makes a difference. membership helps make the most of your cashflow. i'm nelson gutierrez of strictly bicycles and my money works as hard as i do. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. president obama barn storms the country to talk about jobs but will republicans let him do anything? there was a common lament about president obama is that he was stuck in the past, pivoting to jobs and offering the same old economic policies you've been peddling for years. for one thing, it probably makes sense to advocate for the same policies if they haven't been implemented, especially if the economy is in glaringly in need of a boost but more than that, president obama is pivoting jobs

and economy suggests he hasn't been focused on it the past four years. that's a tough line to swallow when you look at what he's done or what he's tried to do these past four years on the economy. we can start a month into his presidency, althoul the way bac winter of 2009, signed the stimulus bill into law. meant to turn around an economy that had lost 800,000 jobs in a single month. not a single house republican voted for the measure and only three senate republicans went along with it. one of those senators, arlen specter, too so much heat that he switched parties. here's the kicker, out of republicans voting for, it the stimulus ended up representing one of the most bipartisan economic achievements for the president. he was fresh off a landstslide election victory, 65% approval

rating and resistance from republicans was still nearly universal that set the tone for what was to come. a year after the stimulus in early 2010 with unemployment crossing 10%, obama offered a significant concession to republicans, one that infuriated many on the left but was designed to loosen the partisan opposition to him. >> families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. the federal government should do the same. tonight i'm proposing specific steps to pay for the trillion dollars that it took to rescue the economy last year. >> then december 2010 a month after democrats suffered historic midterm election losses. bush tax cuts were to expire and obama cut a deal to extend them for another two years. something he campaigned for vehemently but in exchange for kaiing in he got republicans to budge on some, extension of

federal unemployment insurance. if congressional minorities hemmed obama in the first half of his first term, that republican house takeover in the 2010 midterms really put his economic agenda on ice. republicans picked a massive fight over the debt ceiling in 2011, refusing to raise it without exacting huge cuts from the federal budget. obama offered them a grand bargain, $4 trillion in deficit reduction by raising revenues and putting sacred social programs on the table. but the idea of even a dime in new revenue was too much for house republicans who forced john boehner to walk away from the table, unleashing brief political chaos in a last-second deal to cut spending by $2 trillion over the next decade. it was that debt ceiling debacle at the end of 2011 that brought president obama's approval rating to an all-time low. it convinced the president that no amount of compromising would be enough to get any kind of deal from republicans. if he was going to have any chance of enacting anything he

wanted, he'd have to make his case to the public and beat the gop in the 2012 elections. this is when he addressed a joint session of congress and proposed the american jobs act. sweeping economic wish list that included half a trillion in spending. the idea all polled well and senate democrats tried to make republicans vote on them one at a time, but republicans, not surprisingly, filibustered them all to debt. this gave obama fuel for his re-election campaign, which for all intents and purposes, kicked off at the end of 2011 in kansas. >> i'm here in kansas to reaffirm my deep conviction that we're greater together than we are on our own. i believe that this country succeeds when everyone gets a fair shot. when everyone does their fair share. when everyone plays by the same

rules. these aren't democratic values or republican values. these aren't 1% values or 99% values. they're american values. >> as he ran for re-election, obama offered implicit message to voters, i may not be able to enact this but give me a chance at the ballot box and maybe things will change. >> the frustration i have right now is that we still need to break the fever here in washington so this town operates and reflects those values that are shared by people all across the country. >> but here we are today, now nine months after his re-election and that fever is still raging. since the election obama did manage to raise taxes. in the state of the union address earlier this year, obama called for raising the federal minimum wage, a popular measure that last passed in 2007 with bipartisan majorities, signed

into law by president bush. this time there wasn't a single republican vote for it in the house, which brings us back to the limits of what obama can do to boost the economy. he's got all he can handle just to maintain the status quo. i want to bring in jamel, staff writer from "newsweek" and "the daily beast," rick perlstein, ana marie cox, and josh barrow, business insider. we took a tour of the last four-plus years there. i thought the context might be helpful because when i saw obama pivoting to jobs headlines this week, i thought, i've seen this 62 times in the last 4 1/2 years. let's look at the bigger picture. it's an interesting sort of story that broke overnight, an interview the president gave to the "new york times" that was published overnight. he gave it to "the times" in illinois before his speech this week. we actually have -- they put the video online.

i want to play a clip to get things started. let's listen to what the president said in this new interview. >> yeah, i'm sorry, i thought we had a video of it. sorry about this. this is what happens after breaking news. i want to make sure all of us in washington are investing as much time, as much energy, as much debate on how we grow the economy and grow the middle class as we've spent over the last two to three years arguing about how we grow the middle class. sorry, i thought that was a video. it's an interesting quote because it suggests there's been a change in his thinking a little bit here, that maybe, you know, you had the pursuit of the grand bargain, you know, putting entitlements on the table, all of those sort of, you know, focusing on the deficit. now he's sort of saying, let's put that behind us. >> i hope so. that's the message that people respond to in theory, when they hear about washington. they like the idea of working together. he keeps trying to sell this

argue that leveling the playing field and winner take all economy, it's interesting that message doesn't seem to have created the political moment for democrats that you would think it would. there's polling that came out during the election that showed more people than ever see a widening gap between rich and poor. more people than ever see a class conflict between rich and poor. but somehow that doesn't translate into political momentum. i think it has to do with the fact that americans refuse to stop identifying themselves as middle class. americans, same percentage of americans identified as middle class today as they did 20 years ago. i think they have trouble latching onto this message we need to grow the middle class. even though what's happening is that middle class is staying stagnant as rich become richer and richer. >> jamel, what do you make of that politically when you see what the president said in his speech this week, a start of a series of speeches and you hear what he's saying this in this interview, is there a change here you're picking up on 2? >> i think there's a slight

change in that he's no longer -- he's presupposing deficit doesn't grow his economy. if you look at the rhetoric a couple years back he sort of implied we can help grow the economy by reducing deficits. i'm not sure americans entirely know what the deficit is. i don't say that as a condescending thing, but i think when the public sees a large deficit they think, oh, the economy is not working so we have to reduce the deficit to improve the economy. and i think obama is suddenly trying to break that link and say, no, deficit reduction actually at this point right now has very little to do with growing the economy. >> and he did -- you know, in this interview, the full transcript is online, i just read it, he was asked about deficit reduction. he said, i make no apologies for putting emphasis on deficit reduction, on putting forward budgets that moved us toward deficit reduction. he also said, josh, that -- like i said, he'll be doing a series of these speeches. this was his quote.

