parties compete for
the white that's for

the votes of white swing voters white
suburban voters white rural voters.

Now part of this is really wrestling or
grappling with the power of the black vote

as Reverend Jesse Jackson stated in
that same speech that same 1708 speech

hands that pick cotton in 1966 did
pick the president in 1976 and

could very well be the difference in 1980
I think this is very much a sentiment that

remains true even through the president
at the present day part of what gives

African-Americans or would gives
black voters their power is the fact

that they vote as a bloc at the same
time this is also what I think

mentioned and I won't necessarily
revisit but this is also kind of

the root of this captured constituency
model where one party takes you for

granted in the other party ignores you or
is actively hostile to your interests.

Now there are moments of pay
a payoff in this kind of approach

in their notes in their private notes
Republican officials explicitly observe

that they model many of their
initiatives many of their programs

after several of Reverend Jackson's
programs one initiative for

example is modeled after Jackson's Excel
program later it's amended

this is interesting and I think we
can maybe get into this in the Q.

and A Conservatives amend it and
expand the program but

not in the way that we would actually
think it becomes the basis of

the Republican Party's educational tax
credit program and voucher program

now this is again not to suggest that
Reverend Jackson is a conservative or

even a Republican we know that to
not be the case that whatsoever.

Holds liberal and progressive ideas.

But instead this is a reaction in response
to negotiating the confines of captured

constituency status and the Democratic
Party's Turner shift in the mid 1970 S.

to deemphasizing racial and
identity politics now to give you

a very specific example I'm sure
African-Americans who had overwhelmingly

helped elect Jimmy Carter in 1976 found
themselves frustrated and stymied by.

The administration almost
immediately entering into.

The 1st few years of the White House the
National Urban League for example pointed

out that black unemployment sat at

among black teenagers and
young adults the number sat at 40 percent.

Much A There was much
anger over failure for

promised job opportunities to materialize.

We also see that Urban League the N.W.A.
C.P.T. and

summer all the organizations argue that
Jimmy Carter's approach to inflation would

destroy the gains of the black middle
class there's also considerable anger

about Carter cutting federal funding
to historically black colleges and

universities at one
point Reverend Jackson.

Expresses the following sentiment by
accusing the administration of gutting

domestic social programs and describing
Carter's approach could the White House's

approach as an all out assault on
labor blacks women and the poor and

calling on African-Americans to
fight back politically to protest

to force negotiations with
the president with the president so

disenchantment and disillusionment is so
high in the 1970 S.

And I think a number of people actually
consider both the 3rd party movement and

independent political thrust but

also consider the merits of 2 party
competition and casting votes for

the Republican Party they lament that the
Democratic Party can and does assume that

blacks have no place else to go but again
this is a hard nearly impossible prospect

it's exactly the reason why both we see
that Reverend Jackson meets with the R.

and C.

in 1978 he's trying to influence and

tip the balance of power in
the direction of a black agenda.

It is an attempt I think really to
maximize this idea of freedom of choice

and to exert broader political
leverage there's a real threat.

To really capitalize on the threat that
black votes could decide in the national

election and therefore both parties
should be working to pursue

those black voters and
satisfy the needs of black voters now for

the sake of time I'm going
to wrap up my remarks and

I'm happy to again answer talk about a lot
of these points in the Q Q A Now I but I

just want to go through a couple of points
pointers that I think are important for

us to consider as we move forward we
have to think about the notion of what

it means to be a captured constituency
where one party takes you for granted and

the other ignore sure existence or
is actively hostile to your presence

I think particularly in this moment it is
more urgent than ever to consider access

to power and forcing political parties
to work for votes it also is in the best

interest of political party use right
if we take them at face value not

taking into account things like voter
depression or voter suppression but it

isn't to the advantage given the changing
demographics of the nation at least on

the presidential level to work for
the votes of these same groups so

whatever the mutually beneficial
areas that black voters

in the 2 party system can come to in
order to benefit African-Americans.

We also have to consider the drawbacks
of balance of power theory and

what are those drawbacks is it realistic
to believe that black voters will support

Republican candidates if the $2016.00
returns are any indication

no it is not realistic for those of you
who do not know right now the exit polling

is suggesting that about 8 percent of
African African-American voters that voted

supported Donald Trump at the presidential
level this actually has a gender divide

only 4 percent of black women supported
Donald Trump 13 percent of black

men supported Donald Trump and there is
interesting questions that we can talk

about there too in terms of
this gender this gender divide.

But even as it's not realistic maybe it's
something that we should be thinking about

at least when it comes to 3rd party
movements were young people have expressed

considerable enthusiasm it's also an area
where we should be thinking about

the impact of non-voting or
low voter turnout and and

what we see least in 2016 we're
still getting returns back but

actually looks like African-Americans
not showing up in particular places

could have made a difference in
specific swing states Michigan for

one has been pointed out as one of
those areas now the other point other

take away that I want to think about is
that black Republicans have been trying to

leverage their power and black voter power
for decades since at least the 1930 S.

and they've never quite been able to do it
the exceptions might be the early years of

the Nixon administration and maybe
the early years of the bush the George W.

