but when we cannot have it, we cannot confined our democracy to what might be bipartisan. so i ask our colleagues in the senate, respectfully, for what they think the filibuster means, to compare that to weigh the equities against our democracy. because nothing less visits stake than our democracy. our first guest tonight, congressman james e. clyburn first met martin luther king in 1960 morehouse college. the student nonviolent coordinating committee requested a meeting with dr. king and he agreed to meet with the students. the meeting lasted from 10 pm until 4 am the next morning. leading off our discussion tonight is democratic congressman james e. clyburn, he holds the lead is office of the house representatives. thank you very much for joining us once again, congressman.
arguments about how we might proceed - as a democracy. in terms of the race issue, i was thinking about doctor king. in 1968 about ten days before he was assassinated he spoke at the 69 assembly. and he said something in the q&a that was really powerful. he said, we have to admit that racism still occupies the throne of america. and so, in arizona, but we saw explicitly, was not a racial dog whistle. it was a fall corn. we saw donald trump appealing to white grievance. as a grounds for his political lies. and his political ambition. and we have to say explicitly, that there are concerns, deep worries about demographic displacement. historian graphical replacement, that is driving a lot of what we are seeing today in our democracy. let s listen to some of the lawyers for trump.
understand that his experiences and my experiences have been different. therefore, we need to find common ground by stepping outside of our comfort zone. he has his own with comfort. i have a zone of comfort. if both of us step outside of the comfort zones, find common ground, we might be able to move somewhere together. i don t know anybody who wants to look back at history and say that they are the ones that contributed to the undermining of this democracy? because nancy pelosi just stated in the piece that you pulled out, this is not about black people or brown people. this is about the foundation upon which the democracy is built. and that is the vote. when you take away the vote or when you do something to nullify the vote, just think about that. what they ve done in georgia.
markers. is it appropriate to say that it is fascist? that it is an autocratic movement? i think it is. you saw one woman up there, amongst a group of crazies, talking about locking up election workers. who else would they lock up? and for how long? and where would they send them? are they prepared to execute political opponents. when you look at the totality of the rhetoric. the intimations of violence. so, what is this. that we are looking at. and what i think it is. is a very dangerous, extremist movement, that has come to life. that can have its roots connected to the madison square garden in 1938. but it is hostile to democracy. it is hostile to the idea and the visions of brotherhood. that martin luther king talked
described the new voting laws passed by republican state legislatures. the proponents of these laws are not only putting in place obstacles to the ballot box, they are also working to interfere with our elections. to get the outcomes they want. and to discredit those they do not. that is not how democracy s work. we know that if we stand idly by, our entire nation will pay the price for generations to come. today, house speaker nancy pelosi contradicted what democratic senator kirsten sinema said last week. for the need for bipartisanship in voting rights legislation. we all want bipartisanship. we strive for it. we have a responsibility to do so.