on her husband to the time they reached the white house. they were leading virtually separate lights, as you will see --my per trail of this lives as you'll see in my portrayal of the status of presidential couples. , do not give my husband advice pat would say, because he does not need it. is there a man or woman alive who does not need advice from the person who knows him or her lefbest? >> the arthur talks about first ladies and how they helped shape american history. monday night at 9:00 eastern on c-span. >> more now from the netroots nation annual conference in san jose, california. discussion on the progress iive agenda. jealousanel are been and jeff merkley. this is about one hour and 20 minutes.

>> we do not want to wait even a minute here, so we're going to get get going. my name is john walsh, i am editor at large at salon.com, n msnbc clinical analyst. one of the thing that is so fun about being here is we can be really honest with each other and talk about how the going, how's it working, what is working, what is not working up each other's spirits in case anybody is feeling the solution. i did a really fun book panel yesterday. i guess i found it a little bit negative about our current political climate. this wonderful woman stood up and said that's why when that stuber member that we did some amazing things in 2012. you guys to remember

that we did some amazing things in a 2012. you are talking as though we lost. and i was like wow, you are right, we won. we won. why does it not feel that way sometimes? so this is a panel that really looks at maybe why it doesn't feel that way, and what we need to change. we know that we made these big victories seven months ago, but our progressive agenda is stalled by a minority. they can pass their unpopular agenda, but they can block our popular agenda. namely because of three issues. box,ers at the ballot corporate-funded election, and gridlock and washington, d.c., that we all know is heavily caused by crazy senate rules that are running the senate in a way that it has never been run before. so we know to achieve democratic change, we've got to push back against corporate- funded efforts to suppress

voters participation could win to stop the influence of corporate money. we have two and the obstruction and abuse of roles in the senate. and are working on it. civil rights, labor, and environmental organizations launched something called the democritus -- the democracy initiative to engage in the cited we have a powerful panel to talk about the work of democracy initiative and the groups involved. they represent millions of american voters and a large number of you here at netroots nation. so we want to energize you and send you home optimistic and with some ideas about how to get further involved in making the change that we know needs to be made. so we have got a great panel. i'm going to tell you who they are really quickly. i'm not going to read their amazing bios and accolades. i'm going to let you them tell you who they are, why they're here. we have got and men jealous of the naacp. karen sharp, there is karen shoarp.

coen, and bill of greenpeace. we were supposed to have tom udall. he could not be here because the senate is busy. but we have senator jeff merkley, who is an -- [applause] in many ways, including coming back to be honest panel for us. and to share his perspective on senate rules reform. so i'm going to let them go in order and talk -- start with ben. >> well, for small, good afternoon. it is great to be here with all these great folks of this plan ,- this panel your concerns fired up, pushing money out of politics, and about making sure that if a senator wants a bill, they've got to put on their depends undergarments and go

down there and do it the old- fashioned way. ink, we are at a crossroads our country. as many say bleak it is. is simply whether or not the future is going to come faster that many people think is possible, or is the watch -- or whether it will come in slowly coke brothers wanted to. our country is rapidly approaching a day when we will be the great morality that we have always been destined to be. we will be a plurality of the rallies. .- of the rallies we will be a country that has no authorities. we will be a nature -- a nation that will get along to th to get along. we will be a group of all colors of all communities the welcome that it appeared we understand that this is what that -- that that is what this

country is about. democracy is about one person, one vote. there are other people, fortunately they tend to be much really trying to hold onto the status quo. and we have to understand that we have been here before. there has been a moment in our history when those who are invested in the status quo were very fearful of a growing black electorate, increasing numbers of people of color migrating into this country. right after the civil war. this country past the 14th amendment, passed the 15 mm it -- 15th amendment. are we've seen with bills latino exclusion acts. they're not happening in maine, where there is a big undocumented and 80 and

population. [laughter] along there happening southern border. nowthe difference between ,nd then is that back then black people were recently freed slaves. back then, women could not vote. back then, the chinese in this country literally could be rounded up, and that what made angel island. ellis island was for people coming into the country, and violence was for those the shift out of the country. the good news that this is not then. we are much more powerful. we livedaw last year, through the greatest assaults, more lows -- more laws pushing voters out of the battlefront. a backlash to the backlash that increase voting in the very

-- demographics that were targeted for oppression. if there was a group of people who had too much power for too long, at the end of the day, to undeservedly, because they were not a majority. the clock was running out. they would be acting like far right-wing. just really trying to do everything they can to hold off the future. they cannot hold off the future -- it will come. it is up to us to make sure that it comes more quickly than they think it's possible. [applause] cohen from thery cwa. we all have red shirt on, it

would be easy to see, but it is not. happy solstice to everybody here and we're going to stay up all night, right, that's what happens in the north. 550,000 active members who do collective are doing, and another hundred 50,000 who are retired or do not have bargaining rights. why did we get into the democracy initiative? because on every key issue that our members care about, we hit a dead end. ers could these cwa tell you, collective bargaining in the united states has become all defense, like you are cleaning off -- clinging onto a cliff. ontoow long can we hold our health care, how long can we hold onto our job, how long can we hold onto our retirement? how long can we hold onto our rights?

