Michael
Moore And The Great
Barack Hope
By John Murphy
04 November,
2008
Countercurrents.org
I had not seen or heard of the dumpy Democrat for quite some time but on Friday Michael Moore was interviewed by Amy Goodman. Michael Moore, you might remember, was once a progressive who not only understood some of the major problems facing the United States but, at least eight years ago, understood the best way to approach those problems. Four years ago something happened. This one time staunch antiwar liberal who supported Ralph Nader in 2000 became a rabid supporter of the Democrat hawk John Kerry. On the "Democracy Now" program Moore once again announced his plans to support another pro-war Democrat, Barack Obama, who intends leaving 150,000 mercenary troops in Iraq to continue the slaughter there, create a "surge" in Afghanistan in order to slaughter thousands of people in that nation and who has already threatened Iran, Syria, Pakistan, Venezuela and Russia.
When Amy Goodman asked how Michael Moore could say that he was opposed to war and yet support a candidate who has announced his intentions to commit the same crimes against humanity as are being committed by the Bush cabal and which were committed by the Clinton regime, the rotund Republican-lite moviemaker said, "well, I don't know if I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. I'm hoping that he breaks his campaign promise, like all politicians do. I'm counting on him to be a good politician and do that". Michael Moore is hoping that O-BOMB-A is just a liar instead of a mass murderer. One can only imagine that, given his ponderous weight, the arteries to his brain must have become completely clogged.
When Amy Goodman then asked the flabby filmster how he could support an O-BOMB-A presidency given that his health care plan would further enrich the healthcare companies that have contributed so generously to his campaign, Michael Moore confessed that while he supported universal single-payer healthcare, certainly O-BOMB-A would be forced to sign the necessary legislation, HR 676, "if we elect a large majority of Democrats on Tuesday". Mr. Moore continued throwing about his weighty opinion on the issue concluding that "a President Obama, even though that isn't his plan, is not going to veto a bill passed by the Democrats in the Congress who want this passed. So, you know, I'm hoping, I guess, a lot for-you know, for us to have a long period of what people experienced when FDR was first elected in 1932".
Such hope has O-BOMB-A inspired in the once carefully critical producer of "Roger and Me". Still Amy Goodman pressed forward. After reminding Michael Moore of O-BOMB-A's imperialist, Zionist driven, war based foreign policy and his opposition to universal single-payer health care she further reminded her beer and peanuts filled guest that O-BOMB-A, like McCain, had also supported the bailout. How could the one time progressive Michael Moore support such a blatant act of fascism?
Undaunted, Michael Moore barreled on.
"But I'm hoping that he was figuring, well, look, we're just a few weeks away from the election; I'm not going to do anything to rock the boat at this moment, but come November 5th, and certainly January 20th, I'm going to undo the damage that's been done here. So I'm going to just put a little pin in that hope and tack it up on the board for right now. I'm also hoping that Senator Obama is, you know, like all politicians: you know; they don't always keep their campaign promises, right? I mean, it's not unusual. It's certainly not unexpected. They just don't always keep their campaign promises. So, somehow I've told myself that those campaign promises that he will not keep are expanding the war in Afghanistan, pushing a healthcare plan that leaves the profit-making health insurance companies in charge of the plan, and, you know, a number of other things that I think a lot of us are concerned about, but-because, obviously, you're not ever going to agree 100 percent with any candidate on any particular thing. But I'm just-I'm just convinced that these are the campaign promises that perhaps might, you know, not get made-or kept, I should say. So, I don't know... So I'm hoping that he's going to do the right thing here and realize that once he's in office and once he has the proper advice from people who know that just sending in more US troops isn't going to take care of the problem.
A less rigorous journalist would have thrown in the towel at this point but Amy Goodman refused to go down for the count taking one more swing at Michael Moore, but like one of those inflatable punching bags that you had when you were a kid, he just kept bouncing back. Ultimately, like that old punching bag Mr. Moore will end up in the corner slowly deflating and finally being forgotten. With her final swing Ms. Goodman asked about his "thoughts on this being the most expensive presidential campaign in history, with Obama opting out of campaign finance".
Still, the fatty from Flint waddled deeper into incoherence with "Well, you know, yeah, one good thing that Obama could do as soon as he takes office is to say, 'You know, that sucked, what we just went through and what I did, what I participated in, even though it was mostly from small donations. You know, this isn't the way we should be doing this.' And I would love it if he would just propose a plan to remove money from politics and to do what just virtually every other Western democracy does, which is to get the money out of politics".
In what was clearly becoming a futile effort to cut through the layers of psychological lard obscuring Michael Moore's thought processes Amy Goodman further inquired "wouldn't that really largely depend on what people demand and who he is surrounded by and who people demand he is surrounded by, if, in fact, he becomes president"? Whereupon the massive man from Michigan replied, "Well, that's why-yes. And that's why I think that a landslide, in terms of the Congress, in terms of throwing out dozens of Republicans from Congress and from the House and from the Senate, if there is a huge outpouring on Tuesday; I think that will send a very strong message".
