If Michael Moore is indeed changing his movie to a paen to Barack Obama, I can save you the effort of seeing it. Just read his hysterical open letter.
Who among us is not at a loss for words? Tears pour out. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. A stunning, whopping landslide of hope in a time of deep despair.
In a nation that was founded on genocide and then built on the backs of slaves, it was an unexpected moment, shocking in its simplicity: Barack Obama, a good man, a black man, said he would bring change to Washington, and the majority of the country liked that idea. The racists were present throughout the campaign and in the voting booth. But they are no longer the majority, and we will see their flame of hate fizzle out in our lifetime.
There was another important “first” last night. Never before in our history has an avowed anti-war candidate been elected president during a time of war. I hope President-elect Obama remembers that as he considers expanding the war in Afghanistan. The faith we now have will be lost if he forgets the main issue on which he beat his fellow Dems in the primaries and then a great war hero in the general election: The people of America are tired of war. Sick and tired. And their voice was loud and clear yesterday.
The problem here is that Obama won, at least in part, because he toughened his message on terrorism. If the Taliban re-establishes itself in Afghanistan, Obama will have a very short four years.
It’s been an inexcusable 44 years since a Democrat running for president has received even just 51% of the vote. That’s because most Americans haven’t really liked the Democrats
Is it because of their big-government high-tax agenda? Their occasional spinelessness in confronting Communism and terrorism? Jimmy Carter’s comically bad presidency?
They see them as rarely having the guts to get the job done or stand up for the working people they say they support.
Precisely. They tax their employers to death and regulate their companies into the ground. Wait a minute. I’m not sure that’s what Mike meant.
Well, here’s their chance. It has been handed to them, via the voting public, in the form of a man who is not a party hack, not a set-for-life Beltway bureaucrat.
Voted with his party over 90% of the time. Was a product of the Daley Machine. Yes, definitely not a partisan.
We may, just possibly, also see a time of refreshing openness, enlightenment and creativity. The arts and the artists will not be seen as the enemy. Perhaps art will be explored in order to discover the greater truths. When FDR was ushered in with his landslide in 1932, what followed was Frank Capra and Preston Sturgis, Woody Guthrie and John Steinbeck, Dorothea Lange and Orson Welles. All week long I have been inundated with media asking me, “gee, Mike, what will you do now that Bush is gone?” Are they kidding? What will it be like to work and create in an environment that nurtures and supports film and the arts, science and invention, and the freedom to be whatever you want to be? Watch a thousand flowers bloom! We’ve entered a new era, and if I could sum up our collective first thought of this new era, it is this: Anything Is Possible.
FDR created Capra and Steinbeck? Does that mean that President Polk created Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne? Did Carter create Steven Spielberg and George Lucas? What the hell is this messianic twaddle? What kind of artist can’t function unless there is a divine being at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
An African American has been elected President of the United States! Anything is possible! We can wrestle our economy out of the hands of the reckless rich and return it to the people. Anything is possible! Every citizen can be guaranteed health care. Anything is possible! We can stop melting the polar ice caps. Anything is possible! Those who have committed war crimes will be brought to justice. Anything is possible.
News flash: anything was always possible in America. It was even possible, under the eeevil Ronald Reagan, Bush I and Bush II, for a documentary director of moderate talent and piss-poor accuracy to become undeservedly rich and famous.
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