The Next Democracy | White Oak Interviews (Round Two)
In early spring, the Brennan Center hosted The Next Democracy—a conference at the White Oak Conservation Center that brought together a distinguished group from law, academia, advocacy, philanthropy, government and media for two days of conversation and reflection. The aim was to spark fresh thinking from across communities and disciplines, with hopes of crafting a new vision of democracy and a strategy for realizing it.
Participants included Hendrik Hertzberg of The New Yorker, Sean Wilentz of Princeton University, Elaine Kamarck of the Kennedy School of Government, Ann Beeson of Open Society Institute, Barbara Arnwine of Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and Chris Edley of UC Berkeley School of Law, amongst others.
The Brennan Center conducted the following four interviews between sessions. These are the first videos in a series of three to be posted to the Brennan Center site. Click on a name below to skip to that interview.
Round One | Round Two
Anna Burger | Hendrik Hertzberg | Elaine Kamarck | Christopher Edley, Jr. | Judith Browne
Anna Burger
Hailed by Fortune Magazine as "the most powerful woman in the labor movement" and named as one of Washingtonian's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2006, Anna Burger is both a top ranking officer at SEIU, the nation's largest and fastest growing union, and the first chair of America's newest labor federation, Change to Win. She discusses organized labor's role in democracy as well as the Bush legacy.
Click on the video to watch it here or click here to be directed to YouTube.
Hendrik Hertzberg
Hendrik Hertzberg is a Senior Editor at The New Yorker, where he blogs and contributes the opening "Comment" column in "The Talk of the Town." He has been an officer in the Navy, editor of The New Republic, and President Jimmy Carter’s chief speech writer. Hertzberg discusses the current political moment as well as Nation Popular Vote in his segment.
Click on the video to watch it here or click here to be directed to YouTube.
Elaine Kamarck
Elaine Kamarck is a Lecturer in Public Policy who came to the Kennedy School in 1997 after a career in politics and government. In the 1980s, she was one of the founders of the New Democrat movement that helped elect Bill Clinton president. She served in the White House from 1993 to 1997, where she created and managed the Clinton Administration's National Performance Review, also known as reinventing government. She discusses campaign finance reform as well as progressive jurisprudence in this segment.
Click on the video to watch it here or click here to be directed to YouTube.
Christopher Edley, Jr.
Christopher Edley, Jr. assumed the Deanship of U.C. Berkeley Law School in 2004 after 23 years as a Harvard Law professor, where he was founding Co-Director of The Harvard Civil Rights Project. From 1999–2005, he served as a congressional appointee on the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He discusses the Bush legacy, progressive jurisprudence as well as organized labor in the following video clip.
Click on the video to watch it here or click here to be directed to YouTube.
Judith Browne
Judith Browne-Dianis, Co-Director of the Advancement Project, has an extensive background in civil rights litigation, which includes fighting to protect the rights of displaced Hurricane Katrina survivors. She was instrumental in securing a victory in Kirk v. City of New Orleans, which barred the city from bulldozing homes without first giving home owners opportunity to challenge the demolition. She discusses the right to vote as well as the Progressive movement in the following interview.
Click on the video to watch it here or click here to be directed to YouTube.