Bush administration at least
prior to Hurricane Katrina but

they certainly weren't able
to leverage it in 2016

it's also incredibly hard to take
that risk and the risk of and

I think under the mentioned was
having some skin in the game so

this idea of African-Americans
being willing to pull the lever for

a candidate that they
feel is a point it is

is brutal it's cruel where they
see no kind of commonalities.

Instead what we end up seeing more often
than not is that African-Americans either

reject the G.O.P. or
the ones that work within the G.O.P. make

severe concessions to the administration
in the hopes of advancing their agenda and

they rarely advance their agenda again
there are certain there are certain areas

where they have really had mannish
advance an agenda but all too often.

They find that their agenda.

Subordinated tossed out and
that the the ideas that really walk hand

in hand with whatever the party mainstream
are the ones that are celebrated we're

actually seeing this now I think there are
a number of people who are talking about

taking positions within the Trump and
ministration who are doing so

in the hopes of pushing through
an agenda not quite optimistic

about them actually being able to push
their own agenda given the nature of.

Our president elect historically
this also really works because

not enough people are willing to take that
risk so not enough people are able to

are willing to speak out but not enough
people are actually willing to engage in

order to give a kind of real political
power to these marginalized groups.

And then my last point that I just want to
make is that even as we move forward and

as we think about power and as we
think about the function of power and

as we think about pushing for agendas

I still think that it's worth thinking
about the balance of power theory and

as we understand it to be flawed.

It's worth revisiting at least within our
political imagination the ways in which we

can challenge the boundaries of American
democracy in the limitations of

American democracy what those challenges
are I think remain to be seen but

it is worth considering in thinking
about historical examples including that

of Reverend Jackson as we
think about a way forward so

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.

So.

When they asked me to come and
speak at this panel.

I jump every chance every chance
I get to come home I take it.

I consider this yard mine and
I mean that in a literal sense

I tended undergrad here from

going to grad school from

remember talking to my mom fall of

I would have I was like Mom I don't
think I want to be here anymore and.

Probably exhibiting a type of brilliance
that was really subtle she said

Wow Well you know what just come
back home and you can stay home and

go to Wayne State which he said that
I was like OK I'll stick around.

But I thought Here I thought consistently
to make this space better for

black people feeling fought and
made a space better for

black people be better for
everybody in 87 we came and.

We had to deal with a Dean Dean Steiner
who in a public meeting

of department chairs actually said out
loud he didn't want Michigan to be a place

where blacks and
other minorities would naturally flock to.

Because he kind of attached in that moment
statements of quality statements of

quality and race right so for to be
a school that was a welcome to black folks

and other folks like them meant Michigan
wasn't a quality institution several

more than almost 3 decades later no more
than you know almost 3 decades later

of the Dean is actually a friend of mine
we started as professors at Washington

versus St Louis and both the dean and the
president is challenging this moment is

actually argue that diversity is
what makes Michigan great right.

So I got all in my mind you know my
son is here as a 1st year student I

hadn't seen him since he came on the yard
my parents lived 35 minutes away

I got friends any ideas I got people
who taught me here when I was a kid so

I got all that my mom when they asked me
to do this panel right on top of that I

have in my mind the fact I'm here in large
part due to Reverend Jackson's actions and

I mean that in a couple of
different ways in one part.

I like I said I'm part of a wave of
there's I was black band want to 6869 1st

black jack the 1st black
action movement Bantu is 7677

Bam 3 is 86 to 87 I'm here is
a direct result of Bantu which

created the competence of studies
program help to create and

then indirectly as a result of band 3
which called for more undergrads and

more black folk graduates to Reverend
Jackson was deeply involved and bam 3.

So when people take over the university
they reach out to Reverend Jackson and

he actually agrees and he helps to
broker a deal between activists and.

And administrators right.

On top of that tomorrow's
founders day Jesse Jackson and

I are members of the same fraternity.

Along with my dad and Professor chafers
there are at least 4 of us in the room

recognize so I'm thinking of all
that stuff when they holler at me

right but I'm like you know
a critic of Jackson right.

I was like you know I'm actually a critic
right they're like Yeah we actually

want somebody who can give a critical
voice of like you you sure

they're like yeah I'm like OK So Reverend
you can haze me afterwards it's all good.

But this is the do.

What I want to do is complicate.

What we see in everybody who's
spoken up today is a conception of

black politics that's pretty uniform right
you've got black people on one hand and

you've got the white power structure on
the other you've got the black vote and

then you've got the white power
structure right and that's real.

Except black politics has has maybe
a 2 fold problem one of those

problems is the reality
of of racism of past

racism of current races my embedded in
structures and embedded institutional.

