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They Have Lobbyists. What’s Your Plan? · The Briefing Room

0:01
Speaker 1: A few weeks ago, I went to Washington to cover
0:04
Speaker 1: the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's annual legislative conference. There's a
0:09
Speaker 1: lot happening at once when you attend something like that.
0:12
Speaker 1: Members of Congress are moving between sessions. Policy organizations are
0:16
Speaker 1: holding discussions. Journalists are chasing interviews. And the business leaders,
0:20
Speaker 1: they're busy networking. And it seems like everybody has a
0:24
Speaker 1: reason for being there. But one conversation followed me home
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Speaker 1: more than others. is when I interviewed CNN contributor Bakari Sellers.
0:34
Speaker 1: And during that conversation, he referenced Dr. King's phrase, the
0:38
Speaker 1: fierce urgency of now. So what stayed with me wasn't
0:42
Speaker 1: simply the urgency. Bakari talked about the importance of leaving
0:45
Speaker 1: Washington with a real plan. That got me to thinking.
0:50
Speaker 1: I thought about the difference between caring deeply about an
0:52
Speaker 1: issue and being organized enough to do something about it.
0:56
Speaker 1: When major companies go to Washington, Their representatives generally know
1:00
Speaker 1: what they want. They understand the legislation or regulation involved,
1:05
Speaker 1: who has authority over it, and what outcome they would prefer.
1:08
Speaker 1: Ordinary people like you and I, we usually arrive at
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Speaker 1: politics from a much different place. Something hurts, feels unfair,
1:16
Speaker 1: or becomes impossible to ignore, so people react. And that
1:20
Speaker 1: reaction may be completely justified. But eventually, somebody with the
1:25
Speaker 1: power to change things is going to ask a very
1:28
Speaker 1: basic question. What exactly do you want us to do?
1:32
Speaker 1: And that's where concern has to become a real plan,
1:36
Speaker 1: just like Bakari pointed out. And that's where we begin today.
1:40
Speaker 1: They have lobbyists.
1:42
Speaker 2: What's your plan?
1:45
Speaker 3: From Blackcess Media, 92.7 FM, WICU HD2. This is The
1:53
Speaker 3: Briefing Room with Marcus Atkinson. One central question. The story
1:59
Speaker 3: is moving politics. And when common sense requires a ruling,
2:04
Speaker 3: barbershop court. Today's briefing room is presented by G &
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Speaker 3: M Getaways. Now, here's Marcus Atkinson.
2:13
Speaker 4: Reporting live and direct, this the Briefing Room. I got
2:16
Speaker 4: a nice, firm grip on the sweeping room. Revealing dirt
2:20
Speaker 4: from under the mat. I'll entertain questions later. Now on
2:23
Speaker 4: to the facts. Reporting live and direct, this the Briefing Room.
2:27
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another edition of the Briefing Room. Ladies
2:29
Speaker 1: and gentlemen, I am your host, Marcus Atkinson. In the background,
2:32
Speaker 1: you are listening to the sweet sound of one George
2:35
Speaker 1: Morgan III, a.k.a. Buddy Love, kicking that theme song to
2:38
Speaker 1: the Briefing Room. Sounds so good, don't you agree? Welcome
2:41
Speaker 1: to today's show.
2:42
Speaker 4: Today.
2:43
Speaker 1: This conversation is really important, and it actually started in Washington,
2:48
Speaker 1: continued through Inside Erie Politics, and eventually led me back
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Speaker 1: to something I encountered while covering the Congressional Black Caucus
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Speaker 1: Foundation Conference. Now, if you watched my recent appearance on
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Speaker 1: Erie News Now, you saw some of the reporting that
3:01
Speaker 1: I brought home from D.C. What you didn't see was
3:04
Speaker 1: the beginning of my original piece, where I explained why
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Speaker 1: a portion of my conversation with Bakari Sellers matter to
3:10
Speaker 1: me so much. So I want to restore that part
3:12
Speaker 1: of the story. I want you to hear that part
3:15
Speaker 1: of Bakari's answer that started this whole conversation for me.
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Speaker 5: So I think in this moment, it reminds me of King's,
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Speaker 5: I have a dream speech and the fierce urgency of now.
