The award-winning documentary guru, Michael Moore, speaks his raw and revealing thoughts about the election. You can also check it out here.
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Friends,
I don’t get to vote for President this primary season. I live in
Michigan. The party leaders (both here and in D.C.) couldn’t get their
act together, and thus our votes will not be counted.
So, if you live in Pennsylvania, can you do me a favor? Will you please
cast my vote — and yours — on Tuesday for Senator Barack Obama?
I haven’t spoken publicly ’til now as to who I would vote for,
primarily for two reasons: 1) Who cares?; and 2) I (and most people I
know) don’t give a rat’s ass whose name is on the ballot in November,
as long as there’s a picture of JFK and FDR riding a donkey at the top
of the ballot, and the word "Democratic" next to the candidate’s name.
Seriously, I know so many people who don’t care if the name under the
Big "D" is Dancer, Prancer, Clinton or Blitzen. It can be Mickey Mouse,
Donald Duck, Barry Obama or the Dalai Lama.
Well, that sounded good last year, but over the past two months, the
actions and words of Hillary Clinton have gone from being merely
disappointing to downright disgusting. I guess the debate last week was
the final straw. I’ve watched Senator Clinton and her husband play this
game of appealing to the worst side of white people, but last
Wednesday, when she hurled the name "Farrakhan" out of nowhere, well
that’s when the silly season came to an early end for me. She said the
"F" word to scare white people, pure and simple. Of course, Obama has
no connection to Farrakhan. But, according to Senator Clinton, Obama’s
pastor does — AND the "church bulletin" once included a Los Angeles
Times op-ed from some guy with Hamas! No, not the church bulletin!
This sleazy attempt to smear Obama was brilliantly explained the
following night by Stephen Colbert. He pointed out that if Obama is
supported by Ted Kennedy, who is Catholic, and the Catholic Church is
led by a Pope who was in the Hitler Youth, that can mean only one
thing: OBAMA LOVES HITLER!
Yes, Senator Clinton, that’s how you sounded. Like you were nuts. Like
you were a bigot stoking the fires of stupidity. How sad that I would
ever have to write those words about you. You have devoted your life to
good causes and good deeds. And now to throw it all away for an office
you can’t win unless you smear the black man so much that the
superdelegates cry "Uncle (Tom)" and give it all to you.
But that can’t happen. You cast your die when you voted to start this
bloody war. When you did that you were like Moses who lost it for a
moment and, because of that, was prohibited from entering the Promised
Land.
How sad for a country that wanted to see the first woman elected to the
White House. That day will come — but it won’t be you. We’ll have to
wait for the current Democratic governor of Kansas to run in 2016 (you
read it here first!).
There are those who say Obama isn’t ready, or he’s voted wrong on this
or that. But that’s looking at the trees and not the forest. What we
are witnessing is not just a candidate but a profound, massive public
movement for change. My endorsement is more for Obama The Movement than
it is for Obama the candidate.
That is not to take anything away from this exceptional man. But what’s
going on is bigger than him at this point, and that’s a good thing for
the country. Because, when he wins in November, that Obama Movement is
going to have to stay alert and active. Corporate America is not going
to give up their hold on our government just because we say so.
President Obama is going to need a nation of millions to stand behind
him.
I know some of you will say, ‘Mike, what have the Democrats done to
deserve our vote?’ That’s a damn good question. In November of ‘06, the
country loudly sent a message that we wanted the war to end. Yet the
Democrats have done nothing. So why should we be so eager to line up
happily behind them?
I’ll tell you why. Because I can’t stand one more friggin’ minute of
this administration and the permanent, irreversible damage it has done
to our people and to this world. I’m almost at the point where I don’t
care if the Democrats don’t have a backbone or a kneebone or a thought
in their dizzy little heads. Just as long as their name ain’t "Bush"
and the word "Republican" is not beside theirs on the ballot, then
that’s good enough for me.
I, like the majority of Americans, have been pummeled senseless for 8
long years. That’s why I will join millions of citizens and stagger
into the voting booth come November, like a boxer in the 12th round,
all bloodied and bruised with one eye swollen shut, looking for the
only thing that matters — that big "D" on the ballot.
Don’t get me wrong. I lost my rose-colored glasses a long time ago.
It’s foolish to see the Democrats as anything but a nicer version of a
party that exists to do the bidding of the corporate elite in this
country. Any endorsement of a Democrat must be done with this
acknowledgement and a hope that one day we will have a party that’ll
represent the people first, and laws that allow that party an equal
voice.
Finally, I want to say a word about the basic decency I have seen in
Mr. Obama. Mrs. Clinton continues to throw the Rev. Wright up in his
face as part of her mission to keep stoking the fears of White America.
Every time she does this I shout at the TV, "Say it, Obama! Say that
when she and her husband were having marital difficulties regarding
Monica Lewinsky, who did she and Bill bring to the White House for
’spiritual counseling?’ THE REVEREND JEREMIAH WRIGHT!"
But no, Obama won’t throw that at her. It wouldn’t be right. It
wouldn’t be decent. She’s been through enough hurt. And so he remains
silent and takes the mud she throws in his face.
That’s why the crowds who come to see him are so large. That’s why
he’ll take us down a more decent path. That’s why I would vote for him
if Michigan were allowed to have an election.
But the question I keep hearing is… ‘can he win? Can he win in
November?’ In the distance we hear the siren of the death train called
the Straight Talk Express. We know it’s possible to hear the words
"President McCain" on January 20th. We know there are still many
Americans who will never vote for a black man. Hillary knows it, too.
She’s counting on it.
Pennsylvania, the state that gave birth to this great country, has a
chance to set things right. It has not had a moment to shine like this
since 1787 when our Constitution was written there. In that
Constitution, they wrote that a black man or woman was only "three
fifths" human. On Tuesday, the good people of Pennsylvania have a
chance for redemption.
Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
MMFlint@aol.com
