in november politically, in december economically on the budget. well in order for us to figure out what we are going to do, we are going to have to do something i always thought i would do while i was in public school. i got an education, as you mentioned. i get credit for having gone to yale, it's true. but i wasn't born at yale. i was born on the edge of a small town in rural west tennessee. both my parents were public schoolteachers, and i had a public schoolteacher named ms. brown, who is my kindergarten teacher. ..

>> we called them teachers commonly called the nurses come only called him liberians come only called them firefighters come only called them police officers, they were the pillars of our community. they were our everyday heroes. we look up to them. we were taught to respect them. we were taught to say, yes, ma'am, and no, sir to them. and they never abandon us. not one time. no matter how big the fire, no matter how heinous the crime, no matter how slow learner.

we say no, we are a better country than that, we are going to let these people up and treat them right. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] let's just be smart enough to follow the advice. she didn't have a big budget to draw on, but she knew how to get people thinking caps on. let's put it untended we were too emotional at times to learn all the right lessons. what can we learn? will commitment from 2008? what with untended what can we learn? will what can we learn from 2008? we all know the happy part of it. after people went from holding, they went to moping.

they went from hope to heartbreak. what happened? we didn't know enough. we've got something that was not true. we thought that we had 100% of what we needed to govern in america. we had the house, the best speaker we ever had, nancy pelosi. we have the house of representatives. [applause] we had the senate with 60 votes. and we have president obama. we have enough to govern. it turned out not to be true. it turned out we only have one third of what we needed to govern. it turns out we just don't need formal control of the government. but you also need to other things. you have to have a movement industry and we abandoned this industry could you have to have a media establishment, like they have. with us only having the

government for not having people peacefully and not lightly and not having a coordinated media strategy, we were checkmated by fired up, fearful, right-wing, funded by my brother billionaires, and we were checkmated. it doesn't mean the administration didn't make big mistakes. we will talk about those. but fundamentally, we did not have what we needed. to be able to govern from below, even if the democrats tried to govern from above. we had a top down instead, the streets were filled not with people like us, but with people like spitting on people, calling them the and word.

those people stopped our movement. many people set out in 2010. what can we learn from 2010? because the right-wing was on the margin. they didn't turn out that many more people in 2010 then in 2008. we just turned out a lot fewer. we stood up set up in 2008 and made history. we set down in 2010 and helped other people made history. people say it doesn't matter who is in office, who wins these elections, i'm just so disgusted. i can't take this. it doesn't matter. who cares.

ask the people who live in ohio if it matters. after people who are living with the consequences of that kind of demobilization and demoralization. [applause] >> tread carefully now. careful, now. careful, now. you have more power and influence than you recognize. be careful, now. everyone in this room, most people who watch it at home, are what are called opinion leaders. you are an opinion leader. people look to you in your social network and they look to your facebook page and we will

get your e-mails, trying to figure out what is right and wrong. careful, now. it is a dangerous time to be reckless and irresponsible with the power that we do have. we are now in danger of demobilizing and demoralizing people at the very moment that they need to be lifted up, just like doctor terri dead. be careful, now. you see, for us to quit now, surrender now, it is to disrespect the shoulders of the people we are standing on. it is to disrespect them. [applause] change step is just too hard, man. i voted once. and you see what happened. democracy is not an act. it is not an act.

it is not an app you can download it and push the button one time. the people in my father's generation knew what it meant to fight for change. they had dogs sit on them fighting for change. they had firehoses put on them. fighting for change. they were beaten when fighting for change. some of them went to jail fighting for change. some were murdered and put in the ground, martyrs, dead, gone, nothing to come back, fighting for change. we will quit over a really mean

tweet. [laughter] did you read that terrible tweet? i just can't stand it. so we have a quandary. if we just support the president, just vote for the democrats, we don't get what we want, but if we don't, our opponents get power and decimate us. there is a quandary. can we put our thinking caps on now. look at what they do when they get power, just in case you haven't paid attention. didn't get the memo. i think that the unions have perhaps gone a bit too far. i think what we should do is perform -- no, they decimate us. they destroy the unions.

since they got power, they got even worse. we are the only ones with the back and have power and go -- go through to get power. and then once we get it, we now have power. we will now be bipartisan. [laughter] can we compromise on something, please? >> is that what they do they met no. when they get power, they decimate us. they are going to eliminate the epa to just wipe it out. the epa, probably saves more american lives in the past 30 years than even the department of defense. the epa, which is keeping the poison out of our children's bodies. when they get power, they use it to destroy us, but if we just report the existing democrats,

we still wind up just disappointing. what is the answer? what we need to do? very simple. the lesson of the past decade is very clear. you have the wrong president, say, george bush, doesn't matter how strong your movements. we have the best movement, the movement of peace to try to stop this country from invading iraq. your movement. it was beautiful, nothing wrong with that movement. millions of people you put in the street. he put more people in the street to stop the invasion of iraq in six weeks then the entire mobilization against vietnam put in the streets in six years. you put a magnificent movement on the street. you have the right movement coming of the wrong president. ardently, you have the right

president with obama. but the people in the streets were the wrong people, they were the tea party. and the tea party -- they changed the narrative and discussion in the envelope so much that they were able to make austerity the watchword last year when every economist in the world said it would be the worst thing to do. so you had arguably the right president of the wrong movement. the key to real change is to have the right president and the right movement at the same time. that is the way forward. what that means is yes, we have to reelect the president. and we have to re-energize the movement. you see, that is the right formula. you have to have a president willing to be moved. you can't have a bush or a romney or a coke brothers puppet. you can't have an immovable president. you have to have a president willing to be moved, but you also have to have a movement

willing to be moved. listen, the young people have taught us something. in this past year, since we were here together. and if we learn that lesson, we can win in november and in december. look at these extraordinary young people. they are blessed with not knowing that the causes we champion are impossible. that is their great blessing. look at the young people who decided, despite the fact that this administration has supported more than bush, despite the fact that there our laws being put on the books in place -- places like arizona. despite that any moment they could be snatched away, or their mother or father could be snatched away, despite all of that discouragement.

step forward. and said that i am in undocumented child, but i want to be here, i want to be respected, i am not afraid. i am undocumented, but i am not afraid. look at the courage of that. can you imagine being a child, knowing no other country but this one, and knowing that the only way you get to stay it's the silent -- is to be quiet -- it's to be cynical, it is to believe the worst about the country and never break breath to say what's in your heart or say who you are -- just be white and cynical and don't believe in america and you get to stay. if you speak out and believe it's a better country, you may be safer here -- to live in a land you don't know.

look at the courage of these young people. look at their beliefs and who we are as a country. and they set forward. when it was hard, when nobody would have counseled them to do it. and moved the president and the nation. now, you have an example. look at these young people. can we be as wise and courageous as these young people. look at the ones who watched the hopes of the planet. the hopes of the planet he destroyed by a do-nothing obstructionist congress that still has not moved on climate change or toward clean energy, but they are stuck on stupid, for three or four years, look at the face of that. they said the big folks can move congress. the big environmentalist folks

can best they will just go on and do something else, they said no. look at these young people. we are not going to let them put this -- john this dirty needle of a pipeline into america. we are not going to let them take the dirtiest energy ever created and cook it up and stick it up into this country. we are going to stand up and we don't care if anybody comes to help them. they broke the field last year, the civil disobedience against white house. nobody a year ago was saying it is time to do civil disobedience against the white house. these young people said my future and the future of the planet is too great. they went down in the heat of august. in the heat of august. [applause] they sat in and thousands were arrested in the media tried to ignore it, but a message was sent. through their church, the

project was derailed, the fight goes on, but look at the young people who have transformed their discussion on lesbian, gay, transgender rights. look at their courage, culturally and politically. look at the young people who rescued america last year. coming out of that horrible august where the tea party put congress in a headlock and said if you don't go and do what we say, we are going to destroyed america's credit rating, and this whole town gave in and trembled in fear. we will create a super committee to do super damage to the american people. and some young people and some struggling folks, no poster no

lobbyists, no big grants. went down with some sleeping bags and tents to the scene of the crime of their future, and occupy wall street and turn this country upside down. [applause] [applause] talking about economic equality, the super committee -- they say those young people, they are messaging and the messaging was not that great. what was their agenda. i have an agenda. and a grant. and 501 brief status.

oh, these young people -- but they obliterated entire idea that we are going to add damage to damage in this country and fought for years to put our thinking caps on. we have a responsibility now to be as brave and as courageous and as determined as these young people who have shown that if you struggle, you can win. if you fight, you can make progress. you think we haven't made enough, but we haven't tried enough. there is a lesson trying to push through this catastrophe. there is some hope on the verizon if we aim for it. , so we have to do three things going forward. first, we have to win in

november. we have our to talk about the steaks there. part of the reason we have to win in november is because we have to also when in december. they let me in the white house for about six months. and i took some notes. i learned a couple things. one of the things that i learned is there is something called a lame-duck session. you could win in november and lose in december because it is december when the most important budget battle of the past 20 years and of the next 20 years will take place. it is december, not just november, that progresses after the rally. it is december that is the reason that we have to get off

our heads and begin to mobilize the people. it is december that the bush tax cuts expire and they will either give the rich more of a break and put more pain on the people or we are finally going to move towards some kind of justice. it is in december that the cult rants run out and low income doors college will be shut for a generation. it is december that every can that was kicked down the road, they said we will deal with that after the election. after the election now has a name. it is called december. okay? and it is in december that a wrecking ball will possibly come down on our heads, or we can follow the lead of the young people and stand and fight. three things we have to do. let's take advantage of the media that we already have. a great documentary called the

heist, who stole the american dream. it will be shown at the conference. we have independent film and media makers beginning to checkmate the power of this right-wing media machine. number two, the fight in december has to be over economics. he can fight now over economic questions, student loans. if we don't make congress act, the student loan rate is going to double from three-point for percent to 6.8%, taking $20 million out of the pockets of the next generation of students. they are going to have to cough up an extra $20 billion. we want young people to be excited about our issue, we need to get excited about young people's issues and stop them from doing this to these young

people. we have a third of american homes underwater right now. there is a bill in front of congress, rebuild the dream come along with others on the stage in this room that would let homeowners refinance, even if they are under water. take advantage of the lower interest rates. it would save $10 billion a year. for about 14 million households. every year, going forward. those are the kind of fights that we cannot relent on just because congress wants to play politics with the american people. these are real-life struggles for the american dream that is on the table. we need to continue those fights going forward. the last thing we have to do this this. let's put our thinking caps on.