3:24
Speaker 5: I think we have to have that fierce urgency. I
3:25
Speaker 5: think every day we are about 47, 48 nights and
3:30
Speaker 5: a wake up away from determining whether or not Trump
3:33
Speaker 5: gets to continue to run them up or black folk
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Speaker 5: will have a voice. We always say down south, if
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Speaker 5: you're not at the table, you're on the menu. And
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Speaker 5: right now, for the past few years, black folk have
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Speaker 5: been on the menu. And so I hope that we
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Speaker 5: utilize this event to come out with an action plan.
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Speaker 5: If we don't, it'd just be a waste of time.
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Speaker 1: That's the part that stayed with me. Now, before I
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Speaker 1: go into this conversation, let me level set this whole
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Speaker 1: thing first. This is not some woke agenda. I hate
4:03
Speaker 1: to wear the place in America right now where every
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Speaker 1: time some marginalized group says, These are the things that
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Speaker 1: we want you, our representatives, to consider in this next
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Speaker 1: election cycle. Somebody steps up and says, this is some
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Speaker 1: woke agenda. This is called the American way. Every group
4:21
Speaker 1: with any interest should be doing this. When the AARP
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Speaker 1: does this in representation of older and mature folk in society,
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Speaker 1: it is not some woke agenda. When the LGBTQ crowd
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Speaker 1: does this, it is not some woke agenda.
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Speaker 2: Agenda.
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Speaker 1: If big business can lobby to the tune of billions
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Speaker 1: to get certain laws passed, suppressed, or what have you,
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Speaker 1: so that they can make more money, certainly you're an
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Speaker 1: advocate of everyday people saying, these are our demands. These
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Speaker 1: are the things that are bringing us frustration. We are
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Speaker 1: collectively lifting our voices up so that you, the legislator
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Speaker 1: that we voted for, even if we didn't vote for you,
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Speaker 1: you're getting paid from our tax dollars for We demand
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Speaker 1: you listen to this. That is not some woke agenda.
5:08
Speaker 1: So please don't go into this episode with that lens.
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Speaker 1: Understand that what makes America great is things like this.
5:17
Speaker 1: That's what makes it great. And the fact that so
5:20
Speaker 1: many people are leaning into America's greatness being rooted in
5:24
Speaker 1: a time where marginalized voices knew their place. I know
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Speaker 1: they don't say that outright, but when you analyze it
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Speaker 1: from all perspectives and you come to the conclusion of, well,
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Speaker 1: what else would you possibly mean? Why would it bother
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Speaker 1: you that older people over a certain age are lobbying legislation?
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Speaker 2: They should.
5:45
Speaker 1: Why would it bother you when people of new American
5:48
Speaker 1: descent are lobbying legislation through their actions? They should be
5:53
Speaker 1: no more than it should bother you when African-Americans do it.
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Speaker 1: So let's bridge that divide. First of all, I want
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Speaker 1: you to look at the fact that everything that I'm
6:01
Speaker 1: about to say about this interview with Bakari Sellers and
6:05
Speaker 1: about this playbook that was developed applies across the board
6:09
Speaker 1: in America. But he was leaning into black folk because
6:12
Speaker 1: he is, wait for it, black folk. And so that
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Speaker 1: is the impetus behind this. But his commentary stayed with me.
6:20
Speaker 1: He talked about the fierce urgency of now, but there
6:23
Speaker 1: was another part of the idea that I found just
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Speaker 1: as important. Urgency tells us that the moment matters. A
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Speaker 1: plan tells us what we intend to do about it.
6:33
Speaker 1: That distinction, that right there, that became clear as I
6:36
Speaker 1: watched people move through the conference. Some were representing businesses.
6:40
Speaker 1: Others came from nonprofits, universities, advocacy organizations, government agencies, or
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Speaker 1: community groups. Their politics were not all identical. Their voices
6:50
Speaker 1: weren't monolithic. Neither were their objectives. What they generally had
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Speaker 1: in common, though, was preparation. And that, my friend, is
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Speaker 1: the key. A meeting usually has a purpose. In general,
7:03
Speaker 1: people know why they wanted access to somebody, and the
7:05
Speaker 1: serious organizations understood that the handshake was not the end
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Speaker 1: of that process. So by the time I came home
7:11
Speaker 1: and portions of that reporting appeared on Inside Erie Politics,
7:15
Speaker 1: I found myself thinking less about access and more about
7:18
Speaker 1: what happens after access is achieved. That's the important part
7:21
Speaker 1: to me. So getting into the room matters, especially for
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Speaker 1: people who historically have been excluded from important rooms. But
7:28
Speaker 1: once you get inside, that question changes. What are you
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Speaker 1: there to accomplish? Now we got to wrestle with that.
