After Alan Grayson's inspiring appearance on Real Time with Bill Maher, drawing the first standing ovation for a guest in the history of that show and then 500,000 views on YouTube, Grayson followed it up with an interview with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last week. Here is how it went:
MADDOW: "Joining us tonight for the interview is former Congressman Alan Grayson of Florida. Mr. Grayson represented Florida`s Eighth District from 2009 to 2011. Congressman Grayson, thanks very much for being with us. It`s nice to see you again.
GRAYSON: Thank you.
MADDOW: You have and have always had a knack for saying things in a way that connects with people. Sometimes you upset your critics, but you definitely always enthuse your supporters. The "Occupy Wall Street" protests also seem to be connecting with people despite a campaign on the right to portray them as scary. What do you think is resonating so much here?
GRAYSON: I think that they have their eyes open, and more and more people are seeing the scales fall from their eyes as well. The "Occupy Wall Street" people are saying, first, that there`s no accountability on Wall Street. They wrecked our economy. Years ago, they took a healthy economy and they gave us 9 percent, 10 percent or more unemployment. And they destroyed 20 percent of our national wealth in the course of just 18 months, from the middle of 2007 to the end of 2008. They destroyed 20 percent of our national wealth accumulated over the course of two centuries, and nobody`s been prosecuted for it. Nobody`s been indicted. Nobody`s been convicted. So, first, there`s no accountability.
The second thing is that they`ve created a system that is enormously unequal. And the result of that is people are struggling to find a job to pay their bills, to pay their rent, to pay their credit card bills. According to Wikipedia, there are only five countries in the entire planet that are more unequal than the United States, in the distribution of our wealth. That`s a system that Wall Street created, that Wall Street maintains, and that Wall Street enforces.
And the way that they enforce it is the third gripe. The third gripe is Wall Street controls and dominates our political system. One party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Wall Street, and the other party caters to Wall Street all too much. So, people got into the situation right now where they feel that the system is completely unresponsive, and they`re driven deeper and deeper into debt and misery.
MADDOW: With a movement with that kind of message, how do you think it ends up playing out and affecting American politics more broadly? Not even necessarily in strict electoral terms. But how does it change the framing of issues. I mean, the right is trying to denounce the existence of protests at all as mobs and social unrest. Glenn Beck today ranting that people are going to be dragged from their homes and killed in the streets. The kinder, softer version of that on the right is to say that the protesters are motivated by class envy and class resentment, dividing the nation. The right is reacting to this in slightly hysterical terms. That implies to me that people have a message here that the right is worried about.
GRAYSON: Well, I think that Glenn Beck is right. It`s only a matter of time before they do take him away -- but not the way that he means -- you know, in a straitjacket. That`s how they`ll take him away. That much is obvious.
But fundamentally, ask yourself what do people want? Solutions to their problems. And what is either side offering in the next election? People don`t see any solutions to their problems.
You know, as I said earlier, there are 24 million people in this country who can`t find full-time work. There are 50 million people in this country who can`t even see a doctor when they`re sick. They want to know what`s being done about this. What is going to help them in their ordinary, everyday lives. They`re desperate for solutions to those problems.
The Right certainly isn`t offering any. You heard Herman Cain. His answer is: get a job. Well, it`s not that easy. You know, if one person is out of work, maybe that one person can find a job. But if 24 million people are out of work, that`s just not possible.
The economy has been grossly mismanaged by Wall Street and by others. And people see that Wall Street is running our economic policy. That Big Oil is determining our energy policy, and that the military- industrial complex is determining our foreign policy and miring us in these endless, costly wars.
People are just fed up. So, what do they do? What`s left to do? What is the one thing you can still do as a human being? You can go someplace. You can go someplace, and in this world of the Internet, you can show yourself. And that`s what the people on 'Occupy Wall Street' are doing. They`re doing the one last human thing left. They`re going somewhere."
After the Maddow interview, Politifact contacted Grayson, and asked him to prove the statement that the United States has the fifth most unequal distribution of wealth in the world. Which Grayson did, adding: "there is overwhelming, staggering inequality in America, however it is measured, and that inequality substantially exceeds the inequality in many other countries. That is not merely 'True' but 'Profoundly True' and 'Largely Ignored.'" Politifact then rated Grayson's statement as "True."
Seriously, who else in America has the brains and the guts to speak out this way? Who else is talking about the real issues in our lives? WE NEED ALAN GRAYSON IN CONGRESS! Click here, and contribute to our campaign today. Every dollar counts, and every person counts.
No comments:
Post a Comment