i've been in washington long enough to know that if once a week i'm not talking about jobs, the economy and the middle class, all manner of distraction fills the void. >> i think that's right. i think one reason to pivot away from the deficit is we've had a huge change in the fiscal picture. he president talked about this, deficit has been cut in half since the bottom of the recession. even if the white house was correct to focus on deficit reduction, they've gotten done. the sequester, even though nobody likes it, did a fair bit to reduce the deficit. now the ratio of the size of the debt to economy is going to stabilize even if there's no policy change. i think the president's been struggling to communicate that. i think the public perception is that the government's finances are in a dire position so there's no room to do stimulus measures. and i think he needs to convince people about the way the government budget actually looks. you also see this on the broader economy. the president is trying to send this message in intention with itself. he's talking about, see how better everything has gotten and

all the things i've been blocked from doing to make it better pipg it's a difficult rope for him to walk. he's trying not to just sell a policy agenda but change the public's perception of the way the economy and the fiscal situation are. >> rick, we talked about this on this show before and jamel and josh get into it, the challenge of convinces people to abandon that -- deficit, always bad no matter what. must be top priority in fighting them. can he overcome that? >> well, no wonder the public is confused. i mean, he really messes them up when he said -- well, nobody says i had a big home run and on the other hand, look how great i am at bunting. he said, i've lowered the deficit in 60 years. these are very much in intention. they're the opposite. also he is trying to sell a story about republican destruction but then he says,

look how many good, honorable republicans there are out there. he says, republicans like spending money, too, and he went back to abraham lincoln. he's not telling an effective story about the way the world is, which is his job and i think he's fundamentally failing at that. >> this is from wednesday. he talked about, this drives a lot of people on the left, the grand bargain floated from time to time. this is -- he seemed to hint at that in his speech. let's just play a clip from that. >> i will be saying to democrats, we've got a question moral assumptions. we have to be willing to redesign or get rid of programs that don't work as well as they should. we've got to be willing to -- we've got to embrace changes to cherish priorities so that they work better in this new age. >> so, i'm a little confused what to make of it, too, based on what he said in "the new york

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just sort of reconcile president obama has given to "new york times" about moving past reduction and his big speech in illinois talking about -- basically questioning priorities and hinting, people would read that as medicare, social security, the big great programs. i impes my read on that, ana marie, he's thinking ahead to this fall and the potential of still getting some kind of deal. you have senate republicans, the mccain times, who are suddenly more flexible and maybe he's thinking of getting a budget deal to get the sequester off the table and also includes, you

know, whether -- but those things might be back on the table for something like that. is that maybe the way to read this? >> i think that's an accurate read. i think your description of that speaks to what we were talking about before, which is this impossible message he's sending, trying to say two things at once about deficit reduction or even sort of fighting for the middle class and republican obstruction and yet we want to work with republicans at the same time. i think that exists because he's speaking to two different audiences. which is to say, republican on the hill, sending a message to them, and talk to the american people, and both of those groups want two different messages. americans themselves are of mixed feelings about how you move forward on the economy. they like to hear, we're going to get rid of entitlements or pare them down because americans don't like the idea of getting something for nothing on being on government welfare but those are the same programs keeping americans from falling through the cracks. more and more americans are dependent on government aid. he has kind of an impossible

message to send. it's easy to see that he's sending conflicting messages but i'm not sure what else he could do. >> it seems he's trying to navigate that basic contradiction where people are philosophically conservative in their attitude, the government is too big, too bloated, needs to be cut, but when you get into specific programs conversations change. that's tough for any leader. >> what he said there was on unobjectionsable. it was a comment about the structure of government. it's not a statement about government spending or deficit overall. i think it is a look forward to a deal he hopes to cut with john mccain or other senate republicans, where you unwind, allow more nondiscretionary spending and then in exchange for that one of the things he'll have to give up is some sort of structural reform. i think the president would like to do reform that makes savings and social security and medicare. that's going to be a difficult sell to the left. i think that the president thinks for good reason he can

get something in exchange for that that is more appealing to the left than what he would have to give up. >> i think part of the problem -- if there's a problem with president obama's strategic thinking is it's premised on the fact that the american public supports the safety net. there's a large group who actually -- >> well, he singles out in this "new york times" interview, he says he anticipates the question, laying out his priorities and anticipates the questions. i know you're going to ask me. house republicans. not going to support anything. what do you do? he talked about, quote, responsible republicans in the senate. i think he's thinking about mccain. i think playing -- there are republicans who hate the sequester in the senate because of the military cuts. >> i think the reason obama's rhetoric and his whole strategic approach to his presidency fails is because going back six years or more, he fundamentally misunderstands the republican party. he doesn't understand they behave, this kind of lennonist

sell waiting in the mountains, waiting for the final apocalypse. he claims reagan as a role model. reagan every day said, there's a problem that screwed americans, the democratic party and the liberals. by drawing that distinction he taught americans to think that way. barack obama is constitutionally incapable of saying, we have adversaries. every time a democratic president comes in that they handle the government more effectively. every time a democratic president comes in, they create more jobs than republicans. but to say that would be constitutionally impossible for obama because he needs to tell this story about reconciliation. there is no red america. there is no blue america. >> interesting you raise the reagan thing. i have a different thing on the reagan/obama comparison. i'll pick it up in a bit but i want to stay on the point of the sequester. josh, i'm interested in what you think of the split that emerged among republicans in the senate. is that something you still have the republicans in the house.

is it something that could be the basis for a deal that could get through the house to get the sequester shut off? is that a realistic possibility? >> i think it's possible. i think it's more likely that will not happen. if it happens, it will have to happen as the fight over the continuing resolution or debt ceiling coming in the fall. the hope for the president is to get a deal like that through the senate. what you would do is you would spend a lot more money on the military than the sequester will allow and you hope to peel off a substantial number of republicans in the senate to vote for that. john mccain clearly wants a deal like that. i suspect given the way the president has started messaging the deficit and say we need to focus on jobs, the problem with unwinding the sequester is always, what do you replace it with? we haven't been able to find anything more appealing to democrats and republicans than the sequester itself. i think the answer ultimately has to be you replace the sequester in part with nothing. you can use accounting gimmicks, you can unwind two years of the sequester and replace it with measures that can replace it

with an equivalent amount over ten years. you might get something like that through the senate. the question is, can the house feel compelled to pass that? if house republicans are smart, that's a big if, they'll pass their own continues regs resolutions and say, we have a plan to keep the government open. this is why republicans panicked this week about conservative republicans to keep the government open to defunding obama care. they do not want the fight to be about obama care. they want it about maintaining deficit. if they get sidetracked on obama care issue, it's possible you'll get a deal out of the senate that unwinds the sequester and house will have to pass that or pass nothing. that's the only way president can win on a sequester unwind. >> i want to know -- we talk about the sequester and the wish list the president laid out this week. if this stuff isn't possible, i'm curious what is. i'm going to get your thought on that. ♪

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the om thing i care about is how to use every minute of the remaining 1,276 days of my term to make this country work for working americans again. that's all i care about. i don't have another election. >> so, the commitment is there reer toicly, ana marie, when you look at obstacle house republicans present. we understand what that's about. when you look at the rest of the obama presidency, what's the best recipe for what can be achieved in the obama presidency? >> oh, wow. if i knew that, i would be in the house whous. >> what would make you happy -- >> i don't have a list. i'm flexible in this stuff. the thing is what i see over and over again is a president i would prefer not to immediately be talking about compromise. because that's what's going to have to happen.

