Michael Moore In Shoreline

He nominates Oprah for President

by Chris Jones

The appearance of Michael Moore at the Shoreline Community College Arts and Lecture series in April was a combination love-fest and revival meeting complete with a golden idol and a Sunday school lesson. A dozen or so demonstrators standing outside the gym entrance had no noticeable effect on the crowd of Moore devotees eager to attend one of his first appearances since the controversial Oscar acceptance speech ("fictitious election results" and "fictitious reasons for going to war").There was no doubt that most agreed with his stand on the Iraq war--he was met with repeated standing ovations--the first of which occurred before he'd even reached the stage. Moore would be preaching to the choir--there would be a large dose of politics and humor too, but the evening would have no small resemblance to a religious revival.

Stepping to the podium, Moore reached into a black shoulder bag and pulled out the golden Oscar statuette he'd won scarcely 3 weeks before. As he waved the statue back and forth above his head it was clear from the cheers of the audience that they felt the Oscar was as much theirs as it was Moore's. The group of protesters outside the hall could call them unpatriotic, Fox News could sneer all they wanted but, Moore and his ideas had won the Oscar and that was validation enough. As applause subsided, the little idol was given to the crowd and passed from hand to hand for the rest of the evening.

Moore worries that the events of the last few years have caused some liberals to become so despondent that they may abandon politics all together. The economy has limped along threatening to fall back into recession at any moment. The Republicans have given no indication that they have the least idea what to do about the economy beyond their "charity begins at home" support for a tax cut for their own constituents. Environmental laws have been rolled back or subverted with astonishing speed. The aftermath of 911 brought a series of moves detrimental to basic civil rights and further incursions are promised. The media coverage of 911 and the anthrax attacks seemed designed to create panic rather than provide accurate information during a national emergency. Terrorist threats real and imagined are being manipulated by the administration or the terrorists or both. And then there was the buildup for and commencement of the war in Iraq. That the administration had decided several months earlier to invade Iraq was obvious to everyone except the major TV networks who week after week blithely reported the justification de jour: it's the weapons of mass destruction, it's the terrorist links, it's the tyranny, its for liberation of the Iraqi people, etc. Its no wonder Moore worries that his sympathizers may need a bit of cheering up.

"Don't be depressed or full of despair because Bush is getting 70 percent approval ratings and 70 percent supporting the war and all this. That is very understandable, it would happen to anyone.... After September 11th his ratings shot up because that is all we had.... its more like, 'love the one you're with.' ...You've been convinced because you're probably like me watching too much TV and too much of the Fox Nuisance Channel, we all sunk to the pit of despair because we believe that we live in a Christian coalition conservative dominated country. That's not the truth, that's not the truth!"

The people may be liberal but there's no denying that the media are rapidly becoming concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The result is that there are fewer and fewer Michael Moores, fewer and fewer people with both access to the media and willingness to utter unpopular ideas. Who but Michael Moore has called the latest allegations against Syria the shameless repetition of a script? Where are the weapons of mass destruction? And where is the incontrovertible evidence the government supposedly had but couldn't reveal to the UN inspectors for fear of jeopardizing "sources and methods"?--Surely the evidence could be revealed now. Who in the broadcast media has been willing to say that the Bush Presidency is illegitimate as it most certainly is? Who in broadcasting is objecting to the Telecom act of 1996 which has resulted in one company, Clear Channel Communications, owning over 1200 radio stations? Who else has objected to the blatant manipulation of the "terrorist threat level" for political purposes. The degree to which these themes along with others ( racism, labor issues, corporate abuses and gun control) make it into the popular consciousness at all is, in fact, due in substantial measure to Moore and the success of his films and books.

"The good news is" he says, citing poll data on the environment, unions, and abortion, " we live in a very liberal country. Our fellow Americans are liberals and progressives." And, as far as any backlash from his Oscar speech, Moore claims that his book sales, box office numbers and web site hits have gone up dramatically since Oscar night and that the box office for "Bowling for Columbine" has exceeded any previous documentary by over 300 percent. As for those afraid to speak up , " the time has come to develop some backbone... and act with the courage of our convictions".

The simplest and most basic of morality underlies his opposition to the war in Iraq. "Did you go to Sunday School?... Don't we as human beings have a shared belief that you don't take the life of another human being unless it's in self defense? Don't you think that we have to answer for this some day? You know , whether you believe in a hereafter or not.... If we're not going to answer for it in the hereafter trust me we're going to answer for it in the here and now, we're going to pay a horrible price, we all know this."

His solution for getting rid of Bush is far from revolutionary : grass roots electoral politics and an alliance between the Democrats and the Green Party. Moore is only half kidding when he proposes that the best candidate might be Oprah. "She's a billionaire--she can't be bought!, Is there anyone here that doesn't believe that Oprah could beat Bush if it was just a matter of the debate?"

Something of an exaggeration, surely--but many of Mr. Moore's pronouncements are on the dramatic side--after all, he's really more a polemicist that a straight documentary film maker. That being said, the rapport he has maintained with his sympathizers and the success of his films and books come from a certain simplicity and clarity to his ideas, which ,more often than not, are unmistakable signs of the truth.