seven or eight years ago, we defined our key issues to cut across the five main industry groups that make up our union. around those four things, job, healthcare, retirement, and our rights. we set out, whether it was an bargaining or in congress to move that agenda. we soon saw that despite 2008, which i think most of us would say is a high water mark in terms of what you could do with these rules, we saw in 2009 that at the federal level, first because of senate rules, nothing even got discussed. 111th congress passed over 400 items, mostly legislation, never got discussed

for one second on the floor of the senate. far-er it was much more reaching healthcare reform, the employee free choice act, which would have meant workers had real organizing rights in this country again in the private sector, none of that got discussed. in fact, people would second- guess, oh, maybe we should have had a slightly different bill. when in fact what we faced was an onslaught from the right wing totally taking over the republican party and a big party,f the democratic particularly in the senate. i should not say a big chunk. i'm sitting next to one of the best of the best of the best ever, but a chunk. [applause] and so we started to learn, maybe a little slow, that these democracy issues, not just senate rules, which we will

focus on some here today, but money and politics and voting rights were at the core of why economic justice was beyond our reach. and so for us, we talked about basic education, discuss and -- discussion piece called building a movement for economic justice and democracy, that if we did not link the ,emocracy issues with jobs healthcare, retirement, security, and right on the job, .o hope anyway for today in fact, we need to have a plan, which hopefully we are building together, and many other democracy initiative partners are here in the room, as well is right here on this table. that it would be what we call seven to 10 years, but at least then there will be a path. in some of the things like at least some moderate senate roles reform, hopefully are

within our reach, if we mobilize in the next few weeks, that many others like universal voter registration, or big money out of politics, it's going to take longer. and that we should not get discouraged, and we will give up that vision about economic justice. but if we don't build a democracy movement, that has ity ton similar 8 tunisia, egypt, we will be looking -- moaning about economic inequality for years and decades to come. we are very optimistic that if we stick together, build broader, are modest but tough, are determined, that together with the democracy initiative and with the movement for economic justice, and with great leaders like senator achieve the real american dream. thank you. [applause]

>> the american dream is a good point to begin a transition because we think about the american dream -- it is under such assault. homeownership, as a wealth building mechanism for the middle class, struck down by predatory premises in the subprime market. living wage jobs disappearing, 80% of those that we lost in the recession were minimum-wage jobs, and only 40% of the jobs we got back were minimum-wage jobs. there is a long list and they go the u.s. senate should be there to take these issues on. that is what you do in a democracy. that is what a legislator is for. and try that response out. if it works well, expanded commitment is not, retract it, but right now, what happens is the idea is debated, maybe he gets through committee, gets to the floor, and you have to get a

super majority of 60 just to get the issue onto the floor. an amendment, if it is objective, will take 60 votes. this is not the senate as it has existed historically in the united states of america. under lyndon b. johnson, and six years as majority leader of onete, only one time -- time in six years -- did he have to produce a petition and then hold a vote to try to close debate and get to a final simple majority vote. the rest of the time it was the courtesy. under harry reid's first six years, he had to file 391 petitions. these petitions take up a whole week because everybody is fighting for that rare exception, years apart. 391 weeks in a six- year period.

you can start to see how the senate has been brought to its knees. one appropriation bill done in the last two years out of 24. we can talk about the disclose act, which was mentioned. whenever got to a final vote on the disclose act. we had 59 senators twice to say yes, let's close the debate, let's hold a final vote. the dream act got a majority, but not a super majority. a replacement to the movement just -- the sequester got a majority but not a super majority. so we need to change this. we need to get rid of the filibuster on the motion to proceed to the floor, straight up or down votes, are you on for it or not. we need to get rid of it on conference committee. right now, there is no conference committee on the budget, even though the sentence passed a budget, and the house passed a budget, because the senate republicans are filibustering the conference committee. i ask you -- how can anyone object to the house and senate

getting together and trying to reconcile the differences between their two bills? but that is how dysfunctional the senate has become as a result of those who wanted to be dysfunctional. this is a key piece. if you are very powerful, and you have dozens or hundreds of lawyers, and you have huge amounts to donate to super packs and campaigns, you have find a way past the super majority over time. at if you are fighting for progressive cause, for fairness, if you are fighting for the 99% 1%her than the 1%, than the uses the paralysis of the senate to block the opportunity to have a full debate and vote on things that will take america forward. that is why this should matter to all of us. i will be very brief. there is the nomination site, and there is the legislation site. i have described the legislation site. some of the changes we should -- 41 votes ton

