Q&A With Kay C. James: The State of the Country

COMMENTARY Conservatism

Q&A With Kay C. James: The State of the Country

Aug 6, 2020 22 min read

Commentary By

The Hon. Kay Coles James @KayColesJames

Emeritus Trustee since 2022

Genevieve Wood @genevievewood

Counselor and Spokesperson, Donor Relations

iStock / Getty Images Plus

The following is a transcript of remarks made by Heritage Foundation President Kay C. James during a virtual Heritage Foundation Presidents Club event held on Aug 5, 2020. It is lightly edited to protect the privacy of Q&A participants.

Genevieve Wood: Thank you all for joining us this afternoon. I'm going to just start out with a very broad question, the topic of our discussion today is the state of the country and we'd love to just hear you describe what you think the state of the country is right now.

Kay C. James: You know that I am an optimist by nature. And if life gives me lemons, I make lemonade. You know that I tend to be upbeat and positive, that's just my human nature, that's just who I am, it's how I survive the madness. But I have to confess that I have never been more concerned about the state of play and where we are as a nation right now. Quite frankly, I think that our democracy hangs in the balance. And you know, when you put before options up on the screen just now for people to choose which one they thought was the most pressing and most important, I'm afraid I picked one that most people did not, and that was election integrity. And the reason for that is if we don't get through this next election cycle and elect someone who believes in freedom and opportunity, someone who believes in American ideals, someone who will uphold the Constitution, if we don't do that, the America that we know will no longer exist.

James: There are those who have, and I'm being very careful here because we are not a political organization, I'm not at liberty to endorse candidates, but I hope that our members know exactly what I mean, and why I'm struggling with my language here. If we don't prevail with our conservative ideas and ideals in this election, the America as we know it may be lost for a generation or forever. There are those who want to pack the courts, the Supreme Courts. So the Supreme Court, as we know it would be gone. There are those who want to get rid of the electoral college, which would make it even easier to perpetrate election fraud.

James: Many of the things that we know and love and believe in and know makes this country the great country that it is, would be destroyed. I hate to think about the implications of what it means for our military. You could go through a broad swath of policy issues, but if we don't prevail with our ideas this November, we're in a very bad place. I was reminded recently, because I love history, of Thomas Paine's Common Sense pamphlet that he released back during the Revolutionary War. And it was at a very dark time in the war when we thought at that moment, and in that moment, that we might not prevail to launch this beautiful thing called America and what he did when he released that is he totally turned it around, it inspired a nation, it inspired George Washington to the point that he had it read to the troops to help them understand what they were fighting for.

James: And so what I hope to do over the next few months is remind Americans where we are as a nation, what's at stake, and why it's important for us to fight for this country. If we don't do that, if we can't inspire people, then I am very concerned about the state of our nation. And I don't mean to sound discouraged or down because I believe that there are enough freedom loving Americans out there that if we can motivate them, inspire them and get them to go vote their ideals, to vote their principals, we will prevail. We will prevail. I have a great deal of optimism about the American people. We are a resilient nation. And while we have many challenges right now, I am confident that we're going to meet and beat those challenges. So it is a somber time for us as Americans right now, but it's a time for us to roll up our sleeves, go to work, and get the job done. What we don't need are done. What we don't need are obstacles that people will try to throw in the way to sort of discredit our election coming up, or a stuffed ballot boxes, or to use mailed in votes to gain an upper hand. Once we have secured and made our elections safe... And believe me, I want every American to vote and I want every vote to count. I honestly do. Because I believe when that happens, we will prevail. We, as Conservatives don't have to, as they accuse us of, we don't have to try to discourage voters or block people from voting. We don't need to do that. The more people that vote, the more we win. So our job is to protect the integrity of the election, and to encourage people that have similar values, that care deeply about this country to get out and vote. And if that happens, then we will have time to fight and push back on socialism. We can have time to push back on the mob, and expose Black Lives Matter for who they really are as an organization.

James: So I think that for me, the top priority over the next three to four months is making sure that we protect our elections, and that we encourage people to vote their values, vote their principles. Now I'm going to say something that sounds really silly and simplistic, but I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Elections are won or lost on Election Day. And what I mean by that is, I don't care how much you say you love this country, I don't care how much you say you want to fight for America. If you don't show up then, on that day, and bring everybody with you, then we will not prevail. And it will be won or lost that day. So I'm glad that everyone is patriotic. I'm glad that we love our country, but that requires something of us. And showing up to vote your principles is at the top of the list.

