Transcripts For CSPAN2 After Words With Ellen Malcolm 20160418

That is shakespeares world planting itself in north america and thats a complicated history and its part of the history of the country and also do what was good and bad about colonialism. Was he aware of the new world . Yes he was when he wrote the tempest he pretty clearly read a pamphlet which was about a shipwreck in bermuda that he makes reference to stories about the new world that were coming back. She never visited it and he probably would have grave information about it but when he uses the phrase like brave new world, he is saying that there is a place we havent explored and its overturning our expectations about what human beings are like and what nature is like. Thats something that is firing his imagination. Spinnaker was a portion of the tour booktv took the Shakespeare Library. You can watch the full tour online at booktv. Org. Book tv on cspan2 will be live from the Shakespeare Library at noon on saturday, april 23. This is to commemorate the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeares death. After words is next on booktv. In an interview with representative Maxine Waters political activist Ellen Malcolm talks with the creation of emilys list at the is the rise of women in politics. Host well hello. Guest hello, congresswoman. Host its good to see you. Guest likewise. Host i read the book the rise of women in american politics can and it brought back so many memories. Guest qaeda is dead. Host im so proud of the book and you should be very proud. It should be required reading in every college and university. What were you thinking about when you decided to write this . Guest we have had such a phenomenal change for women in politics on the democratic side at least over the past 30 years. And people have been asking me to write this book for years and i thought ive got to get the record out there on what weve done and how its changed and of course in the process i was remembering all of these remarkable women into these wonderful races and wins. The world was a different place when you look at the congress now. Three quarters are Democratic Women which were very proud of and they are making a terrific difference just as you are and you see them in action all the time. Host absolutely. And i think back about when i first came into office and if i want to thank you because i received the support from emilys list and has a matteroffact we didnt spend as much in those days, the 60,000 was huge and im very appreciative as many women are they just want to ask you i think it was last year, and its in the book when you walked into the room where thousands of women had gathered under the have gathered under the leadership of emilys list and we had that night i think Barbara Boxer was there and Dianne Feinstein and of course hillary is playing guest. What did it feel like walking in that room . Guest it was phenomenal. It was the 30th anniversary of the gathering of the women and members. They had announced the day before that she was retiring and i gave her a copy of the profile we sent out and she became the first Democratic Women ever elected to the senate in her own right. That was the first victory in its so poignant at that moment to have her retiring and then of course there was a lot of excitement because hillary hadnt officially decided whether she was going to run for president and at one point i said to the crowd do you want her to win and everybody left to their feet. Host i was laughing to myself into thinking what could she be thinking. She created us and shes walking into this room with obese women that have received the support from emilys list into the powerhouse of the United States it doesnt get any bigger than that but also a i thought about how thought about how did she come to believe that somehow she had the power to determine if it were going to be more elected to office and back she had to do something about it and the group you put together to say no more women simply someone in their own right wouldve you what did you think of these . Guest i was frustrated and angry and the group of us that work for the womens caucus and the equal amendment shared the frustration of why arent there more women in office we hear all the time about the women that would go to the Party Establishment and say im ready to move up to congress what you help me i have a district in a track record in support into the what kind entity with kind of leaned back and say you cant when we arent going to give you any money. Of course when they couldnt get any money for the women were stuck and caught and cant end this vicious circle they couldnt raise any because nobody believed they could win. So this group of friends of mine very simply said if we told the people the new we could raise a lot of money for them but starting at work and figure out how to do that so we began with 25 people sending out letters and it was a far cry from the 30th anniversary celebration. Host is that when you decided to name its emilys list . I thought that was the name of your mother or something. Guest some people that i named after myself and i said no, im telling. We did that because we wanted to raise money and we thought if we gave women credibility by raising that really money than they could go on and raise the additional money they needed to win. So we were like little political venture capitalists were going to go out there and we were to kick starter for women and emily stands