extend so that absent votes count for the debate, not for extending debate. if those 41 one more debate, we should require that there has to be debate. folks have to stand up and actually make the case before their colleagues, before the american people. the american people with all of your help can decide if they are bums, andbombs -- that fee that will hopefully help us get a final vote and take legislation forward. on the nomination side, we are a senate that is crippling the other two branches of government. that was never envisioned in the constitution. go ir longer discussion will have more to say on that. but let me close with this -- my partner throughout this has been tom udall of new mexico. he saw the senate when it worked because of a family tradition in which they knew capitol hill well.

and he was absolutely appalled by this dysfunction. he made the argument more clearly and forcibly than anyone else. every two years wishes are with a discussion of the rules, the rules will be adjusted to keep the senate working as a legislative body. it used to be called the worlds greatest liberty body. when they be wonderful wonderful if we could say that again? he would love to have been here today, and please make sure you extend your love to him and appreciation for this battle he has been leading. thank you. [applause] >> hi, i am karen scharf, the executive director of citizen action of new york, and i'm culture of the new york working families party. work on issues of economic, racial, social and environmental justice. we like to think of ourselves as asthmatic idealist, that we

want to work on things we think we can win and get done, but pushing that to the edge of what is possible we take on the big issues like healthcare, adequate funding for our public schools, we try to find solutions that are ambitious but achievable. one of what led us to our big issues, which might be pushing us sort of over the edge of what is possible, but hopefully we will so get there. we also the new york affiliate of u.s. action, which many of you may be affiliated with. i'm culture of the working families party, which is independent clinical party in new york. in new york we have a system where he can run as a candidate on multiple party lines, so we do in the working families party is we have a strong coalition of powerful groups, and we use our ballot line to choose candidates to encourage progressive candidates to run, endorse progressive candidates against more conservative

democrats, and also to help democrats be republicans. and citizen action and working families party has been leading the coalition in new york along with a huge amount of help from our national partners. in order to burdette -- address tryingsue, we have been to form a public funding election system in which the system would apply six dollars for every one dollar you get contribute in your district. the idea is that would allow candidates to run for office and when using only small donations and public funds rather than have to do what most candidates have to do which is spent all of their time, dollar for dollar, asking the wealthiest donors and the largest corporations to give the money to fund their campaigns. the idea is that by being able to run with small donations and public money, candidates would no longer be forced to not only take money from seo campaign contributors, but then make

public policy that satisfies those owners. nerd city have a system like this that have worked for decades as the said a level -- at the city level. ,t changed who runs for office who lynn -- it went, and what legislation gets passed in the city council. more people of color will run, more women run, more working members run. not only do they run, but they actually went. not only do they win, but once they are in office, they do very differently. most recently, the regressive caucus in the city council, many of whom we helped elect, works closely with us to require that avoid -- that employers provide sick days. [applause] yes, big victory. those are the kind of victories you get when you have a public funded system and you can elect people to office two who are actually concerned about the everyday lives of people in their city. at the state level, we do not have that. it is sadly not an exaggeration to say that new york city -- new

york state as in the country, our democracy has been hijacked by wealthy donors. those who give the money not only determine who once -- who runs and wins elections, but i would say the opposite is true -- they also determine the policy decisions that are made every day by our government. ,n new york, a few months ago there was a massive campaign involving many unions and organizations to increase minimum wage at the state level. we finally did when a file -- a small increase in the minimum wage, but only after state budget later agreed to provide huge tax rates to low-wage employers like walmart in order to reimburse them, basically, for the increased range -- wage they would have to pay. why are we suddenly giving away $65 million a year in tax credits to the walmarts of the world? it might as of the to do with the fact that walmart gave $500,000 in campaign attribution living up to that fight. those kinds of campaign contributions in policy

decisions are exactly what is wrong with our political system. you see it in issue after issue. it is a wide and growing economic equality in our state. and our country. it is not an accident. big money has fixed policies that have led to deregulation, unionbusting, lower rages -- wages, and many other policies that led to our economic and financial crisis and increase the wealth of the 1%. in this kind of climate, especially after citizens united, where we can't get big money out of elections, we have to give voters back into elections in order to change the outcomes of elections and public policy. that is why the working families party and citizens national created the campaign a few years ago to fund my -- to fundamentally change the campaign in new york and set a trend for the country both at the national level and other states by creating a followed terry system that provides public matching funds to small

