ABOUT THE EPISODE
Carl Gershman, founding leader of the National Endowment for Democracy, brings you right up to date on the current state of democracy in the U.S., and around the world, to include some bright spots. Guest hosted by Paul Fagan, McCain Institute program director for Human Rights & Democracy.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
ON BEING PERSONALLY SANCTIONED BY CHINA
“Well you know it doesn’t really, right now it hasn’t affected me personally the way the people in Hong Kong have been affected because it was related to the crackdown it was related to the US sanctioning various officials in China over a number of things that China is doing. It obviously did highlight the fact that of what’s happened to the relationship. We could worry that they may be hacking us at some point or trying to crack into our internet but overall you know it doesn’t affect us, I wasn’t going to China anyway.”
ON THE STATE OF GLOBAL DEMOCRACY
“There’s no doubt that democracy is in crisis, and we’ve talked about that for a long time. Larry Diamond has used the word recession to describe what’s happened. And to be perfectly frank it shouldn’t be surprising to us.”
ON SENATOR MCCAIN’S SUPPORT FOR THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR DEMOCRACY
“Well you know McCain along with some Republicans when he joined the Congress was not convinced that this was a great idea. But we were on an observing delegation together, and I just started working for NED under Amb. Jeane Kirkpatrick and it was love at first sight after that voyage. In the mid 80s with Lorne Craner as his staff, he became a core supporter of NED. And his support only grew, you know McCain was a great great patriot and the book that he wrote before he passed away, The Restless Wave, I mean there has never been a more powerful expression of commitment to the core values of our country. And he was trying to restore that, we have to turn to those values.”
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