A conversation with Melody Barnes
POLITICO chats with the co-chair of UVA's Democracy Initiative
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How/where are you celebrating your birthday and with whom? “My husband always plans what he calls ‘the monthlong festival of Thanksgiving and Celebration’ -- and it’s typically a surprise -- but pandemic + birthday = Zoom.”
How did you get your start in your career? “I started as a corporate lawyer in NYC; after telling a friend about my policy interests, he pointed me to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights. I sent my resume by FedEx (it was the early 1990s ...) and two months later, I moved to D.C.”
What’s an interesting book/article you’re reading during coronavirus social distancing? And why? “I just hosted a podcast on LBJ and the Great Society, and taught a U.Va. class on the same topic, so I’ve done a deep dive into the ’60s, reading and rereading work from that era. Martin Luther King’s ‘Where Do We Go From Here?: Chaos or Community,’ felt particularly prophetic, even as the Great Society reminds us what government can do -- from Medicare to Child Nutrition to the Voting Rights Act -- when it turns its attention to solving big problems. Fiction is my escape, and I’ve just read ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ and ‘Olive, Again.’ Next up: ‘The Splendid and the Vile,’ about Churchill during World War II.”
What’s a trend going on in the U.S. or abroad that doesn’t get enough attention? “I’ll mention two things. … For too long, too many have assumed that democracy’s questions and challenges only belong to the policymakers and the social scientists. There’s growing awareness that the scientists and the artists also have much to tell us about who we are, the primacy of reason and culture, and how we can realize our democratic aspirations.
“Second, when it comes to the relationship between citizens, localities, states and the federal government, the left/right ideological script is being flipped.”