are early money is like yeast. We make the dough rise and weve been doing it ever since. Host can you repeat that one more time . All the people you supported will supposedly know what it means them think its the name of her list or something. Guest it is an acronym that stands for early money is like yeast and we make the dough rise. Host embarking on what you embarked on of course you had wonderful when you have a disappointment you described in the book and i think that it was. The first race in 1982 that galvanized us. We were so angry that she had one in the senate race because the democratic establishment never believe she could win a u. S. Senate seat. They withhold the money, she ran out of money in the last couple of weeks and lost by 25,000 votes so they missed the opportunity to pick up the seat for democrats. We were so disappointed by that we were motivated to change that and in 1986 when the first election came along, carry it ran along again with mikulski but didnt win this event was a tremendous disappointment. She went on to hit up the National Political caucus to do so much for the women in missouri but of course the victor was senator mikulski. Host my heart was breaking when you describe how much she described how much she had done up until election day. They showed all of that and if she had only had the money to put in she could have won that race and as it turned out she actually lost in the last day or two. Guest cheated and it is so negative in the campaign now that was happening back then, too. When the candidate doesnt have the money to defend themselves and go back and set the record straight and remind people that are positive reasons to support and than they just become sitting ducks and that is what happened so she was doing great and she was up in the polls and was actually pulling right into the lead. So it was a terrible thing in 1982 and we are sorry she didnt make it in 1986. Host you could describe the rise of the National Womens political caucus. Spec thats how he first knew about you when you were in the California Assembly and you are active in the caucus. You and the group of people were working to get equal division so that the women were equally represented in the Democratic Party commissions and functions. So, yes. There was a real activist ground and another person that ive learned about was ann richards. She wouldnt have become governor had they not gotten to support it wasnt remember that speech . Guest she had two classic lines that brought her to the financial stage. One was poor george referring to george bush running for president , senior george bush. Poor george, he cant help it he was born with a foot in his mouth. [laughter] and they never forgave her for that. Guest than the other one that is such a classic now is Ginger Rogers did everything only backwards and in high heels. [laughter] host she is wonderful not only i loved her because of course she was confident and capable and all that but she shared her life with all of us. Guest she had a real struggle with alcoholism and stopped drinking many years before she ran for office but she was very open about it. In the primary that she was in, her opponent attacked her for it and get all these innuendos about the drinking and doing drugs and things and emilys list members are the biggest funder of the primary race so we stayed with her through that and all the way through the election. Host i think now people appreciate the openness and honesty. She was a star for all of us. But of course you talk about a lot of the women in the movement at the time and of course my friend. These women that are active and i think about it today when we talk about issues like equal pay for equal work. Back then we were on top of those issues and some of the other women think it is kind of knew that this is just Getting Started but im sure you have memories of guest i do in one of the reasons we support only Democratic Candidates is because the wonderful congresswomen had a lot of things to help the good men and the congress to help promote the issues to support women and when Ronald Reagan came in in 1980 and the republicans took over the senate, they started undoing all the things that we were now trying to get so we said when we started in 1985 and kicked ourselves out there we said it matters who chairs the committees and sets the agenda and has the ability to control the legislation has voted on so we decided to support only Democratic Women. We were the First National organization to support Democratic Candidates. All the other organizations before that were bipartisan. So now you see this huge divide and its very simple to understand why we might support democrats but it was a brave move back in those days. Host not only were you supporting one of the National Level but he went on at the state level into this example of a woman who was the head of the Reapportionment Committee is a good example of how the women and the positions to their physicians to make the Public Policy can create change. Guest i was just in florida talking about the book and there is a wonderful woman there who in 1990 was in the Senate Leadership for the Democratic Party and she said if you help me elect some women we can take over to become the majority and then i will make sure that we draw a good Congressional District. So in 1992, the Congressional District Line Committee was chaired by Karen Thurman and had great districts for karen and carrie meeks from miami and we ended