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American accent on New Labours talk |
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Peter Spiegel
Financial Times
March 4 2005
Ever since Al Gore lost the 2000 presidential election to George W Bush by less than a whisker, a debate has raged among Democrats: should the party return to centrist principles espoused by Bill Clinton or should it attempt to reactivate its base by embracing the populism espoused by candidates such as Howard Dean, the new party chairman?
At the forefront of that debate has been a young, Harvard-educated writer, lawyer and activist named Andrei Cherny, who started his Washington political career right at the top: at the age of 21, he became the youngest White House speechwriter ever as a wordsmith for Mr Gore's vice-presidential office.
Now 29, Mr Cherny has become the latest in a long line of respected thinkers to have had his ideas cross the Atlantic in what has become a well-worn political path between the centrist New Democrats and their counterparts in New Labour.
He was described yesterday by Alan Milburn, Labour's election campaign co-ordinator, as a "new wave Democratic thinker influencing New Labour".
According to Democratic party activists, Mr Cherny's book The Next Deal - written in 2001 as a way to push a beleaguered party back to the centre - has become required reading among Blairites.
One Democrat said Mr Cherny spent several days in London last September with political operatives at 10 Downing Street, discussing his ideas, many of which are strikingly similar to themes Tony Blair has been articulating. In an interview, Mr Cherny said he did not want to discuss any interaction he had had with Labour. He said he was flattered by any influence his book might have had on the Labour campaign, adding that such theme-cribbing has a "long history" in politics.
"It was written with the purpose for my ideas to have influence on progressives," he said. "The fact that New Labour is talking about those ideas is something I'm very happy about."
The central idea of Mr Cherny's thinking is that more choice should be given to people who use government services, a theme that Mr Blair has enunciated repeatedly in recent months.
Mr Cherny writes in his book: "A Choice Revolution in government entails expanding democracy by taking decision-making power out of the hands of bureaucrats and powerful interests and giving it to ordinary Americans . . . All Americans should have the ability to make choices for themselves and their families now reserved for only the wealthiest."
Mr Blair made a similar argument in his party conference speech. "The relationship between state and citizen has changed. People have grown up. They want to make their own life choices," he said in the address.
He later added: "Choice dependent on wealth; those are the Tory words. The right to demand the best and refuse the worst and do so not by virtue of your wealth but your equal status as a citizen - that's precisely what the modern Labour party should stand for."
Ironically, Mr Cherny was ousted from his post as director of speechwriting and special adviser on policy for the presidential campaign of the Democratic challenger John Kerry for espousing those very beliefs.
After serving more than a year as a leading Kerry aide, Mr Cherny was forced out in April 2004 by advisers from the more traditional, populist wing of the Democratic party, led by veteran political consultant Bob Shrum.
Many New Democrats see Mr Cherny's departure as a sign of what went wrong with the Kerry campaign; they argue Mr Kerry abandoned the centrist platform established by Mr Clinton and adopted a more populist approach, backed by Mr Shrum. It is a view apparently adopted by New Labour, which has embraced Mr Cherny's ideas.
In another transatlantic irony, Mr Shrum is said to be close to Gordon Brown, the chancellor and Blair rival, often seen as a more traditionally leftist alternative to the centrist prime minister. |
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