Michael Moore’s self-serving propaganda
ByOctober 2, 2009
Michael Moore, the overweight, unmade bed of a filmmaker who fashions himself the conscience of America, has laid down the law to Congress — adopt a public option in health-care reform or he will personally see that those who opposed it will pay the price in next year’s midterm balloting. That includes all the traitorous moderate to conservative Democrats he believes should be relieved of their party credentials for philosophical malfeasance.
According to press reports, Moore, who never saw a liberal cause he couldn’t champion, came to town to promote his latest exercise in truth-saying about capitalism just as the Senate Finance Committee was rejecting two attempts to include the creation of a public alternative to private insurance in the proposed overhaul of the health care system it will send to the full Senate. Oddly enough his threats seemed not to deter the Democratic-controlled panel one whit. Even committee chairman Max Baucus voted against the public plan, arguing that with it, the reform bill could not withstand a filibuster when it reaches the Senate floor.
“I and a lot of other people have every intention of removing you from Congress . . . if you stand in the way of health-care legislation the people want,” Moore was quoted as telling a rally here. “We will come to your districts and work against you, first in the primary, then, if we have to, in the general election. You think we’re going to go along with you just because you’re Democrats? You should think again.”
To paraphrase Little Ned Pepper’s response to a similar threat from Rooster Cogburn in the movie “True Grit,” that’s brave talk for a four-eyed fat man.
But that’s sort of the way it has been in Hollywood East the last couple of weeks with the squabble over health care becoming more intense and the chief advocate for wholesale revision, President Barack Obama, off trying to convince the rest of the world to be as miffed at Iran as we are over its nuclear ambitions while at the same time wrestling with what to do about Afghanistan. Then just when it looks as though the president finally has decided to be presidential instead of someone still campaigning for another job, maybe Chicago alderman, he announces that he plans to do something really important like join his wife, Michelle, in Copenhagen to lobby for selection of Chicago as the site of the 2016 Olympics. All politics are local, the late House Speaker, Tip O’Neil, used to say.
There is some irony in the entire Olympic business. Jimmy Carter, also a Democrat, kept the United States out of the 1980 Moscow Olympics to protest the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. The only adverse impact of that was on the U. S. athletes, some that never got another shot at the competition. Now here we are in the midst of Afghanistan and another president, also a Democrat, appears personally before the International Olympic Committee, asking it to ignore our own operations in Afghanistan and select an American city for the games eight years from now. Presumably, the United States will be out of Kabul by then but for one probably shouldn’t wager too much on that prospect.
It is a good bet, however, that at some point before 2016 Michael Moore will be searching for another box office bonanza by uncovering the real truth about how a city or country wins the dubious honor of being chosen as an Olympic site, as if everyone didn’t already know. That is, of course, if Moore still isn’t busy trying to turn the Democratic Party into a one-voice entity for liberalism.
For that matter, the solons on Capitol Hill still may be engaged in the struggle over health care by that date and we still will be trying to bring about some detente in the Middle East if Iran hasn’t blown it to smithereens because the IOC didn’t pick Teheran for 2020. Perhaps had the president spent more time acting like one … but who knows?
(E-mail Dan K. Thomasson, former editor of the Scripps Howard News Service, at thomassondan(at)aol.com.)
8 Responses to Michael Moore’s self-serving propaganda
JeremiahJones
October 2, 2009 at 9:32 am
What a muddled rant! Moore to Obama to Carter, oh my. The only discernible point is, “Dan disapproves of ‘liberalism.’ ”
So what?
AustinRanter
October 2, 2009 at 12:14 pm
I read about Moore’s threat to those who don’t support else where. It wasn’t a commentary, but rather just a reported statement by Moore.
Despite his intentions, Moore doesn’t have deep enough pockets to carry out his threat.
Politicians are in office not by their own devise. There are very powerful corporate/lobbyists and political machines who decide on who makes it in office…and who departs.
The voters are nothing more than a traveling circus side-show that participates in a process that is an illusion of power by the people.
johnfranklin
October 2, 2009 at 1:00 pm
Moore’s threats didn’t scare congress out of blocking the health care option. You can see video of him making these statements here: http://bit.ly/3g6OU
MightyMo
October 2, 2009 at 2:40 pm
Maybe what Moore needs is more support from others like him; American citizens!
Congress doesn’t represent us, the people. It represents business and money, and the people will lose every time.
Moore, whether you agree with him or not, does his best to represent the people. He also takes what are twisted truths, and translates them into facts that we can chose to use or not use.
His movie Sicko were facts that demonstrates to us what health care can be, not the lies being passed by our money hungry conservative representatives.
We don’t have to like him, but it’s probably in our best interests to stand by someone who appears to be willing to make a strong stance at the front of the crowd.
Nogood
October 2, 2009 at 2:59 pm
The truth hurts, doesn’t it? And just because someone disagrees with Mr. Moore, the truth still stands. As in “Sicko”, “Captalism” reveals some ugly truths.
Sandra Price
October 4, 2009 at 10:31 am
Mr. Moore reveals the truth about the power behind….not the corporations…but the congress who are so easily bought off to vote for the corporations and not the American people.
Sure money is offered to the House and Senate for votes but it is the congress who accepts the arrangement. Lobbying is legal and many wonderful organizations who represent people’s rights have their lobbyists working for them. What these people do is keep an eye on bills that are coming up in the Congress and then it is up to the membership to act with phone calls, faxes and emails. This is how the system is supposed to work. Now we see pay for play in both sides of the aisle. Vote the bastards out of office and stop whining…..
My own very Republican/Christian/Straight/White men accept money from anyone and can be counted on to keep the system in their own hands. Even in Arizona we need to throw the bastards out of office.
The American people are too lazy to take even a simple action to warn others of the payola taken by their own Congressional members. Apathy runs our government and we are exactly where we should be.
Nogood, what we have seen at this time is a government far too large for even simple laws to be exposed, made or defeated. We use to be a government by the people but that was before television.
There is no difference between the Right and Left. They both have an agenda well hidden from the people. They take what is offered for their own wealth and to hell with the rights of individuals. The authority of the government is too big and neither side wins.
dandraver
October 3, 2009 at 9:03 pm
maybe someone can explain to me what EXACTLY medical insurance companies provide besides alot of money for politicians? Seriously, what do they do?? They aren’t doing surgeries, doling out pharmaceuticals, diagnosing illness.
issodhos
October 3, 2009 at 9:52 pm
I suspect that Michael Moore, capitalist and multi-millionaire, probably giggles a bit each time he hears the sound of a cash register ringing up another ticket or book sale, while thinking how easy it is for him to separate his fans from their money. It seems all he has to do is tell them what they want to hear.
Yours,
Issodhos