OLBERMANN: In 2009, my next guest anticipated last night’s tea party call to let the uninsured drop dead without medical care. Alan Grayson, then a Florida Congressman got on the floor of the House and said, “The Republicans want you to die quickly if you get sick.” To stay he took a lot of criticism for that understates the case just a little bit. And as last night proved, he was right.
I am joined now by the former Florida Congressman Alan Grayson. Good evening, sir.
ALAN GRAYSON: Good evening.
OLBERMANN: Your immediate reaction to last night?
GRAYSON: Well, in fact, it does prove that I was right, but I wish I was wrong. We belong to a 3,000-year-old tradition in this country where you shelter the homeless, you feed the hungry and you heal the sick. And it’s amazing to me that at this late date after all of this time, we’re still debating a fundamental question like this. We have so many problems in this country. We have 23 million people who can’t find a job, a full-time job. We have 47 million people in this country who need the government’s help to feed themselves. We have 50 million people in this country who can’t see a doctor when they’re sick. We have 15 million families who owe more on their mortgage than the value of their homes. And all of those people could end up very quickly living in their cars. And to all of those people, the tea party has only this to say. All they want to say to them is, “You can go to Hell.”
OLBERMANN: And there’s even one stage beyond that, isn’t there? I mean, it’s really — It’s “I’d rather see you die than see my taxes go up or my taxes not go down”? Is that where we are?
GRAYSON: It’s — No, it’s worse than that. They see — they take pleasure in other people’s pain. The interesting thing about them is that they have this enormous threshold for pain as long as it’s someone else’s.
OLBERMANN: Yep.
GRAYSON: That’s the saddest thing. It’s sadism.
OLBERMANN: All right, when see sadism, I’ve noticed a dearth to some degree of anger. I felt it within, but even sitting here now, it’s hard for me to express my reaction to this in terms of anger. And you and I have both gotten angry on this very subject. Is it more sadness or horror that these are people who live among us or that this is something we have to contend with to make a society that isn’t handing out bouquets and gold bricks to everybody, but is just keeping everybody alive for a couple of extra months or a couple of extra years or as long as they possibly can be? What is the appropriate response? What is the functional response to this?
GRAYSON: Listen, 2,000 years ago, it’s the same people, the same kind of mentality that was cheering when the lions ate the Christians. It’s always been with us. There’s always been a dark side to us. But we have to fight it. We have to make sure that in the end, we are decent human beings. Look, I was on a plane today and somebody saw that I was in front of the plane and my bag was in the back of the plane. He took the bag. He brought it to the front of the plane. I don’t know his name. I’ll never see him again. I have no idea who he is, but he showed me human kindness. Not just American kindness, but human kindness. That’s who we really are. And there’s plenty of us among us who recognize that.
OLBERMANN: And not to turn this into sermonette or something, but the tea party as you know infuses religion into everything. Where was the Christianity in that response last night? That sounded more like devil worshipers to me, actually.
GRAYSON: Right, I would suggest they go back and read the sermon on the mount. Maybe it’ll have new meaning for them now.
OLBERMANN: And again, to try to figure out what to do about this, it’s seemingly much more of a dilemma than you would think at first glance. As I said, I’m having trouble summoning the anger even though I know I feel it. It’s more horror and — as if you knew a great terrible truth was revealed last night and you need to tell people about it. Should the Democrats run with that clip, should that be a part of everybody’s campaign next year, that one little sequence or an explanation of what that means?
GRAYSON: What it comes down to is very simple. And you don’t just see it on that clip because it does summarize it, but it summarizes a much larger truth. The larger truth is that these people who claim to be pro-life are actually pro-death. And they glorify and sanctify other people’s pain. That’s what it comes down to. They are callous, bigoted tools and that’s the so-called loyal opposition, these days, in America. And that’s the underlying truth the Democrats failed to bring out in the 2010 election, and must bring out in the 2012 election or God help us all.
OLBERMANN: Indeed. How do we do it?
GRAYSON: Oh, very simple. Show people that clip. Make the point. Don’t feel like you have to compromise when you’re talking about people’s lives, when you’re talking about life and death. There is no compromise between life and death. You take away people’s Social Security, you’re hurting old people. You take away people’s Medicare, you’re hurting old, sick people. You take away people’s Medicaid, you’re hurting old — sorry — not old — poor, sick people. That’s the truth that needs to be brought out. The pain that corresponds to taking all of these things away from people. You know, the thing that has motivated the tea party, it seems, is the fear. They claim that something’s being taken away from them. And they’re using that fear to take away something from everybody else. And that’s the sense that we’re all in this together, that we do have responsibilities to each other, that I am my brother’s keeper.
OLBERMANN: There is no compromise between life and death. Well said, sir, the former and we hope the future Congressman from Florida, Alan Grayson. Thanks again. Good to see you.
GRAYSON: Thank you.