Wood: Well, Kay, as Andrew talked to at the beginning, I'm sure you heard his opening comments of, people have been a little fearful in some ways of standing up for their principles and their values, and feeling intimidated in some respects. And we've seen some of them over the course of the summer. We saw what was the unjust death of George Floyd, what began in some cases as peaceful protest, but then turned into these... Were overtaken really by those who wanted to riot, those who are actually anarchists. They really tried to take over this movement. And they started sowing the seeds of chaos and anarchy. You wrote a piece about the Black Lives Matter movement, and really exposing them for who they truly are. Would you speak to that? And talk a little bit about why that's such concern.

James: Sure. Let me start by telling my own flag story. And then I'll move into discussing Black Lives Matter. We were hanging a flag in front of our house, and one of our neighbors said, "Oh my, you're just calling attention to yourself." And without even thinking about it, because I think that fighting spirit is within me. I turned to him and said, "I wish somebody would." Think that what we as Conservatives have to have is more of that, "I wish somebody would" kind of spirit. I've often talked, Genevieve, of the fact that our founders gave us a great gift when they gave us the gift of America, when they gave us the founding principles, when they gave us the founding documents, when they gave us a form of government that allows us to correct our mistakes when we make them. But it's ours to keep.

James: And Reagan told us that we have to fight every generation. It's not like it's one and done. So one of the things that I've been trying to get people to understand is, we're going to be fighting these battles our entire lives. And we've got to raise our children to understand that to keep the freedoms that they now enjoy, they will have to engage in that battle as well. And quite frankly, the Black Lives Matter movement, and organization, let's make a distinction between those two. I talked to some friends of mine who happen to be white. And they said they were shocked that their granddaughter was out there protesting, and involved in the Black Lives Matter movement. And they said, if she only understood what that movement stood for.

James: So I think we have to make a distinction. There are some really good people, and some of them are our grandchildren, or our nieces, or our nephews. And they're buying into the... They want to see justice and equality. Of course they do. We all do. And we can have conversations with them, and win them. Who you cannot have a conversation with, and who you will never win are the mob. Those individuals who are out there, Antifa, and the Black Lives Matter organization, they want nothing more than chaos. They want to bring this country to it's knees. They hate this country. They hate our form of government, and they are not to be believed or negotiated. I'll tell you one thing I believe that they have said, and when someone tells us who they are, we shouldn't believe them. Two out of the three founders of the Black Lives movement, organization, are about self-described Marxist. They are Marxists. They say they are. They don't hide that.

James: You can go to their website. They have called for the destruction of the nuclear family. They have called for the United States to divest itself from Israel, and have accused Jews of genocide. That's who they are. Those people, there's no negotiating, conversation, winning over, not going to happen. And we felt some of that at Heritage, and felt like we needed to help our membership to really understand. So if we have that video, I'd love to show it right now.

Wood: We do. You're absolutely right. And I can call it up. Just so people know, you may see a separate window pop up. There may maybe a pause before the video begins. But just give it a second, and you will see the video appear.

James: Thanks, Genevieve.
 



Wood: So that was the video we produced just a few weeks ago. And Kay it’s gotten lots of traffic. But it definitely is one that we would encourage people to send on to friends, and maybe their grandchildren, as you said, and others who are wanting to fight, join a good cause, but don't really have any idea who the actual organization is. And we see all the time, all the corporations that have gotten kind of forced into, or feeling like they're pressured into supporting organizations like this. Because they fear if they don't join in, they're going to be considered not woke enough for the new movements.

James: Again, putting on my optimistic hat. I really do believe that this is a time for us as Conservatives to lean into the moment. We need to call them out for the frauds that they are. We need to be producing the documents, the videos, the op-eds, the letters, the papers, that can shine a bright light on all the thousands of people that are taking to the streets, thinking they're doing something good, but what they're actually doing is destroying the very democracy that they say they love.

Wood: Well, Kay. One of the topics that people could pick, and the people said they would... I think it is number three, was the whole issue about defunding the police, which has gained some momentum in certain areas, certain cities around the country. You actually participated in an event with Prager, Dennis Prager organization on Back the Blue. A lot of different folks that you included, submitted videos. Tell us what your thought is on that. And why it's so important that we actually stand alongside the police?