Individual practice and attitude right but
then there's a 2nd dynamic

that black folk also have to deal with and
that black attitudes black political

preferences black desires black
interest are actually more complicated

that the very least they're bifurcated
like maybe For example we can agree that

public schools are in places like
Detroit function how they function as

a result of institutional racism right
you probably have group agreement on that

maybe we have google green it that in
general black politics should have kind of

progressive agenda but when you actually
boil that down you find a lot of

differences right a lot
of differences right but

in part because of Jim Jim Crow
era those differences and

because of racism those
differences get smushed right so

one of the challenges so when I talk about
the differences get this much as relation

to Jim Crow what happens as
a result of Jim Crow is we

create a political culture in black
communities where where we can't

really rely on the vote because
we're not able to vote right and

because the blacks chosen to manage

white black life particularly in
the south were chosen by widely.

Right and
they couldn't really be trusted right so

that dynamic of the lack of being able to
vote on the one hand the lack of being

able to trust the blacks that white
Elise shows on the other and thirdly

the lack of spaces where black people
could actually you know kind of debate and

figure out the way to go based on argument
all that stuff is kind of smushed and

its place what we have developed is
the of the Orotate of black leaders

that black leader is often is often male
that black leader is often charismatic

that black leader often but often comes
from the church and a many cases at

least in that Jim Crow period particularly
the civil rights movement started

actually right ran churches right on
Martin Luther King Jr stands out.

As a result of that die and now now.

As a result of that dynamic node so
there's a question about how that dynamic

relates to the day because we
can actually we've got the vote

now we actually have a significant rise in
black elected officials since 1970 or so

how does that dynamic end up
generating problems today

right what we end up doing and
Jesse Jackson is probably the most

powerful example of this is we've
got a dynamic where on the one

hand we've got black political officials
who are fighting for constituencies but

they're resource poor because the places
they are they places of the cities that

they run the district they represent
are themselves resource poor and

can't get ground from the state right
we've got that and then we've got this

black leadership strain on the other
hand that largely uses protest and

charismatic speech in order to
generate resources now the thing

is is that protest that once
that dynamic takes hold and

is forced to kind of force to compete
against that that political against

that explicit vote dynamic that one can
argue that that elite charismatic dynamic

kind of wins out right once
it wins out what do we

have we have a couple of consequences and
what I'll do is in a cycle time.

To show this image of what I'll do is I'll
actually bring this forward bring this

forward to talk a little bit Obama about
Obama a little bit about black lives

matters and then back to Jackson and then
maybe I'll show you this image right what

does it what how does this appear
itself in black lives matter right so

with black eyes matter we have
a protest activity designed or a sign

of protest designed to call attention to
the police to hope Elise accountable and

then to hold the cities and with a police
act accountable but there are actually

no mechanisms to hold black lives matter
activists themselves accountable.

Right there are black lies matter
organizations are not vote based they're

largely based on youth charismatic leaders
whether somebody like the right McKesson

and bottom or who formally isn't connected
to any black lives matter organizations or

similar or going to or
similar individuals in other spaces

that don't actually routinely
engage with black publics

in order to figure out what the proper
a mode of dealing with the police are so

here's one way to think about
it there are neighborhoods in.

Baltimore where not only is the police
a significant threat but criminals but

violent crime is also a significant threat
and because we're talking about hyper

segregation we're talking about crime
committed by other black youth Now how do

those individuals want to deal with the
issue some of those individuals actually

do want the police held accountable
now what that means we don't know but

some of them actually want the police
to function how they function so

while we could talk about the black vote
vote while we could talk about the black

community on police and
other issues there's this bifurcation

there's this attitude of difference
that protest activity doesn't actually

get to right and then that if
you've got a charismatic leader

who embodies the black
hope Oblast hopes and

desires you've got this troubling tendency
of black leaders black charismatic

leaders making themselves
coterminous where black people so

how does that how does that how
does that what how does that

play out let me actually be more explicit
what I want is what black people.

Whatever my desires and interests
are is what black people's desires and

interests are black hopes and
dreams end up getting embodied

in the individual instead of being
played out in democratic space and

that reduces that significantly
demobilize as black populations except

in very specific instances when you've got
charismatic leaders that want to mobilize

them for for stuff that may
actually benefit them directly and

they met that may trickle down right
now that brings me back to Obama.

I actually write like a newsletter
like every Sunday and what I did.

This is why when we talk about red state
blue state divide what we're really

looking at is a red county blue county
divide the blue counties are counties that

actually turn for Clinton the red counties
are counties that actually turned for

Truong what you notice is that there's
a whole bunch of red and not a lot of blue

is actually kind of scary when you think
about trying to think about them much.

I use photoshop what I did was I
actually peeled off the red in the blue

this is the Red Nation it actually
looks like a nation doesn't it

that is you can drive from the from
the southwest corner almost

all the way to the east without touching
anything in between I know I don't know.

