Moore: Democrats behaving like 'frightened animals'
March 11, 2010
"Democrats are in for an ass-whipping of biblical proportions in November if they don't get off the dime and do the job they were sent there to do," he said on The Rachel Maddow Show. "Don't they see that?"
Moore acknowledged Maddow's point that the party controlling the presidency almost always loses seats in the mid-terms historically, but claimed Democrats can avoid that "by having the courage of their convictions."
Echoing remarks from his interview with Raw Story last week, the filmmaker contrasted the purportedly tepid Democratic spirit with the zeal Republicans have in advancing their agenda when in power.
"When the Republicans come into town, they get in the hummer, and they drive down Pennsylvania Avenue and mow down anybody in sight," Moore quipped. "They walk into Congress with both guns blazing, and they say 'we were sent here to do a job,' and then they do the job."
"Democrats come in," he continued, proceeding to mock them in a baby voice "and go, 'Oh, hi, hi. I guess we don't need universal health care for everybody. We can, we can, no we can compromise. It's okay.'"
Pulling no punches, he said, "They used to at least sing 'Kumbaya.' Now they go in like frightened animals. I don't understand it."
Maddow played a clip from Moore's latest documentary Capitalism: A Love Story and asked the Oscar-winning filmmaker why Democrats haven't implemented stronger banking regulations "even in the midst of the financial system collapsing."
"They are blind and they are deaf to all of this," Moore said, predicting that "the next collapse or crash is right around the corner." He alleged that the issue hasn't been dealt with because banks are "lining the pockets of our members of Congress."
He argued that the American public admires leaders with courage, even if they disagree with their political views.
"Americans don't really see themselves as Democrats or Republicans. They want somebody in there who believes in something, who's going to go for it," he said, claiming that progressives are likely to be "depressed" and stay home in the November elections if Democrats don't assert the power of their majority status.
Summing up their very friendly exchange, Moore called Maddow a "force for good and a national treasure."
"Whoa," responded The Nation's Washington editor Chris Hayes on Twitter. "Lefty media stars of the world, unite!"
In a cut scene from Capitalism that Moore provided exclusively to Raw Story, he interviews a former New York Times reporter who alleges that capitalism is bringing about the downfall of humanity by allegedly encouraging society to ignore climate change.
Although Moore has a devoted following of progressives, he is often criticized as being too unwavering and extreme in his political viewpoints.
This video is from MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show, broadcast March 10, 2010.
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