i mean, there has to be a compromise. >> what do you want to happen? >> what i want to happen, indeed. we're not getting -- the compromise is starting halfway to the middle, for me. >> and other mixed message he sends is in his appointment. the s.e.c. chair, her name is mary jo white, her first decision this spring, she made it on her own, no congress you could blame, was that foreign banks didn't have to follow the rules of dodd/frank. if you look at kind of the economy at you have the government on one hand and big business on the other and government is supposed to contain as a power the aggressiveness of big business, he's, a, sending the message and, b, creating the reality that's impossible to do. >> just to jump in to talk about concrete policy a little bit. i think my problem with obama in these compromises is he starts from a position of feeling like, i guess, democrats need to counter the impression that they are soft on big business and that they are -- they're class

warriors in some way. you start with this already, like, oh, no, we're not class w warriors -- >> i don't know when you start economy to begin with, it would be to rein in big business. >> he talked about -- i want to play this and i want to get back to that reagan comparison i cued up earlier. this was the president's speech talking about inequality. let's talk about that for a second. >> even though our businesses are creating new jobs and broken record profits, nearly all the economy gains of the past ten years have continued to flow to the top 1%. the average ceo has gotten a raise of nearly 40% since 2009. the average american earns less than he or she did in 1999. so, in many ways the trends that i spoke about here in 2005, eight years ago, the trend of a

winner take all economy where a few are doing better and better and better while everybody else just treads water, those trends have been made worse by the recession. >> so, that actually -- that made me think of ronald reagan and made me think of a much longer term view on this. you mentioned that, you know, reagan -- obama had saluted reagan as the transformative president a few years ago. what we forget about reagan, when you go back to his presidency, a lot of conservatives in this country who thought he had sold them out. he had not lived up to his -- the size of government had actually grew. he did not live up to the anti-government rhetoric. a generation later if you hear any republican talk about ronald reagan, the only thing they got out of reagan's presidency was fight government, government is too big. it's not the solution. it's the problem. that underscores the entire tea party movement that defines today's republican party. i'm wondering if the president is true to his word in that he's going to -- he's going to be

talking about this every week for the rest of the year, the rest of his presidency, is this the kind of thing that echoes -- >> so, the presidency -- presidents can say radical things but president is not a radical position, which people in charge are constrained by a whole host of factors. i think looking forward you might see a generation, a generation from now, a group of politicians who took the inequality message to heart and they can act in a radical matter unconstrained by something like the presidency. >> yeah. the presidency is, in many respects, a rhetorical office, bully pulpit. when he lost a fight, when he had to raise taxes, he was very good at using that to drive home his fundamental message. i have to raise taxes because those liberals made me do it. that's just what liberals do. ultimately, everything, whether he won or lost, he made that a

generational project of telling a story about how the world works that kept on hammering home what he wanted the presidents have him to do. lo and behold, that's what the presidents after him did, like clinton and obama. >> we got some -- there were indications this week and reporting there might be a shift going on in the democratic party, more in the direction of making inequality the focus. if there's a longer shift term there -- >> that would be crazy not to. >> right. i want to get into that potential shift in democratic party and how that might affect the most important economic decision obama has to make. [ male announcer ] from the last day of school, back to the first. they're gonna need a lot of stuff. stock up now and get 15% off school supplies through september 21st when you buy a back to school savings pass. staples. that was easy.

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tom harkin, from iowa, ran against bill clinton. harken saying the sooner we get back to a good, progressive populist message the better off we'll be as democrats. you look at elizabeth warren in the senate now, she's pushing this idea of reinstituting glei glass/steagall. you wonder, is this shift happening or do we hear a few voices in the wilderness? >> i think it will happen based on the demographics of the democratic party. the people who are becoming democrats are latino immigrants, asian-american immigrants and african-americans who are still democrats. these are groups that want to be upwardly mobile. they care about inequality in a material way that i'm not sure is true of their white counterparts. i think politicians will respond accordingly by saying, we have to meet their concerns, which

are concerns centered on inequality. >> i'm skeptical of this. i think tom harkin saying that, you know, liberals win by moving to the left is similar to ted cruz or any tea party republican saying, republicans -- >> i totally disagree. demographics are different here. the demographics -- when ted cruz speaks that language, he is speaking to a white, older electorate who cannot sustain their party. >> prokticly what americans say they want, as chris hayes used to say, populism is popular. >> but tom harkin, it's a country that perceives itself as middle class. we discussed this on the break. i think real hard-edged messaging about basically the pie is shared in the wrong way, class warfare, doesn't sell to the electorate -- >> has it changed -- have the last five years, i wonder, have they changed nings, watching the meltdown, watching wall street, how rich wall street has gotten all over again, but does that

change attitudes? >> two separate issues. the banking issues and glass/steagall don't have a ton to do with the inequality issues. the actual substantive issues, are big increases on taxes on the rich that makes the federal tax code much more progressive and entitlement that helps the poor and middle class. i think there is -- you can act in that direction and it can be popular. without actually having to message it in a way -- >> i think there's -- there's an interesting -- everybody at once. there's an interesting -- you know, the subtext to the tax increase that obama got through with with the fiscal cliff deal, this was supposedly suicidal for democrats to be doing. you think bill clinton got 39.6% tax break, 20 years ago this week, end of july 1993. and then every republican in the country ran against the largest tax increase in the world and

1994 midterm landslide. supposedly democrats were going to step back from this sort of thing and obama showed, there's an appetite for it right now. >> it's the messaging -- the messaging of class warfare does not work. americans insist on seeing them as middle class. the message of income and inequality can work. if you poll americans, they will describe an ideal society which income is distributed more equally than it is in reality anywhere in the world. >> i think one of the reasons a lot of people still vote for democrats is they have this vague memory of when the democratic party was an economic populist party. and i think that sticks with people. >> very quick question before we get out of this. we keep going, but about i want to make sure we get in -- we said the most important decision obama could make on economic policy the rest of his term was appointment of the fed chair with ben bernanke stepping down. larry summers was the name in the news. i mentioned tom harkin and a number of other liberal senate

are saying, we don't want tom harkin. >> i think this is close to chuck hagel pick. nobody outside of the obama white house prefers larry summers. it's not clear he'll be good at managing the open market committee on the fed. people talk about the fed chair as being tremendously powerful but the fed chair's decisions have to be ratified by the whole board. he needs to build consensus among them. summers has a fraught record. i think he's done impressive things in his career but it's a time you need the fed to speak with a unified voice and the president doesn't seem focused on it. >> why does obama apparently want larry summers for this job? does anybody have an answer for that? >> because he knows him personally, trusts him, likes him, and janet yellen is not an obama person. i think he wants to know the fed chair is an obama guy. >> that's the best answer i've got. the diversity problem got worse this week. ♪

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maybe you remember the historic moment earlier this month when the leaders of america two most prominent republican publications merged their powers in a joint editorial calling for republicans to resist the immigration reform package that just passed the senate. the gop could feel good about this. bill crystal and rich lowry of the national review wrote this time around, unlike the last immigration debate in 2006 and 2007 the republican opposition had not been marred by over the top nativism. quote, during the debate over immigration in 2006-07 republican rhetoric at times had a flavor that communicated a hostility to immigrants as such. that was a mistake that did political damage. this time has been different. the case against the bill has been as responsible as it has been damning. that piece was published on july 9th, nine days before republican congressman steve king of iowa said this about the young immigrants who would be eligible

for permanent residency under the dream act. >> for everyone who's a valedictori valedictorian, there's another 100 out there that weigh 130 pounds and have calves the size of cantaloupes because they're hauling 75 pound of marijuana across the desert. they would be legalized with the same act. >> that caused a stir. when wolf blitzer offered kicnga chance to take it back, the congressman was defiant. >> do you want to revise and amend your comments or are you standing by them? >> of course i wouldn't revise and amend, which is why house speaker john boehner felt compelled to address down his fellow speaker later. >> representative steve king that made comments that i think were deeply offensive and wrong. what he said does not reflect the values of the american people or the republican party. >> but there's a problem with boehner's claim that king doesn't speak for the gop. back in june the house actually passed an amendment that would have effectively invalidated an

executive order president obama signed last year and forced the department of homeland to deport those immigrants, known as dreamers. 221 republicans voted for that amendment, only 6 different. who was the author of the amendment? here's a hint. steve king. he said in a press release at the time, quote, my amendment blocks many of the positions he that are mirrored in the senate's gang of eight bill. if this position holds, no amnesty will happen. with some of the leading conservative media voices in the country responding to the george zimmerman verdict and president obama's comments about it with racially inflammatory vitriol. >> well, if i had a son, he'd look like trayvon. you know, now the president's saying trayvon could have been me 35 years ago.