When Michael Moore was fired by The Nation Magazine, the only man who would give him a job was Ralph Nader. Perhaps remembering those hard times, Moore suggested "we need to support third, fourth and fifth parties, so that all voices are heard in this country. They need to be at the debates. But in this election, you know, I'm voting for Barack Obama. And it's-you know; we don't have the proper setup to where these other parties have a chance. They should have a chance".
The pudgy politico concluded his comments on O-BOMB-A with: "I don't think there's many of us that are under any sort of delusion that Barack Obama and Joe Biden are going to take us all the way to the promised land, but they are going to stop-they're the tourniquet that's going to stop the bleeding".
To be trite, the interview then went from the ridiculous to the absurd. Mr. Moore introduced a number of proposals for the incoming president which would include reinstating the draft but just for the children of Americans whose earnings fall in the upper 5% of the income distribution. Of course someone making $350,000 year or more you would be in the top 1%. Even that income does not represent great wealth. To be in the top 5% you need only make $153,542. Hardly the super wealthy ruling class folks! In fact there are only about 145,000 Americans, a fraction of 1% of the people, who are also the major contributors to the two political parties, who call the shots. It is that tiny percentage, not the top 5% that need to be held accountable.
Before we put this inflatable political punching bag in the corner and forget about him we cannot ignore the damage he has done nor overlook the contribution he might have made. He is hoping that the candidate he is supporting is simply a liar and not a mass murderer who plans to continue to deprive us of our civil liberties, the right to universal healthcare and the right to develop a truly democratic political system free of the influence of corporate money.
Michael Moore is incorrect when he says that most of Obama's money has come from small contributors. To be sure, a third of Obama's money did in fact come from such contributors but the overwhelming bulk of his money is corporate. To place any hope that such a man would betray his corporate pay masters is naïve at best and patently dangerous. The suggestion that a Democrat majority in the Congress will force Obama to give us universal single-payer healthcare, end corporate welfare, stop the imperialist wars in the Middle East, institute public financing of elections, change our political plutocracy to an actual democracy based on proportional representation and the multiparty system flies in the face of the reality of the 2006 Democrat congress.
We have just witnessed what happens when the Democrats hold a majority in Congress. In order to stop the war, all they had to do was nothing! Ending corporate abuse would have been just as easy but the Democrat Congress would not even impeach the most impeachable President in American history. There is indeed a difference between the Democrats and Republicans. The Republicans were willing to impeach a president for lying under oath about sex while the Democrats were unwilling to impeach a president who lied to us the reasons for going to war, rejected the Bill of Rights, committed torture in the name of the American people and even tapped our telephone conversations without warrant.
Michael Moore and other prominent pseudo-progressives might have actually held O-BOMB-A's feet to the fire. By withholding their support early on, pending his positions at least on healthcare, war, Israel, corporate welfare and campaign finance reform prominent celebrities like Mr. Moore might have at least created an acceptable Democrat presidential candidate. But that's not what Michael Moore did. And other politically active celebrities are pursuing the same destructive course.
Read once again Michael Moore's justification for supporting Barack Obama.
"Well, I don't know if I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. I'm hoping that he breaks his campaign promises."
"If we elect a large majority of Democrats on Tuesday... Obama [will have to pass universal single-payer healthcare]"
"But I'm hoping that he was figuring, well, look, we're just a few weeks away from the election... but come November 5... I'm going to undo this damage that's been done here"
"So somehow I've told myself that those campaign promises he will not keep our expanding the war in Afghanistan, pushing a healthcare plan that leaves the profit-making healthcare insurance companies in charge..."
"But I'm just -- I'm just convinced that these are campaign promises that might, you know, not get made... so, I don't know... I'm hoping he's going to do the right thing."
"And that's why I think a landslide, in terms of the Congress,... I think will send a very strong message."
"Barack Obama and Joe Biden...[are not] going to take us to the promised land -- the attorney could that's going to stop the bleeding".
The once progressive Michael Moore has no good reason for supporting O-BOMB-A other than some bizarre form of psychological transference. Obama is clearly not going to surround himself with the kind of people Michael Moore believes will force him to be a progressive. He has, in fact already selected many advisers from the war criminal Bill Clinton's regime including free marketer Robert Rubin. These are the same Clinton advisers who engineered the deregulatory policies that led to the financial meltdown, and the key free-market fundamentalist policies that are destroying the American economy.
O-BOMB-A has so ingratiating himself to AIPAC that any hope for peace in the Middle East is pure illusion. Where is the hope? Where is the change? The great Barack hope proposes a foreign policy that supports Israeli territorial expansion, economic and social justice policies that benefit corporations and multimillionaires and their billionaire mentors.
Michael Moore presents no logical argument for progressives, or anyone else for that matter, to vote for O-BOMB-A. No logical argument for progressives to vote for a warmonger, a free trade, free market neoliberal who plans to make his administration the third term of Bill Clinton. He presents only the irrational illusion of rhetoric based, Madison Avenue constructed fantasy.
John
Murphy is the independent candidate for House of Representatives
in the 16th congressional district of Pennsylvania. He has been endorsed
by Mike Gravel, Ralph Nader and Howard Zinn. He is also one of the
founding members of the Pennsylvanian Ballot Access Coalition , working
to change ballot access laws in Pennsylvania. He can be reached at:
www.johnmurphyforcongress.org
