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Between The Lines
http://www.btlonline.org
----------------------------
Between the Lines Q&A
A weekly column featuring progressive viewpoints
on national and international issues
under-reported in mainstream media
for release April 2, 2007

Distributed by Squeaky Wheel Productions
http://www.squeakywheel.net

==================================

Coalition Puts Forward 
Democracy Protection Act 
to Counter "New Authoritarians" 

Interview with Mark Green, 
president of The New Democracy Project,
conducted by Scott Harris

Listen in RealAudio:
http://www.btlonline.org/green040607.ram

A coalition of progressive organizations came together
recently to announce a legislative agenda called the
"Democracy Protection Act: 40 Ways Toward a More
Perfect Union." The initiative -- put forward by the
New Democracy Project, New York University's Brennan
Center for Justice, Demos and The Nation magazine --
is a proactive response to what the groups sees as a
threat to America posed by "new authoritarians who
show enormous contempt for the value of democracy."
Their agenda includes public funding for federal
election campaigns, creating national voting
standards, securing the flawed machinery of elections,
making CEOs more accountable for excessive corporate
compensation and restricting presidential signing
statements. 

The coalition of groups view the election of a new
Congress in 2006 as an opportunity to put forward an
agenda that will both repair and strengthen the
institutions of democracy so weakened, particularly
over the past six years of the Bush presidency. 

Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Mark Green,
New York City's first public advocate and past
candidate for mayor of New York City and attorney
general of New York state. He currently serves as
president of the New Democracy Project and is the
newly named president of Air America Radio. Here,
Green summarizes the Democracy Protection Act and
discusses his vision for his progressive radio
network. 

MARK GREEN: Voting rights, rule of law, democratizing
Congress, all of them are indispensable to a
functioning democracy. You have to encourage the
franchise, you have to inform people, you have to
follow the rule of equal justice under law. This
administration has been so lawless, so hostile to
expanding the franchise, so really authoritarian when
it came to treating Congress when they controlled the
White House and the House and Senate, which they no
longer do.
So, you want voting by mail, over three weeks before
Election Day, so you don’t reduce turnout if there’s a
rainy Tuesday. You want to make sure that you have
electronic voting machines that are secure and with a
paper trail. You want campaign finance reform so money
alone doesn’t buy races and merit counts for more;
free TV for bona fide candidates. 

Second, you have to open up Congress, so you have more
committee hearings than the last six years. Gee, my
goodness, the House and Senate were like West Wings of
the White House and all the things we’re finding out
now about Iraq, about Halliburton, about (Attorney
General Alberto) Gonzales, about contracting and
Katrina were swept under the rug.

Finally, there’s an area called economics of
democracy. You know, we’re a private economy, and if
you’re smarter or more skilled, you’ll make more
money. That’s fine. But when 90 percent of the wealth
is owned by the top five percent of Americans, when 90
percent of the productivity gains goes to the top one
percent of Americans, when the average CEO earns 500
times more than the average line worker, then the
entire middle-class and those who aspire to it are
getting left behind. So, if you add up all these
positive solutions, we think we can save our democracy
and I think and hope a lot of the 2008 election will
turn on that.     

BETWEEN THE LINES: Mark, this is quite an exhaustive
list of issues and legislative measures that many
people I know listening to this program would like to
see voted into law. But what are the chances that the
Democratic-controlled House and narrowly
Democratic-controlled Senate is going to pass this
legislation -- or any of it, advocated by your
coalition?

MARK GREEN: The House and Senate are Democratic means
that these ideas will all get an airing. For example,
Sen. Durbin of Illinois, last week proposed a sweeping
public finance bill. Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York
has proposed a Count Every Vote Act. So, it doesn’t
help if people vote, and then votes aren’t counted,
which is what's happened of course in Florida in 2000
and elsewhere.

These ideas will all have hearings and maybe even
votes, but they're not going to be enacted so long as
there’s a Republican president who doesn’t believe in
it and can veto it, you need two-thirds to override
him. It all comes down to '08. And if, after '08,
there’s a more progressive president, and both
chambers -- my guess politically -- is that both the
House and Senate will be more Democratic, because the
unmitigated disaster called Iraq will absolutely have
many Republicans losing in ' 08, then these ideas in
the Democracy Protection Act won’t just be
pie-in-the-sky, I think they’ll be enacted.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Mark, I wanted to ask you about how
you came to become America’s only progressive
commercial radio network’s president. I know your
brother Steven and you have worked together to secure
the network. But, tell us a little bit about the story
of how that came about.

MARK GREEN: Three years ago, Air America was founded
because the right-wing not just dominated, but nearly
monopolized, talk radio. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity,
Bill O’Reilly -- and clearly the country was roughly
split politically. It was a big great idea, that had
missteps, mismanagement and misspending and it went
into bankruptcy, Chapter 11 in October 2006. My
brother bought it out of bankruptcy. I’m now the
president of Air America Radio. And the goal is to
make it profitable and influential. Hell, it can’t be
influential if it’s not profitable.

So, Air America 2.0 now has new owners, new capital, a
new management combination, and will have an even
better line-up, which we’ll be announcing over time.
And if we can’t make the progressive equivalent of
Limbaugh and Hannity successful in the ' 07-'08 swing
to progressive patriotism, we never will. 

BETWEEN THE LINES: How closely do you want to have Air
America identified with the Democratic Party? What are
the dangers in that? Is there some distance you want
to keep between the network and the party?

MARK GREEN: Well, there is a distance -- we are not an
arm of the DNC (Democratic National Committee.) I
don’t get their talking points. They can’t call me and
tell me what to air. Then we’re not an authentic
medium. We have to be a business. And that means being
blunt about Republicans and Democrats alike. There's
no "party line"; I don’t tell the talent on air what
to think. Some of them condemn different Democrats on
different days. That’s quite different than Fox,
actually. We have to maintain our journalistic
integrity while we have a point of view. I will say
that Air America is run by me, and I’m a proud
Democrat, and COO who’s been a Republican his whole
life because he’s an honorable, effective person.
That’s who you want running a business.

Read the Democracy Protection Act online at
http://www.newdemocracy.org. Visit Air America's
website at http://www.airamerica.com.

==========================

Scott Harris is executive producer of Between The
Lines, which can be heard on more than 40 radio
stations and in RealAudio and MP3 on our website at
http://www.btlonline.org. This interview excerpt was
featured on the award-winning, syndicated weekly radio
newsmagazine, Between The Lines for the week ending
April 6, 2007. This Between The Lines Q&A was compiled
by Anna Manzo and Scott Harris.

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