donations from ordinary voters, to make elections work again for voters and have voters take back their democracy and begin to reclaim public policymaking we believe after looking very closely at campaign finances in new york city, and the state, and the country, that public funding is the only way in his current, high money, high- stakes political culture to provide a real alternative to candidates so they can run people and when elections with small donations. we base election that such a top pro 30. -- a top priority. that is really our reason for getting into this campaign, as larry said, what are we to those fights going commando's challenge is winning those fights without first changing campaign finance system. thank you. [applause]

greg good afternoon. i am the executive director of greenpeace. i'm sorry that i did not scale scaled on the wall in common with more of a greenpeace entrance. >> it is not too late. >> that is right. >> i think you can, is just that you did not. >> that is true. i appreciated the comment that the senate should use diapers. people ask us, how do you go to the bathroom, and we do what the senators should do during a filibuster, they wear diapers. [laughter] i wanted to acknowledge karen and the working families party because they are one of the fuel -- the few groups that are so courageous. we need a bunch more of that. we need more truly leaders. we need people to hold politicians accountable so that they are afraid of us if they do not do the right thing.

forou -- when was the last major new environmental law passed in the u.s. congress? >> new? >> last big, groundbreaking environmental one. 1971, i heard mr. cantor back there saying 1980, superfund law. 1980. last big new environmental law passed her the u.s. congress. there've been many amendments, but last new big law. 1980. so 1980 was one year before ibm came out with the first personal computer. i was four. i had hair here and is none here and big glasses. 1980. you might think that is fine because the rivers are not on fire anymore like they were. he might think that is fine

because we do not have like monday like we had in st. louis where you cannot see the sun at noon because of air pollution. but when you look at what president bush just put out or the end of his tenure, that over half of us will get cancer in our lifetime, and that over 61% of those cancers are related to the environment, when you look at that, we are far from done. the reason we got all these laws pass from 1972 1980 was that there were millions of people in the street, and our corporate opponents were flat. corporate opponents and not know what was hitting them at all. ,veryone knows the pell memo if you don't, quickly google it. come on, i know you have your iphones or whatever. i know you have your cwa- supported phone. but the head of the chamber of commerce, which actually represented small it is, that we had a problem. ralph nader, an arm and all is,

people want women's, people who care that rages -- that wages would go down. destroyo are going to our world. so he said the corporate right, , the corporate right needed to take over this country, and they needed to take over the courts, congress, they needed to get those lefty professors fired and take over schools, they needed everyone to have an nda to change their way of thinking. they needed to do a whole litany of things to finally change the balance of power. where we are today is the newest version. where we are today if the coke brothers, using bigotry and big money to destroy our democracy. the newest version of a really old story of corporate power of racism, sexism, a few people wanting to control this country. are using to take

over our country. suppressingg a by voters, keeping young people, old people, people of color out of the polls. effective, there is a law where you can votes, or there is a bill where you can vote with a gun id, but not with a student id. how blatant is that? whilee pushing that law you are pushing to get big money into politics, while you are really happy to keep the senate broken. anl we pull together here is unprecedented coalition across rates come across issues, across silos, because what we know is fundamentally, we're in epic historic battles in the battle to get people in, to get this beautiful, diverse country in howard. get everyone voices heard, make sure everyone's voice counts, and get the money of the few people who want to hold onto power as long as they can out. once we get people in and we get

that money out, we will not need to worry about our mothers or our daughters or our sisters or our fathers or our brothers getting cancer from being exposed to the workplace in their communities because our voices were actually be heard. that is why greenpeace is here, and that is why it is a real honor. that is why i cannot wait to see the senate with us in diapers. [laughter] [applause] ended upt know how i sharing a microphone with ben jealous. inause we have had a change our panel, we're going to make that the questions a little bit. i'm going to keep you all on your toes. we want to get to the issues of the way money and politics, voting rights and senate rules are interlinked. we have got people, karen and ben are going to talk about the state level, the new york experience, and we are all really excited about what you are doing in north carolina.

we're are going to leave it to fill and larry to look more at the national political picture and give us a picture of what is diy's to accomplish. -- what di wants to jobless. we've got a lot of people here who back what you are doing and want to be as helpful as possible to you. tell us exactly what is going on in your discussion, and what we might hope to see happen in july. if anything. >> right now, the senate is immersed in the immigration debate. we're looking forward to passing that bill out of the senate, keeping it intact with the framework that was put together foure group of eight, democrats and four republicans could what we are doing right now is our missions, and we have this huge backlog. we need to put in place five new members of the national labor relations board, one of the most

important things we have to accomplish. [applause] we need to get richard cordrey confirmed at the permanent director of the cs epd. [applause] epaeed another taking the forward. you are the president talking but applying the standard for carbon dioxide pollution. we need the director of epa to take that forward. it is a huge goal. [applause] to berez is waiting confirmed at labor, a real champion for working people. we have three folks who have been nominated to the d c circuit court, these would be folks filling positions that have been long and deep. this is the second most important court in our country to the supreme court because so many of the issues or laws go

