Michael Moore In Shoreline

He nominates Oprah for President

by Chris Jones

The appearance of Michael Moore at the Shoreline Community CollegeArts and Lecture series in April was a combination love-fest andrevival meeting complete with a golden idol and a Sunday schoollesson. A dozen or so demonstrators standing outside the gym entrancehad no noticeable effect on the crowd of Moore devotees eager toattend one of his first appearances since the controversial Oscaracceptance speech ("fictitious election results" and "fictitiousreasons for going to war").There was no doubt that most agreed withhis stand on the Iraq war--he was met with repeated standingovations--the first of which occurred before he'd even reached thestage. Moore would be preaching to the choir--there would be a largedose of politics and humor too, but the evening would have no smallresemblance to a religious revival.

Stepping to the podium, Moore reached into a black shoulder bag andpulled out the golden Oscar statuette he'd won scarcely 3 weeksbefore. As he waved the statue back and forth above his head it wasclear from the cheers of the audience that they felt the Oscar was asmuch theirs as it was Moore's. The group of protesters outside thehall could call them unpatriotic, Fox News could sneer all they wantedbut, Moore and his ideas had won the Oscar and that was validationenough. As applause subsided, the little idol was given to the crowdand passed from hand to hand for the rest of the evening.

Moore worries that the events of the last few years have caused someliberals to become so despondent that they may abandon politics alltogether. The economy has limped along threatening to fall back intorecession at any moment. The Republicans have given no indication thatthey have the least idea what to do about the economy beyond their"charity begins at home" support for a tax cut for their ownconstituents. Environmental laws have been rolled back or subvertedwith astonishing speed. The aftermath of 911 brought a series of movesdetrimental to basic civil rights and further incursions are promised.The media coverage of 911 and the anthrax attacks seemed designed tocreate panic rather than provide accurate information during anational emergency. Terrorist threats real and imagined are beingmanipulated by the administration or the terrorists or both. And thenthere was the buildup for and commencement of the war in Iraq. Thatthe administration had decided several months earlier to invade Iraqwas obvious to everyone except the major TV networks who week afterweek blithely reported the justification de jour: it's the weapons ofmass destruction, it's the terrorist links, it's the tyranny, its forliberation of the Iraqi people, etc. Its no wonder Moore worries thathis sympathizers may need a bit of cheering up.

"Don't be depressed or full of despair because Bush is getting 70percent approval ratings and 70 percent supporting the war and allthis. That is very understandable, it would happen to anyone.... AfterSeptember 11th his ratings shot up because that is all we had.... itsmore like, 'love the one you're with.' ...You've been convinced becauseyou're probably like me watching too much TV and too much of the FoxNuisance Channel, we all sunk to the pit of despair because we believethat 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 arerapidly becoming concentrated in fewer and fewer hands. The result isthat there are fewer and fewer Michael Moores, fewer and fewer peoplewith both access to the media and willingness to utter unpopularideas. Who but Michael Moore has called the latest allegations againstSyria the shameless repetition of a script? Where are the weapons ofmass destruction? And where is the incontrovertible evidence thegovernment supposedly had but couldn't reveal to the UN inspectors forfear of jeopardizing "sources and methods"?--Surely the evidence couldbe revealed now. Who in the broadcast media has been willing to saythat the Bush Presidency is illegitimate as it most certainly is? Whoin broadcasting is objecting to the Telecom act of 1996 which hasresulted in one company, Clear Channel Communications, owning over1200 radio stations? Who else has objected to the blatant manipulationof the "terrorist threat level" for political purposes. The degree towhich these themes along with others ( racism, labor issues, corporateabuses and gun control) make it into the popular consciousness at allis, in fact, due in substantial measure to Moore and the success ofhis 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 fellowAmericans are liberals and progressives." And, as far as any backlashfrom his Oscar speech, Moore claims that his book sales, box officenumbers and web site hits have gone up dramatically since Oscar nightand that the box office for "Bowling for Columbine" has exceeded anyprevious documentary by over 300 percent. As for those afraid to speakup , " the time has come to develop some backbone... and act with thecourage of our convictions".

The simplest and most basic of morality underlies his opposition tothe war in Iraq. "Did you go to Sunday School?... Don't we as humanbeings have a shared belief that you don't take the life of anotherhuman being unless it's in self defense? Don't you think that we haveto answer for this some day? You know , whether you believe in ahereafter or not.... If we're not going to answer for it in thehereafter 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 : grassroots electoral politics and an alliance between the Democrats and theGreen Party. Moore is only half kidding when he proposes that the bestcandidate might be Oprah. "She's a billionaire--she can't be bought!,Is there anyone here that doesn't believe that Oprah could beat Bushif it was just a matter of the debate?"

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

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