Ever wondered what it might look like if someone got in front of a camera and told the truth about what is going on in this country?
Wonder no more.
On Maddow, last night, a visibly angry Michael Moore let rip against the monied interests, the lackeys of the right-wing. He voiced in clear terms what this was all about.
War - as in Class Warfare.
Theft - as in the theft of our money, the theft of our homes, the theft of our jobs.
Injustice - as in the absence of thieving Banksters in cuffs or behind bars.
Oh, and then there was hope - as long as you want it. More before the fold icon, including the stunning Moore performance on Maddow.
So, here he is, in full righteous ire - Michael Moore on Maddow, 3/9/2011, tune to index 1:23 - it is really two righteous rants in one. The first being over three and a half minutes in length.
This is a long clip, no official transcript yet exists. My best efforts at summarizing the high points follows.
Thanks for having me
Anyone living within driving distance to Madison - should get there. We need thousands surrounding the Capitol building, on the lawn.
This is a class war - leveled against the working people of this country.
And, at some point, people are going to have to stand up and say - non-violently - this is enough.
We're not taking it any more.
I think these actions that took place today in Wisonsin, and in Michigan where the Governor - well the Senate, the House already passed the bill there, they're going to get together (hopefully?) that's their plan and pass it up for the Governor's signature, and um, ... they are stripping the Democratic rights of the people of Michigan.
They're literally, at this point, the Governor (in MI) can dissolve a town, remove the elected officials of a town. A month ago, Rachel, if you or I had said, "you know, we think the Government should have the ability to remove the elected Mayor and council of any town and put in place one guy in charge of the town" what do you think would have been written or said about us?
Michael - I'm guessing bad, very bad things would be written if you or anyone else had made that reach. It would be called socialism, dictatorship - for such is what it truly is.
The fact that they think they can get away with this!? I mean, you said it all in the last segment, 3 years ago in 2008, they realized they could get away with murder. They realized they could literally loot the treasury, they could play with people's pension funds on wall Street, they could destroy the economy, they could essentially anything they wanted to eliminate the middle class, and, there would be no response from the people.
There would be no revolt.
He's just getting warmed up by this point.
People would just take it, and people just took it. People have been taking it for thirty years - since Reagan fired the air traffic controllers.
We should have stopped them then.
We shouldn't have crossed those picket lines, we shouldn't have flown those planes.
Once they saw they could get away with that thirty years ago (then) they kept taking bit by bit by bit till 2008. That was the big enchilada for them, and they got away with it. People did not do anything about it, none of them went to jail, none of them are in jail for this theft.
So, now it comes to 2011 and now they think, "hey, why don't we just vote to take away people's democratic rights?" Just eliminate the mayor of a town. We can just dissolve a school district. In Wisconsin we can take away the right of people to sit down to talk across a table about what is important to them (in their jobs), that are of concern to them.
They think they can get away with this. They honestly think they can get away with it. And I don't think they will.
I hope that tomorrow there are people are in Lansing or in Wisconsin packing the Capitol Rotunda. On Friday, I've just read there will be a call for a national walk-out, not just in Wisconsin, but across the nation, of students at 2PM in support of High School teachers. They plan to call the local media, take photos, blog about the action.
Tomorrow in Inidian, as you mentioned, 20,000 people there (at the State Capitol).
This has to continue, day after day after day till those Governors are forced to step down. Or they get recalled, or they are impeached.
They have broken the law!
There's no way they can get away with this.
Moore pauses to take breath and Maddow asks her first question of the interview, at the five minute mark.
RM: How does it make a difference for people to protest?
MM: It's already made a difference. Look at the change - just in the polls you've cited.
Within the space of one month the public's opinion of WI's Governor, for support for the unions, support of worker's rights ... everything has changed in favor of the working people.
It has happened because the people of Wisconsin have stood up and they have been there every single day. They have helped to turn people around on this. The American people have woken up.
Then we get to re-expression of why this is class warfare. Who has stolen what.
Below I'm paraphrasing more than in the earlier "transcript" ... mostly because Moore's ire gives me difficulty in providing precise sentence definition.
As I said in my speech this weekend in Madison ...
400 people own more wealth than 50% of the people! 400 individuals own more than the poorest 155 Million among us.
I'm sorry, but that isn't the country in which I (want) to live. That shouldn't be so.
I'm going to do my part to get the word out, to be involved. These protests do matter.
(Laughs) In fact this is one of the few times I can say that in my lifetime! Going to (these) demonstrations really has made a difference. People have to come out of their homes in Madison, In Lansing and elsewhere (they're planning a big one in Madison). This is going to continue on in these other states.
Rachel then comments as to why these demonstrations feel different, largely because she says, of the political brittleness of what is being done. That the WI and other Governors did not campaign on the policies they are now pushing onto the people.
RM: They may have demonized unions, they may have talked about down-sizing and all these other things, but they did not campaign on these specific policies.
In other words, it is a classic overreach.
My last piece of transcription - sorry getting a trifle late for me to be typing in - is when Moore holds up his stage prop cuffs, and says this is what is coming for the thieves, the Banksters. This comes at about 8:00 minutes.
Oh, yes, then he had more to say in a second clip following a commercial break.
Here is that second clip.
This includes parts of the speech, nearly impromptu, that Michael made in Madison last weekend.