7:35
Speaker 1: That applies whether the room is in Washington, Harrisburg or Erie.
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Speaker 1: It could be city hall. It could be county council,
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Speaker 1: a school board, a bank, a foundation or a corporate office.
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Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if somebody sitting across from you has
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Speaker 1: the ability to make a decision affecting your community. Simply
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Speaker 1: getting a meeting is not enough. You need to know
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Speaker 1: what you want to accomplish with this opportunity because you
7:57
Speaker 1: never know when it will come up again. And here's
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Speaker 1: what we're about to analyze. Corporate America figured this out
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Speaker 1: a long time ago.
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Speaker 3: Money certainly matters in politics, but some of the biggest
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Speaker 3: advantages come from preparation, relationships, and knowing what you want
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Speaker 3: before the meeting begins.
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Speaker 1: Great question, and one that everyone assumes that they know
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Speaker 1: the answer to. Because the word lobbyist has become so
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Speaker 1: negative that sometimes we miss what they actually do. At
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Speaker 1: its most basic level, lobbying is organized advocacy towards people
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Speaker 1: who make public policy.
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Speaker 2: It's just that simple.
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Speaker 1: Businesses do it, and so do unions, hospitals, universities, environmental organizations,
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Speaker 1: civil rights groups, and local governments. When a mayor goes
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Speaker 1: to Harrisburg or Washington looking for resources for a local project,
8:51
Speaker 1: that's part of the same broad process. They are lobbying
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Speaker 1: in Harrisburg. Everybody does it. Now, money obviously changes the scale.
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Speaker 1: The more money you got to play with, the more
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Speaker 1: your voice is heard. Federal lobbying spending exceeded $ 4. 4 billion
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Speaker 1: in 2024. I'm not particularly interested today in pretending that
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Speaker 1: every dollar spent lobbying is sinister because it isn't. I
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Speaker 1: just told you at the beginning of the show, a
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Speaker 1: lot of people that are out there lobbying are doing
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Speaker 1: it for the right reasons. What I'm interested in is
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Speaker 1: why sophisticated institutions believe this work is valuable enough to
9:27
Speaker 1: spend those billions of dollars. A major company usually has
9:30
Speaker 1: somebody watching an issue long before most of us ever
9:34
Speaker 1: see it in the news. By the time a meeting
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Speaker 1: takes place, somebody's read the proposal, figured out how it
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Speaker 1: could affect the organization, and identified the people who have
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Speaker 1: some influence over the outcome. The preparation matters. A community
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Speaker 1: can care passionately about something without having the same infrastructure
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Speaker 1: behind its concern. Maybe 200 people come to a meeting
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Speaker 1: because everybody agrees that young people in the neighborhood need
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Speaker 1: more opportunities. Very common occurrence. That's a meaningful show of concern.
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Speaker 1: But the discussion can still stall if nobody's figured out
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Speaker 1: what specific problem they're trying to address. Now, I want
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Speaker 1: you to imagine the group has done some homework beforehand.
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Speaker 1: They've done their due diligence, as we like to say.
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Speaker 1: They discover that 30 young people can't participate in an
10:19
Speaker 1: existing after school program because transportation is unavailable. See, we're
10:24
Speaker 1: putting our finger on something. The program has space for them.
10:28
Speaker 1: Parents are interested and somebody has already estimated what transportation
10:32
Speaker 1: would cost. So suddenly the conversation is different. That turns
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Speaker 1: this whole thing on its face. There's still no guarantee
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Speaker 1: that the person on the other side of the table
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Speaker 1: will say yes, but at least everybody knows what the
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Speaker 1: decision is that's being requested. There's a huge difference there. This,
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Speaker 1: as I've stated in the past, is a reason why
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Speaker 1: I think so many communities are ineffective because people are
10:55
Speaker 1: enamored with the social media method. I got on social
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Speaker 1: media and I wrote a 15 page essay in the
11:01
Speaker 1: comments about why this is wrong. That is not solving
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Speaker 1: this problem, sir or madam. I went to City Hall
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Speaker 1: and I took my three minutes or my five minutes
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Speaker 1: and I said what needed to be said. I got
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Speaker 1: it off my chest. Yeah, they know where I'm coming
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Speaker 1: from now. And that, my friend, again, does not solve
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Speaker 1: the problem. It is the dog chasing the car. Once
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Speaker 1: the car stops, the dog sits there yapping. OK, now
11:25
Speaker 1: what you're going to do? You're going to eat it
11:27
Speaker 1: from bumper to bumper. What's the plan now that you've
11:30
Speaker 1: caught the car that you've barked at for the last block?
