Michael Moore Has Just Given Me a Great Deal of Satisfaction

Thanks to Lex Communis for leading us to this delightful piece.

Mike's Message:

Sunday, November 3rd, 2002
Years from Now, They'll Call It "Payback Tuesday"

Dear Friends,

Well, folks, Tuesday [Nov. 5, 2002] is the day! The day that George W. gets taught a long overdue lesson. The day that we, the MAJORITY -- the 52% who never elected him -- get our chance to reclaim a bit of our former democracy (back when ALL the votes used to be counted).

What if, on Tuesday, all of us, regardless of our political stripe, and just for the fun of it, decided to serve one big-ass eviction notice that said, you have two years to remove yourself from the premises-and you had better not damage anything on your way out?

I think we can give Bush the Mother of all Shellackings on Tuesday. It can happen if you, and the millions of others, who are now reading this letter, will do one simple thing:

TAKE THE DAY OFF THIS TUESDAY.

That's right. Call in sick, skip work, skip school, skip Springer, and then devote the next 12 hours to dragging as many people as you can out of their homes and getting them to the polls.

I know a lot of you cannot afford to do this. But, honestly, can we afford NOT to? Bush has been effectively stymied in his first two years from doing much of the serious damage he was hired to do (we owe a big thanks to Jim Jeffords for that). Yet, if he has both the House and Senate under his thumb for his final two years, we will all pay a huge price for many years to come.

On Tuesday, go down to the local candidate's office and volunteer to do whatever is needed: give a ride to the polls for senior citizens who can't get there, make last minute phone calls to probable voters who may have forgotten to vote, pass out handbills on street corners, do cartwheels in the middle of the mall -- you name it, I am sure it will work.

Or you could just start going door to door in your own neighborhood. Knock on every door and tell people in plain, non-political language why you would like them to go down to the polls right now and vote for so-and-so. Tell them you have never done this before, that you were just compelled to do it as an act conscience, to do something for our country. Or tell them you just needed to get some exercise. Tell them what they already know: that the corporate guys have made off like bandits while the rest of the country lives in utter fear over whether they will have jobs, health care benefits, or our pensions when they retire. EVERYONE can relate to this -- and trust me, it is on everyone's mind right now. Even many conservatives who have seen their job or their 401(K) go up in smoke are now livid and want their pound of flesh.

I know that for many of you this will be a new thing. Give it shot. I promise you, at the end of the day on Tuesday, if we succeed, you will never again doubt the power of just one individual who decides that she or he can make a difference.

Send this email to your friends and family so that they, too, can be informed of the good women and men who are running for the House and Senate (and for many local and state races as well). Visit my web site at: www.Michaelmoore.com for my recommendations.

We will deny Bush control of the Congress next week, and then we all work to get him out of the White House in 2004. 2004 will NOT and MUST NOT be a repeat of 2000.

As for local and state races, whenever possible support Greens and other progressive candidates like those highlighted on my web site. There you will find the list of progressive candidates who have a chance to win.

Will you join with me in doing this?

It's our only chance, right now, to receive a small measure of justice for what happened in Florida in 2000. And that is worth something.

Expect a wake-up call from me at your bedside 6am Tuesday! ....

Ironically, Moore may very well be right, but only at the very beginning, and not in the way he would have anticipated: Years from Now, They'll Call It "Payback Tuesday".

Sounds good to me.

Reading Moore's delightful rendition of proverbially Counting One's Chickens Before They Have Hatched reminded me of a comment I posted at Catholic Light yesterday, in response to the query What do you think did the democrats in this election?

They believed their own propaganda. Especially that George W. Bush is dumb, and that the result of the 2000 election was the greatest scandal in American political history which every thinking individual wanted to avenge. Also, the Senate Democrats have been ruling that body with a bitterly partisan iron fist, and a lot more people noticed, and disapproved, than the Democrats thought would do so. Monumental miscalculations, I think.

Moore is clearly somebody who believes his own propaganda. Fortunately, not very many other people do anymore.

P.S. Okay, he may be right somewhere else, too. In light of this bit ....

I promise you, at the end of the day on Tuesday, if we succeed, you will never again doubt the power of just one individual who decides that she or he can make a difference.

.... allow me to refer you to my thank-you to Senator Harkin. :)

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 11/07/02 10:03:29 PM
Categorized as Political.