I have been a fan of Michael Moore's for many years. He's one of the few progressive celebs I have personally met (had dinner with him and his entourage after an event in Salem, OR). More often than not, I agree with his analysis, but lately we haven't been seeing eye-to-eye as much as we used to.
Prior to October 2010, Michael had spent the better part of two years lambasting the ineffectual Democratic Party. He called them out again and again as they turned their backs on the mandate that had been handed them in the 2008 election. Each time they failed to deliver, he had the courage to call them out.
Yet, for all his bravado, he fell into step with the party line for the last month of the campaign. While he admitted that progressive voters had numerous reasons for feeling as if the Democratic Party had betrayed them, they needed to stand up to vote for the backsliders anyway. He followed this very same path in 2006 AND 2004.
Not one day after this year's election, Michael has a new gambit: He has posted a petition online which advises the president and the Democrats in congress that the signees are placing them on "probation." The petition/pledge reads as follows:
It's easy to make these kinds of declarations when the next election is two years away. It's easy to dig in your heals and make threats when you know it won't amount to anything now. I will be utterly shocked if Michael is singing this same tune in October 2012! My bet is that he will trot out the time-honored "hold your nose and vote blue" line that he has trotted out the last three times around. I also bet most of the people who sign this petition will do the exact same thing.
It won't matter how far the Democrats have moved toward the "center" or the right. It won't matter how much of the public treasury they've handed over to the rich elite. It won't matter if they've started another war or two. None of this will matter just like it didn't seem to matter this year.
I have a challenge for Michael Moore: Prove me wrong!
Prior to October 2010, Michael had spent the better part of two years lambasting the ineffectual Democratic Party. He called them out again and again as they turned their backs on the mandate that had been handed them in the 2008 election. Each time they failed to deliver, he had the courage to call them out.
Yet, for all his bravado, he fell into step with the party line for the last month of the campaign. While he admitted that progressive voters had numerous reasons for feeling as if the Democratic Party had betrayed them, they needed to stand up to vote for the backsliders anyway. He followed this very same path in 2006 AND 2004.
Not one day after this year's election, Michael has a new gambit: He has posted a petition online which advises the president and the Democrats in congress that the signees are placing them on "probation." The petition/pledge reads as follows:
We just voted for you, the Democratic members of Congress, in the midterms. But our vote comes with one big condition: If you do not straighten up, get a spine and do what we expect of you, we will find alternate candidates to run against you in 2012. And we mean it.If I thought for a second that Moore or the thousands who will sign this petition were serious, I might take heart. However, I neither believe Michael nor the vast majority who will sign on the dotted line.
Consider yourself on notice that you have just two more years to start doing the things we elected you to do. If you move one more inch to the "center" or to the right, you will never get our vote again.
It's easy to make these kinds of declarations when the next election is two years away. It's easy to dig in your heals and make threats when you know it won't amount to anything now. I will be utterly shocked if Michael is singing this same tune in October 2012! My bet is that he will trot out the time-honored "hold your nose and vote blue" line that he has trotted out the last three times around. I also bet most of the people who sign this petition will do the exact same thing.
It won't matter how far the Democrats have moved toward the "center" or the right. It won't matter how much of the public treasury they've handed over to the rich elite. It won't matter if they've started another war or two. None of this will matter just like it didn't seem to matter this year.
I have a challenge for Michael Moore: Prove me wrong!
yeah i agree, that's the whole problem with the 2 party system... and in waging a war! in the interest of results people are willing to put up with a bunch of immorality from "their side" in the name of eradicating the enemy.
ReplyDeletei think the whole "red vs blue" has become a war with each side sinking lower into dirty tricks and broken promises.
i think next election i'll just write in a candidate. i haven't been impressed with the 3rd party candidates lately either. they all seem to be tea partiers