through that appeals court before they go to the supreme court. happeningat has been at the nominations have not been getting done because we have embargoes on them. we have a super majority .pposition we have folks to finally get a vote and when nominations by 92- 2, who have had to wait a year to get that vote. if you think about it on the judicial side, this is really court packing by blocking the president for the nominations. it is unacceptable. on thethink about it executive branch site, it is a strategy designed to drain the energy of the president and his team that has been elected in order to keep them pursuing the things that they campaign on, which is an incredible interference and democracy. it adds a cynicism. our young full tour wondering -- why should we vote? why should we care?

the house is not much better. tohave to do this in order have a vibrant democracy function. here is the bottom line -- we have to eliminate the filibuster on nominations. [applause] so what we are expecting in july is to try to get these nominations done, and we expect there will be opposition, as there has been all along, and at that moment, we need to say either we have up-and-down votes in a timely fashion, including the whole backlog of justices that are lined up, or we change the rules or change the interpretation of the rules. because our democracy has been stolen, and we have to take it back. [applause] , since i know you have limited time, i'm just or to take the moderators privilege and push a little bit. obviously we can do this with

-- we have aof democratic majority. where are we on this, and how would you urge people to get more involved, and if they have democrat senators who are absent not stated a position or perhaps are known to be skeptical of this idea, what is your advice to people? how can we push this forward? to bencourage everybody very involved because this is about our nation, about what gets passed in laws, about whether courts are packed, about whether the president's team is in place to pursue the executive functions. ,se your national organizations whatever profession you are part of, group you are part of a may encourage your national leaders to weigh in. larry can fill in a lot of this because he has been helping groups organize at the national level. it matters to the members in this regard. homeor the folks in your

state. it matters to the leadership of the party. yes, you are correct, we will not get this done by a bipartisan majority. i worked for a hard to find colleagues across the aisle who would form a group before the last election. let's make the senate work in this fashion. and i had a number who felt very much akin to the reforms that comment i have been talking about about. but they did not feel they could take on the minority leader, mitch mcconnell, in a procedural issue. so it has become clear it has to be done in a partisan way, but not in a politically partisan way. this will be healthy for the entire country. the ideas that we have been putting forward will be good. they are fair. youlegislative fight gives a chance to filibuster, on the nominations that cometh against you and vote. -- on the nomination side that still gives you a vote.

people will say don't you need to keep the hurdle in place to keep a bad president and a bad republican majority for making bad things happen? here is the thing -- don't think for a moment that the republican colleagues will not change the rules when they are in a position of power. when the democrats were filibustering judges, republican said that -- either stand down and quit filibustering, or we are changing the rules to simple majority on judges. 14, theas a group of democrats agreed not to filibuster, and the result was they got what they wanted without the rule change, which then came back to cause us great harm when the democrats are in the majority because the republicans did not abide by the same deal. do its is why we have to and why it makes sense. >> larry, you and i have talked about this.

you have been a real outspoken person on the need to do this, on some of the obstacles to doing it. this notion -- i wrote something that was critical of the senate majority leader read, and you were sober with me that he cannot do it by himself, and he does not have the votes, he may not have the vote. and tryingyour work to push some of the democratic like the collegial way things have run. also fear this notion of being in the minority again and not having any power, although i have always said when you are prayer -- preparing to be in the minority, you are preparing to be defeated, and if you are bold and you take the strength of the majority and do what you are elected to do, that would be kind of cool. [applause] >> radical idea there. >> i know.

i know we agree on this, larry, but talk a little bit about your thinking. , andere's -- first of all the next three weeks are critical as senator merkley just said. this is to show that we can make a difference. this is to show that we can change things. --is not senate revolution senate resolution five that you wrote with senator udall, it is not on the floor. this is just on nominations, that if we do not get this done, number one, as was already set by senator merkley, on august 27, the only confirmed member is up, he isterm is of off at eight. 80 million workers have nothing at all, no floor to work on in terms of their rights. whether it is the 6 million, a pathetic number, but that is what we are down to, or the 74 million who don't. july recess, the three

weeks in july when the senate nlrb is critical, but the is only one part of it. the republicans have said when dodd frank was passed, we will never confirmed the director of d, so elizabeth warren was acting because she could not have gotten confirm him even though she won an election for the senate for massachusetts, but could not get confirmed because of the way denominations are handled. is thesene of this next three weeks where we have a mass campaign, and it is not all this and more, it is the organization sitting out here working together, fixthesenatenow.org. it means mobilization, particularly in every state where you have a democratic we're not going to get a republican republican vote on this, not one. you heard senator merkley.