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Speaker 1: And that is community far too often. Families know when
11:38
Speaker 1: housing has become too expensive. Parents know when their children
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Speaker 1: need something the school is not providing. Neighborhoods notice when
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Speaker 1: businesses disappear. Workers know when the local economy is not
11:48
Speaker 1: creating opportunities for them. The difficult part is turning all
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Speaker 1: of those experiences into something organized enough that another person
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Speaker 1: can act on it. Now, before we move from that
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Speaker 1: idea into the black policy playbook, I want to stop
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Speaker 1: for just a second. Because two stories in the news
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Speaker 1: cycle right now allow us to test what I've been
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Speaker 1: saying against what people are actually doing.
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Speaker 2: And let's check those stories out.
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Speaker 3: Two current stories, two very different kinds of organizations, and
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Speaker 3: one question. What does planning look like when somebody actually
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Speaker 3: does it?
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Speaker 1: Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we must give both of these
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Speaker 1: pieces the journalistic flair that they both deserve. This first
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Speaker 1: receipt comes from the technology industry. New federal lobbying disclosures
12:33
Speaker 1: came out this week, and Meta reported spending about $ 5. 9
12:37
Speaker 1: million during the third quarter alone lobbying the federal government.
12:42
Speaker 1: OpenAI and Anthropic have also been increasing their lobbying operations
12:46
Speaker 1: as Washington works through questions involving artificial intelligence, data centers, security, regulation,
12:52
Speaker 1: and other issues that could shape the industry for years
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Speaker 1: to come. Now, I want you to think about why
12:58
Speaker 1: that matters to our conversation. The rules surrounding AI are
13:02
Speaker 1: still being developed. These companies are not waiting until Congress
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Speaker 1: finishes writing the rules and then complaining about what happened
13:10
Speaker 1: after the fact. They're not trying to be retroactive. They
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Speaker 1: are participating while the policy is still being shaped.
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Speaker 2: You see that? That doesn't mean that they always agree
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Speaker 2: with each other.
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Speaker 1: In fact, some AI companies are backing very different approaches
13:23
Speaker 1: to regulation. These voices are not monolithic, although they're both
13:26
Speaker 1: chasing after the same bag, a very big bag, might
13:29
Speaker 1: I add. But the relevant part for us today is
13:33
Speaker 1: that they understand the timing. If the government is making
13:36
Speaker 1: decisions that could fundamentally affect your industry, you probably want
13:40
Speaker 1: to be involved before those decisions become permanent. That's exactly
13:44
Speaker 1: why we're doing what we're doing today. That's exactly what
13:47
Speaker 1: we're talking about. The second receipt comes from a completely
13:50
Speaker 1: different direction. Several national black civic organizations have been working
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Speaker 1: together on an initiative called National Black Man Voter Day.
14:00
Speaker 2: I love that title.
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Speaker 1: And this is scheduled for October 24th. Now, I'm not
14:04
Speaker 1: bringing it up today to tell anybody.
14:06
Speaker 2: Who to vote for.
14:07
Speaker 1: The initiative itself is nonpartisan. I'm interested in how they
14:11
Speaker 1: organized it.
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Speaker 2: That's the point.
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Speaker 1: The coalition includes the NAACP, National Urban League, 100 Black
14:17
Speaker 1: Men of America, of which I am the president of
14:19
Speaker 1: the local chapter. Thank you very much. And black men
14:22
Speaker 1: vote and other organizations. They didn't simply announce that black
14:26
Speaker 1: men should participate in the election and hope the message spread.
14:30
Speaker 1: According to the organizers, they spent several weeks conducting national
14:34
Speaker 1: calls and building local infrastructure. Community captains and organizing hubs
14:39
Speaker 1: were established. People develop individual voting plans, transportation coordination and
14:44
Speaker 1: buddy systems. More than 5000 black men had already participated
14:48
Speaker 1: in the organizing effort before the National Day of Action.
14:52
Speaker 1: So there was a lot of work leading up to this.
