Just over a decade ago, Al Sharpton was poison.
Candidate Barack Obama wouldn't touch the black leader, and the erstwhile minister never endorsed the man who would go on to become the first black president. His history of racism, anti-Semitism and division made him too hot - until the Democratic Party followed Obama over the fringe left cliff.
Now, apparently, Sharpton is seen as somewhat of a kingmaker, and 2020 Democratic presidential candidates flocked to his National Action Network conference in New York this week to kiss the ring of the man the New York Post called "the Jussie Smollett of civil rights".
Former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, in an effort to remain relevant after making a rather light impression upon leaving the presidential starting gate, gushed that he'd be glad to sign a measure to pursue reparations for black Americans and back strong civil rights oversight of local police departments.
Only last month in New Hampshire, the former congressional back-bencher said he didn't believe reparations "should be the primary or initial focus of the conversation."
Former San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro went further, saying reparations are necessary.
"There are many things that we need to do in this country that have been a long time in coming, and one of those is to move forward with reparations," he said. "Our country will never truly heal until we address the original sin of slavery. If under our Constitution we compensate people if we take their property, why wouldn't we compensate people who were considered property?"
South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg apologized at the event Thursday for previously using the phrase "all lives matter".
"What I did not understand at that time," he said, "was that that phrase, just early into mid especially 2015, was coming to be viewed as a sort of counter slogan to Black Lives Matter. And it's a reason why, since learning about how that phrase was being used to push back on that activism, I stopped using it in that context."
And despite record lows in black unemployment under President Donald Trump, Buttigieg insisted "the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats just isn't true."
Businessman Andrew Yang, meanwhile, used the conference - nicknamed by some the "Reverend Al Primary" - to lay out his radical campaign platform. It includes giving all Americans $1,000 a month, eliminating private prisons, legalizing marijuana and pardoning "everyone who's in jail for a nonviolent drug-related offense."
"I would pardon them on April 20, 2021," he said, "and I would high-five them on the way out of jail."
Former Georgia state Sen. Stacey Abrams, on her I-didn't-lose-the-Georgia-governor's-race tour as she decides whether to pursue higher office, said at the conference she thought identity politics - politics based on a particular race, gender, ethnic, social or cultural identity - was the way to go.
"I believe in identity politics," she said, "and I believe identity politics are the only politics that win."
The conference parade was slated to continue Friday with declared candidates Sens. Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, and potential candidate U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell. No one apparently was willing to step up and say no to the hate Sharpton has stood for.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has his own issues as he considers a presidential run, spoke to the National Action Network in January.
For those unfamiliar with Sharpton's past dealings, among other things, he promoted the 1980s New York rape of a black woman, Tawana Brawley, by a gang of white men, an incident that did not occur. In the 1990s, he led the protests against a Jewish-owned store that was economically forced to raise the rent on a black sub-tenant. Ultimately, seven people died, and the Jewish-owned store was set on fire.
In 2012, he attempted to inflame racial tensions following the death of Trayvon Martin, who was killed during a brush with neighborhood volunteer George Zimmerman. He falsely claimed Zimmerman used "racial language" in speaking with police and promoted the false claim that Zimmerman was white.
Obama, once elected, eventually embraced Sharpton, inviting him to the White House for advice numerous times. Back in the good graces of the left, Sharpton, in a recent interview, wondered when the payoff would come.
"We're in the post-Obama generation," he said. "So, we have already seen a black president. We've already seen a black first family. Now, we want to know what it is going to mean. Symbolism is not enough now. It's substance And if there is no substance, then we've gotten over the aura of the first."
The 2020 Democrats groveled at the feet of the former pariah this week with plenty of promises. Selling those promises to Sharpton as "substance" may be one thing. Selling them to a majority of voting Americans is likely to be another thing altogether.