right here in california, the senators need to hear loud and , they are probably just about ok right now, but they are not in the 40 that we clearly had. they are in the next group. and so many of you are from california. they need to hear from you. in the next three weeks. on july 2, that is during the recess, the senate recess is june 27-july 8. we will be organizing together visitations or whatever you want to call them with as many of these critics senators as possible, including the ones that are among the 40 that are terrific on this because they need role energy on this. they need to hear that we are not going to stand for a democratic majority that sits back and says well, we cannot get four of our colleagues to stand up with us.

need a 42 say to the other 14 the majority of which are well, i doey need -- not want to get you involved on that. they need -- what we call that? they need a push, and they needed now. they need a kick. there you go. [laughter] >> is a push is not work. >> so we have a very shaky 51, but we need to focus on all of do it now.e need to name the names. i do have the names, just by coincidence. this is a larger groups i do not overly focus on three. levin, prior, jack reed,

eahy, donnelly what what what the other 40 to get that done to. most of those commodities want to absolutely target the three, you can probably figure them .ut, but most of those are good we have to do it now. on july 2, we will be organizing a national day of action. one million americans assigned a petition to the leader, harry reid, but he is not going to do it if if he does not have 51. can't do it with 50 because the vice president can break the tie. even on a procedural issue. but we need 51. so i do not want to use up all

the minutes on this, but this is a first step of the democracy initiative. this is the first 70 broad movement for democracy that we can win. on the one hand, imagine a one with great looters -- great leaders like senator merkley, how we will feel like we can make some change occur. in number two, feel what they will be like, for example, labor day is celebrated this year, that is the choice.e the nlrb is dear to my heart, but it's not just the nlrb. that is the choice. labor day with no labor law in america. that is going to be the bottom and we are already near the bottom of any the mock receipt or this locker see movement get some movement and progress in july. we change the rules and we get an up or down vote.

i'm going to go to fill now. [applause] we like clapping. it wakes everybody up. we are going to ask you to go beyond this. it will be great to kick this off with a win like that. take us to the next step and talk about what it takes for a group as big and important as yours. talk about what it means to bring these powerhouses together and get people outside of their silos and work together on senate rules reform and the next issues you are taking on. >> can we give the senator just

one more round of applause? [applause] there is nothing that unites us better than a dam good enemy. bring a lot take to of different groups together? it takes the fact that our fights are largely about people, which is money. organized people versus organize money. if you are from the environmental movement, you look at who is in congress and who is good on are issues and you quickly realize the labor movement and women's mute -- women's movement elected those people. if you care about the environment am a fundamentally, you have to care about workers rights and women's rights and you have to see that unless we are together, the labor movement, if they are in -- if

they are not in office, forget addressing climate change, forget all of those things. the first thing that can bring us together is that while we have differences and while there are real policy debates, the underlying balance of power we need for people's voices to be heard, from those who want to profit to make sure they make more money than the workers, we have to change the balance of power. there's a set of leaders and organizers that realize it is not about ec, it is about being on the ground and shifting the balance of power that is number one. number two, these folks are amazing and easy to work with. fundamentally, if you believe the balance of power, if you get the history we are a part

of in working to actually fill the promise of having a democracy in this country and that our change depends on it, it all flows from there. >> one thing that is exciting is that this is going on at the state level. of theto talk about some great lessons you are doing. there is great work happening in several states right now. in north carolina, they are with a very tough reality head-on. it's a very successful coalition of folks built by the naacp and the state leader, reverend barter were -- reverend barber, they put together the power to push through great voting reforms and for the people to

really be heard in 2008, president obama won the state in beenouth, and who have fighting this very aggressive, far right wing attack on rights in the state that have come to a head over the last couple of years. they have been visible and inspiring in showing what we can do when we come together, one for all and all for one. at the same time, we've seen big victories on voting rights in states just north. some of them below the mason- dixon line. a couple of weeks ago, governor bob mcdonnell took the last of the jim crow voter suppression, the lifetime ban of formerly incarcerated people voting.

[applause] do what we may not have done today, clap for a republican. -- reality is that it will they were extremely courageous. i bagged cain to do the exact same thing when he was on his way to be the governor of the dnc. this franchise reinvention eyes 200,000 virginia voters -- these are working people likely to be democratic voters. he is a civil rights voter edits and easy argument. he argued some principles that i couldn't even recognize. earlye go to mcdonald's in his tenure and he says i believe in redemption and i believe in second chances. i think this is the right thing to do.