the other side is not playing tic-tac-toe. they are not playing checkers. they are not playing chess. they will have their congressional delegation signing pledges to grover norquist. saying that they're never going to raise taxes no matter what happens to america. our hands are tied, and we can give you what you want come as you have to give us what we want. our hands are tied. yeah, i grew up and i got my

education. it was a smart move. it reminds me of boethius, old public school. he put himself in peril, going past the sirens. so i won't get into the siren call. i remember that. mr. thurman, 11th grade. he said time and hands. tie me to the man. so i won't get into the siren call. they have been doing that for long time. well, i think it's time for us to make just one demand. just one demand of this president. just one demand of this white house. and we are not stupid. we are not going to lay down.

let the tea party one america. we have to fight in november and december, two, so you need to do something to help us when the real fight goes down. when it goes down in december. we know this president is a good family man. he doesn't like to use rough language, i understand that. he doesn't like to use dirty talk. he is a good family man. but we have to request. i call and this president to use 14 letter word when it comes to these bush tax cuts to the rich. just 14 letter word. just 14 letter word from this president, a vow to veto an attempt for the republicans to

give this country over. [applause] [applause] we want him to veto any bill that comes before him that will let the rich walkaway with another extension. it is time for the wealthy people in america to pay america back. they have gone the benefits of the tax breaks, the bailouts, the bonuses, and they have left us with a grand bargain which is neither grand nor a bargain. it is their justice and done. you don't hand me that, do you? i learned that from reverend jackson. he said it is time for breakfast. if we are going to be fair to everyone in the barnyard, turned to the hand and he says to me one of your little eggs and he turned to the pig and said give

me one or two of your legs. that is ham and eggs justice. a little tiny, tiny contribution from the rich and a devastating body blow to working class, middle class, and poor people. we say no. there's nothing grand about that. it is not a bargain. it is time for the wealthy people in this country who we are proud of their achievements. but they didn't make it by themselves. they used to be when i grew up, if you did well in america, you could do well by america. we call the president to issue a veto. thank you very much. [applause] [applause] [applause]

[applause] >> we have one more. thank you very much. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] >> i think we are done. thank you very much, and let's get working. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations][inaud]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> the campaign for america's future conference on the progressive movement in this year's elections continued with an hour-long tango that looks at rotor turnout. >> ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats. please welcome the director of campaign for america's future, roger hickey. [applause] [applause]

>> alright, i would like to bring on her piano. transborder, molly katchpole from rebuild the dream, and damon silvers from afl-cio. >> we are still filling the room, so i want to take a moment to do a shout out to the generational alliance and all of the young activists that they have brought her to this conference, the campaign -- but have enlivened this conference and i found the average age of this conference, and brought us those is the reality on the ground. we have made a commitment to bring those people here, but we haven't -- i want to make a plug for you to use your tax, tax 1444, and in your message, say

future. just future, $30. we will not take any money from your card until you confirm what you like to would like to give us. but this would really really help to pay for the young people at this conference, let's are the generational alliance and all those groups. all the groups that they represent. >> text for 1444 and put in future. it is right there on everybody's table. brothers and sisters, i am a little bit like joel osteen come you have seen them on tv. i like to start with something funny. have you heard that mitt romney is running for president on a plan to create jobs? >> demand from bain capital. let me get something very clear. with 12.5 million americans

still out of work, and the middle class shrinking, the economic conservatives, the chamber of commerce, the republican party and mitt romney is a new wave of painful and destructive, economic austerity. they want to do to america what angela merkel and david cameron are doing to europe. they want to/public investment in everything from teachers and cops to medicare to roads and bridges. they are imposing austerity right now on the u.s. by demanding spending cuts and opposing every single plan to create jobs. after the election, as we heard this morning. whether they win or lose, the right-wingers are setting up yet another blackmail situation, by which we will threaten to throw the u.s. economy off the fiscal cliff, unless they get what they want. whether they want the extension of the bush tax cuts for the

wealthy, they want deep cuts in public spending, including medicare, medicaid, social security, and education. but not for the military contractors. on top of all this, they want more tax cuts for the top 1% and for the corporations. now, as we heard this morning, the conservative train wreck in december, avoiding that conservative train wreck requires that we were to win a progressive majority in congress this fall. our first beaker knows how to win. she was first in the illinois family and then in the congress, jan schakowsky was one of us. she was an activist of winning victories then and now for consumers and seniors and women. and she kept on being an activist in congress. as a member of the simpson-bowles commission, she

wrote a progressive alternative to that unpopular deficit plan. she advanced a clear plan for funding public needs through economic growth. not austerity, and through progressive taxation. she put forward real solutions. now, jan schakowsky also knows how to talk with americans about the economic devastation that conservative policies are imposing on working families. we asked her chair today to talk about how we can take a commonsense program like social security and medicare and create an economic future for young people on how we can win a new congressional majority that will prevent the conservatives from having the power to throw our country over the cliff in december. please give a big welcome to our

progressive champion, jan schakowsky. [applause] [applause] >> thank you so much roger and bob for organizing this fabulous event. i think i have been to every one of these conferences. at the take back america conference is. yesterday, my son showed me -- i haven't seen jon stewart, the hysterical that he did about the senate hearing with jamie dimon, if you haven't seen it coming you have to google it. it is just priceless. one of the things that he shows is jim demint talking to jamie dimon, who is saying that, you know, i really can't chastise you for losing $2 billion

because here in washington, we lose twice that much every single day. it comes back to jon stewart and he says doesn't senator demint, does senator demint really think that spending money is just the same as losing money? and then he knocks demands and says, yesterday, i had $4 million and now all i see is a freaking highway. where's my money? where is my money? that, i think, so clearly describes, first of all, the sense that somehow it isn't the people's money whatsoever. and this idea that spending is losing money in this country.

that is what the president is talking about, and i want to tell you that i am proud, once again come to be a cochair of the president's reelection campaign. i have known barack obama since chicago for the last 17 years. and he is talking about investment in education and energy and innovation and infrastructure and in doing fair tax reform dead this is the republican plan for job creation. more tax cuts for the rich, more deregulation of everything, particularly, the environmental protection agency, repealing obamacare, i say that, and i think we should all agree the term obamacare is great. obamacare -- we love the obamacare, and repealing dodd-frank. republicans now have gone from rooting against the economy to outright sabotage of the economy. if the transportation bill, which has always been a bipartisan bill, is not passed, far from creating jobs, this

could cost 1.9 million construction jobs, we are already well into the construction season, they will not pass a bill. john boehner threatened again a debt ceiling, not to raise the debt ceiling, which come in the last time, helped him in our economy further and put our credit rating to be diminished. we pass a legislation that we knew that we would have to mean jobs, because we would hire people to do the jobs that we needed to be done in our country. so, here is the trick. during the obama administration, 4.3 million jobs have been created. now, i know we had a bad week when we were talking about only

69,000 jobs that were created, i just want to point out that that 69,000 jobs is still 69,000 more jobs that were created than during eight years of the bush administration. [applause] twenty-seven months of street jobs. here is the solution that the republicans offer. austerity, we know how well that worked. roger pointed out how well that worked in europe. about the bulls system -- the bulls system plan, i offer my own alternative because i just want to make sure that everybody is clear about what bowles-simpson really good because i do not think that

people really understand what is in it. among other things, old simpson raised the retirement age for social security from 67 to 69. it cuts benefits for current security retirees because it changes the way that the cost of of living adjustment is copulated. it increases the cost of medicare, increases cost sharing, ships about 110 billion in costs to seniors and persons with disabilities. it was undermining employer-sponsored health insurance as it cuts the tax expenditures come all of these tax breaks, one of the things he would do would be to take a close look at how we can take this tax in sections for employer provided health care and diminish that. it is two thirds spending cuts and only one third increases in

revenue, many of those increases in a bad way, for middle-class people and for poor people. in many ways, if people really look at bowles-simpson, this is more of the same, an attack on middle income people and those who aspire to it. what are the good solutions? let me give you an example of how we win. last week, the president announced that those stream kids -- the dreamers would no longer be under the threat of deportation, and they can get work permits. >> another the president always thought that the dream act was a good idea and changing our immigration laws were a good idea, but it it certainly helped

that they day after day, the dreamers were out there organizing and putting out determined this message and mobilizing this issue, mobilizing really works. we see the results. progressive cannot be reluctant. we have to leave the way. we have to lead the way. is there any reason why any woman with any sense would vote for a republican? but we need to get the word out. it is not just this tremendous assault on our health care and our bodies. but every single republican voted against the paycheck fairness act in the senate. organizations like the national

committee to protect social security and medicare, the alliance for retired americans, social security works, the older women's act, we had everything in this room to make sure that women and planned parenthood and all those groups that work on our reproductive rights, are out they are mobilizing with their help, we can make sure the women's vote in the gap -- the gender gap closes even more and more. there is a warmer environment that we need to organize to protect. we need to relentlessly organize and we need to be ready for november 7.

it could be generations because remember the supreme court and those appointments. think of 2000 and one half of 18 to 24-year-olds didn't vote. they did not vote in 2010. one half did not vote in 2010. single women did not tend to come out to vote in 2010 and seniors, we lost by 21 points. the points in 2008 we lost and 21 points we lost, we cannot win the election -- they didn't so

much when is when we lost, our people did not mobilize and did not come out to vote. our progressive visions cannot grow in romney soil. we did it can only happen if we are smart enough and willing enough to make sure that every single day that we focus like a laser beam. on november 6, between now and then, the republicans are going to do everything they can in congress to make sure we can't pass anything that is going to help the economy. it is all about winning on november 6. we have to change the rules to

get rid of this filibuster. harry reid has now said he is for that. we can win, my friends, all the elements for victory. all the organizations and the leadership that it takes are in this room right now. we have a lot of work to do and we can be victorious. thank you. [applause] [applause] our next guest is molly katchpole from rebuild the dream. young people are really feeling the brunt of our economic

austerity policies. nobody has felt it worse than the young people coming out of high school and colleges right now. youth unemployment is over 16%. which means those kids lucky enough to have a job, to earn low wages, they have fewer prospects for her motion, and most stagger under the weight of massive debts, which make it close to impossible to buy a house or start a family or move this economy. many know that wall street has ripped off the generation big-time. they are discovering that conservative austerity is a dagger aimed at their futures, including their social security, they're medicare, their health care, as they get older. now, we are going to hear from

molly katchpole, a 23-year-old activist from rhode island, who last year took on date of america's 5-dollar per month debit card fee, using an online petition and she won. [applause] [applause] in only five weeks, she won. time magazine's person of the year cover story. please welcome molly katchpole. >> i am very subtly chicken grounded by the expenses of my

family my dad would wake up at 4:00 o'clock in the morning and make his 45 minute drive to the point that he works out in massachusetts. he is a machinist. he has worked in this plant for 30 years. i remember him coming home in his pants that were streaked with grease. he wore thick, carhart overalls with a shirt patch in. he would stay home and take care mean the afternoon. my mother took classes with an associates degree. leon, she became a hand massage therapy person. my sister, 10 years older than me and clear, i love her, and i

wanted to be just like her. when i was young, i knew she was gay and i love her. just like i love all the people. why should my? i experienced shared values and love. interconnectedness, respect,, values of human dignity, and this has shaped my work and i approach my work with the understanding. this is the power of the west that we need to reclaim and continue to strive for. love, caring, and respect for everyone. [applause] [applause] i believe that there are overarching experiences within my generation, and there is one certainty. we are undergoing a major cultural shift in our generation -- my generation is fundamentally different than that generations before us.