This is the blue there is no
nation that looks like this

you've got some nations some states
like Iran the Caribbean I think they're

comprised of violence but you know
anything that looks like this this

actually is not this is only a nation
in a virtual sense right now what

could have generated
a map that had of a map

that had more blue in this.

Obama runs for
election in 2008 there are so

many people who want to give money to
him there are so many people who want to

donate donate campaign time who want to
organize people to vote never done it but

they create a separate organization called
Organizing for America the purpose of

Organizing for America was a sense
ability to get him elected to office but

it was more generally to create a 50
state strategy where we could where

the Democratic Party could compete in
all these different spaces and they run

people for office in all these different
spaces and then would indirectly actually

create competition with in democratic
spaces where people would never run for

office who have progressive politics
could actually challenge Democratic

incumbents right this Organizing for
America actually helped put Obama

in office what happened after
he was elected he killed

an organization with an e-mail list
of approximately 13000000 names and

an organization that had approximately

interested in running for
office he kills it why does he kill it

there are a number of reasons but
I'd argue that the fund

that another fundamental consequence
of charismatic authority politics

the types of politics that Jackson that
Jackson is those are the fundamental

representative of is of focus away from
institutional development particularly

institutional development that builds
people's capacity to govern themselves

as opposed to concentrating it
in a singular individual right

so what we have going forward
is kind of a question.

How do we generate the institutional
capacity to empower black people and

other people like them
to govern them selves

charismatic authority may be involved in
that but we have to actually move towards

a space where to Dick's a charismatic
authority exists it exists alongside

traditional objective practices
of determining what routes people

should take that aren't based on claims or
racial authenticity but rather based on on

on kind of raw a rational discussion of
interest and a lot of Monday in labor.

So with that said I said
again at the beginning I am

where I am because of the work of
people like Reverend Jackson but

if we're going to move to develop a nation

we have to move beyond that to a very
different model on that note thank you.

Thank thank.

You from the audience as possible but

let me just say that there is anything
that people on the panel would like to.

Respond to.

Well I just have one question for
Lester How do you interpret for

me that working on.

The organizing.

So I.

So he asked me so after Organizing for
America it becomes Organizing for

Action and he asked me how I interpret
the transition from Organizing for

America to Organizing for Action I
actually interpret that as kind of a 2

stage move the 1st thing I'd target I'd

move we take all that energy
from Organizing for America and

see if we work with it but given that
the Democratic Party itself actually

does not want it neither is it neither has

the interest of really create becoming
kind of a grassroots run organization but

also it doesn't necessarily have
the bureaucratic expertise and

managing an organization like that and it
ends up killing it and want to point thing

I didn't mention after this organization
is killed the Tea Party actually generates

right the Tea Party actually generates So
the moment Obama moves it to an end

a bipartisan incremental approach
with charismatic authority

tied to black people is the moment
that the conservatives generate this

counterinsurgency because Organizing for
America doesn't exist to get to create

a counter narrative the Tea Party ends up
winning out in all of those red areas and

spreading out into areas
that formerly were.

Great.

For.

I thought they organize for
that story before.

That started after you know his 1st
started after he were born reaction

you better think Peter Paul who is
his campaign manager you know he.

Basically started that and it was
basically good place to keep the Obama

kind of movie going as opposed to that
it was something that was still good for

news he ended not taking anything away
from of the whole affair he wanted man be.

Born of being much ado about
nothing I end up having opportunity

at Johns Hopkins to hear
a speech by Terry McAuliffe and

because Hopkins don't have that many
black people they asked me like to serve

to go to lunch with him and with a number
of other people and I asked him explicitly

about this he'd actually agree
with my timeline and he said that

that the Democratic Party killed it
although he couldn't give me a reason why.

Let me invite people up to ask questions
and there is a microphone right over here

at the window here at the door here in
front if you come up that will be great.

Sure.

It will be one of the 1st
questions to see.

Him so.

This one.

Young man.

Right now.

But just in case you know.

What I consider.

Transforming Your party.

He forced the Democratic Party.

Sheer organized to run.

Again that was on there.

Also.

Under.

Their own mom the office.

But leave it.

Legal on.

People.

In the very ones.

That France formed America and
created an opportunity for a fresh.

Young Senate bill to come.

Under this under the new
America under the law.

We have lost.

All the manhunt.

That was not.

With the argument that
yes you can answer him

in French form and
I will eat the car because I feel.

As fortunate as you Mr Austin
that all of you for if.

He were instrumental in
the African-American and

very nervous governors around this so
I want to look in the city.

I want to go to school and torsion your

patient id Yes the significance of

what we're here to do they did but
But what if.

She said You look at.

Our Watch to be here because
the right that was me.

But I was just basic training school.

Which was almost there for
the next generation

because every generation has
a responsibility or the needs of.