it through the legislature and when that failed, he stood up and signed an executive order that will reinvent a the databases, probably half of the incarcerated people in virginia. when this law took place in 1901, my grandfather was a state senator in virginia and he thought he might have a further career in politics in the state. senatorconvention, glass of the glass-steagall act , this is what this convention is about, discrimination. when he put forward this plan, will be eliminated as a factor within five years. whencain would not do it, leaders refused to do it, it

was a very big deal. now because of a movement led by , we have, in maryland seen expansions of early voting and same day registration. a delaware, we just passed constitutional amendment getting rid of the five-year waiting time from venting formerly incarcerated people from voting. increaseignificantly disproportionally and let a lot of poor white folks work as well -- vote as well also. we have seen past laws -- more passed laws expanding the vote than shrinking the vote because we decided the movement, this and we havee a loss

lost some tough fights in virginia that put into place voter id. this year, they felt like they had to sign the bill because it's better to be in a situation where you win one and lose one then to be one where you are just losing. why north carolina is so important is that in this century, the effect will primarily be about date level legislation. in the last century, the fight was about federal litigation. there were some big cases coming down next week trade but it will finally be about state level legislation. most of us are very familiar with fighting people who are breaking the law to suppress the vote. what we are dealing with is an

older violation in our politics. it was taken off the shelf in the civil war, that past the law to suppress the vote and eight off the shelf for 40 years. we can expect we will be dealing with this every single state legislative cycle until this country becomes a majority people of color and the far right wing has to figure out how to get along with somebody. that is why what is being done here is so important. 2014 as it is about 2044. by 2044, that will be a bigger voting block then black folks. to invest in our job and our job is to make the future come faster.

>> definitely. [applause] you said about the state level work is also true about women's rights. that's where we see the most incredible rollback. >> to be clear, voting rights need to be your second most important thing. whatever is your one big thing is your one big thing. but the far right wing really understands if they get this, they take that also. they are coming after this to -- tot harder to make it make it harder for planned parenthood to push its agenda. that, we't understand can't be about one thing anymore. we have to be at least about two things. this will be the ones strand that they pull in the sweater of rights protection. [applause]

>> and may be the third thing is money in politics. you're going to talk about opening a campaign in new york and the campaigns and the unvarnished truth area -- beforeshed truth area >> we worked on fair elections, to change the campaign finance system, we thought it was important and we created a very broad coalition, well over 100 organizations that were dedicated to the campaign. the environmental people made it one of their top ironies. the progressive labor organizations made it a priority and that is the breath of the coalition, it is phenomenal and it's the first time we've seen that kind of coming together around an issue of democracy and hope we can

continue that and expanded to all voting rights efforts going there are a well. lot of different things that are interesting, but i want to start with a few different pieces about the kind of tactics that we use. in addition to being a very broad campaign, it's an issue where we used everything we could ink a to do and did it in one way or the other in the hopes of putting this issue over the top. 2012, we kind of died in the legislative session quickly. we knew that when we got to the legislative fight, we had to prove it was an election issue, not just a good issue that no one else would understand. we had to prove to the legislators and governors, that they would stand on democracy and campaign finance. , train,p recruit

develop and correct a senate campaign in new york that had and created by senate republicans as part of their gerrymandered redistricting process. they traded the district just to make sure they would not lose a majority so they would lose as a senator. we turned to a woman who was a farmer and school board member and she was a strong champion of fair elections for all the reasons we were talking about. we made the campaign be heavily about that issue, the need to have a new campaign finance system. they also came in with a campaign focused on fair elections. they were focused on outsourcing and the combination of those efforts with the deal

activities put together meant that we won the campaign, lost in the present count and lost in the recount several months later. [applause] electionsof fair became such an issue because when the republican candidate saw hundreds of thousands of dollars were being spent to say the democratic candidate was for fair elections and he was against the, he thought it was a fair issue. spendinglieves in taxpayer money on elections. he has to spend more issues running than we did. to tax you to pay for corrupt politicians like him. [laughter] go into 2013,o saying voters actually do care about this even in a republican district designed for this guy.

that's important because it not only set us up for the legislative session, but we haven't quite one yet and we have to go back for another way to look at accountability. sessionhe legislative and we had to have a very aggressive campaign that would use every tactic under the book. whatde sure each group did they were good at doing. theyolicy reports show could run between legislation and the new media groups did twitter rallies and direct actions, etc.. we created a tumblr where they took a picture of each person that door holding up a sign saying stop corruption, pass

fair elections. people who they knew that where there voters and they sent an e-mail with all of the pictures. every night -- it was way more we had one on science and we had a day where we did a ben & jerry's giveaway and you could use real money with a stamp that said not to be used for bribery. we had celebrity videos and groups outside the former coalition and there were tons of creative actions including hundreds of banner drops from highways and overpasses. everyone would drive and see these banners. one day they did a money drop.