we will be one third of the electorate in 2016. 80 million strong. this is the reality that we live in. we had $1 trillion this year. why is this? the tuition fee had doubled, while the median income had risen only 2.1% over that same time frame. that's troubling tenures. graduates, ages 21 to 24, almost 20% are underemployed and 20% are not employed. these numbers also in no way reflect racial disparities that exist and continue to perpetuate. we have little hope for secure retirement. in the very future of our planet is at risk. i am going to discuss a couple

of points and how they relate to the budget of austerity. how are movement is having it, completely upper underrepresent every race, socioeconomic content economic status, and sexual orientation. and we need to completely read readjust the way we talk about and enact and engage in politics by identifying, correcting, and experiences cultural shift. like i said, it excludes young people. this is a giant mistake because we will make up one third of the electorate in 2013. we are disengaged and disconnected because politicians do not accurately represent that. when leaders talk about what really matters, they are really thinking about how young people are thinking about and experiencing what really matters. leaders are thinking of talking

about the economy and not talking to those groups, and how can you, when the median age of the sender is six years old. the average term for senator is tenures and a representative is 11 years. our current congress, only 8% are african-american, 6% are latino, 3% are asian, or native hawaiian or pacific islander ancestry, and there is one native american member of congress. when i was looking at the statistics, i also looked at the list of occupations, and i was wondering where are the green collar workers and the electricians and the developers -- the nonprofit grant writers, police officers, environmental scientists, artists, organic farmers, peter tex, nurses -- where is america? [applause]

[applause] >> let's be real. evil like my parents, a physical therapist assistant in a machinist, i don't use that phrase -- we don't use it because it is not actually what we're talking about either. and that isn't getting bogged down by terminology, as it turns out, people aren't actually losing. let's boil it down to what it actually is. it is to fundamentally systems. it is believed that when we spend it responsible and shortsighted, and it is the belief that the government has an important role to play by investing in our people who, in turn, allow us to innovate and grow. and to dispel that even further, it is what my parents taught me. it is pull yourself up by your

bootstraps mentality. it isn't what is good for my neighbor is good for me. it is a set of values, it is how we think and informs the decisions that we make and how we live our lives. we are going to set up we continue playing on the right-field by only playing defensively rather than going on the offensive. we must lay out a vision of the future and wisely support innovation and what we are going to get out of it. we need to continue to ourselves, to continue to engage rather than engaging in policy debate, it and look at the world and way we can truly succeed. young people are going to be engaged. one third of the electorate. this cultural shift that i mentioned, what is it and how does it relate to the framing? i'm not going to say anything groundbreaking, but it surprises me that this is so seldom named

unacknowledged. this is the world as it is, and this is how we are. young people are infinitely more connected than previous generations. we communicate different than other people do, a percentage of twitter users, 20% are black, and 20% are between the ages of 18 and 29. we grew up with shows like colbert report, daily show, the south park and the symptoms. it is who we are. it is funny, witty, and very fun. we understand the roles that corporations play in politics it is not fooling us. open secrets.org allows us to see exactly who donate and the we are not happy about it. my generation is completely different in how we build power.

we have things that envision a new economy from pooling of resources. we do things as less permanent, we are not afraid of change. indeed, we think about the future and what makes us happy, we do not want our jobs to define our lives. like my dad said. we want our lives to define our jobs. an example of this, and i realize that it's not every young person who will have this privilege -- but my sister and her partner decided to leave their job a couple of years ago to travel in southeast asia. ..

it's incredible, despite our skepticism and disillusionment. so solutions here, another world is possible. we are envisioning another america, one that actually accurately represents this make up. we need to elect young people to office. our political system isn't broken. we are just not using it correctly. [applause] we need to elect people to office that don't have advanced degrees, elect community college students, elect machine is like my dad. and let people to office who are not in bed with the banks because that i will tell you something we are sick of taking a backseat to bankers and we all need to fight to get money out of politics. [applause] and i think one thing that may

be most important here for my generation is that we need to completely overhaul the way we send our students to college. this is part of the cultural shift. education is a right, not a privilege. [applause] and more and more, we are ushered along the path to college and that is the path to debt. we cannot keep going down that path and that is our battle. so in that vein we need to work simple legislation like not allowing the interest rate to double on subsidized stafford loans in july. [applause] and of policy like mitt's can be quickly passed, what message is that sending to my generation? that you can't take us seriously enough? that is perfectly acceptable to let it slip by and linger until the hours before july 1 when the rates for automatic we double?

that you are comfortable with single-handedly putting millions of dollars over the heads of students because you can't come up with a pay-for? why are we throwing ourselves behind this? why are we yelling and tearing our hair out that congress can't just get this done? so let's get it done together. let's look at this interest rate by just setting the stage for the future. it isn't the end-all, be-all pics. it is imperfect. it's a band-aid that if we can pull together and put this first, how am i supposed to trust you? if we can pull this together how will we ever when in december? and if you won't stand with me, how can i stand with you? so tomorrow is the national college day on the student loaned don't double campaign. we are pushing congress to vote at the end of the week. will you commit to making this phonecall tomorrow? [applause]

i can't hear you. will you commit? [applause] i want everyone to stand up. i want everyone to turn to the person next to them and say, i commit to stand with you. i commit, and that is how we win. thank you. [applause] >> thank you molly. alright, yeah, molly for president. [applause] our next speaker of rings the skills of the boardroom to the fight for working families. damon silvers is director of policy and special counsel to

your rich trumka and the afl-cio. [applause] he was named -- he was named by congressional democrats to the panel that oversaw the t.a.r.p. bank bailout and from that perspective, damon saw up close how are too big to fail financial system deregulated by the politicians who live in the pockets of the bankers, gambled with our money, brought down our economy, and then demanded that we bail them out to prevent another great depression. damon has been sounding the alarm recently about the prospect of another round of austerity imposed by crazy conservatives willing and able to crash the world economy if they don't get their way. so to share those warnings with us and to tell us what we can

do, please welcome the afl-cio's damon silvers. [applause] ♪ >> good afternoon everybody. first i have to really, i don't know what bob is going to do to pay me back for having set me up to follow molly. particularly at my age, this is a dangerous kind of place to be, and blood, boy you know, i am really hardened and jan schakowsky is one of the great progressive leaders in our country at this time. [applause] i have to say, just feel so much better about our country just having listened to molly. roger said i worked for rich trumka at the afl-cio. it's true. rich is that the g20 movement in

los cabos new mexico trying to put the points across to the heads of the state of the g20 and he senses deep regrets he couldn't be with you. the afl-cio president trumka and the american leadership, we are all in the debt of the campaign for america's future, of rebuild the dream for the vision you put out and every day and rich wanted me to make sure to say that to all of you here. he was so sorry he could not be with you today. now, let me no, since i'm the old guy on the panel i'm going to talk about the past for a moment. you know, back before, back before "time" magazine profiled molly, "time" magazine did another issue a little while ago, 60 years ago, about the american century. and in that issue, "time"

magazine proclaimed that the 20th century was going to be our was the american center. now why was that? it turned out to kind of be true. the united states kind of did prosper greatly during the 20th century. why was the true? you could say it is true because of our vast natural resources. you could say it is true because of the genius and energy and dynamism of our population but i want to suggest you something that is incredibly relevant to what is about to unfold in the next six months and by that i mean the election and then the clash over fiscal policy that is going to follow it. what i'm going to suggest to you is this, that 70 years ago, when the world faced a similar prolonged economic crisis set off fundamentally by inequality and financial instability, 70 years ago when that problem faced to the entire world, the united states was the only country of any significance that

address that crisis head on by adopting economic policies that did the two things that had to be done. the first was to restructure the deaths of our families and to say that the banks didn't like that, tough on you and the second thing the united states did 70 years ago was to say the most important thing that we need to do right now is to get people back to work, reinvesting in our country and modernizing our country. we did those two things and we did them democratically and by that i don't mean the democratic party did them, although it's true that democratic party did. i mean that we did them through democratic ross esses. nowhere else in the world did this happen. the other sort of democratic countries of europe, pursued economic orthodoxy, all the way to economic social and political

ruin. to other countries moved decisively to do those things, to invest for people to work but they did so to harbor dictatorships. we did it in a sustainable democratic way. and now we face that same challenge again. and that, that is why we are here today, to try to lay out with this challenge is about. now we do not, where's the slideshow here? it is supposed to appear. is it over there? there we go, excellent. so here is where we are. i am one of these people who hasn't quite assimilated technology as my prior speaker has. so here is where we are today. and this is critical to understanding this debate about austerity. call it whatever you want to call -- paul krugman says we are in a depression. i'm a little nervous about that

characterization but call it what you want. the global economic crisis continues. europe has been driven into a technical recession, what economists call a recession, by austerity policies. economic growth in this country remains weak. from month-to-month it is unclear how weak it is, but it is week. and we are very vulnerable to what is going to happen outside the united states. perhaps most troubling, economic growth in asia is slowing. asia is supposed to be the great engine of the 21st century. if asian growth is slowing, we ought to all be concerned. and finally, despite what many of us have been promised, the global financial system remains very fragile. this was the contribution i think of one of the contributions of our oversight panel with tar. just to be clear in case any of you are getting out your knives, we can control t.a.r.p..

