The Iowa caucus is finally and mercifully upon us. And right in time, filmmaker Michael Moore has offered an analysis of the Democratic field of candidates. There’s much here that I don’t particularly agree with here, but Moore makes two large claims that strike me as being fundamentally (and regretfully) true:
- The “Democratic front-runners are a less-than-stellar group of candidates, and … none of them are the slam dunk we wish they were.”
- “For months I’ve been wanting to ask the question, “Where are you, Al Gore?” You can only polish that Oscar for so long. And the Nobel was decided by Scandinavians! I don’t blame you for not wanting to enter the viper pit again after you already won. But getting us to change out our incandescent light bulbs for some irritating fluorescent ones isn’t going to save the world. All it’s going to do is make us more agitated and jumpy and feeling like once we get home we haven’t really left the office.”
“But getting us to change out our incandescent light bulbs for some irritating fluorescent ones isn’t going to save the world.”
This is the stuff that annoys me about Michael Moore. He weilds so much power, that he often uses well, but at other times he is incapable of curbing his arrogance, of thinking of the little things, of stepping away from the grand gesture. A refusal to scrutinise and change his own lifestyle undermines his authority.