What Michael Moore Really Teaches Us About Political and Social Change In America - Part 6
August 2nd, 2007 by Howard DitkoffCampaign, Election and Media Reform as Central Themes in Michael Moore’s Work (Part 6 of 8)
While none of Michael Moore’s films focus primarily on campaign, election and media reform, like the issue of moral courage, these issues are touched on in all of them. For example, Moore focuses on the National Rifle Association and the power of gun lobbyists in Bowling for Columbine. He looks at how election system flaws led to George W. Bush’s presidency and his subsequent role in the Iraq War in Fahrenheit 9/11. In Sicko, Moore actually shows a scene in which he puts price tags over the heads of Congresspeople and President Bush, indicating how much money they received from the healthcare industry special interests. Moore also gave a scathing condemnation of the media in his interview regarding Sicko on CNN with Wolf Blitzer.
While these issues take up only a relatively small proportion of each film, to me they are the most important parts of the films because everything else in the films stems from them. Would we be in Iraq if not for our faulty electoral college and non-majority election system that put George W. Bush in office? Would we have kids killing kids in schools and outrageously high levels of gun violence without the lobbying influence of the NRA refusing the slightest compromise on the easy availability of guns? How quickly would health care in our country improve if not for insurance and pharmaceutical company lobbyists all but bribing campaigns, buying support and creating fear in politicians of speaking out and taking action to limit their power.
And it’s worth noting that many of the aspects of other countries that Moore correctly depicts as more successful than American methods exist not only due to those countries’ citizens having less debt or greater moral courage to speak out, as discussed in Part 4, Moral Courage as a Central Theme in Michael Moore’s Work and Life, but because, in some cases, they also have more sensible campaign, electoral and media mechanisms to translate the citizens’ outcries into actual results.
While Moore’s work is rarely explicitly about the need for campaign, election and media reform, this, along with the importance of moral courage, is the most important lesson that runs through all of his work.
- Continue on to Part 7 of this series, A Formula for Fundamental, Sustainable Political and Social Change in America
- Go back to Part 5 of this series, Campaign, Election and Media Reform: Levers and Leverage Points for Improving Our Society
- Return to Part 1 of this series, Summary and Table of Contents
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Tags: bowling for columbine, campaign finance reform, cnn, congress, debt, election reform, electoral college, films, george w. bush, gun violence, health care, insurance, iraq war, lobbying, media reform, michael moore, moral courage, national rifle association, nra, pharmaceutical companies, politics, president bush, sicko, social change, u.s. congress, united states of america, war in iraq, wolf blitzer
