Is Michael Lerner Still Chatting with Hillary?
This interview would seem to suggest he is:
LERNER: I’ve met with a number of the political candidates and they said what I already knew, which is: “This is very good. We agree with it but we can’t say it publicly because the cynics who dominate public discourse would laugh us out of the political arena. We’re not going to say these ideas publicly until more of our constituents say them first to us.”
That’s how American politics works. It is democratic in that sense. You have to hear it from the grass roots before it will be said from the top. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal described me as the “guru of the Clinton White House.” Supposedly I was a major influence on Hillary Clinton. Yet when I speak with Hillary she says that she agrees with everything I say, but she can’t put these ideas forward because she doesn’t hear them coming from people when she goes out to speak. That’s why I’ve organized the Network of Spiritual Progressives – to popularize a different way.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
