Michael Moore is one of our generations great American documentary makers. Academy Award winning Fahrenheit 9/11 remains one of the top grossing docos of all time so when one of the first pundits to predict Trump would win makes a new documentary on why Trump won, it becomes necessary viewing for anyone who cares about American politics.
The shit storm blizzard that is Trump creates a media environment where we can barely take breath and account for what the hell is going on so this serves as a moment of reflection on the train wreck that has become American democracy.
It opens, as Fahrenheit 9/11 does, looking at election night. We forget the total denial CNN and even Fox were at Trump even getting close to winning. So certain was everyone that Hillary would win, Fox News anchors were laughing on screen about the bullet everyone had dodged by Trump losing.
And then it happens.
State after State after State turned to Trump and the absolute disbelief and shock that breaks out is as painful as it is fascinating to watch.
I always believed Trump would win, he had channeled a resentment that touched deeply into the white working classes who had been left behind by the free market globalization that the Dems & Republicans championed. In this documentary, Moore tries to delve into why that happened and he makes a compelling case.
Two things stood out to me, the first is Trump winning 62 million votes, Hillary winning 65 million and 100 million didn’t bother to vote.
The second was how the electoral college, a throw back relic to the compromises required to mend the Civil War, gives enormous democratic weighting to poor white rural states while the vast majority coasts get so sweet fuck all.
Moore holds up the outrageous water crisis at Flint as a microcosm of how neoliberal public policy has hurt, robbed and ultimately warped poor working people, the truth of how a large city was allowed to have their water poisoned is almost a documentary in its own right and the pathetic response by Obama and the Democrats casts a shadow over his already problematic legacy.
Moore also looks at the way the Dems robbed Sanders of the nomination during their rugged primary as another example as to why people walked away and disconnected with politics.
Moore tries to end on a hopeful message but the bleakness of where America really is under Trump makes it more likely not less likely that this orange tumour will win 2020.
5 stars
Voter turnout in US politics has always been frighteningly low. Indeed, it’s been steadfastly below half the eligible voters for as long as the country has existed:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout_in_the_United_States_presidential_elections#/media/File:U.S._Vote_for_President_as_Population_Share.png
The notion that the US is the “greatest” and “strongest” democracy in the world, or even a “healthy” one, is an abject lie. Any country where voter turnout is materially under 50% is usually considered failing.
Anyway, Moore’s documentary is at best preaching to the converted, and at worst it is a bit of a muddled mess intended to manipulate viewers to his political leanings with all the subtlety of a sledge hammer (which generally has the opposite effect BTW).
“Documentarian Michael Moore revealed this week that he made efforts to help Hillary Clinton (who he called “the smartest person to ever run for president”) by enlisting Amy Schumer, Chris Rock, and Bill Maher “to form a Justice League of satire and comedy” to take down Trump with jokes during the 2016 presidential debates—an effort the Clinton campaign rejected.”
Poor Michael Moore, he’s made some great documentaries, but if he thinks Hillary Clinton regurgitating Bill Maher jokes is a cunning plan it just goes to show that there is some tragic and inexplicable disconnect between his exposes on American poverty and disenfranchisement and the reality of peoples suffering and rejection/disinterest in Corporate Democrats.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a23336311/michael-moore-hillary-clinton-comedy-writers-fahrenheit-11-9/
I look forward to watching it. Moore always has an interesting way of presenting things.
Fahrenheit 11/9 was an absolute flop! Perhaps one of Michael Moore’s biggest when compared to the money invested producing the film and revenue generated.
I hesitate to call it a documentary, as it strikes me more as propaganda from a man [Michael Moore] that lost his objectivity a long time ago. Michael Moore was certainly a Clinton shill building up the the 2016 election – that is UNDENIABLE~!!
Michael Moore has become a neo-propagandist, now known omissions rather than poignant observations.
That’s my critique!
Michael Moore is a has-been
He’s lost his audience and is bleeding money
https://variety.com/2018/film/columns/how-michael-moore-lost-his-audience-fahrenheit-11-9-1202953813/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/scottmendelson/2018/09/22/michael-moores-fahrenheit-119-and-life-itself-flop-at-the-friday-box-office/#2b01f002399f
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/16/michael-moore-documentary-where-to-invade-next-box-office-fail
You know for certain you’re a washed up lefty when the Guardian pans your efforts!
Trump is clearly a very very gifted salesman, as a human being he is repugnant!
Of course, a low turnout of those who suffer the most, is always intended, hence so much BS campaigning only focusing on some middle class and rich voters. Others feel it is a waste of time to be heard. The funding regime does serve the better off, as it is the rich and powerful who have the money to support candidates.
Dumbing down and discouraging the most disadvantaged and suppressed is part of the agenda, it is more and more taking place also in Aotearoa Shit Sleepy Hobbit NZ Inc..
You could not have expressed this viewpoint better. What a catastrophe. Someone pointed out that both Trump and Sanders had loyalists getting tattoo’s but Clinton didn’t… Meaning that it was one guy or the other that voters were passionate about, Clinton was too entitled, corrupt and old order. The enduring image of the last election for me was Obama patting Sanders on the upper back as he walked him down the outside of the Whitehouse as if to say you aint up to it old boy. Wow how wrong he was…how patronising that image is. Legacy? What legacy. What a waste Obama turned out to be, for the good guy he apparently is supposed to be. But, howzthat? Can’t get to grips with that idea, at all.
“The second was how the electoral college, a throw back relic to the compromises required to mend the Civil War, gives enormous democratic weighting to poor white rural states while the vast majority coasts get so sweet fuck all.”
California and New York most definitely do not get fuck all. As for the other coastal states, they don’t actually get that badly treated relative to the heartland.
Plus, how long would the US republic really last if every election just became the California and New York election? Not long, I’d say. People need to see the USA for the political entity it actually is, rather than think about it like other nation states. It doesn’t work that way and isn’t meant to. It’s a union of states (the clue is in the name), and giving those states a system which basically means California and New York decide everything is a recipe for disintegration.
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