VIEWSrnJerry Brown Talksrnby Jim ChristiernOn ]uly 7 Chronicles sent freelance writer Jim Christie torninterview jerry Brown in Oakland, California.rnAsk any Democratic Party insider in California about JerryrnBrown, and he will usually say Brown is one of threernthings; an embarrassment, a flake, or a jerk. The institutionalrnmeanness, the state party’s party line, toward the formerrnCalifornia governor rests on his failure to meet expectations inrnregistering new Democratic voters when he was the state partyrnchairman and his publicizing of details of the fund-raising hernhad to do for the party. The dialing-for-dollars weighed sornheavily on Brown, he would go on to say during a bid for thernparty’s presidential nomination in 1992, that it turned himrninto an evangelist railing against the influence of money inrnAmerican politics. Insiders said it was a gimmick, and evenrnpeople who shared his liberal politics were dismissive. One center-rnleft Sacramento journalist would tag Brown as California’srn”hectoring, public monk,” which was a clever way of dredgingrnup his ascetic (and ridiculed) lifestyle as governor and his daysrnspent in a Catholic seminarv. Of course, nobody foresaw thatrnthe sentiments behind Brown’s We the People and Pat Buchanan’srnAmerica First would inspire Ross Perot’s United WernStand America. Those who dismissed Brown for pointing outrnthe ugly truth that the Democratic Party, despite its publicrnpiety, relies on the same corporate money allegedly reserved forrnthe GOP, the party of business, assumed Brown would returnrnto their fold. That does not seem to be the case. Brown nowrnruns We the People from a warehouse in (appropriately) Oakland’srnJack London Square, and he broadcasts his nationallyrnsvndicated radio show from a nearby studio. Brown’s plans includernthe construction of a new headquarters for his nonprofitrnorganization that will have a studio for his show, which willrnappear in larger markets soon. Brown continues to rail againstrnthe influence of money in American politics, and for good reason:rnthe day before this July interview took place, the Wd//rnStreet journal reported that Dwayne Andreas, an industrialistrnwith agribusiness giant Archer-Daniels-Midland Company andrna longtime Republican donor, had the month before turned uprnas cochairman for a presidential dinner to raise $2.5 million forrnDemocrats. Not surprisingly, the week before the journalrnbroke the story the Environmental Protection Agency, “withrnthe prodding of the Clinton White House,” according to reporterrnTimothy Noah, announced regulations requiring onetenthrnof all gasoline in the United States by 1996 to containrncorn-based ethanol. Archer-Daniels-Midland Company just sornhappens to produce about 60 percent of all ethanol in therncountry. So much for the “change” promised by the Clintonrnadministration.rnQ. About the corruption of the political process, specifically thernbuying and selling of candidates, how is that to be remedied?rnA. First, accept it is going on. That means thoroughly condemningrnthe present manner of electing people in the UnitedrnStates—federal, state, and local. It is grossly corrupted and atrnfundamental variance with democratic ideals.rnQ. Why won’t Congress touch this issue?rnA. Congress raised and spent $660 million in 1992, or about arnNOVEMBER 1994/17rnrnrn