elizabeth warren and i and our colleagues on the panel, we opined the power of the pen but we didn't have to control what happened. that was other people. but it was very clear to us that what went on with t.a.r.p. did not prepare the fundamental systematic rob long's with our financial system and we have seen last fall the global financial system under both pressure from europe and the housing markets in the united states move towards systemic crisis again, and there is i'm afraid the very real possibility of systemic crisis in the second half of this year, as bad policy choices in europe and unresolved issues in the united states combine with slowing growth in asia pressured our financial system again. now, as in the 1930s, we are living through an economic crisis created, prolonged and intensified by bad policy choices made in the interest of

the 1% or perhaps the one tenth of 1% or the 1/100th of 1%. now you probably know all about the first generation of bad policy choices. the first-generation prius to the crisis in 2008, financial and labor market deregulation. trade policies and global financial policies that encouraged deep and balances between different parts of the world and the way they treated with each other. wage depression, wage suppression means government policies designed to keep workers wages down. now we are into the second generation of that policy choices. austerity, thinking that the way to deal with economic -- thinking that the way to deal with the stagnant economy is to force them to shrank, thinking the way to deal with unemployment is to fire more people. austerity. by the way austerity is exactly

what happened in europe that discredited them -- that discredited democratic government and brought as communism and fascism. secondly, to address what is going wrong in her banking system and the way it is tied to housing and student debt, and thirdly, failing to understand both in the united states ended in europe that we live in systems of government that are bound together, different nations in europe, different states and cities in the united states that we need as molly said to us, to look after each other. at if i am sitting fat and happy someplace like palo alto -- hollow out so as not so fat and happy but if i'm sitting in silicon valley with plenty of tax revenue and down the street in east palo alto they are laying off all the teachers i might owe some responsibility for that. my favorite quote that illustrates what is gone wrong in policy making in this world

from a month ago at the oecd, the organization for economic cooperation and development, an organization set up of the developed countries to try to have some kind of policy originally was set up to ensure that the stupidity of austerity and the great depression was not repeated again, but in the 1980s this organization was captured by reagan and thatcher and now it's a little unclear where it stands but a month ago, chief economist at the oecd made a presentation on the state of the world and he said, countries are doing everything right. now understand this guy guys ideas of right are orthodox economics. countries are doing it thing right in so going off the cliff. [laughter] one of the reasons i like working for rich trumka was he is on the panel responded to that and rich said that to mr. pat wong, he said if you are doing, if you think you're doing everything right and still going

off the cliff maybe you are not doing everything right. [applause] now i've got one grab for you. bad policy choices over generation produces truly bizarre outcome which is that the heart of everything that has gone wrong. the blue line on this chart is personal consumption as a percentage of our economy and the united states. you can see that from 1990 to 2010 it keeps going up-and-up and up. go back to 1980 and it moves up a full 10% of gdp which is a gargantuan number. now you would think that if personal consumption was rising at the percentage of gdp that would mean that people are better off. but actually it's not true. the red line, which you see going down, is a share of national income that goes to wages. we'd tried for two decades, and

actually for three decades going back to 1980, we try to have a low-wage, high consumption economy. and you it simply can't be done. and i can't be done part is what we are living through now. now, the result is this vicious cycle. the vicious cycle is what austerity policies in the face of, for long recessions, produced. you start off with mass unemployment, falling real wages and falling housing prices. that is kind of where we came in 2008 in 2009. that was the situation president obama based on the day he was inaugurated. that situation means that consumers, you and i, have less money to spend and to pay taxes with. it naturally produces budget deficits. add-on to that the present housing prices they keep financial institutions weak, but the things i have on their books, their loans aren't actually worth what they say they are.

weak financial institutions don't lend. this is what was referred to in japan in the 1990s as zombie banks. i had a lot of fun in the correctional oversight panel asking tim geithner about zombie banks. there's no question in my mind that they are. now, government austerity policies, meaning cuts in public spending, cut back on public investment. they lay off public workers, teachers, firefighters, park rangers and they reduce the incomes of the unemployed and the poor. that is how you get austerity, is by doing those things and when you do those things unemployment rises and consumer spending falls. housing prices fall with it. people to fall than their student loans and you go to the top. this is what we have been doing for the last couple of years.

this is bad policy par excellence and again this is how we got the great depression in the 1930s and how we stuck with the great depression and most of the world through the 1930s out by the united states. and in case you didn't think that mass on employment was serious and off as a problem, let me suggest you there are a few other problems that are coming. we see and cnbc in europe, but we don't see in europe only, i suggest we see it in arizona also, the rise of the politics of hate against the backdrop of, in political science terms, political fragmentation, legitimization which means people don't believe in their government anymore and paralysis. we were talking about for losses when molly was talking. there is a great quote from william butler or we live in a time more often it seems the best lack all conviction and the worst are filled with a passionate intensity.

that is why i feel better about listening to molly, because i feel like we have some conviction among the best. now, the rise in politics of hate and by the way i mentioned arizona come is unfair not to mention alabama too. emerging markets, emerging markets, china and india in particular, facing this economic crisis lack to let go institutions to manage economic hardship, so it's not clear what growth level is necessary for social stability in china. social stability in china is a very serious thing. i don't think the world economy could take the consequences of social instability in china in a major way and finally and most importantly we have created a political and economic climate or environment where we cannot address climate change. we cannot afford not to address climate change. [applause]

now, i don't know if you -- but we need a virtuous cycle. instead of a vicious cycle we need things to go in a positive direction. we have got to start by putting people back to work. how are we going to put people back to work when no businessperson has confidence that there will be anyone to buy their products and services? that is the reality of what the problem is here. where do we put people back to work is in public investment. that is how we solved the gordian knot. public investment means universities. it means schools, it means preschool education. it means infrastructure of all kinds. it means the public, it means our collective wealth. investing in public and giving with her $2.2 trillion

old-fashioned infrastructure deficit and our need to invest another $2 trillion to build the infrastructure of molly's generation. we do this it creates jobs was is a mass for goods and services and makes us competitive. we had better do it because our international competitors are doing the same right now and they have got a big headstart on us. public investment creates jobs. secondly, got to fix the housing mess in the student loan mess and i confess -- the kind of thing molly was talking about earlier. we have to fix the housing mess in the student loan master principle write-down's. this will actually lead to stronger banks, not weaker banks and healthier household by nance's. we have to -- those things, dealing with the financial mess, due principle write-down's through restructuring student loans,

will lead to rising consumer spending and people have confidence in banks would lead -- lend to businesses which would be a surprising and positive change. getting banks to lend to businesses. if those things happen, then more investment leads to rising productivity. now we need this little thing called worker bargaining power because it we don't have worker bargaining power, productivity makes the rich richer. we tried that for the last 30 years and it didn't work out too well. but if we get redistributed people and created a little bit, then we actually get stronger demand and people can pay taxes. tax receipts go up and expenditures to keep people going when they are unemployed go down, and the result is a healthier more balanced budget, the kind of thing republicans want at a growing economy that can support further private and public investment which creates more jobs and further increases

product to the date and then you go back to the top of the slide again. this time you are a lot happier going to the top of the slide then you were on the vicious cycle of the slide. now, that is our choice. the vicious cycle or virtuous cycle and now comes the fiscal trap. the fiscal trap is what we face this fall. the worst possible thing you could do in this situation, where we we we are under investing in public assets, so we are endangering our country's competitiveness, and we have an economy that is sluggish with mass long-term unemployment. the worst possible thing we could do would be to impose austerity in the short-run and cut taxes on the rich in the long run. that is a recipe for immediate economic pain, political instability and national decline. and surprise, surprise, that's the republican agenda. their agenda is to use the

threat of something called the sequester. a sequester is an automatic acts that is going to fall and cut $1.2 trillion out of the federal budget. unless something comes along to change it, half of that money comes out of domestic discretionary spending, half comes out of the defense budget. republicans are going to come along and say, oh we can't have that happen. can't have that happen. on top of that by the way the payroll tax to president obama pass that is kept our economy alive, they expire to my. republicans say we can't let these things happen. we don't want to raise taxes on anybody to make up the $1.2 trillion. and so they are going to say we won't do anything. weird is going to jam everything amos the president agrees to a long-term extension of the bush tax cuts for the wealthy and deeper cuts in domestic

spending. domestic spending means things like education, the good things in life. unless, the president agrees to the extension of the bush tax cuts. they are going to pilon more and more domestic cuts. this is as i said, it's not just cruel, because it is going to be cruel with this stuff happens and unfair and it's not just that will line the pockets of the wealthiest among us who don't need the money, but it is a recipe for national decline. it is a recipe for ensuring that we don't educate our children, that we don't enter the new age of energy technology, that we don't fix the roads in the potholes that are outside the store, that we don't do anything about the fact that every american major city takes two or three times longer to get to the airport than a dozen the major cities around the world. those things better and we won't do anything about them if this agenda goes through. but this is not the only threat. we also, it's not just that we

have is really hard right you know, reactionary redistributionist agenda coming at us from the republican party. is that we have something else called the inside the beltway agenda. or, as congressman schakowsky discussed, the simpson-bowles agenda, and it does the same thing but less obviously. simpson-bowles agenda of voice the expiration of the bush tax cuts. at cut social security and medicare. remember when i said a vicious cycle involves doing things like cutting the incomes of poor people in a recession? cutting social security and medicare, that is what that is about. and of my mind the worst thing about simpson-bowles is that it got dark corporate tax system, a sneaky little trick called territoriality where we don't tax offshore. do you know what happens when you don't tax offshore profits but you'd do tax onshore profits? everybody goes offshore where

they don't have to be tax. somebody thought -- somebody at the simpson-bowles commission thought that would be a good way to address our revenue problem. now, that is the set of. that is what we have to worry about. and now the question is, will democrats come out because we know what republicans are going to do -- to the question is will democrats start making unilateral concessions? there are a lot of wonderful things about the democratic party but we have this weakness which is a tendency to make unilateral concessions. to give things away and hope people will love us better. and we now know where that is. did that work out so well last summer? now, no one said that people can't learn so today as we stand here, president obama is not making unilateral decisions. he is sending the right message

