Every Thursday, the Spy hosts a conversation with Al From and Craig Fuller on the most topical political news of the moment.
This week, From and Fuller discuss a newly-released Wall Street Journal poll that reveals that Americans are attaching less importance to values such as patriotism, religion, and community involvement. Al and Craig also comment on a new opinion piece in the Washington Post by Shannon Osaka of the emergence of “climate doomers” who believe that climate change cannot be stopped and humanity is doomed.
This video podcast is approximately 24 minutes in length. Paywalls may exist with the links provided.
To listen to the audio podcast version, please use this link:
Background
While the Spy’s public affairs mission has always been hyper-local, it has never limited us from covering national, or even international issues, that impact the communities we serve. With that in mind, we were delighted that Al From and Craig Fuller, both highly respected Washington insiders, have agreed to a new Spy video project called “The Analysis of From and Fuller” over the next year.
The Spy and our region are very lucky to have such an accomplished duo volunteer for this experiment. While one is a devoted Democrat and the other a lifetime Republican, both had long careers that sought out the middle ground of the American political spectrum.
Al From, the genius behind the Democratic Leadership Council’s moderate agenda which would eventually lead to the election of Bill Clinton, has never compromised from this middle-of-the-road philosophy. This did not go unnoticed in a party that was moving quickly to the left in the 1980s. Including progressive Howard Dean saying that From’s DLC was the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.
From’s boss, Bill Clinton, had a different perspective. He said it would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”
Al now lives in Annapolis and spends his semi-retirement as a board member of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (his alma mater) and authoring New Democrats and the Return to Power. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School and recently agreed to serve on the Annapolis Spy’s Board of Visitors. He is the author of “New Democrats and the Return to Power.”
For Craig Fuller, his moderation in the Republican party was a rare phenomenon. With deep roots in California’s GOP culture of centralism, Fuller, starting with a long history with Ronald Reagan, leading to his appointment as Reagan’s cabinet secretary at the White House, and later as George Bush’s chief-of-staff and presidential campaign manager was known for his instincts to find the middle ground. Even more noted was his reputation of being a nice guy in Washington, a rare characteristic for a successful tenure in the White House.
Craig has called Easton his permanent home for the last five years, where now serves on the boards of the Academy Art Museum, the Benedictine School, and Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum. He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors.
With their rich experience and long history of friendship, now joined by their love of the Chesapeake Bay, they have agreed through the magic of Zoom, to talk inside politics and policy with the Spy every Thursday.
Franklin Hubert Shoffner says
This discussion, to me, was essentially “old stuff.” I have been complaining about it for years. In fact, national politics disgust me. I have not been able to cast a vote for either major party standard bearer for the last two presidential elections. In fact, I have not enthusiastically supported a presidential candidate since Bush One, thirty years ago.
And yes, the religion of our country is not a spiritual one, but self gratification. Drugs are about self gratification; we might as well accept drugs, all of them. Abortion is about self gratification; we have to have no obstacles whatsoever (certainly not inconvenient babies!) in the way of enjoying sex – whenever, wherever, and whomever.
Deirdre LaMotte says
A “baby” is not aborted. A fetus is. And it is not because
of “self gratification”. And: a woman’s body is none of your business.
Sarah Oppenheimer says
Would you be willing to say directly to a woman grieving a miscarriage ‘it’s just a fetus’?
Deirdre LaMotte says
Why would anyone be rude to remark about a miscarriage? it is none of your business
nor mine wether a woman decides to remain pregnant or not.
Ernest Chadderton says
Is it possible to print the complete video conversation? I personally would much rather read the account than sit through the video. Thanks
Reed Fawell 3 says
You are quite right. The result is the going destruction of the God, the nuclear family, functional communities, cities, towns, states, and institutions. Hence citizens are losing faith, hope, trust, their own identities, livelihoods, and all meaning in their lives. So they are easily exploited by demagogues whose factions, special interests, and parties viciously work to tear one another, and their supporters, apart, to serve and gain their own selfish private interests, whether for money, power, or revenge.
America, no longer a Republic, is on the verge of a lawless democracy doddering amid chaos, wherein the evil doers, up and down society, are busily at work on destroying the remnants of the nation on their way to a police state.
Remarkably, most to our chattering class, so called experts, can’t see this. They have not a clue. And this is the way all great nations fall, always have and always will, but our incrediable technology is driving our collapse at warp speeds never seen before. America today is far far different from 20 years ago, and its collapse is coming from the inside, starting some 60 years ago with its universities.