The Sunni group and
there was an activist in Berkeley there

when the campaign against her and
I was and she chairs

came to my home called it was
this where I was aware who

the sheep to to lead and
then you see Cox who can come home

who isn't against her this is
Susan on the phone the morgue.

Ground.

Wire.

Taps and sometimes it was only.

And nobody spoke about her she
really was only Holder and

who answering her she could go
to prison I mean was it true

you can follow and
as examples I wish to know

Miss some of them who has you really
can't know who publishes you.

Know simply isn't this is another person
the mask who know we are all nice and

it will never come out signed it was so
we don't see any models around her hind.

Hoops to get a.

Say.

For such a business working at it OK.

Thank you for your comments and I think as
people try to figure out what happened and

about the chasm between different

types of left leaning groups you know
that was part of the problem during

the primary is that what we think
about as progressive today is

does seem to be inclusive of
African-Americans in particular and so

that about it's been a longstanding divide
between racial progress and the people who

are progressive on other movements
whether it's peace the environment and

other types of issues so I think what the
Democrats will be doing going forward is

trying to forge a strategy to make
sure that we can figure out a way for

all of these groups to come together and
for

no one group to feel slighted at the you
know using the rainbow coalition

battle as as as one particular case to say
is you know it's a great place to start.

And I ended a state.

Several higher which has always been
thought of as a battleground state

presidential election and
we're going to stay

I am not only with her downtrodden but
what they're trying by 8 points

a state at Brocklebank who wanted 90 and
started in 2008 by

almost 8 points and
be elected in 2012 by about 4 points.

While.

If you took a look at an area like
the Youngstown Ohio area which is a very

blue collar working class area.

Donald Trump came there.

And talked to.

Unemployed steelworkers and
said you don't know the steel plants

I mean that all the steel plants but
he gave them hope.

He went down to the coal country where
coal mines been closed for years and

told me all the coal mines that of
the gold mines he gave hope my point

is that there's a reason why
Donald Trump is president away

and a lot of us during the campaign and

folks like me were around a long time and
have some history of winning in Ohio

never once were consulted
by the campaign every time.

We you know.

We thought about the uses of
date myself as an old song by

a British singer called Dusty Springfield
is called the wishing and

hoping we're wishing and hoping that
what we were seeing was not happening

it all started from signs that we saw
were real people who you know were in our

we can see a lot of American science and
I saw tonight in my neighborhood signs for

Donald Trump and places read of such
signs before and the reason why is that

Democrats have failed
in terms of the working

class folks of this country and
Donald Trump was right in many respects in

terms of they have not had a wage increase
commensurate with everybody else.

We had a banking crisis when Obama took
office anybody remember anybody going

to jail on Wall Street you remember
banks being fined millions and

millions of dollars when nobody going to
jail Meanwhile somebody said I want to

find out banks going to prison for

On Tuesday was a repudiation
not just of Hillary Clinton but

of Bill Clinton because when Bill Clinton
was president he gave us NAFTA.

That are Republican he gave us NAFTA.

Barack Obama wants to give us P.P.P.

the working class people view their jobs
going overseas because in that after and

this was the 1st chance they had to
vote on Bill Clinton he didn't run for

election in 2000 Hillary Clinton
was not the nominee in 2008 but

Bill Clinton was on the ballot
in 2016 in addition so

I mean we look back in this election and
we see Donald Trump for all his gold Gary

and outrageousness which which he was
in is he also said some things to scrub

home and when he talked about
you know that he looked

in the camera remember this because it to
me it was important moment and he said.

When he got to lose.

What he got to lose you know you
see you know what you've gotten for

the Democrats are you really you know he
didn't say we better off now they were for

we saw something happen on Tuesday
which was not so much about who voted.

Who didn't vote who didn't think
it was a difference and and

so we take that going forward and
you know in times like this this is a time

to basically you know say well he's mean
on that but then you know say wait a 2nd

you know we got a fight here and we've got
a chance because of how many Democrats

are in the Senate and how many Republicans
there are who got Trump supporters to

stop a lot of the things they want to do
but we sit back and watch it and and and

moan it's not going to happen you know
that this is a time to move forward and

we need to find candidates for

office who are new new blood we don't
need any old brother to go on and

nothing against Congressman Ellison but
we don't need a person of the D.N.C.

who's elected official been through that
kind of thing I was once resigned taking

his position is one thing we need some new
blood and I pointed out to somebody who

I didn't know this gentleman other than
what I saw on T.V. 7 ran for the U.S.

Senate in Missouri a state that.

Truck was easily seen as Jason Cantor
he was the secretary of state and

he came within 3 points of beating an
incumbent Republican with a very very very

memorable ad he's after and

better Afghan veteran who basically
assembled a rival blindfolded and that was

the spark that I'm talking about people
going to look at people who didn't win but

people who are new generation were
things that Jesse Jackson bequeath

to us not just me but forever
because new people getting involved

is all about involvement this is the time
to go stick your head in the sand.