oh, this is a particularly helpful comment. is that the president admitting that, i guess, because, what, he was part of the choom gang and he smoked pot and he did a little blow? i'm not sure how to interpret that because we know trayvon had been smoking pot that night. i'm not sure what that means. >> this kind of racializing of obama's presidency by republicans and conservative media isn't new. the so-called birther movement is rooted in it. you might remember this comment by rush limbaugh in the early days of the obama presidency after an interview video of a student getting beat up on a school bus which police said was not racially motivated went viral. >> obama's america, white kids getting beat up on school buses now. i mean, you put your kids on a school bus, you expect safety. but in obama's america, the white kids now get beat up with the black kids cheering, yeah, right on, right on, right on, and, of course, everybody saying, the white kid deserved it. he was born a racist. he's white. >> this is a republican party getting less diverse in a

country that is becoming more diverse. why are so many republicans, not all of them to be sure, but an alarming number of them, why are so many of them leaning so heavily on race and what are-s their long-term plan and what does it mean for the country? i'll asks my guests about that. a real gate keeper. here's kevin, the new boyfriend. lamb to the slaughter. that's right brent. mom's baked cookies but he'll be lucky to make it inside. and here's the play. oh dad did not see this coming. [ crowd cheering ] now if kevin can just seize the opportunity. it's looking good, herbie. he's seen it. it's all over. nothing but daylight. yes i'd love a cookie. [ male announcer ] make a powerful first impression. the all-new nissan sentra. ♪ that your mouth is under attack, from food particles and bacteria. try fixodent. it helps create a food seal defense for a clean mouth and kills bacteria for fresh breath. ♪ fixodent, and forget it.

i want to bring in a guest you may have heard of, melissa harris perry. we also have jane hall, former fox news contributor on their show "fox news watch." so, there's a lot to get here. i want to start with the steve king comments this week. like we said, the fact that he authored this amendment that passed a couple months ago that would basically undo obama's executive order on the children of illegal immigrants, it suggests this is a comment -- we should add, too, steve king was asked on fox about the comment yesterday. he said, my colleagues are standing by me. they come up to me constantly.

so, this sounds like a lot of republicans are smart enough not to talk about way but he's channelling an attitude that's a lot more prevalent than just steve king. >> i think that's right. gop congressmen across the board are hostile to measures that would increase the amount of -- or decrease the amount of immigration, period. last year, i don't know if you remember, but there were ads that were run by republican groups not just against immigration from latin america but immigration, period, which would focus on the workers we have at home and not bring any more people in. i think steve king is, unfortunately, representative of a large chunk of republicans. i don't think that's going to change any time soon. >> i go further and say he's representative of a very long history in kind of the american project, right, which is that nativism is a common response to economic downturns. part of what happens when we feel as though resources are limited, the pie is shrinking we

ask, who's in and who's out of this contract? often when i'm talking to students and they will talk to me about their anxiety that president obama is the object of a kind of racial discourse, it will bring up the moment when congressman joe walsh say, you lie. they say, that was clearly racism. when they say that, they mean this old-fashioned jim crow version of white man from south says you lie to black man who is president. i say, remember what the president was saying just before the "you lie" comment is he was talking about the upcoming passage of the affordable care act. he was saying undocumented immigrants would not be covered under it. the thing that caused it wasn't the old-fashioned jim crow racism, this black/white divide we typically think of race as operating but this anxiety about who is in the social safety net and who is out of it. particularly, this anxiety about immigration from mexico and latin america. >> well, that's interesting. i hadn't thought of it that way.

it was an attempt to win over people. >> right, exactly. don't worry, i'm not going to let those people be part of it. >> when we talk about the politics of the immigration debate we're talking about the republican party getting a very low share of the latino vote last year and needing to improve that in a america that's getting more diverse and there's this empathy gap when you ask which party shows more care for them. i wonder -- this seems like a broader problem for republicans. this is not just about alienating latinos. this about sending a message to younger america that's a lot more comfortable, used to diversity. here's the sort of thing -- they talked about in the republican autopsy after last election, they talked about gay marriage. they said a gateway issue for young people. in my mind, this sort of rhetoric is a gateway thing, too. >> i think republicans understand that. i think this is the reason john boehner was going after steve king this week. i'm not sure king is the most reliable source on what other

republicans in congress think what king is doing is great. immigration is an issue that divides the republican party. elite forces are favorable toward immigration. there's a lot more support among republicans for comprehensive immigration reform than there ought to be given the fact that the republican base seems to be very hostile to it. i think forces are pushing the republican party in a modernizing direction on this. i think there's a real tension in the party that comes from two things. a lot of people in the party are skeptical of immigration in america and america becoming less white generally. also republicans who understand they have a problem with latinos they need to fix are realizing immigration alone won't fix it. they still have a problem in their economic agenda. part of the reason this actually makes republicans less inclined to cut a deal on immigration is they say, well, i can do this deal on immigration that will anger my base. it still won't win over latino voters. if we don't want to change the

overall agenda, we might as well not make nice on immigration. i think republicans would prefer not to have this sort of incendiary racist rhetoric from people like steve king but i think they are sympathetic to them on the politics. they slayer his skepticism about whether immigration -- more immigration is a good thing for the republican party. >> jane, i wonder, you know, you're somebody who watches the media. we say you used to be affiliated with fox news. know you had some differences with them. i wonder when you look at the role fox news and conservative media in general plays, there was an article this week in "the new york times" about how old the fox news demographic is. they can't put age on it. it's 65 plus. >> right. >> you look -- it seems to be -- we talk about the republican base being sort of old and white. that seems to be the fox news base, too, and probably for talk radio, too. when you look at the messages out of talk radio, they're rewarding politicians who talk like steve king and punishing those who speak to a different audience. >> i think the numbers are

against them. that's why karl rove is for immigration. that's why hannity said evolved on immigration. they have not evolved on race. it's nativism, it's dividing people. i think the effect of a lot of rhetoric on fox, particularly around immigration, it's always people coming across the border in a night scope. it's not intelligent, young people who were brought here. there's a demonizing of latinos. certainly a demonizing of trayvon martin. there's a divisiveness that is ultimately not going to win but a short-term thing for a particular splice of the audience. the effect is really, really corrosive. it's one of the disagreements i had with them. >> the other thing facing the party as well. the idea that steve king can come out after the speaker of the house clearly says shut up, right, and he comes out afterwards and says, oh, no, my party is down with me is indicative of in part the fact long term party member, the

folks who have that longer focus and in districts not quite so gerry mannered and in leadership of the party cannot corral these folks in highly jerry mannered district. and the same thing is true for fox news or any of us. there is the, can i stay on air today based on a set of ratings based on the money that -- versus, do i have a long-term audience? i think those pressures are very real. >> steve king is an interesting example of that. he had a chance to run for the u.s. senate state wide in iowa next year instead of the safer district. we want to talk about trayvon martin, george zimmerman. we'll get to that after this. [ male announcer ] if you're taking multiple medications,

