Posted on 03 October 2009. Tags: capitalism, economic recovery, michael moore, republican
This little note has a thesis. Michael Moore’s Capitalism: a love story had one too.
I’m a conservative, sort of. I say sort of because I happen to be more of a libertarian than what passes for a conservative these days. I had low expectations for Michael Moore’s thesis counterbalanced with his usual stream of consciousness cinematography and I was disappointed by neither. Allow me to summarize the film and save Shoemaker the problem of review it as an art piece: “blah blah I’m fat blah blah Rich people are mean blah blah don’t you agree with me?”
The film lacked a feasible argument, unlike Bowling for Columbine or Sicko. (That’s correct, I’m a card-carrying Republican and I’ve actually seen all of Michael Moore’s films.) Moore’s Capitalism: a love story ended with quotes from Jefferson and the elder John Adams, all the while neglecting the fact that both men participated in the foment of mercantile Capitalism in this country. Meanwhile, the film jumped from sob shot to sob shot, denigrating an economic downturn, neglecting to point out that that collapse was preceded by some of the largest and (excepting the post-9/11 market deflation) longest growth through which we all may ever live.
Moore sloshes blame on every president since Jimmy Carter (yes, even Tricky Bill), all the while trumpeting Franklin Roosevelt as the model on which the economy should have been predicated. We get shown image after image from the Bush Whitehouse, clearly the film’s real villain; Moore neglects to point out that the Spendmeister in Chief currently occupying that selfsame building rammed a stimulus package that would make the only Socialist in the Senate (Bernie Sanders from Vermont) blush and Andrew Jackson (himself a deficit-hawk and debt-reducing maestro) roll over in his cliché.
And then, just when it seems like a Michael Moore movie would pass without a GM reference, he trots out his old warhorse, attempting to equate GM’s collapse with the competition created by Capitalism. Competition which has been quieted by…bombs…lots and lots of bombs. Moore all the while argues for a similar bombing spree vis-à-vis a “peasant’s revolt”. That’s right: open revolution. Of course, he doesn’t want us to be irresponsible and actually kill congressmen (well, maybe all the Republican ones he didn’t interview), but just vote them out of office and vote in a Senate filled with Bernie Sanders.
Michael Moore Takes a Fallacious Peak at the Economy
Let me be clear: I don’t like recessions, nobody does. When recessions get bad, we call them depressions, which is pretty sensible considering that’s usually how we all feel during. The reason we’re having a recession, in a nutshell, is that everyone of the movers and shakers got excited about economic growth and let a bubble get so big that when it burst, everyone got gum in their face and hair. The beautiful thing about Capitalism is that it will come back, it will be fine. What the economy needs (and now I’m quoting South Park) is “people spending money”. The way people have money to spend is with lower taxes for the people who have less. That’s called Capitalism and it really is that simple, I promise.
Economic recovery takes time, that’s a hard reality. Nothing comes quickly. But we have to all keep trying; keep working; keep doing whatever we can. Stan was right, spending money will bring some recovery. I bought my ticket, from which Michael Moore will get a nice fat cut (Irony, party of Moore?), and staged my own little “revolt” in the theater. A good many of us went, in varying stages and modes of intoxication, bought popcorn and sodas and pretended the movie was anything other than a fat man making money for being a Grumpapotamus. Of course…that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Posted in Current Affairs, To the Right
Posted on 20 September 2009. Tags: 9/12 project, Glenn Beck, september 11, teabaggers
As some of you may know, noted blowhard Glenn Beck has come up with yet-another nationalistic publicity scam. Seemingly in an attempt to appeal to the same people who unironically talked about teabagging Obama, Beck has come up with what he calls the 9/12 Project.
Beck’s stated purpose for the project is to “bring us all back to the place we were on September 12, 2001.”
In the interests of Mr. Beck’s noble quest to unite America, I have compiled a list (neither 9 nor 12 items long) of ways we can all
They just can't wait to teabag Obama
(Red Staters and Blue Staters) help to win back that magical 9/12 feeling.
1. Keep you eye on that foreign-looking guy next door. You know the one I’m talking about: turban guy. He’s up to something.
2. Seal your house up with duct tape. Neglect no door or window. A dirty bomb could strike at any time. An airtight house is a safe one.
