Michael Moore Urges Americans To Embrace That Wisconsin Feeling

PoliticusUSA
By Jason Easley

In an interview on MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show, Michael Moore urged the American people to continue the fight that began in Wisconsin and not stop until our liberties are secure, “This has to continue day after day after day, and these governors are going to have to step down. They are going to be recalled. They are going to be impeached. They have broken the law. There is no way they can get away with this.”

Michael Moore urged everyone who can to drive to Madison and join the protest, “I just want to say anybody who lives within driving distance of Madison, Wisconsin right now should make their way to the capitol. I would love to see thousands of people there right now, in that capitol building, in the rotunda, on the lawn, whatever it takes. Really, this is really — this is war. This is a class war that’s been leveled against the working people of this country and at some point, people are going to have to stand up and say nonviolently this is enough. We are not taking it anymore, and i think these actions that happened today in Wisconsin and in Michigan where the governor, and the senate today in Michigan, the house passed a version of this bill, they’re going to get together now hopefully that’s their plan, and the governor will sign it, and they are stripping the democratic rights of the people of the state of Michigan.”

Moore talked about Michigan, and the history of the rich’s war on the rest of us, “They literally, at this point, the governor can dissolve a town. The elected officials of the town. A month ago if you or I on this show, Rachel, said I think the government should have the ability to remove the elected mayor and city council of any town it feels like and put in one guy in charge of the town, what do you think would have been written or said about us. The fact they think they can get away with this, you said it all in the last segment. What happened three years ago in 2008, what happened is they realized that they could get away with murder. They realized they could loot the Treasury, play with people’s pension funds on Wall Street, they could destroy the economy, they could essentially did what they could to eliminate the middle class and there would be no response from the people, there would be no revolt. People would take it and people took it.”

Michael Moore continued, “People have been taking now for about 30 years, ever since Reagan fired the air traffic controllers and we should have stopped them then. People shouldn’t have crossed the picket lines; people shouldn’t have flown the planes. Once they saw they could get away with that 30 years ago, bit by bit by bit, up until 2008, that was the big enchilada for them, they got away with it, none of them are in jail for this theft, and so it comes now 2011. Hey, why don’t we just vote to take away people’s democratic rights? We can eliminate the mayor of a town. We can just dissolve a school district. In Wisconsin, we could just take away the right of working people to sit down and talk across the table about things that are a concern. They think they can get away with this. They honestly think they can get away with it.”

Moore then called for mass protests, “I hope tomorrow people in Michigan or in Lansing rotunda packing the place on Friday afternoon, the students, i just read this on the internet, students in Madison, Wisconsin are calling for it not only in Wisconsin but nationwide student walkout of high schoolers. Last hour of school is 2:00 in the afternoon. Wherever 2:00 is in your time zone, you walk out of that school, call the local media, blog about it, take pictures, get everybody organized. There’s going to be a massive student walkout Friday afternoon. Tomorrow in Indiana, 20,000 people you mentioned there, hopefully more at the state capitol. This has to continue day after day after day, and these governors are going to have to step down. They are going to be recalled. They are going to be impeached. They have broken the law. There is no way they can get away with this.

Moore later explained how the protests are making a difference, “it already — look at the change in the polls you cited in one month. public opinion of the governor of Wisconsin, of the legislature, of support for unions and their rights, everything has turned in favor of the working people, and it’s been because the people in Madison and the people of Wisconsin have stood up, have been there every single day, helped to turn people around on this. The American people have woken up. I think this is, I mean, I said in the speech there on Saturday, 400 Americans now have amassed more wealth than 50% of the American households combined. 400 people have more than 155 million people, combined! I’m sorry, that’s not the country I live in.”

Michael Moore urged the protesters to continue, “I refuse to participate in this. I am going to do my part, whatever I can, to get the word out and get people involved. These protests do matter. in fact, this is one of the few times I can say that in my lifetime, actually going to a demonstration really has made a difference, and people have got to come out of their homes tomorrow in Lansing, in Madison, in Indianapolis, and across the weekend, they are planning a huge rally in Madison Saturday afternoon, and this is going to continue on in the other states.”
Moore is correct. These protests are making a big difference. All of that anger that supposedly belonged to the Tea Party has shifted to the left. Interestingly, the source of the anger is the same. People are angry about losing their rights, and their democracy. The big difference is that what’s going on in Wisconsin is real. This is not an illusion of civic anger ginned up by right wing billionaires in order to provide political cover to mask their true agenda.

The Tea Partiers may be angry about the bailouts, but the irony is that the people who benefited from the bailouts, or would have benefited from killing health care reform were the ones paying for the signs, the buses, and the organizers that the Tea Party protesters were using. The Tea Party as “grassroots” movement was never a danger to the GOP billionaire boys club, because the corporate interests already owned it. In contrast, what Wisconsin has inspired is a true awakening of the left.

The Republicans in Wisconsin did the worst thing that they could have possibly done if they wanted this situation to go away. By illegally ramming through the bill, they have exponentially added to the protesters fire. The Republicans assumed that once they pushed through this bill, the protesters would go away. It would be over. They won, but what may very well end up happening here is that their nuclear option gets declared illegal in court, and many of these Republican senators end up recalled.

By doing what they did in the way that they did it, Republicans didn’t win the battle, and they lost the war. In one month the Wisconsin situation has fundamentally changed the dynamics of American politics. The people are angry, and Republicans and their corporate masters, not Obama and the Democrats, are going to pay.

Years of anger over the Great Economic Robbery of 2008 has boiled over. The American people have been pushed too far, and now it’s their turn to push back.

Video from Moore's Wisconsin Appearance



Watch the Racheal Maddow Interview at Politicususa

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