14:55
Speaker 1: The stated goal is to reach 100000 black men. But
14:59
Speaker 1: one of the organizers made a point that connects directly
15:02
Speaker 1: to what Bakari was talking about. They are also thinking
15:05
Speaker 1: beyond the selection toward 2028 and even the 2030 census.
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Speaker 2: That's planning.
15:11
Speaker 1: Whether we're looking at companies trying to shape artificial intelligence
15:14
Speaker 1: policy or civic organizations trying to increase participation, the mechanics
15:19
Speaker 1: underneath the work have similarities.
15:22
Speaker 2: Done with that story. But you get the point.
15:25
Speaker 1: You see the two different approaches from two completely different
15:28
Speaker 1: types of organizations. Somebody decided what the objective was. They
15:33
Speaker 1: built an organization around it and created a way to
15:35
Speaker 1: measure whether anything actually happened. One group has enormously more money.
15:40
Speaker 1: The other has relationships. They got volunteers and community organizations
15:45
Speaker 1: and they have me for I am.
15:47
Speaker 2: The secret weapon. I joke. I joke.
15:49
Speaker 1: But these are very different organizations, different resources, same basic understanding.
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Speaker 1: If the outcome matters, you organize before the moment arrives.
16:00
Speaker 1: And that brings me back to Washington, because the Congressional
16:03
Speaker 1: Black Caucus Foundation has attempted to do something similar at
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Speaker 1: the policy level.
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Speaker 2: They put together an actual playbook.
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Speaker 3: Bakari Sellers raised the question of planning. The Congressional Black
16:16
Speaker 3: Caucus Foundation tried to put some answers on paper.
16:20
Speaker 2: Act three.
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Speaker 3: Three ideas from the Black Policy Playbook.
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Speaker 1: Now, this document is called Forward Together, the Black Policy
16:28
Speaker 1: Playbook for an Equitable America. It was developed by the
16:31
Speaker 1: Congressional Black Caucus Foundation together with the Joint Center for
16:34
Speaker 1: Political and Economic Studies. What immediately interested me was the
16:39
Speaker 1: fact that the work didn't start with the original document.
16:42
Speaker 1: A 2026 addendum was released because the environment had changed.
16:45
Speaker 1: They actually gave that out at the convention. I'm holding
16:48
Speaker 1: one in my hand right now. The laws had changed.
16:50
Speaker 1: Courts had issued new decisions. Artificial intelligence was developing quickly.
16:55
Speaker 1: Immigration enforcement and voting rules, all of these things were changing.
16:58
Speaker 1: So the plan was revisited and rightfully so. There's an
17:02
Speaker 1: important lesson in all of this before we even get
17:04
Speaker 1: to the recommendations, because a useful plan can't just stay
17:08
Speaker 1: frozen while reality changes around it. It has to pivot.
17:11
Speaker 1: It has to develop. It has to be malleable. That
17:14
Speaker 1: is necessary in order for this thing to be effective.
17:17
Speaker 1: And they adjusted it for that reason. The document covers
17:20
Speaker 1: much more than we can get through today. So I
17:22
Speaker 1: chose three key areas because they show different ways of
17:25
Speaker 1: moving from a broad concern to something more specific. The
17:29
Speaker 1: first is voting. We spend a lot of time telling
17:32
Speaker 1: people to vote and we should. People fought, died and
17:35
Speaker 1: bled for the right to vote. Obviously, participation matters. But
17:38
Speaker 1: the playbook goes underneath that message and examines the system
17:42
Speaker 1: surrounding the voter. It examines the environment that exists. And
17:45
Speaker 1: not just the fact that you ought to engage in
17:47
Speaker 1: the act. They talk about things like the registration rules,
17:51
Speaker 1: the identification requirements, early voting options, polling place access, voting
17:56
Speaker 1: by mail. You know, the same voting by mail that
17:59
Speaker 1: your current president said was crooked and should be eliminated
18:02
Speaker 1: and banned and everything else. And then he unceremoniously voted
18:05
Speaker 1: by mail. Yeah, that voting by mail, redistricting all of
18:09
Speaker 1: these things help determine what participation should look like in practice.
