If you didn't see Jesse La Greca (Ministry of Truth) this morning facing off against George Will, Donna Brazile, Peggy Noonan, Matthew Dowd, and Christiane Amanpour, you can see it now. (Well, if you can sit through a commercial first...) There's some preliminary shots to set up the story, pronouncements from the regular round table crew who get to pontificate and tell us what we should think. And then the fun begins.
Watch the clueless aristocrats wrinkle their noses in disgust. Listen to the DC establishment try to wrap their minds around the spectacle of a commoner being heard, one who's not following the script. See an actual live working person speak his mind clearly, plainly, and politely.
Jesse did a wonderful job of cutting through the war of sound bites and the attempted framing. Brazile makes encouraging noises while keeping some distance. Will wants to see OWS get as much air time as possible - so the country will be turned off and vote for Richard Nixon and George Wallace or their equivalents into the indefinite future. Noonan doesn't think they should be ignored, but also thinks it's too soon to know if they're a legitimate grass roots movement - like the Tea Party. Dowd just thinks the Republicans should co-opt them and run against Wall Street.
Amanpour was the gracious hostess, enjoying her little soiree being enlivened by an excitingly dangerous guest who'd normally never get past the door. All very nice - and quick to move on when time was up.
It was a Twilight Zone moment - it was like a window to another dimension opened up and a different reality broke through. The regulars were faced with a living, breathing embodiment of everything antithetical to the hermetically sealed Villager culture they inhabit. For a moment, the balance of the universe trembled. (Like this episode of Star Trek.)
Actual Must-See TV! The Revolution is being televised - for the moment.
middleagedhouswife is putting a transcript together - see it over the jump!
From comments, thanks to middleagedhousewife for putting a transcript together. Here's part 1:
Christiane: George, the protesters are railing against Wall Street. It’s a lot of what the Tea Party did in the early days. Is there a comparison to be made here?
Will: No, because the Tea Party was the bourgeoisie in revolt and they immediately went into the business of winning elections and running candidates. I disagree with some of the Republicans. I, I wish for the OWS demonstrators long life and ample publicity for two reasons [note: Peggy Noonan’s fawning, smirk here is priceless]. I think they do represent the spirit and intellect of the American left, but also, I remember the 1960s. We had 4 years of demonstrations like this leading up to 1968 when Nixon/Wallace vote was 57% of the country reacting against the demonstrators, and Republicans went on to win 5 of the next 6 presidential elections.
Donna: I disagree. I don’t think it’s the same protestors that showed up in the late 60s, early 70s. I think this represents a different movement.
Christiane: Is it Tea Party like?
Donna: Tea Party like? Well, I don’t know. I hope it’s heavy on coffee and not on tea, but I do believe that it’s a legitimate movement that grew out of the public outrage over the debt ceiling debate when many Americans saw members of congress basically sitting on their hands doing nothing. These are educated people who cannot find jobs. They have worked hard, played by the rules, and they believe that Wall Street has not been held to account for their actions that created the mess in the first place.
Christiane: Peggy, do you think that people are too quick to dismiss them?
Peggy: Aaaahh, maybe, look, to a certain degree, the OWS folks are reflective of a bitterness that has not gone away in America in the past three years that has accentuated as the economy has gotten worse. A bitter sense out there that Washington, and the investment banks of NY tanked the American economy and paid no price for it. That having been said, OWS, these protestors is nothing like the Tea Party. The Tea Party rose up spontaneously, as I assume these folks have, but they were mature, they had a program, they had a political point of view that they were going to put into legislative action. They made serious political decisions about not going third party. They were real. We don’t yet know yet that these folks are real. Can I tell you though, the Republican party should not take the bait of OWS, and they should not do this replaying of 1968 where the Republicans say, “protesters are bad.” The protesters are doing their thing. Let them be.