3. Actually, to be safe, seal your kids up with cellophane. Dirty bombs spare no one, not even the young.
4. Start stockpiling ammunition and water. In the event of the terrorist apocalypse, every Good American knows it’s every man for himself.
5. Dress yourself and your kids in Red, White, and Blue. These colors don’t run and offer virtually endless opportunities for accessorization. Also, horizontal stripes (such as those found on Old Glory) make you look slimmer (see item #6).
6. Eat plenty of Freedom Fries.
7. Be afraid! Fear is what keeps us together.
Follow these simple guidlines, and we can pull through this together. In the meantime, I’ll be in my apartment irradiating my mail against anthrax.
Posted in The Welfare Queen, To the Left
Posted on 18 September 2009. Tags: "Big" Newt Gingrich, Heath Care, Joe "You lie!" Wilson, Obama
The healthcare reform agenda will have major implications for the ever-aging Baby Boomer populous.
Healthcare reform. (Vomit.)
The phrase has lost none of its political salience since Bill Clinton first tried it out in 1993, with disastrous consequences thanks to the obstructionist “Christian Coalition” led by then-Speaker Newt Gingrich. With this in mind, the Republicans in Congress, most notably Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, and suddenly Joe “You Lie!” Wilson, have been doing their political darndest to stop the Democrats from passing any kind of meaningful bill. Recently Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance Committee, felt the brunt of this, as he passed a “bipartisan” bill that has taken nothing but criticism from progressives and yielded no Republican support. Part of the frustration on the part of Democrats comes from the blurred lines between the Christian Right and the establishment Republican Party. Even as RNC Chair Michael Steele attempts to distance the Party from far-right positions shouted by protesters at town-hall meetings, Michelle Bachmann and Joe Wilson make his job harder by embracing the views of the “birthers,” “deathers,” “tenthers,” and everyone in between.
This canyon between the right and the GOP needs to get smaller, not bigger, if they truly want to broaden the base in 2010 and beyond. Let me play the part of Republican strategist for a bit here. The party leadership and 2010 candidates are making a calculation, whether conscious or not, that preventing the President from furthering his agenda in the healthcare arena will be politically beneficial to their side. Because they missed the boat on early negotiations, and have failed to provide an alternative that meets even the most basic consensus goals of any meaningful bill, they have created a zero-sum game where any success for their side necessarily means total failure of any reform efforts.
This is a suicidal move.
Nancy Pelosi is digging her feet in on the public option, even as President Obama hits his stride on a series of campaign-style rallies on college campuses and in major cities that yield thousands of supporters in enthusiastic attendance. The complacency of OFA on this front that I and so many others railed against for the last few weeks seems to have evaporated into a low-pressure front of anger and frustration that is storming across the country, building huge progressive support for the Democrats’ agenda with it. As the country gradually becomes more educated on the issue, the right looks cynical at best and ignorantly masochistic at worst. It is incredibly easy at this point for the coalition of elected representatives, NGOs, and volunteers to get on the same message, and push it consistently to all outlets: health insurance companies are unaccountable and need to be reined in.
I will stake my political-handicapping reputation on the following: the House and Senate will come to consensus by the end of the year on a meaningful healthcare bill. Scattered by the newly-united Democratic Party and worn down by months of constituents’ frustrations, the GOP will continue to be a disorganized political entity with no real contributions to the national dialogue on the issue, and we will enter 2010 with perhaps a little too much optimism regarding Democratic gains in the midterm elections. Give or take a couple scandals, the Democrats will lose seats in 2010 – this is inevitable given the absence of a candidate with as massive the coattails as Obama had in 2008, which will lead to weak turnout in progressive areas. However, the talent base that OFA built and is continuing to accumulate will turn into an army of organizing power for those candidates smart enough to cash in.
There are legitimate conservative criticisms of the healthcare reform legislation currently on the table, but the GOP either doesn’t see them or is unwilling to argue them. Any rational messaging strategy is going to need to emerge by the end of the year, or the ridiculous incoherent mess that they are will continue until the leadership whips them into submission. Stay classy though, Republicans.
Posted in Current Affairs, To the Left
This little note has a thesis. Michael Moore’s Capitalism: a love story had one too.