18:14
Speaker 1: CBCF has also developed a voting rights scorecard examining state
18:18
Speaker 1: policies across many of these areas. That moves the discussion
18:22
Speaker 1: beyond a slogan. Political participation does not begin when someone
18:26
Speaker 1: walks into a polling place on Election Day. The game
18:30
Speaker 1: is already afoot, as they would say. We've discussed that
18:33
Speaker 1: before on this show. We talked about gerrymandering and congressional maps.
18:37
Speaker 1: Decisions made months or even years before an election can
18:40
Speaker 1: affect the environment in which the ballot is eventually cast,
18:43
Speaker 1: right there where you are, wherever you are. The National
18:47
Speaker 1: Black Man Voter Day effort we just discussed gives us
18:50
Speaker 1: a current example from the organizing side. The playbook approaches
18:53
Speaker 1: the same larger issue from a policy perspective. So one
18:57
Speaker 1: focuses on getting people prepared to participate within the existing system,
19:01
Speaker 1: and the other asks whether the system itself provides a
19:04
Speaker 1: meaningful opportunity to participate. They work hand in hand. Those
19:08
Speaker 1: two things belong in the same conversation. Now, the second
19:12
Speaker 1: area that stood out to me involves ownership. Entrepreneurship gets
19:16
Speaker 1: plenty of attention, particularly when we talk about black economic advancement,
19:20
Speaker 1: starting businesses.
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Speaker 2: This matters.
19:22
Speaker 1: But this is another question that we don't discuss nearly
19:25
Speaker 1: as often. What happens when the founder is finished? That
19:29
Speaker 1: succession planning. And this is not from the black community.
19:33
Speaker 1: But do your homework on Adelphia Cable and Cootersport, the
19:37
Speaker 1: Riggins family. Very interesting story in terms of what the
19:41
Speaker 1: children do, what the kids do sometimes when parent or
19:44
Speaker 1: parents start a successful business and they come along and
19:48
Speaker 1: treat that thing like it's an ATV. Go check that
19:51
Speaker 1: story out. Very fascinating. Someone might spend 30 years building
19:56
Speaker 1: a successful company only to discover that nobody planned for
20:00
Speaker 1: year 31 because the kids may want to take over
20:03
Speaker 1: without being prepared. A kid may not want to be
20:06
Speaker 1: involved at all with the family business.
20:08
Speaker 2: And then what?
20:09
Speaker 1: And sometimes parents insist, even though you see the signs
20:12
Speaker 1: that Jimmy or Johnny just or, you know, Shanice and Shaquan, whatever,
20:16
Speaker 1: don't want to be involved with the family business. You
20:19
Speaker 1: may have an employee that could be capable of owning
20:22
Speaker 1: the company, but unable to finance the purchase. The founder
20:25
Speaker 1: may have spent decades building the business without ever creating
20:29
Speaker 1: a succession plan that needs to be considered. That's where
20:34
Speaker 1: conversations about ownership transfer happens. estate planning and inheritance become
20:38
Speaker 1: part of economic development. It's actually actually baked into the plan.
20:43
Speaker 1: People always talk about generational wealth. You crack your social
20:47
Speaker 1: media page open today in the African-American community, in all communities.
20:51
Speaker 1: But I'm talking about black folk right now. You will
20:53
Speaker 1: hear all of this pious talk about generational wealth. I'm
20:57
Speaker 1: out here trying to build generational wealth for my family.
20:59
Speaker 1: It's all about generational wealth. Brother, if somebody talked to
21:02
Speaker 1: you about generational wealth, you don't have $ 50 saved to
21:06
Speaker 1: pay that bill that you need to pay. You want
21:08
Speaker 1: to talk about generational wealth. We need to talk about
21:11
Speaker 1: this thing in a nuts and bolts fashion like everything else.
21:16
Speaker 1: Generational wealth sounds wonderful until you get into the paperwork
21:20
Speaker 1: required to transfer wealth from one generation to another. This
21:24
Speaker 1: thing takes a lot of legalities, takes a lot of homework.
21:28
Speaker 1: It takes a lot of time, energy.
21:30
Speaker 2: And attention. It's not just posting.
21:33
Speaker 1: Titles matter, but so do wills, ownership agreements, and decisions
21:37
Speaker 1: families often postpone because nobody enjoys talking about what happens
21:41
Speaker 1: when the founder dies or retires. We celebrate the ribbon
21:44
Speaker 1: cutting when the business opens. A long-term strategy also asks
21:49
Speaker 1: whether the asset, the business, still exists and who owns
21:53
Speaker 1: it decades later. And the final area is technology. Now,
21:58
Speaker 1: we've already seen through our first evidentiary quick hit that
22:01
Speaker 1: the AI industry understands how much is at stake right now.