they could dramatize the role of a bunch ofid creative actions. last week, there was an e-mail action about performing at the governors fundraiser and we had a multi-coalition rally and did civil disobedience. they refuse to let our ill come to the floor and 21 of us got arrested. that sort of heightened the tension. so was the stop and frisk bill and the dream act and all of by a issues being lost combination of republicans and conservative democrats. onlyemocratic conference has 27 people in it. six of our democrats decided to work with the republicans.

it has been an frustrating process for us. >> we want to leave time for questions. >> the lesson is we need to hold these conservative democrats accountable. last night, we had a procedural the and the democrats lost procedural vote by two votes. was one democrat who never votes for the democrats. two of them chose not to vote with us. they knew we were going to lose. we know we need to hold them accountable and even our champions need to be committed to getting this done. to elect progressives to office and hold them accountable. primary, there

are not a lot of voters. if we combine the list with a grassroots troops that we can put on the ground, the fieldwork on the ground work almost can't fail if we work aggressively against these democrats and force them to take us seriously. [applause] >> thank you so much. that is important because we have the most leverage with conservative democrats and that may be our biggest problem when you think about it. raise your hand and she will give you the microphone and you can talk to us. i see someone appear.

i cut off these amazing people to give you time to talk. my name is dawn from ohio. i was born in california. i went to berkeley for two years in the 60s, i was active in politics. i didn't do anything for 40 years. then i got involved in ohio in the john kerry campaign and the democratic party was really

anemic. the question i asked was what are you doing for education in democracy? anhink we need understanding in order to bring about the necessary changes. >> last year, we started a conversation in earnest with a generation of voters in this country who did not really understand what voting rights were when we got right down to it erie it they did not understand how they could be eviscerated. people like in minnesota where voter id was at 80% when it started. together, a bunch of the groups represented here and others like the center for committed change

figured out that if we just 70%, it went from 80% to to 50% and then we defeated at the ballot box. the most important thing we decided to do in the last year or two is to make the fight is about and talk about what is going on. to really engage people and say we know your ideas are up today, but what about your kid in college? is the ide carries his home address because he's not going to be able to vote in school with that idea of this goes through. educateip organizations our members regularly. we are old institutions that come from a different time. the naacp is more than 100 years

old, for example. the power of these old institutions we bemoan as being antiquated, they actually train people in how to lead and make a difference in democracy just as a habit of being. it's just what we do. one thing i am very afraid of ,s when we go door to door talking about voting rights, is that there has been a real impact in the last 20 years in the defending of civics education in this country and we need to understand the future of our progressive movement in many ways would be greatly enhanced if we got back to teaching kids about how government works. .> another question up here we will try again.

>> [inaudible] we also have a huge fight on the fec. we have no commissioners -- this is the agency overseeing campaign finance problem's, fight forller in the democracy movement. we just had two people nominated today. that's another point we should be remembering. wanted to mention that in addition to the important changing the rules of the

filibuster, we are challenging through the courts to say the filibuster is unconstitutional. i wonder if anyone wants to talk about alternative ways to address the filibuster. common cause is active in, i think. is anyone here an expert on that? >> i believe the questionnaire is. we supported that lawsuit. majority thatate can do this and the constitution makes it clear that the senate adopts its own rules, which means by majority vote. roadblockst has some

already and we are still supporting it. the easiest way to do this is senate resolution five would have gone a long way. thate have an opportunity go at least a small way, including the federal election commission. this is the fastest way to get it done. we need to use nominations as a springboard and go on from there. would be another way to litigate it through the judicial system. >> one more quick question. the woman in the hat over there. a i wanted to ask, we talked lot about the outrage that we have this conservative media,

fox news, people watch it and they believe it. we don't have anything like that. msnbc doesn't even have the reach. how can we reach people so that we are not reaching -- so we are not reaching to the converted? i think a lot of americans care about fairness, but it seems like we can't get the message out. a lot of people live in their communities and they watch fox news and may think we are evil. how do we reach them? -- we need to reach them where they live. one of the things i'm teaching our organizers is there will be

a lot of people who agree with you on everything and even more who agree with you on most things. as long as everyone agrees with you on one thing. i sat down with governor mcdonnell and said we both believe in second chances. rights in a weight no government -- no governor had been able to do in a century, i would say we need to engage that population. when we do, it has a positive impact. in texas last year, their 12 progressive criminal justice bills passed by the end of the lady cp-identified politicians and the tea party identified politicians. we both agreed the system is too , you neede drug rehab

to look into that area this year in texas, there were 50 bills. texas is now rejected to shut down its first prison ever called through a vehicle the texas criminal justice coalition, a long time ago, they went looking for that one thing. , if we are going to build back a bipartisan on theus, especially principle of one person, one vote, we are going to have to the hard work of reaching out and talking to our neighbors. that is how we got to 80% to a majority oppose that the battle box. -- at the ballot box. wet is why