Welcome to the panel everybody. Thank you for coming. I am mark spokane and i represent the second Congressional District in wisconsin and cochair the progressive the progressive caucus. Strong and the largest valuesbased caucus among the Democratic Party in congress. We are very happy to have you here and todays panel is pivoting left, how we win by standing up for working families. We would like to take a look at what happened in the last election, and where we need to have a bigger and bolder message as opposed to maybe a message of incrementalism. One of the things that the progressive caucus has always done, for a number of years is we have our annual progressive caucus budget that we put forth, that is full of those big ideas, trying to move the ball forward. It is a big bold way, of trying to get policy solutions that people are asking for, but also trying to help elect early by chuck electoral early by talking about those big issues. Person kind of briefat does a introduction and everyone will have five minutes to make some initial comments, then we will ask a couple of questions from the panel, based on that discussion. Then we will open it up for questions. Our first, i will go in order that we have here, start down this way then come back, we have amy allison who is president of democracy in color, to her is representative from the 17th district in california, then next to row is joshua, partner wildlylling firm that is isgressive and to my right, neil abernathy, Vice President of research and policy at the roosevelt institute, which helps a lot of us in the progressive caucus, the Democratic Party, and candidates to come up with great policy ideas. This is our panel, and we will start, here as we did in the last panel. Amy, we will start with you then go to row, then josh. Allison, the president of democracy in color. Amy thank you. Good afternoon everyone. The conversation about where our party goes has to be grounded deeply. In an understanding about why we lost in 2016, and who the democrat voters, the most loyal central democrats that are most reliable, really are. Some of it, is about a conversation, a hard conversation about how we have been focusing or resources, what messages we have been giving our campaigns and what leaders we are elevating. There has been an assumption amongst the democrats that the fight is for swing voters. But we saw in 2016, some inform ushat should Going Forward, first of all, the party is 47 people of color. Refiningation about and economic message, must be anded with an open knowledge meant about the role of Racial Injustice in limiting Economic Opportunities for nearly half of our party base. This is critical because there has not been a full conversation about the role of race and as trump continues and the republicans continue to use race as a magnet for white voters, and a wedge, the democrats have to be able to fully address race, not only in a platform, but in conversations about policy. So, when we look at the dynamic with 2016, democracy and color was able to demonstrate, and some of the states where clinton lost with 10 points or fewer, that it was not swing voters who democrats,y, it was or people who went to third or fourth party candidates, and in some cases that number was greater than the win number four trump. So if we want to bring back people from third parties, people who would want to hear a more progressive, stronger message, a party that directly addresses race and Racial Justice, that are inspired in both leaders and the message, they need to reflect that. Today, in this conversation, i am glad to start the conversation by challenging us, as members of the party, to do things differently. Assume, not to do and the chasing of white swing voters, who actually we have cast out, but really focus on the new american majority, which is multiracial, progressive and reliable. It is our challenge for 2018, 2020 and beyond. To evolve the way that we look at empire ties our pretty our base how we look at and prioritize our face, and talking to them early and often, in the language and the way that we will bring them in. Great. Thank you so much, amy. Next we have thank you so. Uch aimee the representative from california. Enqueue for having me. It i am honored to be on the panel with mark who really pushes the envelope with the Progressive Agenda and appreciate being part of the caucus. I agree with what aimee said about Racial Justice, partly because of the issue of morality. Putting aside the politics, and there are two places that i such asint to, wisconsin. I am sure that mark could speak to that in more detail, but as i understand it, secretary clinton lost by 30,000 votes and there were about 300,000 people identified as not having the right border id, who were unable to come to the polls. There were numerous reports of people calling the polling , who were largely africanamerican areas like milwaukee and others, not being given the correct information on how to they could get a voter id card. So i think when we look at what of the Untold Stories of 2016, is the suppression of minority voters. The rollback of basic voting rights, protection and legislation, that is had on this country. While the demographics are under are favorable for the longterm progressive movement, they will not be as favorable if we do not deal and have a strategy with making sure that people are enfranchised. The second thing is that we need Restorative Justice in this country. There is no doubt that we have had historical wrongs. , atink that many people least democrats and others believe that we need to have investment in my view, hbcus, historically black colleges and districts that have not had the same opportunities for business, minority businesses, for educational opportunities, again, putting aside the politics, these are just the right things to do, for us to be a more just country. I dont think the Democratic Party, or our generation can ever compromise on those basic