22:04
Speaker 1: The playbook approaches technology from the other side of the equation.
22:08
Speaker 1: What happens to workers? What happens to consumers and communities
22:11
Speaker 1: as AI becomes more deeply embedded in their everyday life?
22:15
Speaker 1: Because automated systems can influence employment, lending, healthcare, and information.
22:20
Speaker 1: It's starting to influence everything. Meanwhile, the physical infrastructure required
22:25
Speaker 1: to support AI creates its own economic questions. I did
22:29
Speaker 1: a show about that not long ago. And if you're
22:31
Speaker 1: new to the briefing room and you're picking up on
22:32
Speaker 1: a pattern, you are missing a lot. You heard me
22:34
Speaker 1: probably say twice, I did a show on that.
22:36
Speaker 2: And you're saying, did you? I did.
22:39
Speaker 1: You can go back retroactively and listen to those episodes. Now,
22:42
Speaker 1: that is a good use of using your retroactive powers.
22:46
Speaker 1: But let me go back to the story. A community
22:49
Speaker 1: that waits until every major decision has already been made
22:52
Speaker 1: could discover that it entered the conversation way too late.
22:56
Speaker 1: Because at the end of the day, here's what planning means.
22:59
Speaker 1: It means asking about workforce skills, economic benefits, accountability and
23:03
Speaker 1: community effects while there's still an opportunity to influence what
23:06
Speaker 1: happens when it's over.
23:08
Speaker 2: Oftentimes it's over.
23:10
Speaker 1: That doesn't require somebody to decide that AI is either
23:13
Speaker 1: good or bad. It requires recognizing that new technology eventually
23:17
Speaker 1: creates decisions about people, new decisions about these people. And
23:21
Speaker 1: that's what connects the three areas. Voting, ownership, and artificial
23:25
Speaker 1: intelligence sound like completely different subjects until you look at
23:29
Speaker 1: the timing. And in each case, influence is greater when
23:33
Speaker 1: people enter the conversation before the important decisions have.
23:37
Speaker 2: Already been made.
23:37
Speaker 1: And that is one of the advantages sophisticated organizations have
23:41
Speaker 1: learned to create for themselves. They try to get involved
23:44
Speaker 1: while tomorrow is still being negotiated. The important question for
23:47
Speaker 1: me is what happens after the playbook is published? because
23:51
Speaker 1: a plan sitting online is still only just a document.
23:55
Speaker 1: Somebody's got to use it. Somebody's got to actually put
23:58
Speaker 1: it into action. It has to become a reality. Well, folks,
24:03
Speaker 1: he's made his case. And now, where it all lands.
24:08
Speaker 1: Final commentary.
24:09
Speaker 2: So you want to know where this thing lands? I'll
24:11
Speaker 2: tell you where it lands for me.
24:12
Speaker 1: I went to Washington expecting to cover a convention and
24:15
Speaker 1: came home thinking much more about organization.
24:18
Speaker 2: So that piece that I did in Washington.
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Speaker 1: It may have been aired on Inside Politics, but that
24:22
Speaker 1: question from Bakari Sellers, that just kept lingering long after
24:26
Speaker 1: the story played, long after I edited the story. What's
24:30
Speaker 1: the plan? At the outset of the show, I told
24:33
Speaker 1: you that that's the thing that bothers me when people
24:36
Speaker 1: just complain and lament and they don't present a tangible
24:39
Speaker 1: plan for us to get over whatever the situation is
24:42
Speaker 1: that's dogging us so bad in the moment. Because of
24:45
Speaker 1: the social media environment, what we've gotten good at is awareness.
24:48
Speaker 2: Something happens.
24:49
Speaker 1: Somebody records it, people begin talking about it online, and
24:52
Speaker 1: within hours, an issue can go from invisible to impossible
24:56
Speaker 1: to ignore.
24:57
Speaker 2: That has value. But all the difficult part comes later, though.
25:02
Speaker 1: After the conference ends or the story stops trending, eventually,
25:07
Speaker 1: somebody's got to know what happens next.
25:09
Speaker 2: The Black Policy Playbook is useful.
25:11
Speaker 1: Because it attempts to move from identifying problems towards proposing responses. Now,
25:16
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean everyone has to agree with every recommendation.