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republican rhetoric over the last 4 1/2 years. we were talking about immigration and the steve king comments last hour. i want to broaden this out and look at the wake of the george zimmerman verdict. we played the kip from hannity in the setup. there was another one. in is bill o'reilly, sort of taking on trying to diagnosis why there might be crime in the black community. this is him talking about it this week. >> with the african-american out of we had lock birth rate at 73%, many young blacks are unsupervised and prone to imitate bad behavior, like what lil wayne puts out. ♪ pop a lot of pain pills ♪ about to put rims on my skateboard wheels ♪ ♪ beat that [ bleep ] like emmett till ♪ ♪ yeah two cell phones ringing at the same time ♪ ♪ that's your ho calling from two different phones tell that

leave me the [ bleep ] alone [ bleep ] [ bleep ] ♪ >> jane, i want to ask you about this. jane, our lil wayne expert on the panel. but are you our bill o'reilly expert on the panel. >> i have been. >> you've been on his show with bernie goldberg and bill and you and, maybe not a fair fight there, but i just wonder, he's been doing this a lot, you know, in the wake of the zimmerman thing. it's not just him and hannity, it's fox news in general. you're familiar with what goes on behind the scenes here. what do you make of what fox is doing right now? >> well, i'll tell you. i think that they have decided their audience can be made more fearful. it is exactly what president obama was talking about in his interview with the "new york times." you can scare people at the bottom and make them afraid of other people at the bottom and make them feel somehow as if that's the focus rather than the rich people are getting richer in this country. so, i don't know if it's a memo

has gone out, but there's a lot of very inflammatory language. o'reilly is very interesting because he said on an interview with gerlado he cared about young, poor people being born into poverty. i thought, go interview them. quit lecturing them about how racism is over. there's a complicated view there where trayvon martin came from an intact, loving family. there's nothing wrong with whom who don't, but to turn this into lecturing the black community, i feel funny even talking about it. >> i want to ask you about that. this is the worst barometer for public opinion, e-mails and internet comments -- >> don't read the comments. >> i noticed, we did a show the morning after the verdict. the verdict came out at a 10:00 the night before. we did a show to. i got more e-mail in response to that, some said nice show, mostly my parents, but people i

never met before who were -- seemed to be on the more, anti-obama, and i heard the same comment over and over. one e-mail after another. why won't black people care about black-on-black crime as much as they care about trayvon martin and george zimmerman? i have heard that almost a talking point for the last few weeks. >> yeah. it's a bit of -- i guess i want to say a few things. one, lil wayne's audience, first, i'm from new orleans. you play lil wayne, i'm just going to dance. but lil wayne's audience is a young audience, profoundly interracial. what braebs down about black culture having deleterious affect on black behavior is black culture is youth culture. the availability of hip-hop music, of all of these things that get linkedin this way is simply available to kids graduating valedictorian and kids who will never graduate. as we would say in social science, a constant can't prove a variable. youth culture is a constant in

this. part of why that then happens, why we make this link, is because we are not practiced in talking about the pathologies of the privileged. we only ever talk about the pathologies of the poor. so, when we say black-on-black crime, people know -- they immediately have a whole set of things to hang that on. they can connect that to a discourse that's been going on since the 1960s. particularly this comment about out of wed lock birth. democrats did that first with daniel moynahan. that's so old, it's not even interesting anymore. it gives people something kog n cognitively to hang it on. my students at princeton, most are white, commit crimes pretty much every thursday, friday, saturday night. they drink illegally underage. some engage in other illegal activities. almost all of them listen to lil

wayne and other things. nearly all of them will go on to graduate from ivy league universities, to have great jobs, to make good families. but we're not practiced at looking at those who have privilege, looking at their pathologies and asking, how is it despite those pathologies they end up with such good lives. the answer is because they have all of these resources, second chances, opportunities. and the assumption we would never want to criminalize their bad behavior. no one thinks the underage drinking crime of a princeton student ought to be criminalized. we think we ought to encourage them not to, maybe get a little therapy, maybe work to -- but no one thinks we should put them in jail, including me. >> i never liked princeton kids. >> they get a second chance. if you've got some advantages. >> yeah. >> and a hoodie, talk about a thing -- you know -- >> they're all wearing hoodies. >> i mean, hoodies are worn by many kinds of young people. >> we have a -- the polling on

this got some attention. i want to show, first of all, the polling on the zimmerman verdict, an abc/washington post poll. white as prove of the verdict 51% to 31%. blacks approve, 86% disapprove. what we thought was interesting is if you match this up, sort of how politicized this becomes, if you match this up with the breakdown of the 2012 election, doesn't look that much different. whites with with a 20-point difference for romney. same thing,. i'm trying to figure out if this is because the verdict and because of obama's reaction to it has been filtered through the political media and everybody has gotten the message they're supposed to get or every group in this country has already sorted itself out and we live in different worlds and this is the result of it. >> i think both things are true. i think also the things that drove obama's extremely high margin among african-americans

also drives how african-americans reacted to the george zimmerman verdict. zimmerman wasn't on trial, trayvon martin was. trayvon martin's life was being judged. if you were -- if you felt atrade of trayvon martin, then, like, george zimmerman should get off. if you didn't, then zimmerman should be guilty. likewise with obama, there's a real sense among african-americans, even though who would identify themselves with conservative views that obama's policies have never been the issue with republicans. it's who obama is that's been the issue. that's driven sort of a sense of group -- essentially like black people are going to give obama a big hug and protect him, is what has driven his high support among the community. with the zimmerman verdict you're seeing -- and with the fact that both things are similar, the levels of feelings of support are similar, you're seeing that kind of -- the streams are being crossed, if i can borrow a line from ghost

busters. >> i find the line o'reilly has taken on this, it's such a change of subject. black-on-black crime is a very real problem. and it's a real policy problem that local officials are dealing with all the time. i mean, the idea that nobody cares about crimes that are committed against black people is just incorrect. and there's been a huge improvement in the crime situation over the last 20 years in the united states. it doesn't mean that there isn't a discussion to be had about trayvon martin, about whether the verdict was just. we can walk and chew gum at the same time. setting said even whether bill o'reilly is right or wrong about the point he's making, and i don't think he's right about lil wayne, it still doesn't go to the issue, whether there's a conversation to be had about whether a young black man walking home alone is less -- has less legal protection than -- >> again, part of the problem is we just -- all crime -- the vast

majority of all crimes are intraracial. most crime that impacts white people is committed by white people. >> whites live with whites and -- >> white women are most likely to be raped by white men. black men are more likely to be sexually assaulted by black men. the only group this is not true is native americans. we just never -- we do not discuss white-on-white crime. that notion of fear, the notion that mr. zimmerman should have been afraid of trayvon martin is empirically false from the perspective that -- the president at one point said trayvon martin was most likely to have been killed by a peer. the reality is, so, too, is george zimmerman most likely to have been physically attacked or crime committed against him by a peer. but that's not what happened. this man, who is not black, did kill this child, who is black. and he will not be going to jail for it.

those are impempirical realitie. >> the response from someone like bill o'reilly -- you can't deny the fact that african-american men are disproportionate share of people convicted of crimes. i think the observation is that prevalence of criminality among -- or the pref lens among black of criminality doesn't -- >> it's about policing. >> right. >> we also need to link this to guns, i think, and the arming of merge l america. you build up fear, get people afraid of each other, and they think they have to have a law that says, stand your ground. if george zimmerman had been unarmed or gotten back in the car, it wouldn't have happened. >> just the reaction to this, the steve king comment, i have to say, i'll admit to anyway evety, at the start of the obama presidency, i didn't think racism was over but i'm surprised how overt the racism from the right. not just overt, just the

consequences i wouldn't have expected five years ago talking the way somebody hannity or limbaugh has talked. that's bothered me. i hope some of that changes fast but maybe that's naive, too. i want to thank melissa harris-perry and josh borro. ♪ [ woman ] destination assist. this is ann. where would you like to go tonight? ♪ [ male announcer ] it's a golden opportunity to see how lexus effortlessly connects you to where you're going. ♪ come to the golden opportunity sales event and experience the connectivity of lexus enform, available on all lexus models, including the es and rx. ♪ this is the pursuit of perfection. humans.