And they'd like us less than we have
you hold your comments for a 2nd and

let what people think of the great.

Sound.

Of those who are here.

All night regular at least we
appreciate you trying out on and

you got to take medication.

And here he is in the I.C.U.
on my bus in the 3

time zone from now on
where we land will not.

Be here economists anything coming
on tonight exactly and then you eat.

Beans out you know I'm here by finding
them right now but it's like making my.

Own Car thank the panel for.

Clarifying the number of
aspects of the relationship.

You need to meet here and not mine all.

Of that.

Very much so I want to.

Just to be struck by
lightning I hear that.

Always bombing campaigns.

Here's a here are different for different.

Aspects of objects and the.

Both of which are partial Perhaps
you believe the market just for

the partial And
the actress who just picks up the.

the building to connect it to the lower

right to do it very much partial
after that because I thought.

The ones that were put
there were the partly what.

He brought But all this work
started out of course that will

just be that knowledge for
all factor in all the whole motivation and

so I don't want to hear from the last
question the finger about as well and I.

Get the other you didn't want to
kill here one of them and yet for

me to bother with it and
yet well just give it to.

A new leadership and
you know you don't do it.

And so that I wish because we
getting down out there are often all

social how those pieces
can be convicted or

go forward for
our books do he's a 19 there's a lot.

More.

You never know with more of a man who's
going to remember reading society.

Soon to some movies with me.

I think it was in that I
hadn't really heard the rest.

Really well the politics
of them are broken.

America was going to be
holes through the heart of.

This is a war culture war
the government we were.

None of the.

Really.

On.

Our scene you know because we're.

South of the peoples coming
together to get there.

We never there are these settlers here.

We settlers there are the peace to
this country the native people or

the religious people around the world

the fundamental law of all
tell that somehow is he'll.

Call it a high why do you think
he should do that they just

balance all that are actually down
peacefully and the United States that's

what it is the minute various Andrews
was available to go there are still

very low income inequality and
it is it is really really the rest of

the world we have been through to just
leave it in her own good society here.

I think got through the coffin Steves I
don't know who's got a good deal of this

justice is still the problem
has not been dealt with this is

a work on should we go here we need
to be 5 closing pieces for those of.

Us with the right all the people.

Who sell through the leaves the military
industrial complex who have really

done this in their heart
of living in this force.

So afterwards are going to go all right.

Yes you know we're.

All really.

Partners in this war so there's a lot
of the lose of a mother who's losing.

So I just want to put 2nd thing
over time and then when terrible

they're trying to lump all the questions
I actually understand that when we say.

I mean one of the things that
we think about going for

my back I think a lot of thinking.

We should be rushed necessarily
to to kind of assess and

then this is exactly what went wrong this
is what we've done this is what we're

doing this is I mean it really is
going to take some time to do our

part of that is looking at the factors and
looking at the fragility of the Democratic

coalitions that pre-date what we're seeing
right now are pretty the ninety's pretty

pretty seventy's I mean this goes back
pretty far one thing I want to be very

careful about feeling is that any any
kind of movement going forward and

particularly looking at working class and
working at poor voters has to be very

careful about unpacking the racial
dynamics that are all too often and

we're seeing it in a lot of these
discussions is that working class has

become part of the white working class we
have to think about you know why is it

that black Latino Asian working class and
poor voters do not vote for Donald Trump.

In fact we can look at it I think we can
look at the weight working class vote and

say that it's put in interesting ways that
don't doesn't necessarily translate into

this idea that every single member
of the white working class went for

Donald Trump That's
categorically not true.

So I do want to be make sure that we
are very very careful in that regard

particularly as we think about
the coalition building and

one other thing that I think that
hasn't necessarily come up in

this conversation is the gender
dynamics and thinking about that but

also thinking about it as we begin 10
packs kind of the whiteness and it's real.

Lation chip to Donald Trump thinking
about white women and their role and

electing Donald Trump because as we think
about coalitions and as we think about

kind of minority communities coming
together to become a political bloc

this is something I think that the Clinton
campaign had counted on and really.

Let them down and a number and I don't
know what the top her proper terminology

is but you know when women overwhelmingly
went for Donald Trump as well so.

I think that you know Obama as an example
one of the things one of the biggest

problems Obama we had no Obama presidency
we actually had no critique of him

within black spaces in fact people who
critique Obama within black spaces were

teen we condemn you can take
the example of Cornell West and.

Tavis Smiley right I don't want to
do that so I am not going to I guess

I am here because of jocks I can point
that point to that in a number of ways but

what we have to do is create spaces in
black communities where we can actually

engage in critique with our elders
right that we have to do that we can't

proceed forward without that
as far as the comment about

the comment about Matthew countries might
come from is coming I think what we have

interestingly enough is a dynamic where
Obama appealed to charismatic elements

of the Jackson campaign with out without
fully embracing the progressive elements

and aggressive elements would include
the arguments both for peace and the and

it's just general inequality dynamic
that Jackson brought to the table but

also really a careful attention to people
running for office down ballot so I think.