up electing Corrine Brown during the that time so we elected three new women from florida because of the work that we have begun as the first time to do a little help at the state level to ultimately get more women into congress. Host that is a real example of power and organizing to exercise power so in all of this, you know, all members take a picture. How many women do you count having been elected because of emilys list . Guest lets me put it in context because i love the difference. There have never been a woman elected governor of the state until an. There were 12 Democratic Women in the house out of 435 members of the house we were about 5 of the democrats in the house. Republicans were the same level and thered never been a democratic woman elected to the senate in her own right. What we have is a loving Democratic Women governors during that time. The 12 very lonely Democratic Women in the house. Weve added 110 and it was phenomenal. And of course weve helped 19 Democratic Women get elected to the senate so on the democratic side, there is a shift of women in the room and ensure you see it with the Democratic Caucus coming together and who is going to be the leader. Theres a lot of women making sure. Host and i tell you arent you proud of nancy pelosi . She has done a phenomenal job. In my estimation of course with the speakers i experience and even before that she emerges as perhaps the most powerful speaker that ever lived at the house had so she has done a great job. Guest shes a brilliant strategist just as can be and when she was elected the leader to the leader when the people were going to challenge her, she had had two political bases when was the california congressional delegation and then all the women we helped elect the house when she was sworn in there were 50 Democratic Women in the house on the floor that they are. So i was there and i was so proud and excited. Host she has been true to her efforts for women. She supported women, shes organized women, she still tries to pick out a so shes doing emilys list good to help encourage women to run a. How much have they raised . Guest i think it is more than 400 million. Which shows what happens with early money that is like yeast. Its amazing because when we started there were not political donors. They didnt write checks to politicians and Barbara Mikulski said i would do anything to get the money she said i had to bake sales, bowling, barbecues and they would get five or 10 but that was sort of get a. We have to show that it was okay to give to politicians they wanted to support and we would tell them a lot about what was going on in the campaign, but really doing with the money so they have a lot of confidence about where they were investing in over the years we turned it into this powerful financial resource about 90 of the money comes from women. Host absolutely and if you could describe in a little bit more detail how you recruit the women and put together the information and get it out how does that process work . Guest we invented political fundraisers back in the 80s and they still are a huge force legislative agendas. We have to get more help for the women to give them credibility. And our members are smart people. So, instead of just contributing why dont we raise money for them, so in the early days i would go out and do events and i would say we want you to be members of the list to pay 100 to be a member for two years and we would give you information running for office. There will be women but the chance of winning. Youre not going to waste your money and we will give you information instead of a profile that tells you all about what is happening in the race with the opponents into than what the candidate positions were all kinds of issues and then each member could decide. I like this candidate, i will make my check to her so then you could raise 100,000 as opposed to the 5,000 contributed. And it revolutionized politics. Host if she were absolutely did. And so, i was looking at some of the more recent women that have been the beneficiaries. We camped about everything but i was there and i went to help her out and of course emilys list ran the campaign. Basically blind date code one was an africanamerican woman in the state representing milwaukee. The urban core milwaukee. She was wonderful on food stamps and issued housing but she had no capacity to raise money. She didnt do specialinterest politics. So she was running in the open seat primary. The winner would go to congress and the political establishment said we have this guy whos going to be the front runner. He is tacitly supported by the governor by the strongest man in the congressional delegation. So how do you get this poor africanamerican woman to be a front runner but everybody is convinced of that will have the political support. And emilys list and the incredible Grassroots Network got together and it was a phenomenal opportunity to add a. She ended up beating him over 60 of the vote and the political world was in shock. Its a wonderful story. Host its a wonderful story to read and i want you to know as you were describing her and what she cares about she just had a conversation with me and said you know ive got to do something about welfare. I love serving the Financial Services committee but im thinking about going to the ways and means. I just feel this is my responsibility to do it and she is willing to even give up seniority to go and do that work and im proud of her because not many