‘Never before in our history has an avowed anti-war candidate been elected president during a time of war.’
By Michael Moore / November 5, 2008
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.
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. They see them as rarely having the guts to get the job done or stand up for the working people they say they support. 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. Will he now become one of them, or will he force them to be more like him? We pray for the latter.
But today we celebrate this triumph of decency over personal attack, of peace over war, of intelligence over a belief that Adam and Eve rode around on dinosaurs just 6,000 years ago. What will it be like to have a smart president? Science, banished for eight years, will return. Imagine supporting our country’s greatest minds as they seek to cure illness, discover new forms of energy, and work to save the planet. I know, pinch me.
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.
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.
We really don’t have much time. There is big work to do. But this is the week for all of us to revel in this great moment. Be humble about it. Do not treat the Republicans in your life the way they have treated you the past eight years. Show them the grace and goodness that Barack Obama exuded throughout the campaign. Though called every name in the book, he refused to lower himself to the gutter and sling the mud back. Can we follow his example? I know, it will be hard.
I want to thank everyone who gave of their time and resources to make this victory happen. It’s been a long road, and huge damage has been done to this great country, not to mention to many of you who have lost your jobs, gone bankrupt from medical bills, or suffered through a loved one being shipped off to Iraq. We will now work to repair this damage, and it won’t be easy.
But what a way to start! Barack Hussein Obama, the 44th President of the United States. Wow. Seriously, wow
Michael Moore’s website.
Seriously – he’s right – WOW!!!
We are all living in a remarkable time; I only wish Martin Luther King were alive to see this – I wish JFK and RFK were sitting back in their rocking chairs smiling….
I wish all that have suffered at the hand of the ‘white man’ since the Native American had his land taken from him, could rejoice in this moment!
Michael Moore wrote:
“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.”
This is an excellent example of the bizarre cognitive disconnect that so many millions of people, Michael Moore obviously among them, are willing to embrace in order to support their illusions. Mr. Moore’s bizarre illogic is starkly apparent to anyone not under this ‘hallelujah’ of illusioned jubilation.
In this single paragraph he expresses his hope that this “avowed anti-war candidate” will remember that he is the first “avowed anti-war candidate” in our history to be elected in a time of war, so that he will disavow his clearly stated intention, (as an “avowed anti-war candidate”), to expand the war in Afghanistan, while endorsing the expanded Bush Doctrine that the US has the ‘right’ to launch attacks into Pakistan, or any other sovereign nation, (Syria, for example), should we determine that it serves our unilateral self-interest. Apparently Mr. Moore, in his delusional consideration, thinks that President-elect Obama somehow ‘avowed’ himself as an ‘anti-war candidate’, while also avowing these pro-war positions
The voice of “the people of America”, Mr. Moore tells us, are tired of war, and spoke loud and clear when they voted for this “avowed anti-war candidate” who has avowed, quite loud and clear, that he plans to expand the military budget that already equals the amount spent by the rest of the world combined, maintain a military presence in Iraq indefinitely, escalate the war in Afghanistan, restrain Iran ‘by any means necessary’ from developing its nuclear capacity, and support the Zionist project that has held the population of an entire nation under the iron heel of military occupation for over 40 years.
C’mon, folks. This willful disconnect from reality, as evidenced by Michael Moore’s childishly jubilant irrationality, is a form of social ‘madness’, and it is NOT going to serve the progressive cause with anything but needless delay, and other degrees of woe.
But as Ralph Nader said in his concession speech, “People must come to their own disillusionment in their own due time”. The willful illusions of people like Mr. Moore, (who seems to represent the thinking of many tens of millions of people), are very likely to stall the progressive cause until they dissipate, or until President Obama renounces many of his clearly stated positions, and fullfils the unreasoned hopes he has instilled in his devout followers. Hoping for the latter, hoping that this “avowed anti-war candidate” will disavow his clearly avowed pro-war positions, seems to be the point that Mr. Moore is trying to make.
C’mon, folks. We need to do better than this.
Zwarich