values. In addition to that though, i dont think we should be afraid articulate a bold are Economic Vision that will appeal to everyone in america. I would say that trump message, i agree that some of it had racial overtones, but there was also a part of his message which said, i am going to bring back skilled workers, and the coal mines, and bring back the communities to the america that they knew. We as democrats have to offer an Economic Vision for everyone. What is their future . For their kids, how is it going to be better in the 21st century . How are they going to have the same opportunities that they once did . Trump is promising them that they will have this false economic security. There, i think of course, we have progressive peoples budget, which we have talked about, investing in infrastructure, and in new industries. Creating a creating a partnership apprenticeship programs, so that we can say that for those who are going through this economic transition, we are going to make sure that we we get that your life is hard, that your life is not the same rate we are not going to lie to you. We will not tell a 65yearold steelworker that things are great. They will not believe that. Here is what we can do, we can at least make sure you have health care, but you at least have dignity in retirement. And you know what, we can ensure your kids have the same shot as kids in palo alto, or new york, or anywhere in this country. That message is one that i think does kind of cross racial, denture, ethic lines. In my view we need a strong message, on issues of Restorative Justice and voting rights, and we also need a ong economics of platform economic platform. I think we can do both. Thank you very much, ro. Josh . Thank you. I am a Research Partner in a Progressive Research firm. I will talk for five minutes and hopefully about what we are learning in terms of public opinion, where we are falling short, and how to make some improvements. The research has been coming out lately. These are notg, just my rules, these are three rules that i repeat often to candidates that i am working for for public office. Three reasons why people do or do not vote for democrats. In no particular order. The very first reason is that there was not an economic reason to vote for democrats. There is no reason to vote for democrats if there is no economic reason and we are not giving them an economic reason to vote for us. Is my number one rule, no economic reason, is an reason to note vote for us. The second reason is that people do not dislike democrats, they do not dislike aggressive, because they think you are liberal, they dislike us everything we are weak. We do not stand hard enough on our principles, we do not fight hard enough for the groups who we are supposed to fight for. We bend too easily and too it they dot of not believe that we will fight, they do not believe what we believe often in our liberal progressive principles. The third one that i tell them, is that people support our Progressive Agenda. You have seen survey after survey that says that we support health care for all, better environmental and arts, hold porations accountable, better environmental standards, and hold corporations accountable etc. So why do people not vote for our people. What is a problem, why can we not put this together in a campaign . I amore thing to note, reminded of the end of this when people are having conversations about what happened. And someone said that even had one, because of the margins we had, she would not of had a Democratic Senate work with aura congress to pass legislation with. So we would not have gotten done what he wanted to get done. Because we are not bringing enough people along. We are not bringing enough our folks into office so that we can bring change. So there was something happening, where we do not have a core unified message. So what i think is our there are lots of individual reasons, but we need a fundamental overhaul, not a piece by piece way to make this work. The reason people do not believe us or do not vote for us, is poor to our challenge, court our problem. I think part of the challenge is often, we have to bring the conversation down, we often have very elite conversations about the economy, whether it is college issues. We have these elite kind of conversations with each other that do not reach voters. The problem is voters often think that we are the elites to read we are the ones who defend government, we wish to reform it. Eare the representatives that i think we doactly right, is that not have conversations where people are. We talked about a strong economy, instead of talking about shrunk strong families. We talk about good jobs, is that of talking about what that means for families and for people. We are having conversations that do not reach them because we are talking about things at a level that they do not been brought into these kind of conversations. Say, tor piece i will abstractions on how we talk about the economy. It is too abstract and we do not bringing down to where they are direct we have to talk more about how they live, and not just about what is happening happening in the economy through it we work for a reason, to pay our bills and for other things. But were the what are the other things . The economy that we want has to we need to know what they are undergoing in their daily life. The last point i am making, and it will turn it back to the team have 10 point agenda is to fix the economy. We now havepoints, four sub points for every one of them. So really we have a 40 point agenda to fix the economy, right . I am an idiot. Voters are not idiots who want to hear 40 points, they want to have a conversation. We cannot boil this down to them in a way that is good to them, so i think that is a big issue for us here. Enough aboutear what our progressive principles are to voters, and we are having too much of an elite conversation with them and they do not talk about the issues the way