Dowd: I think the Republicans are making a huge mistake on this, because I think if I were a Republican candidate, or advising a Republican candidate today, I would say, “Adopt this populist movement,” because right now, I think the Republican party has forgotten who their base is. The Republican party’s base is not Wall Street. The Republican party’s base is a middle class, small town, rural vote out there, and not to say the Republicans agree with that, but I think the Eric Cantors and everybody else out there who are dismissing these folks, if I were Michele Bachmann or somebody else in that field, I would say, this is a Main Street vs. Wall Street problem; these protesters are saying the right thing. They may not have the right policies, but be a populist, and be a populist Republican attacking Wall Street.
Christiane: OK, we’ve spoken a lot about them. I’m now going to bring in Jesse LaGreca who is a blogger for the liberal web site Daily Kos, and he’s been a fixture at the Wall Street protest. So Jesse, you’ve been listening to all of these descriptions of your movement. Where do you come down? I mean, we’ve talked about it as being immature, it hasn’t had a policy, sort of directive. What is it you are sort of trying to consolidate around there?
Jesse: I think the matter at hand is that the working class people in America, you know, the 99% of Americans who aren’t wealthy, and aren’t prospering in this economy have been entirely ignored by the media. Our political leaders pander to us, but they don’t take action. They stand in the way of change. They filibuster on behalf of the wealthiest 1%; they fold on behalf of the wealthiest 1%. So, the conversation we need to have is about the future, about what type of country we really want to be, and I think the most important thing we can do in our occupation is to continue to push the narrative that’s been ignored by so many pundits and political leaders. I mean, the reality is, I’m the only working class person you’re going to see on Sunday news, political news, maybe ever; and I think that’s very indicative of the failures of our media to report on the news that matters most to our working class people.
Christiane: We are trying our best, Jesse, ..
Jesse: And I thank you.
Christiane: and I want to ask you, some of your, you know, most vociferous supporters, you know like our colleague Paul Krugman, have spoken quite glowingly about this populist movement, and you’ve even heard people around this table saying that it should be harnessed, but also saying that it’s the moment now, to perhaps try to translate that into some kind of political question, political demand. Is there something that you can make this about?
Continued...
Jesse: I think the entire movement is about economic justice, I mean to me, and I’m not speaking in behalf of OWS, I’m just giving my personal opinion, I think it’s a matter of economic rights, and I think it’s a matter of social rights and social justice; and to the people who would take offense at the word “social” being placed before “justice,” I’d invite them to re-read the constitution.
Christiane: Let me ask George Will who wanted to ask you a quick question.
Will: Mr. LaGreca, I hear a certain dissonance in your message. Your message is, “Washington is corrupt. Washington is the handmaiden of the powerful,” and a lot of conservatives agree with that, but then you say, this corrupt Washington that’s the handmaiden of the powerful should be much more powerful in regulating our lives. Why do you want a corrupt government bigger in our lives?
Jesse: You know, I find that a lot of these conversations about the government tend to deflect away from Wall Street, because, let’s be honest. The lobbyists have enormous power, and they’ve shut out the voice of the American people. So, I think we should demand a government that is listening to people, and I find it ironic that when people demand action from their government, suddenly people tend to overreact and say, “Well that’s out of control government.”
Our government is a function of our democracy. By attacking the government, we are attacking democracy. So, to me, I think, yes, we should ask our government to represent the will of the people, and the will of the people are demanding action, then they should follow suit.
Christiane: Do you think these demonstrations are going to have momentum? I mean, is it going to continue now, day after day?
Jesse: Absolutely. People are extremely excited about what we’re doing. We’re engaging in a direct democracy conversation. I mean, the General Assembly is really the new Town Hall, and we don’t have a filibuster. We don’t have lobbyists. We don’t have a system that can be co-opted, and I invite everybody to come down and talk to us.
Christiane: Jesse, thank you so much, indeed, I appreciate you being here.
Let me ask you Donna, clearly, unions and other democratic organizations are jumping on this. Is this something that the Democratic party feels will energize it as the Tea Party did the Republican party?
