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We are aware of all internet traditions.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

T R E 4 5 O N

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Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

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My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

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These days, even the boring Republicans are nuts.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

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Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Excellent Read: Rep. Clyburn, Kingmaker

Excellent Read: Rep. Clyburn, Kingmaker

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The always-readable Molly Ball, in Time, on “Jim Clyburn’s Long Quest for Black Political Power”:

On a sticky-hot night in the South Carolina capital, Representative Jim Clyburn takes the outdoor stage at his late-night afterparty. Clyburn—the 82-year-old House Democratic whip, maker of Presidents, and highest-ranking Black man in Congress—has a message of hope for dark times. “In spite of all its faults, there ain’t a better country to be living in,” he says in his imposing baritone. “And you and I will have to do our jobs out here at the polls to save this country from itself.”

Of the hundreds in attendance this June evening at the EdVenture Children’s Museum, some have come from the fundraising dinner down the street for the South Carolina Democratic Party, where the first Black woman Vice President was the keynote speaker. But many have not. Clyburn throws this free bash so those who can’t afford to attend a fundraiser have a way to participate. Wearing a navy suit and holding a mixed drink, he’s joined on the patio by Congresswoman Shontel Brown of Ohio, who credits Clyburn’s endorsement for her victory in a special election last year, coming from 35 points behind to defeat a Bernie Sanders–backed progressive…

Clyburn is in his element, surrounded by the vast ­political network he’s nurtured. Brown got her start in a Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) training program Clyburn helped create; her boyfriend is Clyburn’s political adviser Antjuan Seawright. The entire afterparty—which will turn into a raging dance-off before the night ends—is packed with people Clyburn has prodded into politics: local party officials, members of district executive boards, city council members from across the state, county auditors and coroners. “I thought politics was all deceitfulness and lying, and I didn’t want any part of it,” Anthony Thompson Jr., a thin Columbian in a salmon-pink suit, tells me. “He made me see that you have to be part of the system to make change.” After training in one of Clyburn’s mentorship programs, Thompson now serves as second vice chair of the local party and started its first disability caucus.

Clyburn’s influence in Democratic politics is as far-reaching as it is unsung. Today, he’s widely credited with swinging the 2020 presidential primary to Biden, rescuing the flailing campaign with a well-timed endorsement that buoyed him to a 30-point victory in South Carolina­—and extracting a promise to name the first Black woman to the ­Supreme Court. That wasn’t even the first time Clyburn helped make a ­President: he was instrumental to Barack Obama’s victory in 2008, and before that played a key role in putting South Carolina near the top of the primary calendar in the first place. His friends serve in top posts across the Administration and party. Democratic National Committee chairman Jaime Harrison, who Clyburn pushed for the post, and who was just 29 when Clyburn made him the first Black executive director of the House Democratic caucus, says a large percentage of Black Americans in politics today can trace their positions to Clyburn.

A few months ago, when numerous congressional Democrats were clamoring to chair the high-profile select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot, it was Clyburn who urged Speaker Nancy Pelosi to name his best friend, Congressman Bennie Thompson—­native of Bolton, Miss., graduate of historically Black Tougaloo College—its ­chairman. In the whispering campaign that ensued, Clyburn sensed a familiar dynamic. “A lot of people wanted to be chairman,” Clyburn tells me. “And quite frankly, nobody will admit to this, but it’s the same thing I had when I ran for whip. A Black guy from Mississippi, ain’t from an Ivy League School—they won’t say it, but they think it: ‘He can’t chair this.’” Pelosi ignored the whispers, and Thompson has been widely praised for his coolheaded handling of the committee’s hearings, proving what Clyburn knew all along: “Bennie is perfect for this,” Clyburn says. “He’s unflappable, and he ain’t searching for the limelight. He’s just doing his thing.”…

Reader Interactions

23Comments

  1. 1.

    zhena gogolia

    Bennie is perfect. I love him. I was just rewatching hearing #4. I love when he comes in and calms the waters with that deep-velvet voice.

  2. 2.

    bbleh

    @zhena gogolia: And he can deliver High Constitutional rhetoric in a way that doesn’t seem either fake or platitudinous.

    Plus, the pairing with Liz Cheney, Cyberdyne model T-X, is casting genius.

  6. 6.

    CarolPW

    @bbleh:

    And I love that when he says “ask” he pronounces it southern Black “axe.” He knows how to say ask and he doesn’t give a fuck.

  8. 8.

    David 🌈☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch

    speaking of king/queen makers, looks like England will have a new monarch (link)​

  14. 14.

    bbleh

    @CarolPW: But it doesn’t come off as even implicitly challenging. It’s more like a dignified “that’s how I say it,” full stop.  Same way with the slow cadence.  It’s gravitas without pretension.  Or at least that’s how it appears, and that’s what matters here.

    (And yes, I’m sure the “uppity Negro” critics see it otherwise, but I don’t think they’re capable of seeing any other way.)

  17. 17.

    Geminid

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: A few years ago, Ted Budd was just another big gun shop owner. Now, on the strength of trump’s endorsement, Congressman Budd is the Republican nominee for Senate. Is he ready for prime time? We’ll see.

  18. 18.

    Another Scott

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I hadn’t been paying attention to that race until very recently, but contributed to Beasley last night.

    NCPolicyWatch (from July 26):

    But a string of headlines out of the nation’s capital, some hard-line U.S. House votes and lackluster fundraising have put Budd on the defensive and the issue of who will succeed retiring, three-term Sen. Richard Burr in serious question.

    Two recent polls from GOP leaning sources put Beasley behind, but still within the margin of error.

    Countering the Trump factor with money and energy

    “It’s a closer race than I thought it would be at this point,” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University. There’s a noticeable difference, he added, in the way the two campaigns have been operating since the May 17 primary.

    “Ted Budd has run a quiet campaign. It’s almost bordering on silence,” he said. “Cheri Beasley has sort of moved in the opposite direction after being the silent candidate in the Democratic primary. She’s been waging a strategic campaign and if the polling data are to be believed, then I think it’s worked out to her benefit. This race is too close to call.”

    Here’s hoping she will flip the seat and win. We need to run up the score in the Senate.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  19. 19.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @bbleh:

    Hehe. I wouldn’t want to be in the gentlewoman from Wyoming’s crosshairs. Maybe consider a witness protection program?

  21. 21.

    Geminid

    @Another Scott: Hilary Clinton lost North Carolina by over 140,000 votes in 2016. In 2020, Joe Biden and Cal Cunningham each lost their races by a little over 70,000 votes. Jim Cooper won the Governorship in 2016 by around 10,000 votes in 2016 but won reelection in 2020 by 280,000,  I believe. So North Carolina has shown a Democratic trend recently

    Also, Ted Budd’s primary contest with Pat McCrory and Mark [..?..] was fairly acrimonious and some of their voters may cross over to Beasley or stay home.

  23. 23.

    cmorenc

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    In (the) other Carolina news, Cheri Beasley looks like she’s in a very tight race

    OTOH, keep in mind that this seat will be a D pickup if Beasley wins – it’s the one currently held by retiring R Richard Burr.  The way NC statewide race politics work, it’s a 50-50 state, and the results turn on how well the Rs turn out redneck voters in the more rural, small-town vs how well the Ds turn out more urban voters in the fewer, but more populous and urban counties (Mecklenburg, Wake etc).  Trump carried NC by around 75k votes (and Cunningham lost the Senate race by similar margin because Trump’s flurry of last-couple weeks of the 2020 campaign tactically increased the red county turnout by just enough.

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