people want to do that work and she is just the woman that you were describing. Host christian who comes from arizona and who comes with a very wonderful background is a very smart woman comes from a state that is basically conservative and shes been able to come and, you know, make her mark so what kind of growth do you see from the first time you met us until watching some of the new women come in . Do you think that we have grown in sophistication . I could imagine seeing some of us when we first started thinking youre going to do the best we can. One of the things ive been delighted by what is that theres a whole group of you that have been in the congress now for quite a while and youve gotten a lot of seniority so you have the position of the Financial Services but we see that that both inhouse and in the senate and that is why barbara was the chair of the Appropriations Committee with the democrats in the senate so you see these wonderful strategic women who were not only the first to go from their area but to learn and be smart and strategic obviously on the house side leading the way for all of you now taking a tremendous difference in the leadership position so that is exciting for me to watch over these congresswomen chairing the committees and making him out of trouble when things are going on from the other side so it is phenomenal to watch. Host you are absolutely right. Nancy has helped to put women in position to do good work. You look at Chand Schakowsky into some of the other women, they are the exercising power because they have been enabled by a woman leader and you cant help but feel so very proud of them somehow i want to say one thing about that. There is always these things about women but they dont help other women and that is not true. Nancy is the greatest example of that because she has opened doors for women all the time. She expects you to do a good job but she makes sure they have a fair chance at the lead as well and a point them to critical positions over and over again. She has been pulled on all directions. She has to work with all that but remains progressive and she works with me in the Financial Services committee on these very difficult issues where often times we have segments of our own caucuses and she will come to you and bob only offer to be in the lead of the caucuses often times but im very pleased to have the opportunity to serve a fancy. Here you are the founder and the creator of emilys list. The history is going to record you as the founder and visionary who really understood even when you didnt know a lot about politics, something was wrong. You said something is wrong with this picture and so not only were you a young woman well off and i dont know how you didnt end up that yo didnt but he went back to school and wanted to be able to exercise business knowledge to choose your inheritance anyway you had the power and the fortune to inherit money and you wanted to do it right. You were a determined woman. Guess who i graduated from college and 69 and was at the heart of the movement, the Civil Rights Movement so we were in this churning, active, crazy time to be young and to learn and i remember going up to philadelphia knocking on the doors so we learned a lot and have skills in everything and theres a lot of conversation about millennial voters in support of Bernie Sanders and of course i support hillary. I said thats what happened to me when i was in my 20s and young and sorting out. Its great people are getting learning skills and i hope they have the bug just like i caught it. They can all get jobs in poverty would be over as sole hook me up with somebody in job training so so they have meet to a mission as a volunteer i did a lot of administrative work so i am sitting there and a person walks by and i said can i help you . He said you of the volunteer . I just wanted to see what a volunteer would like. [laughter] so i became a a tourist attraction in. [laughter] the only volunteer in a government agency. That is the place he made a radical decision simic that was in college it is so funny to consider that radical and revolutionary. But i have done a lot of things to create social change but it has always been within the confines of the process. Heres san years ago as an entrepreneur trying to figure out why we were succeeding in he said of you cannot take on your competition i cannot take on Procter Gamble it is like ceiling if you want to get anywhere you have to act and i just thought a label moment labeled and then they dont get anywhere but emilys list and i know you yourself get the power of the wind moving forward and we get to where were going eventually. Away to describe to where you want to go. How does it feel . To know the next president of the United States will be a woman . I am not celebrating we have a lot of work to do. Of course, it will be. Are we prepared for this struggle . I think we are. And Hillary Clinton is the most phenomenal woman i have never met. People say that about politicians but i am telling you this woman there is so much about so many things and is a child of the 60s who committed herself to make a difference in peoples lives and has done it ever since. With the Childrens Defense Fund all the way from running for president for the United States. I am excited, nervous but sometimes i can imagine going to that inauguration. She talked about her vision for what is possible in the most profound way that how bad we are with the rest of though world she said