That progressive dynamic Sanders
picked up that progressive dynamic

without also dealing with the down
ballot stuff I think Sanders has more of

a possibility going forward to
do that than Obama does which

also suggests that there is this problem
with charismatic authority particularly as

it ends up connecting to the neoliberal
term that we have to be leery of.

So the piggyback that I would.

Characterize rock Obama's 2800 painting
as a lever candidacy and so I'm thinking

about this in a camera factual term what
if Obama had lost would he have gone to

the D.N.C. and made demands that would
structurally change the party I don't see

any evidence that that was his plan going
into that bank use going to run to when

and you know I do work on black
politicians of his generation X.

and I know he's a little bit older than
that but in the put him in that generation

because he emerged at the same time there
are certain types of black politicians who

lose elections so that they can
use that as a stepping point for

a future election and so what I think
he was doing in 2008 was that if he

lost that election he just use that as
grounds to kind of be next in line or

the heir apparent for future nomination I
don't think he was thinking about leverage

in the end that way and so I'm not doing
this in the same way but I would like in

his candidacy more Shirley Chisholm's
candidacy in 872 where you just want to

run to sort of say that you can add to
sort of you know make it more possible for

people to do this in the future
perhaps even yourself I think Lester

has added to the already eloquent comments
about the things that we overlook and

the histories that we refuse to
acknowledge in this country but

I do want to address the question
about what to do in the future and

I want to go back to my water because
I think it's really important

to to go back to Ron Walters Walters also
advocated what he called an inside outside

strategy I don't see that actually being
affected we deployed right now but

hopefully we will learn from this of all
those people who didn't vote because they

thought that Trump was 6 of one and
Clinton's half a dozen of the other and

now you kind of realize that you know Jeff
Sessions could be your attorney generals

like that that's the that's
a contrast there.

That that we see those differences and
so it's not protests or

voting you know extra
electoral politics and

then you know being a political
insider it's both there and

everybody has to work together so
you can assume that just.

Somebody is an elected official
who has said the right things and

it's from the right group that they're
always going to automatically do that

without outside pressure they don't
need to be held accountable or

they need some type of affirmation
from the outside that says that this

is what they need to be doing so
they can go to their colleagues and

say look there are those people on
the street who are clamoring for this so

that hopefully the lesson that we learn
from this is that our political engagement

has to be multi-level that you have to
engage state local and national politics

and that also needs to use all of
the arrows in the put which means that

sometimes that is involved in voting and
running for office sometimes that is

meeting with politicians and lobbying
sometimes as being out in the street and

it's going to be all in it's not going
to be just one thing over another.

Or more injuries sure.

Where we go sort of prescriptive 98.

Reverend Jackson or 3 elected
white politicians support through.

Her Sanders who has made or
broken the law.

Already here and carpools the mere
Berkeley California Jam I tell her

who said Mr agriculture
Mr Texas 20 years later

Rakhal her to be going to
reclaim a good school etc.

You know that's important to
know what happened though.

I really want to thank
everybody in the audience for

participating in this question for
our panelists for starting us off and

this is not the end we have a panel
at 12 which is going to be teacher.

University of Michigan activists across
multiple generations of students

I hope you'll go to that 12 o'clock
in the ampitheater and before that

if you'll pick up a lot of us something to
eat before you step in thank you so much.

OK sure.

Good morning.

The Christmas things.

You do for.

Love and bring them to.

Say.

Give me.

Rivers a look back never goes
doesn't make you have not.

Always a.

Good thing to.

Listen to the 1st person.

And.

Obviously knew.

That.

You didn't play a.

Good bit of going to come see.

You on.

Religious $2000000.00 plus bullied and
really.

Lucky to have met the issue for
me to see you all over the world.

So that we acted as a baby and
she was like.

It was the last time it.

Was a pretty black hole.

The most.

Well this was.

All.

No.

More.

Long mistress but.

It's like home my.

Good slogan of the whole you see
one thing the other says of.

The author of the Torah with more.

Just part of me.

In the vision by the Brotherhood both are.

The girl.

That held the stage prayed about.

The phrase a black hole the 8.5 percent.

Increase of what it will look for.

More on this thing in the March
after the mosque itself.

Is dismissed the less life
is the more she wants a.

Good book out called a longer life in the.

Precinct OK.

She put it in the reader
on the 6th of crucifix.

And so moved all those caps and I said
to the precinct so when the long but

still 6 hours to the.

Campus through the precincts is no
throughout the world and the like.

As opposed to the book by.

This person like a book in the Torah.

Didn't disagree with it being.

The stuff it kept on stage right

through those of the levels in
the book rather like a bull on.

Question really why it didn't respond
to the black book that the weather.

In 2000 she has issued.

