Sunday Morning News

How Will Increased Public Awareness Affect American Politics?

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MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: In the 21st century, the American public will most likely view government in a different way. Americans have more resources within reach, from the Internet to media outlets. So how will this free access affect Americans' political views for this millennium?

Our guest today believes he knows. Andrei Cherny is the author of the new book "The Next Deal: The Future of Public Life In the Information Age." Andrei is also the youngest White House speechwriter in American history. He also wrote the democratic platform for last year's convention. This underachiever joins us from New York this morning.

Andrei, thanks for being with us.

ANDREI CHERNY, AUTHOR, "THE NEXT DEAL": Thanks for having me, Miles.

O'BRIEN: All right, what was your inspiration for this book and just give me your basic thesis, if you could, in nutshell form.

CHERNY: Sure. The inspiration really grew out of what I saw while I was working in the White House, which was that really both political parties needed to rethink what they were about in the 21st century, especially with the rise of the new economy and with new ways of working and living for people all over the country.

The basic thesis of the book is that what government needs to do is to do for average Americans what they get from the new economy and from the Internet and from today's technologies and today's workplaces, a lot more choices, a lot more personal decision-making power. Instead of one size fits all programs give people choices about the types of programs that are closest to them.

O'BRIEN: Of course, I suppose people listening right now who are stinging from the bust on the markets might not want the government to do to them what the markets have done to them as it relates to the new economy. What you're talking about here is how organizations are structured, right?

CHERNY: Of course.

O'BRIEN: And the government itself is, sort of has an old industrial age philosophy, doesn't it? CHERNY: Well, that's right. You know, we have a government that was built during the -- whose main ideas right now were created during the time of the assembly lines and so that's the kind of government we have -- big and regimented and centralized and bureaucratic and expert driven. But that's not the way most people think about the world anymore.

Today we have a lot more personal power to make decisions for ourselves for better or worse and I think that's what we want from government as well.

O'BRIEN: All right, but give us something concrete to hang onto here.

CHERNY: Sure.

O'BRIEN: Government, it seems, by its nature, and perhaps we just can't think, it's hard to conceive of it any other way, is big and inflexible. How do you change that?

CHERNY: Well, I think that we think of it that way because that's the kind of government we've had for the past 100 years. But I think government can be different. You know, if we let average people choose what kind of schools their children went to instead of just having one size fits all schools assigned to them, if we let them have more choice in how they save for their retirement, if we let them choose what kind of doctors or health care plans they had, these are all kinds of things the government can do, reforms within the public sector that would actually give people more choice and government would be less inflexible because of that.

O'BRIEN: Andrei, you're sounding like a Republican there. You worked in a democratic White House. What gives?

CHERNY: No, not at all. In fact, I think this is really an idea that both parties can embrace. You know, most Republicans want a hands-off government. They want to get government out of the way. They maybe talk about choice and decision-making power but unless you really give people, you use, unless you use government to give people the ability to make these choices, then just sort of the abstract liberty doesn't really mean much to them.

You really need an active, progressive government that's on their side fighting for them on this to give them the ability to make these choices, the same kind of choices the wealthiest and luckiest in this country already get to make for themselves today.

O'BRIEN: Well, at the risk of sounding like a pessimist, you know, there's an awful lot of inertia here with the system we have. Do you have any optimism that you're going to see any kind of change in this realm any time soon?

CHERNY: You know, I do. I think, it's going to be a long process. You know, it's probably something that's going to take 20 or 30 years. But I think that we see change coming. Already in this past campaign you saw both Bush and Gore start for the first time really for either of their parties talk about this issue of choice. They talked about it in the area of health care, they talked about it in the area of education.

Both of them had a choice centered retirement savings plan. Bush wanted to do it within the Social Security system, Gore wanted to do it outside of the system. But for the first time really you had both candidates talking about this. I think we're going to see more and more of that as the years go by.

O'BRIEN: Andrei, what's next for you? Are we going to see you running for office some time soon?

CHERNY: Oh, I don't know about that. I think for me I'm really interested in these ideas. I really care passionately about bringing these kinds of changes to the public sector and I just want to do it sort of wherever I think I can have the best impact and the biggest impact. So we'll see what happens.

O'BRIEN: All right, Andrei Cherny. And the tender age right now is what?

CHERNY: Twenty-five.

O'BRIEN: Twenty-five. All right, superstar, we'll be watching you. Andrei Cherny...

CHERNY: Thanks, Miles.

O'BRIEN: ... the author of "The Next Deal." We appreciate you being with us on CNN SUNDAY MORNING.

CHERNY: I appreciate you having me.

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