now this is a great nation we cannot afford to Better Things and it is very hopeful. Because she is so smart. And incredible contrast elicit it will be donald trump he is certainly the voice of anchor and eidenshink blaming people and dividing people but she is the voice lets have a path to get to where we are going it will be a big debate that we reject that or will people say that is true . We are proud lets move forward. I have felt so good with that hopeful message that is hillary. But the of the thing that is happening is a lot of the younger women out they have been treated and continuing to be disrespectful as a great learning lesson for the people who thought that they will probably be at everett among restore to be appointed to offices, etc. , etc. So i began emilys list will continue to grow to be elected to office and that is exciting and you have to feel good about that. Every day when you get up in the morning to think about that. But i will tell you you are an example of someone who has created something powerful and make it grow that is hard to do to say i have done it. How did you decide to do that . It took a while i was the head of emilys list 25 years i thought it was time for new leadership for a younger person who could speak for the next generation that was internet comfortable and savvy but i also wanted someone who wanted the political strategy to find people that get the marketing in the political strategy in being president since 2010 was our defense finance chair with the first internet fundraising Success Story and then ran to Senate Campaigns to of the closest senate races taking back the Republican Senate seats brilliant strategically and i could not be prouder because it does say to me that after five years with 3 billion numbers doing phenomenal work and with the campaign with the leader of the future. How much time when you decided to make the big transition. We had a lot of conversations in the beginning that i have to step out of the way to let her go to become a leader of the organization that was not easy everybody told me know founder leaves an organization sometimes the first is a failure now known no. Were both very competitive and were determined to make it work. So i am very proud now. I chair the board it is very clear now. What is vice would you give to women about running for office . That you will have the good days and the bad days and supporting somebody would you tell women . To make a first problem that we have rand it is a big hurdle, not because they arent interested in running but we would talk to women to do this training all the time. I said if u. S. Command in your community to run for state senate he would say no i running for president. I dont have time to run for the senate. A woman will say i have always wanted to do that but no one has ever asked me. So one of the things we do right here in this conversation we want you to run in this community all your issues get better try we will help you other organizations will help you is important to step up and run we need women to make politics work better. That is the first challenge and i am happy to say with somebody doing it with them like emilys list, said a jump in and start running. You have a few women decided want to run as emilys list get cold calls to say i heard about this will you help me . Absolutely. We do. We have a Training Program for state and local races. One of the problems is there are thousands of state races we wish we could do more or do what we do for congressional races we dont have the resources for that but we can be helpful to get people the skills are understanding what it is to run for the state legislature. There is little out there to help any candidate know how to run. So of course, real is getting calls for those who want to run for congress but we are looking for women all the time. The net there is a political opportunity we have someone there in the community who would be good for congress or who should we talk to . Were always in the process looking for good women to run. That was a mission at one point to seek out the women and encourage them to run but to go after commissions and commissions and appointments and opportunities that they would have access to. So the business of our reach isnt encouraging and supporting women to help them understand it is possible and it is part of the job that emilys list is all about in addition to raising all that money. So if women are interested in running for office, call emilys list and start a conversation. Lets get started. If you want to know go to emilys list because we will tell you the candidates that have a chance of winning or need help. That helps all kinds of people to become political venture capitalists. The days of being told told, who will prepare the food and how do i get the kids . Is that about over . Not totally but what has changed in the beginning we had not seen women in congress when a woman would run what would she be like . I cannot imagine. There were no reference points so it was the gender stereotypes so who is taking care of your kids . Wears her husband . How could you be doing this . So when the voters got used to weigh and now we elected to the national and breaks through another part of that Glass Ceiling it comes back. When nancy was a first woman speaker the rest of fixation and grandchildren, a close, are you tough enough . [laughter] are you smart enough to figure how to bring democrats together . It is with those gender