NEWSWEEK: There are rumors that you had serious conversations with Colin Powell about an independent candidacy. BRADLEY: Totally untrue.
Why not just run with Powell?
We’ve got to get beyond the idea that everything in our politics today has to focus on candidacy. My interest is trying to focus people away from candidate talk to the underlying problems in the democratic process. Talk about particular candidacies or tactics is just not where I am.
Are you burned out in the Senate?
No. I’m leaving with a great respect for the institution–it’s similar to my experience in professional basketball in that I have had experiences here that could not have been duplicated anywhere else. I’ve grown tremendously as a human being. I still think that you can lead and make a difference in the Senate. But as I completed this book and put the experience of the past 17 years in some perspective, I felt a sense of closure. I have to honor that. All of us at some stage have to learn to trust that inner voice.
Some people say, why not stay and fight? Why not play defense?
I’ve fought for 18 years, and I will continue to fight for the things that I believe in. But there are different venues to make that fight. For me now, the place to make that fight is outside the Senate. I am a person who, when I feel comfortable, I feel tin-comfortable, and I have to push myself out into new territory where I fight for the same values but with different tools. If you can change the nature of the debate, then you are more effective in fighting than you would be inside the institution.
What is your game plan now?
To try and reinvigorate and reconnect theAmerican people to the democratic process and to try to get the democratic process to focus on the increasingly precarious position of middle-class America. By which I mean people who’ve worked 20 years at a job being told one day that you’re fired and losing health insurance and pension benefits as well.
Do you think the Democratic Party has to be weakened in order to change the context?
No, I think that we have to be more persistent in dealing with what I see as the central elements of the need for change: taking money out of politics, which means a much greater emphasis on campaign-finance reform, and making it easier rather than more difficult to participate. And speaking candidly to people about what government can and can’t do.
But talking about leaving your party doesn’t exactly help the party, does it?
I am a Democrat, and I have not talked of leaving the party. What I said, when asked, was that I wouldn’t rule out an independent candidacy.
Won’t you have to identify differences on issues between you and President Clinton?
I am going to forcefully resist this line of questioning, because the issue isn’t where I agree or disagree with the president. It’s too easy to say, well, I agree on these five, I disagree on those four. What does that tell anybody? That tells you nothing unless it is about a candidacy.
How do you go about reconnecting the public to politics?
First, challenge people to sit down with their neighbors and talk about what it would take for them to again believe that the political process can provide answers. Second, bring the media into this process. All of us have to recognize we have some responsibility. People say, what can a president do? The real question may be, what do the people want the president to do?
Can you listen to America, work on reconnecting and test the waters for a presidential run all at the same time?
Who knows? But the least important is the third. I’m going to go out and listen. If you want to reinvigorate democracy, you have to figure out pressure points to be able to reach people.
Are Americans more believing of people who are not in office?
It’s difficult to lead today without putting yourself at risk, without showing some vulnerability. [The people] are at risk every day. Say a company laid off 20,000 workers but you haven’t gotten laid off yet. How do you feel about that company? What is your sense of loyalty? These are questions that are not being addressed.
Newt Gingrich has said that people pay more attention to his ideas if he keeps the door open to a presidential bid.
Somebody asked me, well, what’s my real purpose, to shape the debate or to win? And my response was, you can’t win unless you shape the debate. I believe that we have to begin to think of politics in different terms. We have to try to get people to ask themselves, what would it take for us to believe that the political aprocess really can make a difference in our lives?