James: My gosh, they call it the thin blue line that stands between us and chaos. I told you about our flag. At our house, we bleed red, white, and blue. And to back the blue, we actually lit our house up in blue lights so that everyone would know how supportive we are of our police. I cannot find the words to describe the lunacy behind defunding the police. To me, they gave us a gift on a silver platter, because no thinking person could possibly believe that taking police officers off the beat, off the streets, out of the patrol cars, can do anything that's positive. You got to understand that this is a part of their wanting to bring chaos to this country. And the people who desperately need the protection of the police, the people they say they care about the most, are the ones who need that protection.

James: When you're a 86 year old black grandmother living in the inner city of Chicago, or any of our major areas, go talk to her about defunding the police. She will tell you, You're absolutely nuts. It's crazy." And yet we see that lunacy taking a foothold on the far, far left. So I think that we have to keep pushing back, keep telling the truth, keep exposing them for what they are. And I'll tell you, I'm hoping that there is a vigorous discussion of this during the upcoming presidential debates, so that America can see who backs the blue, and who doesn't.

Wood: Amen. We're getting some questions coming in. So let me ask one now. "First of all, friends, thanks very much for organizing these events. I'm sure many attendees have the same question I have. Can you suggest actions we can take to combat the organized efforts to destroy our social fabric? We support heritage, we vote for the best candidates available, some of us are even more politically active. But it is difficult not to give into despair when the leaders of the very institutions formed to protect our freedoms seem to be active participants in their unraveling."

James: First of all, no time for despair, because that's wasted energy. It's time for action. It's time for action. It's time to take the information that we give you from the Heritage Foundation and take that information to your neighbors. Take it to your friends. Take it to your church members. I constantly say, don't get mad at the other side. Take notes. What do they do? They organize themselves. They do voter registration. They send information to friends and family.

James: I tell people that the same things, the exact same things, that were required to found this nation are required for us to keep it. When you go back and you study what the founders did, how they did it, and what was required of them, you will have a good idea about what is required of us. They pledged their sacred honor. They gave every penny they had to the revolution. They worked hard. They did everything that we know to do.

James: I'm encouraging people to do a couple of things. One, you think you wouldn't have to say this, but if you have a breath in your body, go vote this year. There is no excuse for not voting. But number two, take somebody with you. I watched the other side as they organized childcare so that people could go vote. I watched as they organized neighborhoods so that they could give people rides to go to the polls.

James: I tell people, if you have enough energy in your body on election night to go to a victory party, you haven't worked hard enough. When they call you to phone bank, to call your neighbors, do it. When they call you to go door to door and talk to neighbors and friends, do it. When they call you to write a letter to the editor, do it. When they call you to ask you to host parties in your home for candidates so that they can explain their perspective and neighbors can get to know who they are, do it.

James: The Heritage Foundation will give you all the backup you need in terms of solutions. Use our solutions guide, that will tell you how to answer questions about policy. We will provide the information and the data. We can help you with that. But it is time. It is time to get off the sofa. I love going to retirement communities, because I tell them there is no such thing. There's no such thing as retirement. We're in the battle of a lifetime. You can't retire. Go out, knock on doors, pass out flyers, do lit drops at churches, distribute yard signs. It really is, at this moment, all hands on deck to get this done.

Wood: Kay, great mention of solutions, which we just launched about a week ago. If you go to heritage.org you can find solutions there. It's a great product. It's completely virtual this time around. It's not just for people running for office. That's some of who it's for, but as you rightly noted, it's got all the issues there with the policy solutions and then helpful ways to talk about them in plain language so you don't have to get into all the details and read 30 page papers about it. It's like, here's three or four good points on why you should be for education reform, or why we have to get a hold of our fiscal budgets. All of that's there, from foreign policy to election integrity, but also all the way down to issues about the budget and the like.

Wood: If there's a topic that you feel like your neighbors and friends need to know something more about, check out solutions and it'll help you hopefully convince them what the right answers are.

Wood: Kay, we have another question here. "Conservatives are losing the politics war because of the corrupt behavior of the MSM," the mainstream media, "How can Heritage help create a larger megaphone for the conservative movement?"