and his messages been loud and clear and pretty tough. it's no more extensions of the bush tax cuts for families making over $250,000 a year. that is the top 2%, none. [applause] and by the way, as far as i'm concerned, most people who make over $250,000 a year are millionaires. millionaire is someone with more than $1 million in assets. millionaires not summon him made $1 million a year. it someone who has a million dollars. people who make over $250,000 a year typically have $1 million. it's one of the wonderful thing about making five times as many as the median family. $250,000 a year is five times as much as the typical american family makes. the other thing president obama has said and this is critical because otherwise you just get game. president obama said if republicans want to go over a

fiscal cliff meaning to trigger the sequester, they'd want to go over the fiscal cliff for a few days and see how that feels, they want to protect tax cuts for the wealthiest americans, president obama said he's perfectly happy to negotiate the next decade. after the public can see clearly what the progression all republicans are jeopardizing in order to keep the wealthiest even more wealthy. now, we have an agenda. there is an agenda in the public supports it, that will do what our country needs and by the public supporting it, i mean we -- at the afl-cio we have this giant polling database in the polling on these issues is generally over 70% positive. in some cases it's over 80. the public supports massive investment in infrastructure,

rebuilding manufacturing and rethinking our trade model so that we can be competitive in the new globalized economy. the public supports the tax is somewhere the wealthy pay their fair share in the public supports the notion that means higher taxes for millionaires. the public supports accountability for the banks that broke our economy and the public supports, although you would never know it if you live here in washington, the public supports protecting and expanding social security and any care and by the way -- [applause] the american labor movement thinks that given that the pension system has been destroyed and taken away from us and robbed from us, and it's been replaced by essentially savings accounts that have no money in them, that we might, that what might be in our interest is not to dismantle social security, which is actually close to 90% funded and is the healthiest part of our

retirement system, that dismantling social security is not what we need do as a country. we need to strengthen it. [applause] and medicare is not the problem. medicare is the solution. [applause] now, just to illustrate again the short side of this in the self-centeredness of the aged. education and particularly higher education is a writer right and not a privilege. [applause] now, i'm going to conclude by saying this. this is in substantial part and direction all he the agenda that president obama stands for. this is substantially and directionally the agenda of the congressional democrats. but, what it needs to be is an

agenda that our political leaders pursue at scale. when we talk about infrastructure we need to be talking about trillions, not billions. when we talk about a tax system where the wealthy pay their fair share, repealing the bush tax cuts is not enough. it doesn't even begin to be enough. they are waving the sign at me but i can't can begin to talk about what accountability for the banks means. the problem, why is it that this agenda which is 70%, 80% public support, why is it that this agenda is like nowhere to be seen in washington? not nowhere to be seen, obviously it's seen on this panel and cnet campaign for america's future but why is it we had are not reading editorials in "the washington post" calling for this agenda? why haven't we even had a discussion about scale?

what has gone wrong? the fundamental challenge that we face as a nation after our collective that that on finance over the last 15 or 20 years, is is how do we overturn the political power of the winners in a losing game? and we call this by the way, the mitt romney problem or you can call it the jamie dimon problem. what is jamie dimon doing at the senate hearing wearing presidential conflicts? that is an agenda, that is the agenda that really faces us. the public, the public knows where to go. the public public knows had made sure that we prosper in this century. we have got an obstacle in the entrenched power of money in our politics and it's time to move that obstacle aside. [applause] thank you.

>> okay, thank you damon. it's important to remember, insightful and powerful as his analysis is, he is also speaking for a very important political movement in the united states, the american labor movement. our allies. [applause] and it is good that we came to this tutorial about the economy from the point of view of elected officials who are going to be running for office and taking this battle to the political system in the fall. thank you jan schakowsky. [applause] and it is crucially important that people like molly katchpole translate this into the real flesh and blood, the real message and the real-life experience of average people whether they are young or old, whether working in factories are

working in the service sector. we have to build a movement that makes this economic program not only obvious in washington, that makes it an evitable and our political system. so thank you all. let's all get out there and work and let's go on to the next set of rake out strategy sessions. thanks to all of our speakers. [applause] [inaudible conversations] ♪ ♪

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republican presidential candidate made romney was in janesville wisconsin today on

the fourth day of the bus tour of six states. he was joined by governor scott walker and congressman paul ryan for this half hour event. [applause] [no audio] >> is my honor to be on the stage with the man i hope is the 45th president of the united states. [applause] i saw that link it.

although i don't think governor romney is going to wrap himself in that today. it's great to be back in moderate and great to be back in janesville. as paul ryan knows, for me this is only the big-city. i grew up in the small town of dull than solis to come over here, our big nights on friday nights were coming over to shakey's. it's always good to be back in janesville but i'm really honored to be here today because as i said the man i hope is the next president, the 45th president of these united states. [applause] when i grew up, we were proud of our leaders particularly those that have the experience. when he think about governor romney he has had the experience of so many levels. he has the experience as a businessman, who really helped start out and perform so many companies many of which are household names and then he went on a decade ago as an executive, to take an olympics that

literally was on the verge of an absolute disaster not only for the olympics before a country. it would have been a national global disaster. he turned it around it made it a source of tremendous pride. [applause] and as the governor, something i'm affection for because i know governor, the box tosses the land in his case, as governor he took a state were inherited a whole lot of debt, turned it around and still found a way to cut taxes time and time again to get the economy going in this day. wouldn't it be nice to have a president who thought like that? [applause] most importantly the day after yesterday, he is a father. he and ann have five grown sons and he does after 18 grandchildren. [applause] which i think is one of the most important jobs out there.

[inaudible] [laughter] i like it. i like it. he has the experience to lead and that is important because now more than ever, for those grandkids and our kids and grandkids here in the state and across this country we need someone to stand up and lead. we need someone to stand up and lead and turn this country around. [applause] we know how important it is when you can make a change when it comes to leadership. think about it. just less than two years ago the 44th governor of wisconsin was still in office and at that time our state over the three years prior to that have lost more than 100,000 jobs. unemployment rate of the people was over 9%. our state had a budget deficit of $3.6 billion, one of the biggest ever. we were in real trouble. we made a change in the state, elected a new governor and because of those changes and because of republican governor and republican legislature we were able to transform things so

much so that we now budget surplus. [applause] we have a budget surplus for the first time ever and we have set money aside for two consecutive years for the rainy day fund and most importantly, there have been more than 41,000 new jobs created than the private sector and the unemployment rate is the lowest it's been since 2008. [applause] we were able to show wisconsin that you can turn things around. we have turned things around of wisconsin. it's time to elect a leader who can turn things around for america. [applause] we need a leader who is going to put jobs first who believes in america and most importantly we need a leader who unlike the president understands that success and government is not measured by how many people are

dependent on the government. we need a leader to understand that just the opposite is true. success in government is how fewer people are dependent on government not because we have pushed him off but because ultimately there are more jobs in the private sector to put those people back to work. [applause] we needed it or who believes in more freedom and more prosperity, leader who believes in america and believes that our best days are yet to come. we need a leader and that leader is governor mitt romney. let's give him a warm welcome. [applause] [applause] >> thank you. what a welcome. i was going to sit down but how many chairs are there? come on, guys.

should we turn on the air-conditioning too do you think? there is a group outside that is even larger than the group in here, believe it or not. and so let's ask them, can we hear you outside? we hear you, alright. [applause] those guys are great. what a kickoff here in janesville. what an honor just to be here. thank you so much. just what we needed this morning and thank you for bringing so many friends. i will tell you a thing president obama had just put this in his column. he just assumed from the very beginning wisconsin was going to be it. but do you know what? we are going to win wisconsin and we are going to get the white house. it has a lot to do with his record. it has a lot to do with what has

happened over the last three and half years. people in this country are having a hard time. these are challenging times in america and because of his failed record his campaign is having a hard time deciding what to talk about. because they would like to talk about the economy and they would like to talk about his record but the last time his campaign slogan was hope and change. this time they are going with, we hope to change the subject. [laughter] we are not going to let them do that. we are going to talk about the economy and getting americans back to work. [applause] after he was elected and for all the promises he made, he went on "the today show" and he said look if i can't turn the economy around in three years i'll be working -- looking at a long-term proposition and we are here to collect. [applause] and so for the last several months he has been giving out this idea that everything is going just fine.

remember he said the private sector is doing fine. and then 23 million americans that are out of work or stop looking for work or are seriously unemployed, they began to speak up and people who have lost their homes began to chat out and people who have seen the incomes in america go down, do you know the m. median -- even as gasoline prices have doubled and the prices of many things we buy have gone up-and-up and up. during those tough times people began to shout out and he realize he couldn't go with that line any more. there's no way we are going to turn a one-year proposition into an eight year proposition. [applause] now he tries to tell people that his policies are actually working. it is just taking longer than we all had been told and promised, and i can tell you that i know he is a very eloquent person and

is able to describe these policies in great detail and in some respects tell you that day is night and night is day. people know better and by the way if you have a question about that, if you web -- wonder whether obama karen.franken massive budget and energy policies if you think those things might make things better, talk to a business person. talked to dan here or talk to business people in your community with whether they make things or sell things or distribute things. asked them, have the president's policies made it easier for you to hire people and to grow? i know what they're going to say because i saw surveyed the other day that was done by the chamber of commerce. about a year ago they are small businesses what is obama cared them? three-quarters of them said it made it less likely for them to hire people. if your priority of steps you have to get rid of obamacare, and i will. [applause]

obamacare doesn't help create jobs. how about dodd-frank. [inaudible question] wakes i met with small business folks this morning talking about their business and one in one oe talk about the fact that you can't make the business successful by shrinking your employees year after year. in these tough times he has had to cut that but now he is gone the way to get new customers and he wants to grow the business but you know when you grow a business, there are two ways to be able to do it, to be able to finance it. you have to fail to have the money to pave the people and build the facility to grow so where do you get that money? either from from the profits you are able to reinvest or by going to the bank and getting along. he goes to the banks and they won't make loans. and other reasons they are not making loans to small businesses these days it's because of.franken the over regulation in washington. they're making it harder for banks to make loans and to put people back to work. then you have the other source, you can get a loan you can invest in the profits we get. yeah, i hear a laugh over there.

but these small businesses, the president wants to take more of for-profit and taxes. do you realize most small businesses are taxed not as corporations but as individuals. they'll pay the corporate tax, they pay the individual tax rate and he wants to take the rate from 35% to 40%. think about what that means to knock for newer,, person who has started a business and trying to expand. they know if they're lucky enough to make a profit and it's not easy, you are. if you're enough to make a profit the government wants not just 35% to 40% of that making it harder for you to grow. live priority is putting americans back to work. that is job one. [applause] [applause] the president gave a big, long speech last week. you may have seen it.

