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Interview With Author Danny Goldberg
Aired June 17, 2003 - 15:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Have U.S. political leaders lost complete touch with American pup culture? Well the answer is an emphatic, yes, if you read Danny Goldberg's new book, "Dispatches from the Culture Wars: How the Left Lost Team Spirit." Goldberg is a record producer and a civil liberties activist. I spoke with him a little earlier today and I asked about his criticism of the Democrats and progressive and his charge that they have failed to embrace the young and their culture.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANNY GOLDBERG, AUTHOR, "DISPATCHES FROM THE CULTURE WARS": I think it includes the sort of academic left, with things like speech codes on campuses, which has clearly pushed some students to the right. And it certainly includes people like the Democratic ticket in 2000 of Al Gore and Joe Lieberman.
I think Gore in his convention speech went out of his way to attack popular culture. Lieberman I think has an obsession with attacking popular culture. And Clinton had beaten Dole by 19 points among 18-to-24-year-olds in '96. And Gore and Lieberman merely tied Bush and Cheney in 2000.
So it's a 19 point drop among the nine million 18 to 24's who vote. And that made the difference in the election.
So, in general, I think the left, liberals and Democrats, have just not reached out to the young generation in the issues they talk about, in the language they use, the lack of a moral construct for the way they express their ideas. And this culture bashing, I think, is a terrible mistake morally for everybody, but politically it's particularly a bad mistake for Democrats.
WOODRUFF: But wouldn't they argue, among other things, that they have to stake some claim when it comes to moral territory, number one? And, number two, purely politically speaking, don't they have to worry about getting a broad enough consensus to get elected?
GOLDBERG: Well, they didn't get elected. So they're obviously doing something wrong. They've lost the House, the Senate and the presidency.
So these brilliant pragmatists who keep lecturing people like me about how much more realistic they are have a sorry track record to show. And millions of younger people voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 because they couldn't tell the difference between Gore and Bush. When Clinton ran in '92, youth turnout increased. When Jesse Ventura ran in Minnesota, young turnout skyrocketed.
It is possible to reach out to young people and when. And the problem with the experts in the Democratic Party who keep poo-pooing this is they're on a losing streak.
WOODRUFF: All right. Size up the main Democrats who are running for the nomination right now. There are nine running. The top five or six, how would you size them up?
GOLDBERG: Well, I think Lieberman would be death for the Democrats. I think he would alienate younger people because of his constant attacks on the culture and his excessive religiosity. I believe in god, but I don't think it's appropriate for someone running for president to shove it in your face the way he does.
And especially for Democrats, I think he would also be death, because I think the Democrat who wins has to embrace anti-war and pro- war Democrats. Half of the Democrats were against the war, and I don't think Lieberman is capable of doing that.
I think any of the other eight candidates with the spotlight on them as a democratic nominee would have a chance, but they have to reach out not only to those mystical swing voters that are supposedly in the center, but also to those people who vote who couldn't tell the difference last time to those millions who voted for Nader and the millions more who almost voted for Nader in order to put together a majority.
WOODRUFF: What do you say to those Democrats, though, who just somehow seem to feel uncomfortable with young people and some of this culture or much of the culture that young people embrace?
GOLDBERG: Well, they have to get over it. Look what Tip O'Neill did as speaker of the House. At the peak of Reagan's popularity, he was an inside politician who had no media savvy. He was older than any of these candidates. And yet he studied pop culture because he was determined to win.
He went on the TV show "Cheers." He used emotional language, saying how Reagan was surrounded by rich people, had ice water in his veins.
He stopped cuts in Social Security; he stopped the war in Nicaragua because he had the discipline and the commitment to victory to learn how to communicate with ordinary Americans. If Democrats want to win they have to get over their snobbishness and reach out to the real America and not just inside Washington America.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Danny Goldberg. The book is "Dispatches from the Culture Wars."
