I saw Michael Moore’s movie today.
He does a good job of attacking President Bush. He makes his points clearly; you do not need to be an expert to follow the argument.
Those points include:
- how Bush allies in Florida engaged in nefarious activities which set the stage for Bush’s selection as President by judicial activists on the Supreme Court
- the long-time, intimate association of the Houses of Bush and Saud
- the Administration’s fixation on Iraq from the beginning and the false stories (WMD, Iraq-al Qaeda connections) that led us into the war
- the failure to finish the job in Afghanistan, including letting Osama bin Laden escape
- the absurdity of Bush’s "homeland security" program, which is used to sow fear but doesn’t protect us
- the Patriot Act
- and the reality that the powerful make a buck (or millions of them) while poor Americans shoulder the war’s burdens.
He sums up with a quote from Orwell on how permanent war helps national elites preserve hierarchy and thereby, their power.
Moore does a better job here, I think, than in "Roger and Me" and "Bowling for Columbine." In those documentaries, he was so heavy-handed and unfair as to make me - a sympathizer - feel very uncomfortable.
Not that he has discovered a light touch. But he is less often heavy-handed and unfair in Fahrenheit 911. And he made the esthetically pleasing decision to reduce his time on camera.
On leaving the theater, I found myself thinking about Moore’s version of events. His argument is coherent and plausible, even when I think he is not perfectly persuasive. But he leaves nothing to chance. His political actors always are guilty of faults of commission, not omission. He leans toward a conspiracy of villains, where I tend to leave room for some accidents and much incompetence.
Still, Moore should be complimented for getting the movie made and on the screen. And he should be cherished for standing, as a patriotic American citizen, against this cabal of paranoids and ignoramuses in Washington.
Let us hope theirs is only a temporary power over what has been a great nation and may yet deserve to be described as "the last, best hope of mankind."