stereotypes or are you tough enough . So when hillary rand 2008 it was awful and frankly knowing this i was shocked conversations about her voice and her ankles and nutcrackers you can bite later were awful. Not as much so far. And there is still conversations about her. I am pleased that some men have come to her assistance to deal with this issue. No basis to Bernie Sanders quite a you shouting so much but i am worried drop the general election and donald trump has managed to hit every divisive button there is will go back to that. Glading what role have been he will be in for a shock because women and men will now say dont go after that. She has done so much stuff if a woman challenges him or comments about the appearance, it is just awful his ongoing obsession with megan kelly. So hillary will be a shock and bring he tries that he will find out a lot of people say enough of that nonsense lets get serious. Yes. It will backfire. When iran for office i remember using the phrase why not a woman . But what i discovered when i was running many africanamerican women in my community were not accustomed to supporting women in when i would use the phrase im running for office. Why not . I started to repeat to that in the literature and it still works. Was that coined . I dont think it was us but it was that era. But now you see so many women doing wonderful things. Because women to govern differently. I think so. We have a concept of Representative Democracy if you bring all kinds of people together than we have policies to take care of our very diverse country. Women now are only 18 percent we still have a long way to go to get a quality but even having said that all this fighting and nonsense and gridlock with the government was shut down a couple of women on the republican side and on the democratic side who came together to find a compromise to get the government. Even john mccain said the zero women got the government back. You are absolutely right they did come together for a consensus even Barbara Boxer to make sure we had money for Research John heart disease. And Hillary Clinton with a chip. I created the betterments womens center. So were really makes a difference and it has changed this country. Wonderful hillary story that just shows what a woman will do, she told me when she was first lady and in the senate when the host country would put the schedule together and say i want to meet with your Women Leaders she would go to the middle eastern and third world countries that were so disrespectful a woman leader . But they were forced to deal with the fact to give them in because the media was hollering hillary have hillary around they know who they were with the tone of safety. What ailed foreign way and in china this bed is pouring into areas been accustomed to here we are. 2016 powerful with breach leadership. Thank god youre on the board. I like that. We look forward to more women to seek opportunities to run for office and they have some place to call and ask about what it takes what do i need to do what support can i give . I know how you give advice whether it is sitting on the board or if they call you but dont ever stop. Thank you. Enjoy the book has wonderful stories of victory in progress and social change for women and families. Absolutely i meant it when i said it should be required reading because then that reminds us all of the sacrifices women have made and what they have done to you can guess to this point. And then to get involved in the struggle and as you have said they then as theyre willing to and look across the aisle. That this place is better because i am proud of you so many women are proud to what i fink you will see is links in 2016 whole fleet with the first women president but they will take back the senate and maybe the house. We have very strong candidates. But we cannot take anything for granted. An den some point the pendulum swings back then they take away our rights we see this incredible assault on planned parenthood with the war on women. It is a constant process. Thank you very much i am done. No. A constant commitment year after year. When i will continue to do is stay in the fight and the members of emilys list will sometimes we win or lose but we never stop we just keep packing that sailboat to where we are going. Thank you for reminding all of us you should always be aware so if we are reminded of that we will not get so focused on the progress as long as theyre prepared to fight the fight. That is a good lesson to share. Otherwise it will be gone before we know it. Would you like to give a final word but there were a number of good things that happened in politics and women can participate in all levels as a voter or contributor or running but the country needs the involvement of women and makes our country better teeseven i have a copy of your book and you have not signed it for me. I will do that speck of very special edition to read library. Did you sign my book so i can say i was here today with the plentiful. Ron will spread we thought if we gave women credibility to raise surly many then they could go to raising additional money they needed to this so we like political venture capitalist it is like a kickstart for women we make the dough rise and we have been doing that ever since some american the Vice President for studies here at the Cato Institute island to give us special shelf for the conference to provide for their part workfare to make eire been such a Great Success also fear watching