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired June 17, 2003 - 15:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JUDY WOODRUFF, CNN ANCHOR: Have U.S. political leaders lost complete touch with American pup culture? Well the answer is an emphatic, yes, if you read Danny Goldberg's new book, "Dispatches from the Culture Wars: How the Left Lost Team Spirit." Goldberg is a record producer and a civil liberties activist. I spoke with him a little earlier today and I asked about his criticism of the Democrats and progressive and his charge that they have failed to embrace the young and their culture.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANNY GOLDBERG, AUTHOR, "DISPATCHES FROM THE CULTURE WARS": I think it includes the sort of academic left, with things like speech codes on campuses, which has clearly pushed some students to the right. And it certainly includes people like the Democratic ticket in 2000 of Al Gore and Joe Lieberman.
I think Gore in his convention speech went out of his way to attack popular culture. Lieberman I think has an obsession with attacking popular culture. And Clinton had beaten Dole by 19 points among 18-to-24-year-olds in '96. And Gore and Lieberman merely tied Bush and Cheney in 2000.
So it's a 19 point drop among the nine million 18 to 24's who vote. And that made the difference in the election.
So, in general, I think the left, liberals and Democrats, have just not reached out to the young generation in the issues they talk about, in the language they use, the lack of a moral construct for the way they express their ideas. And this culture bashing, I think, is a terrible mistake morally for everybody, but politically it's particularly a bad mistake for Democrats.
WOODRUFF: But wouldn't they argue, among other things, that they have to stake some claim when it comes to moral territory, number one? And, number two, purely politically speaking, don't they have to worry about getting a broad enough consensus to get elected?
GOLDBERG: Well, they didn't get elected. So they're obviously doing something wrong. They've lost the House, the Senate and the presidency.
So these brilliant pragmatists who keep lecturing people like me about how much more realistic they are have a sorry track record to show. And millions of younger people voted for Ralph Nader in 2000 because they couldn't tell the difference between Gore and Bush. When Clinton ran in '92, youth turnout increased. When Jesse Ventura ran in Minnesota, young turnout skyrocketed.
It is possible to reach out to young people and when. And the problem with the experts in the Democratic Party who keep poo-pooing this is they're on a losing streak.
WOODRUFF: All right. Size up the main Democrats who are running for the nomination right now. There are nine running. The top five or six, how would you size them up?
GOLDBERG: Well, I think Lieberman would be death for the Democrats. I think he would alienate younger people because of his constant attacks on the culture and his excessive religiosity. I believe in god, but I don't think it's appropriate for someone running for president to shove it in your face the way he does.
And especially for Democrats, I think he would also be death, because I think the Democrat who wins has to embrace anti-war and pro- war Democrats. Half of the Democrats were against the war, and I don't think Lieberman is capable of doing that.
I think any of the other eight candidates with the spotlight on them as a democratic nominee would have a chance, but they have to reach out not only to those mystical swing voters that are supposedly in the center, but also to those people who vote who couldn't tell the difference last time to those millions who voted for Nader and the millions more who almost voted for Nader in order to put together a majority.
WOODRUFF: What do you say to those Democrats, though, who just somehow seem to feel uncomfortable with young people and some of this culture or much of the culture that young people embrace?
GOLDBERG: Well, they have to get over it. Look what Tip O'Neill did as speaker of the House. At the peak of Reagan's popularity, he was an inside politician who had no media savvy. He was older than any of these candidates. And yet he studied pop culture because he was determined to win.
He went on the TV show "Cheers." He used emotional language, saying how Reagan was surrounded by rich people, had ice water in his veins.
He stopped cuts in Social Security; he stopped the war in Nicaragua because he had the discipline and the commitment to victory to learn how to communicate with ordinary Americans. If Democrats want to win they have to get over their snobbishness and reach out to the real America and not just inside Washington America.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOODRUFF: Danny Goldberg. The book is "Dispatches from the Culture Wars."
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