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the city of detroit has lost nearly two-thirds of its population since its post-war peak. 23419 -- 1950 2 million people called that place home, now it's barely above 700,000. signs of neglect are everywhere. abandoned buildings and empty

lots, half the stree lights don't work and takes the police an average of an hour to respond to emergency calls. we've seen the auto industry leave the city. we've seen white flight. then the black middle class leave, too. then there was the economic meltdown of 20008. the tax base in detroit has utterly evaporated and now the largest city in u.s. history ever to file for bankruptcy. there are major issues now on the table. what will happen to the pensions promised to generation of city employees. how will the city's general obligation bondholders be treated? what kind of future does detroit have? does it have any future at all? these questions are being hashed out in bankruptcy court and governmentous have offices and union halls and kitchen and living rooms all over detroit. it's worth taking a few steps back and look at the tragedy of detroit, decades in the making, can tell us about america. what detroit offers is the painfully show of how mesh life

was made after the war. in new york magazine who wrote, everything that happened in the united states mid-century happened around detroit. the mobilization of industry during world war ii, the creation of the world's mass affluent working class, a place where families lacking high school diplomas routinely had nice things. the to fully take in this story we need to go back to world war i, the height of the great migration, when african-americans left the jim crow south in droves searching for fairness and opportunity. detroy was a popular destination. the auto industry was sprouting. demand for new workers was high. in 1910 detroit's black population was just over 5,000. by 1930. soared to 130,000. the largest leap of any industrial city. in world war ii meant more jobs for detroit. by 1960 nearly one in three residents of the city were

black. despite its diversity, though, detroit remained a segregated place. the city's growing black community found itself antagonized by the police and racial tensions began boiling over in cities across the country in 1960s. in detroit this happened with five days of violence. nearly 43 deaths, nearly 1200 injuries. the governor called in the national guard and president sent in army. white flight to the suburbs, which had been under way for some time, accelerated and created an opening for republicans to exploit racial tensions and to make a pitch to the blue-collar whites who had been the backbone of the new deal and great society coalitions. >> let us recognize that the first civil right of every american is to be free from domestic violence. so, i pledge to you, we shall have order in the united states.

>> detroit and its suburbs came to symbolize the demise of the old democratic coalition. in 1960 detroit gave john f. kennedy the biggest vote of any you be urban county in america. it was heavily white, heavily catholic, heavily union. richard nixon made inroads in 1968 and won it by 28 points in 1972. 1972 was also the year when george wallace, segregationist alabama governor grabbed 66% of the vote in the presidential primary. 66% for the alabama governor in michigan. mccomb was made famous in the 1950s when a democratic pollster, stan greenberg, held focus group with blue-collar whites in the group. they started backing republicans. they were reagan democrats and not just the phenomenon, they could be found across the country and leaving the democratic party, they told greenberg, for the same reason they left detroit and other

citi cities, race. these white democratic defectors, writes greenberg, express a profound distaste for blacks, a sentiment that pervades almost everything they think about government. most of them by landslides. in some ways it's still the story of american politics. president obama has won two solid national victories now but re-elected despite a dismal showing with working class white voters. they panicked over the inroads republicans made with blue-collar whites. they aren't as worried anymore. america is more diverse now. obama may have struggled with blue-collar whites but african-americans, spanish and asian made up a huge amount of the electorates.

suburban counties like mccomb are changing, president obama won it by eight last year. black flight from detroit made it twice as diverse as it was a decade ago when stan greenberg returned for more focus groups, he found whites are less driven by race than they were a generation earlier. while the decline of detroit offers a sad symbol of the failure to integrate african-americans into the new deal coalition, you don't have to look past the city limits to see a more durable coalition is possible. we'll take a look at what it could mean for america and detroit after this. [ female announcer ] there is a world of clean...

inside the only 3 chamber laundry detergent. ♪ now, here you go, let it go ♪ ooh ♪ 'cause it's a bright light stain fighting, cleaning, and brightening... in tide pods. pop in. stand out. back on the table are ana marie cox of the guardian, jamelle bouie and i want to bring in jocelyn benson and democratic nominee from michigan secretary of state in 2010.

wayne state warriors, is that right? >> absolutely. >> my college nicknames are still -- >> great football team. >>, so we set this up by kind of looking at the sort of transformation of politics in the detroit area and sort of as an indication of the transformation of american politics. i guess we'll start by -- i mentioned macomb county, blue collar suburb outside of detroit. i think this illustrates sort of -- this is where reagan democrats were born. 1964, the results of macomb county in the presidential election. lyndon johnson won it by 3-1, 74-25. 1967 you had the detroit riots, the nixon ad we just showed. you see nixon and wallace running as independent combined to get 45% of the vote in 1968 in this white blue-collar suburb of detroit. by 1972 it's a complete landslide for republicans. a generation of two of american politics was basically defined by what happened like places in macomb in the '60s. >> and it was driven by a tragic

irony. just as middle class started bottoming out in places like detroit in the 1970s, politicians being creatures of inertia didn't get it and didn't respond to that. if you look at presidential democratic campaigns of 1976 and 1980 you would almost never guess the kind of stagnation was happening. but being inertial, politicians were still pushing it. what had been the product of a growing economic pie in the '60s it was okay passing the civil rights act but because of people like george wallace it really was controversial. what had been less controversial because there was a growing economic pie suddenly because this zero sum game in the '70s. you had soecorpions in a bottle black and white workers fighting for the same jobs. you really began to see this sort of tension among white workers who see black people as their adversaries.

and willing to vote on that. of course the republican party was willing to exploit that. >> josh, i wonder, out there you've been in politics in michigan. i wonder what you've seen. first of all, how much of that still shapes politics in the detroit area, how much still shapes politics in michigan and how much is now sort of in the past? >> i think to a certain extent politics is driven by the people who turn out at the polls and the leaders and the leaders they elect. if you look at what may have been historic divisiveness among suburban, urban region of detroit, we're seeing a strong interest in regionalism not necessarily being reflected by leadership in the local government and certainly not being reflected in the state government as well. i think there's a recognition on the grassroots level that a lot of detroit's problems can be addressed through greater partnerships, public/private partnerships for sure, but also regional, state and federal partnerships. we're not seeing that come to fruition in the political arena. >> we talk about the tension that rick was describing, that

we put in the intro there, you know, that old sort of the white ethnic, the term that was used, the archie bunker democrat, right, who a lot of times for racial reasons turned on the democratic party some time in the '70s, the '80s, maybe nixon, maybe reagan, how many voters like that are still left in that area? >> it's decreasing significantly because we've got this new generation of voters who are the most diverse, most progressive. you see that across country. certainly in michigan as well. so, you see the electorate infist fused by a new generation of voters that recognize the importance of working together and collaboration and are not as interested in racial divisiveness of the past but positive solutions moving forward. we'll start to see a greater change away from this historical divisiveness we were talking about. >> i want to play this clip. it's from 1984. ronald reagan running for re-election in 1984. we talk about the reagan democrats, the people in macomb county, long-time democrats who