James: Absolutely. Let me say one thing to put a bow on the last question and then remind me, I'll go back and answer this one. A Heritage donor told me several months ago that they'd been to one of our events and they left there motivated, excited. They just felt the love for this country was palpable. He said, "But there was one thing missing." And I said, "What's that?" He said, "I took all that energy and I didn't know what to do with it. You didn't tell me what to do with all of that."

James: That's why I went into so much detail about it's nice that we feel all of that, but what to do about it. But stay tuned because the Heritage Foundation is going to be producing a citizenship guide. If you're a citizen in this country, here are the things you can, and should, be doing. Okay now, got that done. What was your other question?

Wood: "How can Heritage help create a larger megaphone to fight about the MSM?"

James: That's a great question. It's not one that we were not unaware of. Just like 10 years ago, the Heritage Foundation said, "You know what? We need more of a grassroots organization with a bite to it that will be able to get our information out there and to the grassroots." I was on the board at the time. That's why we started HAFA because we knew we needed a grassroots organization.

James: I am so proud of Jessica Anderson. When Jessica asked me, what is my vision for Heritage Action? And I said, "My vision for you is that you will be three times the size that you are in the coming months, and that you will have the largest, toughest, grassroots, conservative organization in America. That you will be the most feared person in Washington, because you have the troops behind you."

James: But just like we recognized we needed that, we also recognized that we needed to go around mainstream media, or as some call it the lame stream media, to get the message out. That's why sometimes it may seem like we are flooding your inbox. I hope it's not too much. But that's why we started the Daily Signal. We did because we wanted a trusted source of information for conservatives. A place where they could go to get the information that the mainstream media would not tell you about. Every single Heritage member should be listening to and taking advantage of that particular platform.

James: Some of our donors may not know or understand that Heritage has received top awards for how we use social media. We know that today one of the main ways, we learned this partially from our current president, who said he's going around mainstream media and going to social media platforms. That's why you will find Heritage on Facebook, on Instagram, on Twitter, on any social media platform where we can get our message out and go beyond the mainstream media. We recognize that they're a problem, but we're going to go around them. If we can't go around them, we'll go through them.

Wood: Of course all the members, those of you watching today and across the country, you will help us reach people that we won't reach. When you share that information, whether it's a solutions product, whether it's stuff you found on our website, or whether it's a video like the one we just showed, and we're getting a number of questions, Kay, of people saying, "I'd like to get a copy of that video." You can get it on the Heritage YouTube channel. we're going to make it easy for you, there will be a follow up email after today's program, and we will include the link to the video that you just saw, in that email so you'll have a direct link to get it.

Wood: But you're right. YouTube is where you're reaching tons of young people, so we're making sure that the video doesn't just live on places like heritage.org, but it's in every place that when people search for these topics, those types of videos are populating their inboxes as well.

Wood: All right, Kay, let's get another question in. "What is the end game or reason for the Democratic party's undermining the basis of order in our country?"

James: I have friends who are Democrats. I'm sure many of us do. I really don't know that they believe that that's what they're doing. They don't really believe that they are undermining the fundamentals and the foundations of their party, but what they have done, by giving in to the far left of their own party, those politicians and those in leadership have found themselves having to go further and further and further to the left in order to build up the base that they need in order to win elections. They are they're tilting and going that way.

James: It's very sad to watch that as it happens. I think they think they're doing the right thing, but they need to stand up to the mob. The people who are in leadership in the Democrat party need to push back on that. They've been hesitant to do it. They won't call them out. They won't say how ludicrous it is to defund the police. They have embraced socialist ideas, but don't want to call it socialism. They do it to win elections.

Wood: Kay, you just mentioned socialism. This is something we keep seeing creeping in more and more. You're right, they don't often call those policies that, but indeed that is what they are. We know socialism is nothing new. It's been tried many places around the world and has never ever worked. Yet, we see so many of America's young people, and we hear this from our members talking about their grandchildren going off to college and being indoctrinated with these socialist ideas.

Wood: Some of the questions we're getting is, "How is Heritage pushing back on that? What can we do to make sure the next generation doesn't fall for those ideas?"

James: Well, the first thing I would say is, first of all, in the next three months, we've got to make sure that don't elect anybody at the national, state, or local level who is pushing socialist ideas. Nobody. Nobody gets a pass on this one. Because you cannot have people in leadership who are doing that.