25:20
Speaker 1: Public policy is supposed to be debated. That, too, makes
25:23
Speaker 1: America great, in my opinion. What matters for this conversation
25:27
Speaker 1: is that there is now something specific enough to examine, challenge,
25:31
Speaker 1: improve or compare with another idea. Now, that same lesson
25:35
Speaker 1: showed up in both of our evidentiary quick hits. Technology
25:38
Speaker 1: companies understand that waiting until AI policy is finished would
25:42
Speaker 1: leave them reacting to decisions other people have already made.
25:46
Speaker 1: The organizations behind National Black Man Voter Day understand that
25:49
Speaker 1: telling people to participate is different from building enough infrastructure
25:53
Speaker 1: to help participation happen. Neither example guarantees success. A plan
25:58
Speaker 1: doesn't guarantee victory, but it does give people a way
26:01
Speaker 1: to act intentionally and evaluate what happened after the fact.
26:05
Speaker 1: That's the part of corporate lobbying that I think communities
26:08
Speaker 1: can study without pretending that ordinary citizens are will suddenly
26:11
Speaker 1: have to have corporate lobbying budgets in order to win
26:14
Speaker 1: or be successful. That's not the case. The useful lesson
26:18
Speaker 1: is the consistency. When an issue matters to a major institution,
26:22
Speaker 1: somebody is usually paying attention to it long before the crisis. Listen,
26:27
Speaker 1: relationships are maintained over time. Previous meetings get remembered. Upcoming decisions,
26:33
Speaker 1: they get tracked. And follow-up happens even when nobody is watching. Now,
26:37
Speaker 1: most of that will never be dramatic enough to become
26:39
Speaker 1: some viral video. A surprising amount of influence is built
26:42
Speaker 1: through ordinary, consistent work.
26:45
Speaker 2: It's the everyday grind.
26:46
Speaker 1: It's not some fancy otherworldly thing, which brings me back
26:50
Speaker 1: to the fierce urgency of now. Urgency matters because some
26:55
Speaker 1: moments demand action. But I got to tell you, constantly
26:59
Speaker 1: reacting to the next emergency that can exhaust people without
27:03
Speaker 1: even moving them very far before you even get started.
27:06
Speaker 1: That will make them quit a plan, though. That forces
27:10
Speaker 1: us to slow down long enough to define what we're
27:13
Speaker 1: actually trying to accomplish, figure out where the authority sits,
27:16
Speaker 1: gather useful information, and decide how the work continues after
27:20
Speaker 1: the meeting is over. So that same approach works here
27:24
Speaker 1: in Erie. A local problem doesn't automatically require a trip
27:27
Speaker 1: to Washington or a trip to Harrisburg. The decision might
27:30
Speaker 1: live at City Hall. It may live in county government,
27:33
Speaker 1: the school district, wherever. But you may not have to
27:36
Speaker 1: necessarily leave to make that happen. And let me add,
27:39
Speaker 1: If you know exactly what you're trying to accomplish, then
27:43
Speaker 1: and only then can you identify allies. Because when you
27:48
Speaker 1: see other people's efforts, you can identify whether they align
27:51
Speaker 1: with yours. But if you don't know where you're going,
27:54
Speaker 1: you can't. Because you're just out there flying blind. And
27:57
Speaker 1: so you can maximize on your time, your energy, and
28:00
Speaker 1: that is what your volunteers are looking for.
28:02
Speaker 2: Specificity. When you give them that, they will follow you
28:06
Speaker 2: to the ends of the earth. But when there's no direction.
28:09
Speaker 1: They may follow you two or three blocks and get
28:11
Speaker 1: a selfie or a quick live on Facebook out of it.
28:15
Speaker 1: But then after that, they will bail. And ultimately, that
28:19
Speaker 1: is what I took home from this conference. You know,
28:22
Speaker 1: maybe that's where the fierce urgency of now meets the
28:24
Speaker 1: less exciting work that actually follows it. The urgent moment
28:28
Speaker 1: gets your attention, but the plan determines what you do next.
28:32
Speaker 1: And that for me, ladies and gentlemen, that's where this
28:35
Speaker 1: all lands. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you
28:38
Speaker 1: next week at the same time right here on The
28:41
Speaker 1: Briefing Room.
28:41
Speaker 4: Today's edition of The Briefing Room with Marcus Atkinson has been.
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