voted for ronald reagan and sort of became republicans because of him. this was basically his pitch to them saying, abandon the democratic party. he went to macomb county to do it. let's play it. >> the good and decent democrats of trank and file, patriots democrats much the millions they haven't changed. they're clear eyed about the world, few illusions and consider themselves to be americans first and not members of a special interest group. but the leaders of the present democratic party, as i've said, have gone so far left, they've left the mainstream. >> jamelle, when you hear that now, we have the benefit of hindsight, what you make of that? the fear of losing those voters who reagan was appealing to there, so successfully appealed to them, just drove the democratic party for so long. >> right. i think what reagan was clearly alluding to was voters of color and african-americans in

particular. i mean, that is the definition of a dog whistle. and i actually sort of think that democrats -- that when you have the combination of a stagnating economy, when you have this whole new group of people who are for the first time really getting access to mainstream american white when you have a political party trying to accommodate them, the people of the party used to ak get, white ethnics, works class white, who are the main recipients of programs in 1940s and '50s, they'll react against it. i don't think there was any way to prevent that reaction. but republicans didn't necessarily have to capitalize on the racial aspects of that, and that's what's troubling about the entire period of american history. that the use of racial politics by politicians like reagan wasn't necessary. it didn't have to happen. and by indulging it, relying on it, exploiting, it reagan created real divisions that still exist. >> i was going to say, he didn't

have to do that, but they're still doing that. i mean, you can play that -- you could put those words in mitt romney's mouth. they wouldn't be very much different. we still hear the same thing. what's changing are these demographics. you know, we could take the discussion we had in the first hour and really -- and use it here as well. because what's happening is that there are fewer -- you have the dog whistles, same dog whistles. there are fewer and fewer dogs. what you get instead are people that hear that message and suspect there's something kind of wrong with it and then they hear democrats -- the only problem when you hear democrats use similar language, which is kind of what we were talking about with -- even obama when he talks about entitlement programs, when he talked about long-cherished programs, no voters are confused about what he's talking about. >> it was sort of in response to the success nixon had, reagan had. that was the modern democratic party as defined by bill clinton. i want to pick up on bill clinton's legacy in this. what's this?

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talking about democrats, the new deal coalition falling apart in the '60s, '70s, '80s, the democrat who sort of started to put that coalition back together, partially back together, was bill clinton. move the party to the middle. famously ran in 1992, we're going to end welfare as we know it. a pitch to the reagan democrats. this was bill clinton in the fall of 19912. he went to macomb county, a blue-collar suburb of detroit to make his case to win reagan democrats back. >> they talk about traditional values but they punish people who work hard and play by the rules. and rewarded people who cut corners and cut deals. if you assemble automobiles you've lost out in the last 12 years, but if you take corporations apart, you're a big winner. if there's anyplace in this country that mr. bush should account for his economic record, it's right here in michigan.

>> so, clinton that year actually -- he did not -- i think we have the result. macomb county result from '92. clinton did not win the county. that's the best a democrat had done since 1968. when he reran, he did win it, first democrat to do it in a long time. there was a populist aspect, populism, but it's not the whole story. >> the irony is people like clinton and head of the dccc used the idea democrats had to moderate and move to the center around these kind of macomb county populist issues to tell a story about what we needed to do on economics, which ended up kind of turning the democratic party over to its corporate wing because that was, quote/unquote, more centrist, and bill clinton signed nafta which hurt more

industrial workers in places like detroit more than anything that happened with affirmative action. so, basically the cure becomes his bad as the disease. >> what's the matter with detroit? i mean, people voting against their own economic interests but thinking they're voting for their economic interest but turning out not to. >> it shows the voters clinton was going after there, who voted for reagan, bush sr., maybe nixon if they're old enough, the populist message appealed to them, had resonance. the message we need to go after -- >> populism was popular. >> you need to combine that message about the argument of values of all of us being in this together. when you combine that with a more divisive message it gets us to today, abandonment of our urban cities and a growth of poverty instead of the decrease in it. instead this new message the president talked about this week, we're all in this together, we're our brother's keeper, we have a responsibility

to each other, i think is what's needed for us to actually move forward. >> and i think it's important to emphasize just how new that message is. one thing that is striking about history of american state intervention in the economy is that from basically after reconstruction until the 1970s the american welfare stayed and constituents was designed for whites. it was a white supremacist welfare state. that broke down in the '50s and '60s. it's a good thing it happened. but we're in unchartered territory because we have never had to have a welfare state that includes not just blacks and whites and asian-americans -- >> i'm not sure we're necessarily doing this. the idea of federal government reaching out and helping detroit even on the table as a piece of discussion? >> no. but it needs to be. >> it's not. >> if there's going to be any real solution to the problems of detroit, the state needs to be involved and the federal government needs to be involved.

yet a lot of hands-off approach. we care about detroit but we're not going to put our money where our mouth is. >> there's discourse about stripping public division. >> ron brownstein, i'm going to credit him with it, you were looking at two political coalitions that define each party. the republican party being the older, more white party. it's a lot of -- they were reagan democrats at one point. people who we're talking about a generation ago still voting and still voting republican. they are hostile to basically any kind of government spending that's not social security and not medicare. that would include a bailout of detroit, that would include anything that's not their medicare or social security. that's the coalition. we talk about the changing demographics. that's the coalition probably a majority -- probably a majority in a majority of house districts. enough to give republicans control of the house, enough to make republican candidate competitive and enough to keep a democratic party who embodies the new coalition from enacting any kind of an agenda.

>> the job of our leaders is to make decisions that's best for our people, state, countries. the history shows us bailout of the auto industry helped because the federal government was involved. the bailout and support of new york city in the 1970s worked because the state was involved. there's really no solution -- there can't be any real solution on the table for detroit that does not involve investment from the federal government and the state that for the past few deck as have been steadily dis-investing in our cities. not just detroit but our country. wait a sec! i found our colors. we've made a decision. great, let's go get you set up... you need brushes... you should check out our workshops... push your color boundaries while staying well within your budget walls. i want to paint something else. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. refresh your home inside or out with behr premium plus ultra. interior flat starts at $31.98 a gallon.

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♪ i'm a hard, hard worker and i'm working every day. ♪ ♪ i'm a hard, hard worker and i'm saving all my pay. ♪ small businesses get up earlier and stay later. and to help all that hard work pay off, membership brings out millions of us on small business saturday and every day to make shopping small huge. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. ana marie was about to say -- >> i was talking about what's happened in detroit is the reflection of another american's myth about themselves. they stop to seeing themselves as middle class and suburban and rural really, while it's true majority of americans don't derek i think don't live in sfes but they live in like metropolitan areas. and politicians speak to the

suburbs and talk about, you know, even legistlate to the suburbs. >> suburbs are green goddesses of american political development. they got interstates, massive federal and state and regional subsidies. and cities were just kind of allowed to die on the vine and then blamed for their own problems. detroit had these problems in the '40s and '50s. they had massive racial violence. massive segregation. but people didn't vote that way on the federal level because they knew on which side their bread was buttered. they knew without the federal government supporting the policies that built a strong auto industry and kept their unions strong, too, they would be in very bad shape. >> we let -- we subsidize the suburbs and sort of let the cities fend for themselves. when the city fails like detroit and create a massive failure of the whole region, then it's a huge problem for everyone. you were talking about detroit, some people seeing it as a