From a large piece of floor
we can see Jesus prayed.

For this.

We will find a significant
fall is pretty black.

Sea level because I'm broke through
the drill being the phrase to do it.

But was told.

In Florida.

In the local line in this.

And then I.

Was in the city like this a while
they both of us both are in the boat

very very good and the one you know.

Really had to leave for
the who was one of your.

Good Will I just massive additional
piece where I want to stay with all

that mess to go one on one work day
to both and I think it will suppress.

That course because of the players
who were willing to fight all.

The protection of the life of.

THE PRESIDENT I didn't matter whether you
know him because it felt odd Disney or.

One reason I feel time to run
the electoral college to go.

We'll just get a 2000000
make a 3000000 voters feel.

And your people we don't know
from someone that has a serious

aristocracy versus democracy
because didn't a crisis fight.

That so if you live back to your nose and
go through all of the key

states did you really lose if you
won we would be discussed and.

Maybe a little.

Bit leader that he was so cool that that
had to go more than generous of him or

Rick did the homily
describing how the more well

the longer of we stuck to his along with
us than it was we're going to be both.

Close to those of the stolen
posted pretty good.

Images all rolled into
people's modeling not look so

long of a lead that goes
with just death and the.

Second piece of it is that.

Just like lawful that.

Would trigger of course.

With no law nothing in the law.

That.

Case in point here we go on.

To the what do I or the right.

Here.

For what it is about my.

Life to heal from the biggest
of people dearth of it.

Because it just has a fallacious number

we've got to stick to 19
cities of the system.

Because of years of blacks in the dark.

And with violent we're going
to hear of the British.

Who never come up with a nice
piece of the file was this

blast couldn't pull just
with the foundation of the.

Blast of a rifle 65 in the 1st 75 years

what with what we've
been through winter is a.

Fun little bit of a ****.

To your good book last
book a book that means a.

Good book after the last little
book came out because if.

We're going to we're going
both will be more valid So.

Did I but I do believe that with.

Or without all the data flows
Hillary will want to rise or

fall the readers will rule life not
enough social media vocalist and

all that without that we brought
along coffee whom we traded.

A divorce or the one.

We change the rules to that would allow
them to just go on the book while I was

a bit of all the black for
the rest of us go broke my god.

We could we never use it when it make it.

And then over the phone book walk through
the glass at the one thrown off for

getting broken home while the rest
of the girls in here have

been taking whatever has put
the gold it clear we go away

as a civil rights struggle
not fundamentally blue.

Cool now this is something something
something good we would all be wrong of in

the victory look from
the Supreme Court we won the Senate

as one of those for a while likely and
just Democrats would

like to get like several with my
boy just like the white people did.

Not dump a death of a little above
those of good living above the called

Mr Krugman it really would be to them it
was a good Republican that was 3 right

away with another way because we have this
one from from Jefferson Davis to Franks.

Who was the river Republican we were
the focus of liberal Republicans and

kids often feel great we should
be thought out of high and

if you're still not just really good
at this as a young life on the next and

the best luck in California Listen
listen just blow.

Off the.

Good boy hair see go for
want of work building the life.

And love of.

The city.

Come for me Miss over Ethernet and
record home in the way.

These persons all living
off the seed sown.

Give switching off
the record of local river

Well I don't like I have my rounds
I like to go in the beauty.

Shop without my wife Don't look here you
know which is the people's house of both.

I suppose I hope it.

Doesn't one was good enough for
the one of the small good good it was

and and it will be good back into
the camera you said that's a house that I

own they come to me and I think they're.

Pretty great stuff.

I curse of.

The day for the little gold.

We created we got it for the building
he said that about right here for

the for the delegates he did
a good part of the team leader.

Who did it really good
look don't use it get it.

And I guess it was both come
of it thing to me for her.

He said I was thinking of the big.

Love.

Yourself believe in love.

And I saw you the very heart of my heart.

And thus they.

Just didn't have.

Their father mission impossible so
see the roof through the 3 windows it

that part of me we were sick of pain.

The floor of the roof.

We said to prevent the president goes
to the grave with the little good

religion life we miss a list
of Middle East Coast suppose

the privacy of the rubbish and didn't
miss it we miss to stop the drug flow.

With the center of the house and

I may just look up because
the lens looks in the right.

List just now.

But we didn't but
also I'm looking close it was all

the impact of this campaign
the focus of the this just a little.

Bit because if this is how.

To follow just they both write.

They should.

And just as Ford made the decision to 3
weeks in spite of it not he was laughable.

Big Brother for her.

Favorite.

And those of those who have
a good girl who should be free.

From the city wrote if he does
not pardon her youngest that.

Would serve as a proof of that.

And and a very good one for more years.

For the 4 cold case rule
about books that 1 May go to.

Hillary Clinton for
the humiliation of this and

both of those Americans
who have paid the bill do.

They will all be demanded by executive
order that they did not get revoked.

With.