we tend to talk about them. Thank you, josh. Ll . I am now abernathy, and i study economics, so i will try to not be too elitist. I am actually very optimistic right now about the prospects for a progressive Economic Vision. I think what we have seen is that the conservative story about how the economy works, that has really guided policymaking for the last 30 to 35 years, not just on the right, but within the Democratic Party, is fraying, people do not believe it. Many of us have never believed it, but the idea that wealth is going to trickle down, that intervention of any sort hurts growth, and therefore hurts jobs and average american, the idea that markets are fair and efficient and all that we need is Legal Protection in order to compete in a market fairly, these are absolutely laughable to most americans at this point. Toy may have been laughable many people, particularly people of color and women for the last 35 years, and a lot of people thought they were true. That is how we got to where we are. So i think that progressives have a huge opportunity to tell a coherent torry about how the economy actually works. About howherent story the economy actually works, that institutions and ideas shape outcomes, that it is not as though we all show up on the marketplace on equal footing. It is not that the outcomes are inevitably going to be just and fair. At the end of the day, the way that we have an operating is also really bad for growth. We have the economists on our side now, some of them, which may or may not be a benefit. That this anti, which was a part of the better deal agenda promoted by the democrats recently, it a really useful entry point to this conversation, to the idea that corporations have too much power, and the rich and corporations have been able to rig the goals on their own behalf. Story to tellg there, but i think that average americans get it. And talking about antitrust is a way to sort of signal that you also get that. I do think that there is a lot more than antitrust that needs to be in our agenda. Us, we talkeed for about this a lot in the roosevelt institute, how do you connect the top issues around tax rates, monetary policy, antitrust, two people who lived the experience . Whether that is the job of the skilled worker, or to a Racial Justice agenda, or a womens agenda . It,e are two aspects of one, i believe things like antitrust are intersectional issues. When you grasp monopoly Power Society that is also that also has deep structural inequalities, those get worse. But i also think that we need to while Corporate Power is necessary to do what we want to do in it is also not sufficient. Broadband and infrastructure broadband infrastructure is a great example. If we had a more competitive telecoms world, we would all pay a lot less for a lot better service. Thate would perhaps feel the corporations had less power and our allies. But it would not be sufficient, to close the digital divide. We would still need Massive Public investment to target the communities that have for historical and continue structural reasons, not been able to get access to the goods and services that are critical to participate in the economy. That is a lot. I just wanted to say, that i am at a loss, we have not done it perfectly. Combining these agendas, the Corporate Power agenda, the Racial Justice agenda, the womens agenda, and i am very optimistic, that by continuing to have conversations like this, we can find ways to make these connections that actually look at the expense of all americans . Thank you. So we will start the discussion up here. We will open up the discussion in a little bit. , youted to start off, ro said that we can do both. How do we get to making sure that we are covering all of the issues . I think an interesting thing is that after the election, there was a hold on half of our democratic and sick constituencies, a wide variety of them said that they had an unexpected if they had an unexpected 500 expense, they would be in trouble. 50 say that jumps to not pay enough to live on and it is a struggle to save up anything. We see a strong economic message out there, across a multitude of our constituencies, and i liked what you brought up, nell, and entry point for these issues. Anyone was watched what happened with United Airlines pulling the person off the plane, thats why happens when you get a consolidation of industries. You know you dont even have to consider your actual customers. How do we create a message that can accomplish both . I just want to say that progressives in the Democratic Party have to start thinking intersectional he. I am glad you brought up that word intersection elite, we need to learn what that is and how to be that. Intersectionally. For me, as a woman of color, all of the things that make me me, our politics needs to accommodate that, and we need to look at the party and those who are the best intersectional, who articulate intersectional politics. I thought it was really led byting, revolutions nina turner, one of the top articulators of an intersectional policy. She articulated a suite of congressional bills, should we win in 2018, that would address a whole lot of issues. We need to start tying together, there are a lot of women of playing this role, in the party and in movements in the resistance, and those addressing Immigration Reform and criminal justice reform, and education we have to be able andring together a articulate the economy and the context of these movements. Those at best, are to collated by elevating the voices who do it best already. We do not have to scramble around, and wonder what the magic phrase will be. I would also like us to think about, really challenge ourselves about who we are really trying to convince to vote for us to love the example hillaryia, where clinton lost by 213,000 votes, and every statewide democrat, from jason carter to Michelle Nunn who ran for senate, they lost about 22 of the white vote. Georgia,state like havi