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In print | Published April 10, 2008

Yesterday, former Democratic Alaska Senator and current presidential candidate Mike Gravel drew a large crowd of Swarthmore students, community members and Strath Haven high school students at an event sponsored by the College Democrats. Gravel shared his views on defense spending, America’s taxation and education systems, and the shortcomings of the Democratic and Republican Parties. At the same time, Gravel worked to plug his new book, “Citizen Power: A Mandate for Change.” The Phoenix sat down for an interview with the former Senator.

Gravel also fielded questions from the audience on topics ranging from immigration to media censorship to political accountability. Gravel, concerned with more than just policy change, stressed the importance of what he termed the “National Initiative for Democracy,” a concept which involves empowering citizens by giving people themselves law making capabilities. Gravel, who characterized the electoral process as “corrupt,” emphasized the notion of sovereignty, telling the audience, “You are smarter than your leaders. You are better equipped because you are an authority on your life.”

Elena Chopyak: At what point did you decide to switch from the Democratic Party to the Libertarian Party?

Mike Gravel: After they cut me out of the debates all together. I had no visibility. It was just grossly unfair. I could tolerate that it was war party and I could fight from the inside. After they cut me out there was no way to fight, and so I thought I would became what I really was inside of my heart. A Libertarian. When I became Libertarian I didn’t change my values. My values are exactly the same as they were before. My ideology hasn’t changed one iota.

EC: If you had to pick one issue that this country is facing today as the most pressing, what would it be?

MG: It would be the issue of governance. We need to empower the people. The answer is the empowerment of the people. That’s the issue. These others are policy issues, ending the war, stopping the military industrial complex, American imperialism, education, taxation. Those are all policy issues.

But fundamentally, you can’t solve any of those issues until you empower the American people to become law-makers. I have unreserved faith in the people. I really do. I just trust them.

EC: Where did the idea of law-making as a form of empowerment come from?

MG: It actually comes from the sense of civilization that was handed to us by Solan in 595. Now, we had laws before that … but Solan lifted the concept of law beyond the individual. That we come together and create law and that it is something we have to obey beyond the individual. So that concept has stayed with us.

We handle the frictions of civilization by law. Now, if you want to not suffer the consequences of law, then you go into the wilderness and you live in a wilderness all alone. The minute you come into society we need law to handle the interaction of human beings within society, it’s critical.

Of course, if you have good law then you handle those frictions very well. If you have bad law, you exacerbate those frictions.

EC: How would you respond to the freedom of the Internet and the censorship of media in reference to your campaign?

MG: I just respond to the freedom of the Internet. It’s the only thing that has sustained me in this campaign. It was done by young people who understand the Internet and who have just stepped forward. I have not paid for any of this. It has been all volunteers. They take my candidacy and they just go do things with it. It’s really a miracle.

With respect to the mainstream media, I have no control over them. I have a book coming out, called, King Makers. It attacks the media. It shows how the media was the echo-chamber of the White House in bringing about the war in Iraq. I really pay them back their due. And how many of them really did bad things to them. And that’s all outlined in the book. It should be out in 6 or 8 weeks … It’s probably not very good politically to do that. You don’t get in to a contest with someone who buys ink by the barrel. But I don’t care. I’m just not afraid. I’ll just fight and fight and fight.

EC: What are your hopes for the next four years?

MG: I hope that I can become President and then use that to persuade Americans to empower themselves. That’s the accomplishment I will have. I’ll do a lot of other things as president. But nothing compared to my empowering you as a lawmaker. I’ll be long gone. There’s the cliché, I give a fish I feed you for a day. Give you a fishing pool, I feed you for your life. I give you a law, I take care of you right now with one problem. I give you the power to govern yourself for your life and future generations. That’s the difference.

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