system and working together as a region rather than just detroit. >> i think for a number of years private opinion leaders, leaders throughout education, have recognized the importance of regionalism for bringing detroit forward and all of us forward. there's a saying, when michigan sneezes, detroit feels the cold. >> you know, we talk about the sort of suburban divide. the chase for the macomb county voters, suburban voters, across the country, reagan democrats, republicans seeing in the suburbs an opportunity to expand their coalition even to the democratic coalition. and now it's sort of come around a little bit because the suburbs have evolved, american politics have evolved. what's lost in the equation, the city of detroit, you know, the actual cities around the country. i wonder if that's just because do people -- you know, both political parties look at the cities and say these are monolithically democratic cities and republicans can write them off because they're not

competitive. >> it would be a rising tide that lifted all votes. frankly, a lot of cities in europe have done this quite successfully. there was an article in 1999 talking about cities like belfast, turin in italy, rotting industrial cities. because their national governments and regional governments worked together and were able to transcend these political divisions that are difficult in america because we turn these cities into others because of race and create these model cities that have thrived. >> i was going to say not forget when we talk about cities and suburbs, what we're talking about is right. >> the federal policies help encourage whites to leave the cities and get away from them. and then were a hindrance to african-american actually trying to turn them into -- to sustain them. there's this whole history of

discrimination, of segregation, that i don't think we really grapple with, and not gramming with it makes it harder to solve. >> you can find documents from the federal housing system to banks, you can judge the creditworthiness of these neighborhoods based on whether they slovaks, negros. this is not something that happened because of black politicians like coleman young. >> i think the tendency, in conversations i've had in detroit, is to say that's the past. where are we now? one way in which neutral policies have reinforced that is lack of public transportation. it's heart to get and interact with each other on a regional basis because we don't have public transportation. >> oh, come on, jocelyn, we do have the people mover in detroit. >> quickly, i covered new jersey for a long time. the story of newark is kind of similar to the story of detroit. the biggest punching bag in state politics is the city of newark and whoever the mayor of

newark was. that's changed with cory booker but before booker, they would attack the mayor of newark. is that the status detroit enjoys in michigan politics? >> there's a certain amount of that type of cynical politics everywhere and in michigan. but i think voters are starting to demand that we become a state and our leaders have ideas and talk about ideas as opposed to turning each other against each other. because that hasn't worked. and we're starting to connect and recognize that that sort of cynical politics of the past, the divisive rhetoric, has only held us all back as we have stomped on one part of the state as a way of lifting up the other part of the state that hasn't worked. >> what should we know today? my answers after this. bjorn earns unlimited rewards for his small business. take these bags to room 12 please. [ garth ] bjorn's small business earns double miles on every purchase every day. produce delivery. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth ] why settle for less? ahh, oh! [ garth ] great businesses deserve unlimited rewards.

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so what should we know for today? well, we should know that san diego mayor bob filner plans to take a two-week leave of absence from his job so that he can seek intensive therapy aimed at

changing his behavior toward women. filner made the announcement at a press conference friday after seven women publicly accused him of sexual harassment. not surprisingly, the mayor's damage control plan is not quiet and calls for his head. nancy pelosi, for instance, who was filner's colleague when he was in the house said on thursday if filner needs therapy he should do it "in private." so far he's ignoring those calls and saying he'll get briefings on his city's business twice a day while he's in treatment. on his personal failures he said "i must become a better person." we should note that julian assange, the controversial wikileaks founder who remains the subject of a europe ann rest warrant has decided to run for office in australia. he announced thursday he's created his own political party. it's called what else, the wikileaks party. he wants to run for the australian senate under its banner. campaigning might be a challenge, for more than a year he's been holed up in the ecuadorian embassy hoping to avoid extradition to sweden where authorities want to question him about a sexual assault case. assange told "the new york times," "my plans are to essentially parachute in a crack

troupe of investigative journalists into the senate and to do what we have done with wikileaks in holding banks and government and intelligence agencies to account." we should know that an ambitious back door effort to kill off the electoral college is now halfway to its goal. under what's called the national popular vote compact states pledge to award their electoral votes to the candidate who gets the most votes nationwide. that's the national popular vote winner. it only goes into effect once the total number of electoral votes from states in the compact reaches 270. that's the magic number for a candidate to win the presidency. the plan had been stalled with only eight states and d.c. signed on, but this week rhode island decided to join them and now the states in the compact account for 136 electoral votes. it's just barely past the halfway point. somewhere al gore is saying, where was this thing 13 years ago? finally, former president george h.w. bush shaved his head this week for a young boy named patrick who's the son of a secret service agent who had

been part of bush's detail. 60 years ago george and his wife barbara made another donation to help kids like patrick. it was in 1953 when bush's daughter robin was diagnosed with leukemia and told by doctors nothing could be done. the bushes took her to memorial sloan-kettering hospital in new york, now called sloan-kettering cancer center. but the best care in the world in 1953 wasn't enough and robin died just two months shy of her fourth birthday. george and barbara bush then made a generation decision. they gave her body knocked research so that kids like patrick will have a better chance of beating the disease. want to find out what my guests think we should know? start with you, ana marie. >> yes. well, abortion law has been in the news for the past couple weeks. maybe last couple months. and i just wanted to point people to an interview at boing boing, the website, they've done with an ob-gyn who used to practice in kansas where there's very restrictive abortion laws and she talks about how these restrictions that are supposedly to care for the woman such as having a doctor have admitting privileges at a hospital actually hurt access to abortion

and cause more dangerous procedures to happen. >> rick? >> i want to point to a story i'll be breaking on the nation website tomorrow about james comey, obama's fbi nominee. his role as chief counsel at lockheed martin after he was in the bush administration was not mentioned at the hearings. they did mention his praise of whistle blowers. well, when he was chief counsel at lockheed martin, he may have had a role in shutting up a whistle blower in a way that cost the government millions of dollars and in a way that i think might unfit him for federal office. >> i think you just broke the story here. or half broke it. i don't know. we'll see. jamelle. >> i'd like to point to the ongoing saga of the virginia first family. bob mcdonnell's wife has been found to have spent $10 now $10,000 on his pac. which is legal under virginia's lax finance laws if the campaign is in operation, but it makes it very sketchy. it seems every week there's new revelations about the mcdonnells spending tens of thousands or getting tens of thousands of

dollars from weird and sketchy sources. >> only five months left in the governorship. then we'll be done with it. >> i want to point out to the supreme court decision from about a month ago now that eliminated part of the voting rights act and now we're starting to see several states act on that. we've seen texas and now north carolina this week is examining ledge laigs slaigs that would harm voters' ability to participate as fully as they could and we need to keep the pressure on congress to modernize the voting rights act. >> spoken like a former secretary of state candidate definitely. i want to thank ana marie cox of the guardian, rick perlgstein of the nation.com. jamelle bouie of nkz nic and the daily beast. jocelyn benson of wayne state. we'll be back here next weekend saturday and sunday sunday at 8:00 eastern time. evan mcmorris sanitiorio of buzzfeed.com and dave weigel of slate.com. coming up next is melissa harris-perry. on today's mhp the most important decision president obama can possibly make that will impact the u.s. economy and all of us who will replace ben bernanke.

that's melissa harris-perry. she's coming up next. and we will see you next week here on "up." ready for you first day, little brother?

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and what's the most important thing to remember? no face to face contact until we're off of school property. you got this. sharing what you've learned. that's powerful. verizon. get the samsung galaxy stratosphere ii for free. this morning my question -- what are we going to do about the ongoing violence in chicago? plus, why i wish juror b29 had watched "twelve angry men." and harry belafonte seeks to squash the beef with jay-z. but first, whose economy is it anyway? good morning. i'm melissa harris-perry. okay. in case there was any doubt, i am not an economist. here's what i do know about the