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 welcome award-winning author and journalist Joe Klein to share his insights on the current state of American politics and the need to either rebuild our party system or consider forming a new party before it’s too late for democracy.
Joe has written for Newsweek, The New Yorker, and Time, where he was a longtime political columnist known for his incisive coverage of American politics and policy. He is best known as the author of Primary Colors, a political novel.
To listen to the audio podcast version, please use this link:
This video is approximately 40 minutes in length.
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 eight years, where he now chairs the board of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and is a former board member of the Academy Art Museum and Benedictine. He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors and writes an e-newsletter available by clicking on DECADE SEVEN.
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.
Matt LaMotte says
Possibly one of the best F&F sessions ever! Cogent and informative. Also, worrisome. Republican, Democrat, or Independent, those knuckleheads inside the DC Beltway just don’t get it! I hope it’s not too late.
Steve Cades says
I listened just now to your conversation with Joe Klein with increasing disappointment. The three of you seem to assert that, if you will, “we rational people” ought to coalesce at a center left position and disregard all those inconvenient interest groups so we can press forward for the good of all, somehow anticipating that we can push aside both Trumpism and its consequences.
I readily grant that all three of you were part of/engaged with two presidencies that produced positive changes for our nation. But you all are suffering from what I would newly characterize as Successful Old White Guys’ Syndrome. Your tone suggests that the concerns of women, of members of the LGBTQ community, of members of racial minorities, of (government workers’) trade unions, are of less importance, and should be set aside so we can concentrate on the real task at hand.
There is indeed a crucial need for all of us to band together to restore and protect our (small-d) democratic nation. But the concerns of those inconvenient interest groups are real and legitimate. Our opposition is not really MAGA, but the plutocrats and their oligarchy, who are using MAGA as a tool to distract from their real goals, which are being advanced, week by week, by the six Federalist Society justices of our Supreme Court.
So please, stop denigrating people and groups whose concerns are fully legitimate, and see them as allies whose concerns are real even as we all unite to defend our liberties.
Reed Fawells 3 says
The last comment here in critique of our three commentators is right on target. All three are quite arrogant in their beliefs.