Donna: There is no question that Democrats recognize the strength of this movement. This is a grassroots movement. On the other hand, I don’t believe that the party itself should try to lead this. Yes, teachers, firefighters, many others who have been impacted by the ongoing recession, they have a legitimate right to go out there and protest. George, many of these Americans are feeling the effect of the economy, foreclosures. How many Americans out there have lost their homes, or their homes are underwater? This is a legitimate movement, and we should not try to marginalize it.
Christiane: Peggy, I was stunned by your column this week where you were talking about a group of Wall Street, sorry Walmart moms, and you were talking about people who were taking extraordinary steps to save money: donating blood, ..
Peggy: yes,..
Christiane: collecting aluminum cans, ..
Peggy: yes, they are, I think we can all sometimes miss what is really happening in America. America is in distress. It’s in immediate distress, paying the bills, foreclosures, etc. But another kind of distress its under, is Americans are smart, and they can tell, this ain’t gonna get better for a while. So there is a certain, bitterness is too strong a word, despair is too strong, but maybe very upset, and not feeling so great about the future.
It seems to me the question about OWS is this: what. Is. Your. Plan. Are ya gonna spend the next six months blocking the Brooklyn Bridge? Or are you going to harness a movement into political action which means getting together with each other in living rooms [Peggy, dear, some of us don’t have living rooms any more], deciding …
Crosstalk
Christiane: I’m going to have to ask Jesse that. Very quickly, did you hear that, Jesse? Are you still there?
Jesse: Yes, I’m still here.
Christiane: Are you going to harness this into a political movement, or are you going to, you know, hang out for months?
Jesse: What I find amusing, it that now people are looking to us to solve the political problems, and they should. But I’m not going to support one party or the other. I’m not going to tell you who to vote for, but I will encourage you to be a voter.
I think we have succeeded tremendously in pushing the narrative that working class people can no longer be ignored, and I think that it’s very important that we have this conversation, because it’s about the future of our country.
You know, right now, working class people are being told to sacrifice. We’re being told that our future is going to have to be put on hold in the name of austerity, and I can’t name a single country that has succeeded in solving their economic problems with austerity. So, I think the more important thing to do, is to come out and speak to us. The town halls that you see are very top heavy. Our political leaders come and try to sell us a message.
Christiane: OK
Jesse: They should be listening to us.
Christiane: Alright, Jesse, thank you very much, indeed.
middleagedhousewife: My personal thoughts: (1) Jesse handled that beautifully and gracefully!!!! (2) Peggy Noonan is odious. (3) Please, someone who sees Jesse at OWS, please get him some throat lozenges. He sounds like he's really getting a sore throat (sorry -- the mom in me won't be quiet sometimes).
"On their backs were vermiculate patterns that were maps of the world in its becoming. Maps...of a thing which could not be put back. Not be made right again."
by middleagedhousewife on Sun Oct 09, 2011 at 10:32:13 AM PDT
Mon Oct 10, 2011 at 12:54 PM PT: Wow - amazed this is still hanging on the bottom of the rec list. It's an indication of just what a job Jesse LaGreca did - the ripples are still spreading. Many thanks to middleagedhousewife for doing the transcript - I suspect there's a lot of cutting and pasting going out there, something to email to those knee-jerk conservative relatives or people who want an honest explanation of what is bringing people to Occupy Wall Street events around the country.
What happened Sunday morning is a rare collision of received wisdom from the Villagers with reality. Did it hit a nerve? Will it spread? I keep thinking of the Frank Capra classic "Meet John Doe". (Hopefully this won't turn out to be an exact remake...) It was about what happened when a member of the press accidentally tapped into the real angst being felt by the public at a time of economic distress, followed by a cynical attempt to capitalize on it and co-opt the movement. It's looking more and more timely as Occupy Wall Street continues to confound the media. Ministry of Truth Jesse LaGreca as Gary Cooper? Hmmmmm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/...