it's like the affordable care at. how many people have done it? it was 52, 53 or 54 minutes something like that and he laid out his plans i guess. one of the things he said i'd read with. he said everyone in america deserves a fair shot and i agree. people ought to know -- [applause] if they're willing to work hard, if they have an education in the right kind of values, take versatile responsibility, have the blessings of family. the people in this country out to know they have a fair shot at being successful and fulfilling their dreams are getting a good job in providing for their family. let me ask you a couple of questions. do you think when the president spends trillions of dollars more than we take in and passes those debts onto the next generation, that those kids, those people in the next generation are they going to get a fair shot? how about when the president

takes your tax money and uses it to invest or to guarantee loans for businesses that happen to be owned by his campaign contributors? people like celinda and tessler. do you think that gets you in the other entrepreneurs in this country a fair shot? and how about when the kids in washington d.c. who had scholarships to be able to go to the schools of their choice, these inner-city schools weren't performing well so kids standing for deep in-line going to charter schools. he yanks thataway. does that give those kids a fair shot? i am convinced that if you look at the mac and people today, you say they're having a hard time under this president and they're not getting a fair shot. how about the soldiers coming back from conflict and expect to come back here and get a job and instead they are in an unemployment line. does that give them a fair shot? how about the people all over this country who work hard and over these last years by making

tough choices? they are tired of being tired and yet this president keeps telling them, give me four more years. are they getting a fair shot? if there is ever been a president who has not been able to does provide the american people a fair shot it's this person and that's why we are going to replace him with someone who will go to work and getting us working again. [applause] i ask,ow are you going to do that? first of all i'm going to make that my number one job. i'm going to go into office and not push it aside to the congress and say to nancy pelosi and harry reid -- while they won't be leaders at that point, but anyway. [applause] i'm not going to push it over to them and say you take care of the economy while i get to do the things i want to do like obama karen.franken captain trading card check.

what was that? that's right, k.. what i'm going to do is focus my attention on getting america back to work. that is going to be job one. let me tell you to some of the things i'm going to do to do that. there's a long list to make an economy strong. putting everyone to work with good jobs and rising incomes anybody would have figured out how to present that there are a lot of things you have to do to get the economy strong. let me tell you thing -- three i would do right away. number one i would take advantage of our energy resources, r. our coal, our gas in our oil. [applause] and if i have to build up myself i will get the pipeline down here from canada. [applause] it's been an extraordinary blessing for this country. the energy resources we have

here. we we are an energy rich nation. we don't just drill into the earth by going vertically and tapping into a pocket of oil or gas today. we go frankly and then horizontally and we can tap into all sorts of pockets along the way and then by forcing in lakewood we can force the gas and oil out. so we have now 100 years of natural gas supplied and low prices. i want to take advantage of that. why? i know if we do take advantage of our energy resources we are going to have manufactures like this row and others come back to america because manufacturing is energy in homes use energy. i saw an article the other day in "the washington post" and they said that, this is by a guy named david ignatius. they said america could be the number one energy producing nation in the world within 10 years. i want the energy here because i want those jobs here. we are going to bring employment back up in america. [applause]

there is something else i'm going to do. that is i'm going to get rid of this huge overhang. there's this cloud that is hanging over small business today. ask a small-business person about why they are comfortable hiring people right now. they will say, they will talk about one piece of legislation that gives them real hard for them. they just don't know what is coming. someone said we won't know what it's going to do until we have actually passed it. remember that by nancy pelosi? i'm looking for someone to give us a big dose of certainty and i'm going to repeal -- repeal obamacare. i'm going to do that in the beginning. [applause] then there something else. when people think about taking their life savings and investing to start a small business or perhaps some big foreign corporation wants to build a big factory here, one of the things they think about is whether

america is going to hit a greece like wall down the road because the path we are on, spending a trillion dollars a year more than we take in is leading us to greece. i want to make sure no one ever wonders about that, that they understand the dollar will be were something down the road road and we will have a strong and stable foundation fiscally. so to do that i'm going to finally get america on track to have a balanced budget just like the governor has done here. [applause] discounts. this makes a difference. this makes a difference in the lives of our citizens that are without work or that are underemployed. a lot of people are having hard times these days. i go back to what the president said. that was water dropping down from the ceiling. did you see that? is so hot here that the building is sweating. [laughter] there are people around this country who are having hard

times. some of the folks i spoke with this morning described the fact that they are working, working at jobs. i won't tell you just what was that some mentioned that their spouses are working in the military for almost 40 years, worked in our military and worked his way of doing very well. comes back to go to work in the workforce and is now only able to work at a job that requires heavy lifting, literally heavy lifting making $8.50 an hour, huge reduction in comp and station for the family him a both a mom and a dad in that circumstance. people are having a hard time. those unemployment records under state the difficulty happening in this country. i wish the president would get out and talk to people. he would understand how out of touch he is when he says the private sector is doing i. it is not. he needs help and i'm going to get it for them. [applause] and so what i'm talking about

doing is getting help for the people who need it the most right now in this country but it's also getting help for the next generation, for a kids. they deserve to know that the future is right and you deserve to know that your kids will enjoy a better future even than we have enjoyed and that is going to happen again in america. there something else i would mention and that is the whole cause of liberty and freedom. and america's strength is so essential to that. i was in great britain and number of months ago i got the chance to meet tony blair and david cameron and other leaders of great britain and one of them said to me, he said if you are lucky enough to be elected president of the united states, you will have the chance to visit other countries and go to their capitals and you'll undoubtedly have rehearsed for you all the mistakes they think america is making. and he said that as you hear that, don't ever forget this, please. the one thing we all fear the most is a weak america.

american strength, military strength, economic strength, strength in our homes, american strength is the best ally peace has ever known. [applause] ..

he was injured in the attacks and served for 33 years in the u.s. navy and i have him stand and he was recognized but remember many world war veterans around us there used to be and can't stand quite as tall and straight as they used to. the torch they've been holding for the world and for us they can't hold quite as high. it's our turn to seize the torch, the torch of freedom, liberty, opportunity and hope. it's not america's but it is america's duty and honor to hold that for the world. this is a critical time for america. our ability to hold the torch high and have it would bring peace of the world can see it in the us by year of freedom that we enjoy it depends on strength at home in our home and our economy and in turn our military

with great jobs i'm going to do that by balancing the budget opening more american goods getting the energy policy to work for us not just for other folks who get hundreds of billions of dollars for us there's a level playing field between labor and management we need to get america working again. the world depends on us and struggling today depend on us and our kids are hoping that we will do it. it's been to happen in wisconsin. you are going to be the signing voice to win the presidency and keep america the shining city on the hill. thank you so much. for the best. thank you. [applause]

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♪ ♪ presidential candidate mitt romney tour of small towns continues tuesday in michigan. now a look at the progressive movement in this year's elections. the campaign for america's future is hosting an event that began with a panel that included former white house special but pfizer ann jones. this is a little less than an hour and a half

>> co-director for america's future. [applause] >> good morning. everyone come in, sit down. we are going to get started almost immediately. first let's welcome our other guests. you all know van ann jones -- van jones. [applause] my name is robert and i am here to greet you and welcome you to this take back the american dream summit. this will be an amazing few days. activists and leaders from across the country and across the progressive movement, over 1,000 strong by registration. we offer a stunning lineup of speakers and strategy sessions

that await you. we will highlight the organizing that is being done to try to elect progressives who will fight for the 99%. we will share strategies on how to drive critical issues into this election and give our major focus to the independent progressive movement we are building to try to take the american dream. the days will be intense because the stakes are high. now, i'm old enough in an election season to know that every election people say well this election is the most important of our lifetime. but i think the state these days is something more than one election. we are i suggest to you read the beginning of what will be a fierce struggle, already is about what comes after a 30 year failed experiment of a conservative era that has left

us with extreme inequality, a declining middle class, rising poverty, the worst recession since the great depression, and in the economy that doesn't work for working people even when it is growing. americans clearly are casting about for change. use all the elections and 06 and in 08 as they look for someone who can help transform america. we saw the reaction and frustration of 2010. the uprising for the tea party in dhaka by wall street, the assault on the workers' rights and women's rights and the right to vote and the mobilization to counter that. now we see breezing billionaires', the coke brothers, adelman, the supertax looking to consolidate the complete control in all levels of government. in this situation we ought to be perfectly clear we are not going to allow mitt romney the

modern-day robber barons and their tea party allies to take over in washington, d.c.. [applause] but we can't stop there. if we are going to build a foundation for shared prosperity, we can't accept some employment as the new normal. we can't accept declining wages and increasing in securities and as an affable. we are not signing on to a grand bargain, partisan or bipartisan or trans partisan the uses the current crisis to savage the vulnerable and the elderly. if we are going to build a new start in this economy to save the american dream, we have to build an independent progressive movement one that is prepared to take on big money politics and confront the entrenched interests that in danger the future and rebuild the american

dream. i want to say a few words about each of these. it's four years since the access blew up this economy. 9 million jobs lost, the typical family lost a staggering 40% of their wealth mostly in the declining value of homes. any recovery from that kind of collapse would have been long and difficult, but this was made even more difficult by the major factors. first there was no help the economy to return to. working families have been losing ground for decades over the years most americans suffered declining incomes and rising in securities even when that economy was growing. we were hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs and running up record trade deficits. finance was capturing 40% corporate profits while inflating the housing bubble. we waged the war many national credit card and we were in denial about global warming.

there was no place to recover to. but in addition to that, any reforms face resistance. we all know about republican obstruction. from day one they set out to pursue what mitch mcconnell the leader in the senate called the single most important thing we want to achieve and that was insuring that he would be a one-term president but when obama pushed modern forms to the future, financial reform of health care on the economy and on to energy, far more impressive than the republican expression was the power of entrenched corporate interest that mobilized the legions of lobbyists to protect their privileges and subsidies even when democrats had a majority in both houses of congress, corporate lobbies succeeded in diluting in some cases defeating the reform.