James: Part of what we want to do over the next few months is to make sure that we shine a bright light on and let people understand, as Ronald Reagan said, it is a time of choosing. This is a time of choosing. What kind of country do we want to be? The stakes are just that high.

James: We will be putting out information and data and encouraging people to look at what their beliefs are and make sure that they are voting their values, because that is so important.

James: The other thing that I think we can, and should, do is to learn new creative and innovative ways of giving our message. I say that because the Democrats and the Liberals have understood that there are several constituencies which they must get, women, minorities, and youth, and they are targeting those groups. They have made an entire lifestyle out of identity politics. If anybody hasn't gotten Mike Gonzales's book on this... We are so proud. He just launched that book this week. He pushes back against that and helps us understand why it is so disruptive and how to speak out against it.

James: We've got to also work on our messaging. When you get together at a holiday meal and the family is sitting around and you've sent your daughter, or your son, or your grandkid off to college, you help pay for it, and they come back and tell you how stupid and idiotic you are because of what you believe. We want to equip you to be able to have a good and a civil conversation with them. We want you to know how to talk about the issues. Because you see, there's a couple of things. We've got a push back against the left, push back hard, but we also have to do something else, which is very important, and that is win more people to our side. We don't win if we can't get to 50 plus one. If we can't get to the majority, we lose.

James: We have got to learn how to convince people that we're right in winsome ways. As I say to our interns at Heritage all the time, our job is to train you to go out and be evangelists for the Conservative movement. I've asked them, "Is it your desire to come here to figure out how to smash...

James: Is it your desire to come here, to figure out how to smash the opposition? Because if that is your desire, that's not why we're here. We're here to give you the information, data, research, and analysis in order to go out and win them. But Genevieve, I asked them to queue up another video for me, and if they would do that now, that would be fantastic. Because I wanted folks to see the one that we have on socialism as well, because we are fighting back hard on that issue, and I think it would be helpful for people to see one of the products that we have.

Wood: Absolutely. And again, so we'll queue that up and play that now. And just so folks know, we will also be including a link to this one in the email that you'll get afterwards as well.


Wood: We had a question that came in right before the video played, and I think it plays right into what you were talking about. "How can we recover the universities that are in currently indoctrinating our youth with much of what we just saw? They are not the true parts, but a lot of the leftist side of it."

James: Well, first of all, I've been saying this recently, probably get into trouble for saying it, but I'm not sure I would send my grandchildren, my children are too old now, into the enemy camp to get educated in the first place. It's amazing to me how many conservatives send their money to these universities to indoctrinate kids. So first of all, stop feeding the beast, these universities. And that's where they will listen. Always follow the money. If they see that their alum, and their donors and individuals that they rely on for their very existence are pushing back and saying no more socialism, they will sit up and listen. So that's one thing. And in the meantime, look at some of these conservative colleges and universities that are doing a phenomenal job of educating our young people. And if they see enrollments drop and they see people marching with their checkbooks and their students, they will listen, eventually. The other thing is, that I encourage our young conservative minds, and we see some of the best and brightest coming through the heritage foundation to march right into the belly of the beast.

James: We need more than one or two sacrificial conservatives serving on these college campuses. But many of our young people have decided not to go into the academy because it is such a horrible place for a conservative to be and all that they have to endure or put up with. But I think we need to go back into those institutions and make sure that our voices are heard. So vote with your feet, vote with your pocket books and march into the belly of the beast.

Wood: Kay, thank you very much. We have more questions that we're not going to have time to get to. I will say, a number of which dealt with the issue of election integrity. And I just would encourage folks, as I know you would, to go to the heritage.org website, where we have a tracker there of so many election fraud abuses and cases around the country, because we know many of these are state issues. They don't just happen at the national level, they happen at the state, county and local levels as well. And we're keeping a tracker there of all those that have been happening around the country. So when somebody says to you, oh, election fraud, that doesn't happen. That's just a myth. That's just something you hear from conservatives. It's not just something you hear from conservatives, it's real, and it actually happens to a lot of people who happen to be Democrats.

Wood: So all sides, everybody, rather Republican or Democrat, should care about this issue. Kay, any final comments before we hand it back over to Andrew?

James: No, just to encourage everyone that this country is worth fighting for. It's not just a conversation that we're having, it's going to require action on all our parts. And I think we're up for the fight.