With a book title like “Greedy Bastards,” you’d expect MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan to have a naughty list. But the television host and first time author swears he’s not talking about specific individuals in his brand new book, it’s bad behavior that’s getting to him. “There’s a fantasy that we all have that if we could find a room full of ‘Greedy Bastards’ that we would solve [the country’s] problems,” he said. “But unfortunately the problem is just a little bit more complex.”
Being a problem solver is how Ratigan has branded himself in the two and a half years he’s been at MSNBC and the book is an extension of that. He calls out bad behavior, acknowledges those in the country who are actually solving stuff when it comes to issues like education, health care and clean energy, all the while spewing out his own ideas faster than Newt Gingrich.
At first people didn’t know quite what to make of him. “The liberals don’t like you because they think you’re a Wall Street guy,” he said, referencing his CNBC roots. “And the conservatives don’t like you because they think you’re a liberal on MSNBC.”
Now, however, Ratigan feels like people understand he’s not perfectly partisan. “I feel like for the first time since I’ve been doing this I’m being judged and evaluated and criticized more for what I actually think and am trying to do, which is much more rewarding than having to fight ghosts that aren’t real.”
And in the eyes of Ratigan, that’s what’s wrong with American politics, anyway. “It’s a sport — that your point of view on abortion or the environment should have something to do with your point of view on the financial system and investment — it’s truly insane,” he said. “And so what I’m hoping to push … is to encourage people to fill the stadium, not to encourage one party to fight the other, but to debate around issues that we need to talk about.”