now the economy is set to be in recovery but it is old economy that is coming back. the top 1% captured 93% of the income growth in 2010 that doesn't leave a lot for the rest of us. back to the casino finance with the two big to fail bigger and more concentrated forever making big bets as jpmorgan showed us with $3 billion on one reckless trading scheme we are back to trade deficits over a billion and a half a day and we faced a struggle of what comes next. americans are learning about that romney, but he's not a mistress, he is like inevitably of time, by and for the 1%. the big money decided to be saved the better pick one of their own. the agenda is a clear commitment to double down on the policies that got us in the hole that we

are in. it would give millionaires an average 25% tax cut on top of the bush tax cuts. he calls for eliminating taxes on corporate profits earned abroad turning the entire world into an offshore tax haven. he wants to be regulate wall street and open the casino that opened the economy. he repealed health care for medicare as we know it and stopped medicaid and threw about 40 million people out of health care protection. he defends subsidies to big oil and denies the threat posed by global warming. once more and less for the schools. this guy is building the home with elevators for his cars and he says obama is out of touch. he paid the tax rate about 15% on an incoming one year for $20 million, the lower rate than his chauffeur but that's the tax

return he chose to show us to imagine what is in the ones that he teach secret. talking about inequality is the politics of envy that should only be done in quiet rooms. are you kidding me? we are not going to let the billionaires' select this by president. [applause] he's not offering a remedy. he's offering a potion for some poison for the middle class and the american dream. so we are going to work to re-elect the president and take back the house. that is not enough. we have a bigger battle for america's future. economist says that republicans are extreme because they are fearful the welfare state is unaffordable and it now

threatens our future but we agree we can't go back to the old state, but they've got the victim's wrong and the culprits wrong. it's not the poor that rigged the pockets and subsidies and privileges. it's not the elderly that blew up the economy. it's not beyond that pay for the revolving door of lobbyists and officials. you ought to build sustainable growth for working people it's not enough to put obama in the white house or nancy pelosi in the speaker's chair we have to take the entrenched interest, the big money, the corrupt politicians in both parties. [applause] look at the sources of the debt half of the deficit comes from the economic collapse that came when wall street blue with the economy. next comes the bush tax cuts and

tax loopholes that have millionaires paying lower taxes and their secretaries and big corporations paying no taxes at all in some cases and in the continued cost of the fluted military and the two wars. turn to the scary long-term projections people seem but it looks like america is going broke. these are entirely the question of soaring health care costs and unaffordable health care system formed by health insurance, hospital and drug companies, complex so that americans pay twice per capita with other citizens and other industrial countries pay for the worse health care results. to revive the american dream, we have to take on the powerful profit from these arrangements, not the vulnerable are their victims services and for one

administration. we are about to hit into what they call the grand bargain. right after the election we hit up the wreck purely made by the politicians in washington and is being used as an excuse to cut a grand bargain, shared sacrifice necessary it's time to put our books in order but to be betrayed. let's trade of cuts in social security and medicare for tax reform the floors the rates, closes loopholes and business revenue. this ought to be known instead of the grand bargain as the big heist. [applause] let's be clear on what it means that we accept mass unemployment

as normal because we are going to turn to balancing our budgets rather than focus on creating jobs. it means that middle class americans and the vulnerable will get stuck with much of the bill that mess that wall street created and worse in some ways it ignores largely the cause of the point that we face. vv will still not pay their fair share of taxes. wall street will be free to blow up the economy. the insurance companies will still drive up health care costs. we will still not have our long-term budgets under control. as we have to organize now to oppose the big heist and demand the real deal and the pieces of this are simple. we need good jobs now and good jobs first before we turn to austerity so we have to focus on what drives our deficits, the big money interests that now are

deforming our government. this won't be easy. we have to build an independent capacity to elect people and hold them accountable. we will talk about this at that conference. we need to make money toxic in this election as we work to overcome citizens united and get money out of politics. [applause] we need direct action, on violent confrontations, demonstrations that expose and challenge the interest standing in the way. the big challenge of democracy the people in fact occurred 30 pages the rest of big money and big power. but we have been in the situation before. at the end of the 19th century, there are parents consolidated the major industries, politicians, labor unions were

out lot. the populist movement reformers, labor uprisings challenge the supremacy of that unassailable power. it took decades, but eventually got people's movement on. the extremes of inequality were reduced, the brazen corruption curbed and what made america special on the probable cause was built. but now we go back to that same kind of inequality, that same kind of robber baron money politics, and once more the test can weaken the many and overcome the power of the few and what's exciting is we've seen the first stirring in wisconsin and ohio and occupy wall street, which spread across the country like wildfire. [applause]

we must continue to build serious about taking power, serious about rebuilding the country, understanding or suffered setbacks. here's an opposition to the modern robber baron politics for what is. sure we will try to work to defeat mitt romney in the right. we will push to take back the house but we will keep on building an independent movement to take back the american dream. that is our subject this weekend our task for the years to come. we know it isn't going to be easy. we know it can't be done. yes, we can. [applause] now delighted to introduce melissa harris-perry. she's a modern wonder woman. she is a -- dr. perry is a

political scientist at tulane university and the author of sister citizen stereotypes and black women in america. she is a regular columnist for the nation magazine and is the host of her own show on msnbc bet ears on saturday and sunday morning. she is the proud mother of a young daughter and once a month or so she gets a little sleep. it's a delight to introduce you to melissa harris peery. [applause] the start of what is going to be in an ideologically diverse date for me today. i would run off the stage when i'm done with my address because i am heading of chicago where i will join the family for a

conversation about voluntarism in america. that will be fun. by the end of the day i will have no idea what is going on in the world, but i'm very happy to start the day with you and particularly because what i find to be my value added within the public sphere is not as an activist or an organizer per say. i'm married to an activist and an organizer so it is clear to me which one of us does real work and which one of a stock's about the work that needs to get done in the world, and so that is probably not my competitive advantage. i hope today to do a little bit of what i think by comparative advantage is which is to try to understand analytically where we are and how we got here. so appreciative of the free-market thinking about this within the historical context the kind of robber baron moment,

and i want to take a much shorter historical context really just the past decade. rather than focusing primarily on what the elite have been up to to think about where we are now has been made possible by the traces that we as ordinary citizens in america make. because we were not fully is in power in these moments. we made many choices. so i want to start with the moment it is september 11th, 2001. the era that we are in now begins on september 11th, 2001. the election of george w. bush in 2000, whenever we think about it is an election that ultimately was a trace of the american people made -- [inaudible] [laughter] okay that's not -- that's fine. i've been reading the hundred

games. i suddenly felt i needed to dhaka or something. [laughter] [applause] i'm not even kidding. i was running through my head what kind of thing the capitol might have been sending in this moment. so september 11th, 2001. when we elected george w. bush or when he was handed the presidency of the united states that decision was made in part because we understood ourselves to be in a time of peace internationally of domestic economic growth, and george w. bush for whatever feeling for success he had he was the kind of guy to keep the party going. so, if you are thinking that you were coming out of the clinton era and things are good economically and we are at peace internationally, then it does not seem that odd to make a trace of electing a kind, gentle were conservative.

you have to go back to 2000 to remember where we were in that moment. we did not know then that just a few months into the first year of george w. bush presidency that it would no longer be a time of expansion or a time of relative international peace. but instead, that the new era would begin when americans finally came in to where many of our trading partners, political partners and allies have been for decades which is in the age of contemporary terrorism. the typical american ways to that entree into something that many people and the rest of the world have already experienced. we began with the kind of nationalist fervor that was justified as reasonable patriotism. i would like to point out we clearly must have been having

post-traumatic stress disorder, because for about a year after september 11th, there were african-american men walking around the city of new york with nypd cats that could only be explained. we will just let you sit with that for a minute. the only thing that happens that minute is a new version of what america typically needs and that is a racial enemy. americans in part identified who we are and who deserves what through the notions of whiteness and the racial enemy is and in this moment, the new racial enemy became not so much riggins welford queen who was imaginary but imagine this other somehow muslim or air arab or something

else. we became to stomach a racial violence in the name of national security. it's something we have been willing to stomach as a people over and over again in our history. the patriot act was not an act of a republic acting alone. was a bipartisan decision by both parties. it wasn't bought and paid for bye corporations. it was bought and paid for by our future. as much as we have our eyes on the citizens united decision, we have to remember that there was our collecting, maybe not the people in this room but our collective thanks that gave permission to democrats in the house to rally behind the republicans in the white house under the banner of nationalist patriotic security with the goal

of both reducing our domestic civil liberties and giving us an entrance into what is at this moment and everlasting war. we made those choices. [applause] so if that was september 11th, 2001, interesting thing happens a few years later. the democrats need to run a presidential candidate, and it turns out democrats are really bad at one thing. actually a couple things. one thing in particular and one of the things we are very bad that is trying to think about what kind of democrats republicans will vote for. this is our predictive ability. it's the only way that we ended up with candidate obama is because we ran an open seat race and so we didn't really know who we were running against a we got free with our actual preferences and ended up with hillary clinton and barack obama as our

final two. we never would have made those traces had we been running against an incumbent we would have picked john edwards let's just be honest about that. [laughter] but in 2004 we chose what we thought would be the good moderate candidates, one that would give republican metaphors as john kerry that showed that the 2,004 dnc and saluted and said reporting for duty. we did not come in the fall of 2004 launch as a democratic party an attempt to push back against the effort quite the opposite space society to run a soldier under the the dinner that he could do better. what changed that? what changed it? august 29th, 2005 is the day that the levy failed in the city of new orleans in the aftermath of hurricane katrina.

on that day and on the five subsequent days immediately after it failed and the city flooded we behaved just as we did in the immediate post 9/11 moment. we got scared of our racial enemies. [applause] the governor of louisiana, a democrat, the may year of the city of new orleans, a black democrat jointly decided to suspend search and rescue efforts in order to focus on law-and-order until the national media recognized there were people, not people actually, women, elderly and children starving and dying in the city center. it wasn't until the images of african american women, the elderly and children who were dehydrating in the heat of a new

orleans all guest finally turned the language away from this law and order language and into what the economists called the shaming of america. i don't know if you remember this but looking at the image right now i would have put up as a powerpoint it's the image of the economist magazine the second week of september, 2005 an african-american woman is on the cover wearing in new orleans t-shirt, and it says the shaming of america. i would like you to pause and ask ourselves how many have appeared on the cover of the economist magazine? and i don't know her name. i live in new orleans but a study katrina and i don't know her name yet there are very few black women who ever have appeared she made the law, yet there was still the notion that happened in the country that fancies itself where women and

children are first. hurricane katrina actively shames chosin treen and hi war stance and here's what goes to read september 11, 2001 until about september 4th, i'm going to get of 2005, we are trying to participate in the national list patriotic fervor against the imagined racial enemy that is the others over there a cover activating terrorism against us right until they failed we realized we have allowed our own citizens to drown come to die in dehydrate on camera and we see if you can't get water to an american city for the week county prosecutor a foreign war? and the democratic party feels a little drop down its spine. all the media folks that live in new york city that the allies if this is how we respond to disaster they are screwed.

