As we watch Republican candidates like Scott Walker and Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal and George Pataki, and even Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, guys who are either out or who are really struggling to stay in, it might seem like the Republican Party is no longer a very strong party. There may be people who use the Republican label, but the party itself might feel like it`s in a bit of disarray.
Melissa Harris-PerryJeb`s Bush front-runner status was short lived, to say the least. But who could have predicted that the Republican front-runner would be someone that we were not even thinking about.Donald Trump was not even on anyone`s radar back then and Mike Pence was getting more attention than he was.
Melissa Harris-PerryThe Republicans don't need black folks to vote Republican, they just need them to not vote.
Melissa Harris-PerryThe land on which they (the Founding Fathers) formed this Union was stolen. The hands with which they built this nation were enslaved. The women who birthed the citizens of the nation are second class. This is the imperfect fabric of our nation, at times weโve torn and stained it, and at other moments, we mend and repair it. But itโs ours, all of it. The imperialism, the genocide, the slavery, also the liberation and the hope and the deeply American belief that our best days still lie ahead of us.
Melissa Harris-PerryThe folks like myself that do this for a living, we were expecting a regular campaign had built the databases, done all the new social media, learned our lessons from [Barack] Obama whipping us twice on how to do voter contact, and then Donald Trump gets in it and turns it into a national election.
Melissa Harris-Perry