The Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC
Saturday, August 28, 2010 at 10:09PM
On MSNBC's The Dylan Ratigan Show, Tom talks about America’s lack of outrage toward the government for the bad economy, corrupt politicians and two unpopular wars.
Working transcript:
Dylan Ratigan: By most accounts Americans ought to be pretty unhappy with the current state of our union. The economy in the tank, or at least with two classes. Giant business and corporations controlling the government and everybody else getting screwed by the giant corporations that control our government. Unemployment has reached epic proportions, scales of which we have not seen since the Great Depression. The Wall Street banksters who helped torpedo our financial system are not only still stealing but continue to use the money they steal to accumulate more political influence to make it easier for them to steal, without politics having to vote on things like the t.a.r.p. They just go to the fed and print money. We are fighting two wars, meanwhile, that have lost the lives of over 5,000 Americans, blew through over a trillion dollars, Again the money printer at the fed helps. And corrupt politicians are outdone not only by their own incompetence, whether you go to the left, are the right. Thinking that's going to help you. Now perpetuation of everything we're describing and a country that may switch back to the right, I'm not sure the solution is there either. So with all that said, where is the outrage? Why aren’t we grabbing pitchforks and storming the Capital demanding the ending of employer-based health care? Where's the '60s era activism that ushered in a civil rights legislation. We are now a trillion dollars in the Middle East and a war that two-thirds of the country, whether it’s the Iraq war, Afghanistan, doesn't even think we should be fighting. We're firing police, firing firefighters. Teachers. Why aren't Americans doing anything meaningful to change things? Joining us now is Tom Hayden, a veteran of the 60s. Mr. Hayden, it's a pleasure to have your company this afternoon. Do you agree with my assessment?
Tom Hayden: I have two words for you: right on.
DR: Go on.
TH: I think we may be in a temporary lull before you see the protests you're talking about. I would compare it to the early '30s more than the early '60s, but both are work looking at. And what happened in the 30s, my grandfather, grandmother lost everything in the Great Depression. Nobody knew what to do. They were doubling up. They were selling apples. They were hoping Roosevelt would do something. But when the recovery was slow then people started to take to the streets. They organized the unions and the consumer groups, and you got the New Deal. So that would be the model I would predict would be followed here.
DR: Corruption infiltrates every last piece of our government. There's an argument that six major industries control the entire U.S. government regardless of whatever political party the telecommunications, banking, health care, defense, agriculture, energy, that these industries control everything that happens in our government, and they control it to the detriment of other people and our country and to their benefit.
TH: Well, they don’t control everything. They don't control our conversation. They don't control what people out there do. Social movements have always led the way to major reforms in the history of the United States. Whether it’s abolition of slavery, or women's right to vote, or the anti-war reforms in the 1960s. That’s, that's the pattern. Right now the Tea Party is on the rise, because they're the counter movement, trying to top the 60s and the 30s. And the Tea Party is going to encourage people to get off their behinds, demand jobs and the end of the wars. That would be my prediction. The lull, or the honeymoon, for President Obama is over.
DR: If you were to look at modern life. Particularly modern student life going back to your leadership and organizing in the 1960s on a matter of the war, on a matter of civil rights and social liberation, if you were to look at this as a matter of war and economic liberation, obviously economic injustice through the centralized control of money printing at the government on behalf of large corporations as the basic issues, and as a result the price of everything in the country is screwed up the. If you were to look at the modern student culture, Twitter, Facebook, all the digital aspects, blogging, that are gratifying to the user. I send a tweet. I've expressed myself in some way. But I haven't really made a -- delivered an impact. How would you organize a modern day political campaign using the current technology, not just to express yourself, but to actually have an impact?
TH: Well, number one, there are big differences from the '60s. We were facing the draft, automatic if you were a guy. On the other hand, we did not have the right the vote. And it cost me $100 semester to go to the University of Michigan. Today students are facing all these staggering problems of debt, and these wars, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and on and on and on, what the Pentagon calls the Long War, are trillions of dollars that are not funded by taxes. They're unfunded, unwinnable wars, and they're a huge shadow on the student's future, but students are not being drafted for them. Students have shown a tremendous capacity to organize when they think that something is possible, especially if it seems practical. Take the Obama campaign. Without the students and the young people. Without moveon.org, without the use of online organizing by all those 20 somethings, Obama may not be president.
DR: I have to wrap this up. Ten seconds or less, if you were to organize around something today, what would it be? What would you ask for?
TH: Well, end the trillions of dollars spent on the long war and put it into educational opportunity. Especially community college, higher education and green jobs.
DR: End the war and invest in education. A real pleasure to make the acquaintance.
Reader Comments (1)
We need more media people like Dylan. And more people to vote to take the "mock" out of democracy at http://Vote.org It's a vote for Sen. Mike Gravel's National ballot Initiative project -endorsed by Tom Hayden, and other famous folks from Patch Adams to Howard Zinn!