for the first time, we start hearing in active antiwar message not from the people, but the people that have them designated up through the left party this of course is how we in 2006 the democrats when the house. the when the house in 2006 because for the first time the articulate and actual paradigm difference to the republican party for the first time in five years, and of course we've remember the response to the entire war message that won the midterm elections in 2006. remember what happened? the surge. the response to the american people saying we want the war is the white house sent more soldiers into the war. it is the opposite of what happens in 2010 when by taking over the house the republican party decides that it has a mandate from the american people

to turn back with the had just done in 2008. the white house in 2006 told us we don't care what happened in the midterm. we are running this war effort and we like them. of course we know what happened right after that. he was a state senator in illinois. he managed to make it into the u.s. senate because the republican party in illinois was in such a shambles that their decision for a candidate to run against him was maliki. and on a wednesday i could probably be to alan keyes for almost any race. this is not to say that barack obama is anything short of exceptional but the ease with which to look into the u.s. senate had everything to do with the failure of the illinois republican party. thanks.

we appreciate that. [applause] in the immediate aftermath of hurricane katrina, the national figure that emerges is barack obama on one hand, hillary clinton on the affair, and a sense among the american people that what we had just done and what we had been doing since 2001 wasn't the best of who we were but we were capable of something else. i loved the 2008 campaign. it was fun. it was. it just was great fun, but was great fun because the campaign and they were fined and the freelancing that went on remember i am trying to tell the story but the people remember the freelancing come here barack obama goes and does this make the scene think he loses and gives a victory speech.

if he stands up and gives this weekend. then we walk away. until a week later and what happens, will ibm makes this is weekend. when you think about why it matters, it's not because of barack obama giving it as good as it was, it's because he remixed it and then you posted on your facebook bald and then you e-mail a bit and it became viral. the excitement of the campaign is the way in which freelancing and technology and ordinary people decided that what we had been doing since september 11th, 2001 was no longer the best of we were and how the 2008 campaign might provide an opportunity for us to indicate the best if we were. the exception of those on that we defined a willingness to think about either a woman or black dye.

the response from the right was a candidate society about what that meant. the willingness to pull us back into what we had been doing since the year before. so once president obama is elected, the languages that he is the secret muslim. of course he is a secret muslim because lenders september 11, 2001 our racial enemy becomes the muslims. you know you can't be a secret muslim, just different religion. all you have to do is i love jesus, he's in my heart. but like if you are a muslim there's a certain kind of practices you have to do so you can't like secretly be one. it's not what works. you would notice them praying five times a day. [applause]

along with that anxiety on this type of secret outsider, and i will go very quickly i promise results of the revival of the anti-immigrant panic and we are as much on the left to blame for failing to recognize and stem this at the moment it occurred. do you remember the joe wilson moment. president obama is speaking and he stands up and says you bsa.org. black guy speaking, confederate state you lie that looks like old-fashioned racism but don't forget president obama when he was speaking at moment was talking about health care reform bill and said when this passes don't worry, eagles will not be allowed to partake in the health care reform that we are passing and then joe wilson stood up and said you why. so he was in that moment drawing

a bright line the boundary between citizens and non-citizens on this issue of a fundamental human right health care reform dead before joe wilson stands up and says you lie so it's multiple levels. there's probably some of that old fashioned racism but there's also this new antiimmigration. notice that this week when the president was again interrupted by a journalist in the rose garden it came when he was talking about immigration. that anxiety is about a new fear, the old fear and mixed together with american racism but then there's plenty of old-fashioned racism going on among us as people and not talking about the elite but the shoot-to-kill wall that took trayvon martin's life the same

should to collect immediately following hurricane katrina, that the base in the same great fear that emerged immediately post september 11th. this kind of vilification of bodies that we assume to be criminal lay on top of all of that the war, when men that i know this was occurring for the first i wasn't sure it was coming but i started seeing that when president obama nominated sotomayor to the court. if you can take yourself back and remember the gauntlet she was forced to walk through the senate confirmation to read just for fun for kicks and giggles this afternoon watched the jaime dimond testimony right next to the confirmation hearing. just watch them. [applause]

right after sotomayor was put through the expert moment remembering elizabeth is the teenage girl forced to walk a gauntlet in little rock screaming and yelling faces behind her so much like what i saw when i was watching sotomayor. right after that we had the vilification of shirley. now i want to plan on this one i'm not making a critique of the administration i making a critique of the naacp, an organization that i think has been doing extraordinary exceptional work especially recently, but who in that moment when shirley shaara was first presented to the american people by andrew essey bassist decreases the leadership of the naacp initially, although they cannot quickly but initially

saying she should be ashamed of herself for her comment it would have happened because they didn't know who she wrote to the ku shirley was and that's fine if you didn't. and i didn't know all delighted if you've ever watched which i assume any one that is in the leadership of the naacp did, then the name and state of georgia should have won nobel because they liberated the rest taking care of a land. but the willingness to see a black woman from georgia has an inherently expendable, and then of course post 2010 the full assault on women through the personhood amendments to the fight between coleman and planned parenthood through putting contraception on the agenda in the 21st century its portable but you have to laugh. seriously we were talking about

the pill in 2012. the altar wall of abortion that actually never does occur. telling her that she has to basically defend against being a select she has to submit to a virginity test to be in the public sphere and by the way the 2010 year of the gop woman as the first year we lost ground in the u.s. house of representatives and the senate in terms of what bense representation in more than 40 years. we did that. when i see we i just mean the american people in the broad sense that our fear and anxiety and willingness to train others whether they are unruly women, illegal immigrants, leaves the black people, terrorist muslims, willingness to see them as the

other make possible of these moments and this is the last thing i will say that i will run from this building. there is no reason to lose hope we are just not a perfect people kind of like an adolescent country, remember adolescence? my daughter is almost 11. i have forgotten adolescence is hard. we just randomly field out and get afraid and wondered about the security of childhood and particularly for a country that becomes a dominant so quickly the became so wealthy in the context of such inequality that understood it so fast standing on the shining health we are in our adolescence and we are making a bit of a mess.

[applause] that said, there's no reason to lose hope. the fear that has activated the past decade cannot be countered with more fear of what is coming. is their money in the political system? is the supreme court from the? no. are there folks willing to damage the core of our space principles in order to win the short-term gains? maybe it's coming from people who were slaves. depravity was basically after them. the mormons got ejected, the had to push handcarts out across the american west. the black folks got enslaved for

a couple centuries. i don't know. i guess it doesn't worry me in the sense of the struggle itself. what i do know is my enslave grandmother is on the street corner in richmond virginia believed in god. i'm not asking you to believe in god i'm asking you to think about this. this is a woman that never knew anything but slavery for herself, never knew anything for slavery but anyone she'd ever been related to, never expected anything but slavery for all the people she would be related to in the future. there was no empirical evidence that any being cared about her circumstances. there was no empirical evidence that there was a loving god that had any power if there was a loving god he was pretty pitiful. or if he was powerful he didn't fail to love her. i'm not asking you to believe in god or accept any sort of

supreme being. i'm asking you to think about the state that is associated with the hope that is not necessarily rooted in the empirical reality that you see around you at this moment that says we can still be part of something that is bigger than ourselves and something that we cannot necessarily see at this moment but simply requires us not to be afraid of each other because it is our fear of each other -- [applause] it is our fear of each other that makes us easy to preside. i'm going to go off and talk now but it's because i'm not afraid of them. i often disagree, but i am not afraid of any person with whom we are struggling. we can get to another place. there is no reason to lose hope. [applause]

>> melissa harris-perry. [applause] she is literally running to make airplanes. all right. we are going to leave you with a final speaker this morning. we all know van jones i assume. [applause] he is a public school boy, grew up to be a graduate of yale law school. i like to tease him and tell him that he rose above eight. he's the co-founder of the center for human rights, co-founder of colors for change, co-founder of the green for all. we join him in launching his new venture, rebuild the american dream. an extraordinary innovative effort to restore good jobs and

economic opportunity to build the movement necessary to make that happen. he has neither a personal great fortune. he's not held an elective public office at the time magazine has named him one of the world's 100 most influential people. give it up for van jones. [applause] >> good morning. >> good morning. >> give them the applause for melissa. [applause] i love getting up when i can and seeing her on television. she doesn't just speak that way with that much clarity, that

much insight, that much courage to us. she gets the chance to speak that way to the whole of the american people on saturdays and sundays, and i think that that is a part of what i want to talk about today of the voice that's been missing, the voice that has been missing. rot making passed away -- rodney king passed away and it's hard for me to imagine that it's been 20 years since he became a household word or name on planet earth, just a regular brother with a lot of regular brother problems and issues put in a situation that is all too common. the only difference is a was caught on camera. we know what happened with the

uprising but we sometimes don't think about what it must have been like for him to get pushed out in front of television cameras, no speech, no pollsters with the whole world watching, and to speak from his heart a lot of things about his life you could easily dismiss him for but in those moments who you really are comes through and he just said five words and they are the same five words i think melissa tries to bring us back around to. can we all get along. a prayer for some kind of sanity to emerge from the catastrophe that was unfolding because some kind of wisdom higher purpose to be pulled from the mess to be

pulled from the wreckage of america. can we all get along? he did good things and bad things and things that he regretted and he passed away, but i think his question still resounds can we all get along? we have an extraordinary moment now if we look at november and the month beyond who are we as a country in this mess? in this catastrophe are we going to turn to each other or are we going to turn on each other? that is the great moment, the great question the world is now looking at us the answer, and i appreciate dr. harris-perry for pointing out it's not just what the corporations and us here in

this room. so we have a responsibility. some people thought that for years ago we were to back emotional. we made decisions emotionally, and then we just got a little bit doped up on hope, we got too hopey and the emotional and we were not thinking clearly so we have a reaction against that. now it seems that i'm watching as this moment of testing for america emerges. i am seeing the people that fought the hardest in the decade dr. harris-perry just talked about now fighting the least. i am seeing a movement the was built up over that decade that stood up against bush and cheney