COMMUNITIES AGAINST CAPITALISM
 

Crap. The Sequel: "The Crap Ends Here"
May 4, 2001
by Michael Moore

Dear friends,

Well, the mail has been pouring in since my last
letter. It's been running about 5 to 1 in support
of my view that Bush's "reversals" of Clinton's
last-minute orders were not only made possible by
Clinton's 8-year postponement of them, but were
not even reversals -- as Bush is only continuing
the same regulations that have been in effect
during the entire Clinton/Gore administration.

Obviously, thousands of you have been feeling the
same way. But a number of you have written to me
making some very passionate points and asking me
some very pointed questions. I feel you deserve
some answers. But this is going to be my last
letter on Clinton/Gore until I -- and you -- get
busy and focus on the present and the difficult
work ahead of us: trying to stop the damage
George W. Bush intends to wreak upon the planet earth.

What follows are the concerns some of you have
raised and my responses to them:

**(Read the whole thing as follows or skip to my favorite part here - Annie) 6. "So, thanks to you and that little pity-party story you just told, you and Ralph put George W. Bush in the White House! Bastards!"**

1. "Why do you keep bashing Clinton and Gore?
Don't you know they were under attack for 8 years
by a rabid right wing? Aren't you just playing
into the Republicans' hands with these criticisms?"

A: I voted for Clinton in 1992. I did so with
much hope, as I felt here was someone from the
working class who I believed, in his heart,
wanted to do the right thing. But the promise
that was held out to us was never realized. His
pushing NAFTA through into law -- something Poppy
Bush and Reagan had been unable to do -- helped
to drive the final nail in the coffin of my
hometown, Flint, Michigan. More GM jobs were
lost in Flint under Clinton/Gore than during the
entire 12 years of Reagan/Bush. Clinton's
decision to help companies like GM destroy the
lives of my friends and neighbors was so personal
to me that -- and I hope you forgive me for this
-- I will never be able to vote for anyonne who
made this law possible. Perhaps I should be
looking at all the good things Clinton did do.
But this hit so close to home that, sadly, I can't.

I do not hate Clinton. I actually like him as a
person. And I like Al Gore. These are not bad men
like the ones who now illegally occupy 1600
Pennsylvania Avenue. I love Hillary, and worked
to get her elected in November -- even though I
do not agree with her on many issues. I am not
opposed to compromise and do not expect any
candidate to stand for everything I do. I
thoroughly resented the abuse she and her husband
suffered at the hands of the right wingnuts and
aggressively fought against his impeachment.

I believe that at one time Bill and Al wanted to
do good, but chose the path of expedience and
excessive compromise. I wish they hadn't.

2. "How can you say that there is NO difference
between Gore and Bush?"

A: This seems to be a popular mantra. I do not
understand the motives of those who want to
misrepresent or take out of context what I and
others had to say about the "choice" in last
November's election. It was NEVER stated in such
simplistic, unsubstantiated language. From the
first letter on the election that I sent out last
July, I was VERY clear about where I stood: "The
one outstanding difference between Bush and Gore
is that one is evil and the other isn't."

Of course there's a difference between the two.
There's a big difference between me and Ralph
Nader. There's a "difference" between any two of anything!

Of course one of them is worse. One of any two
choices is always "worse." "Temptation Island" is
worse than "Survivor." Hitler was worse than
Mussolini. So what? Arguing over degrees of
worseness is a waste of time. I'm worse than my
wife. Big deal.

We can make lists all day about how Gore would
have been better on any of a number of issues. Of
course he would have! He's not the evil one!

But it was also Al Gore who, in the second
debate, agreed with Bush's position on 32 major
issues! Did I say 32? YES, THIRTY-TWO TIMES, GORE
OR BUSH SAID, "I AGREE [WITH YOUR POSITION]!"
From moving American jobs to foreign sweatshops,
to keeping the minimum wage low, to his unabashed
support of the death penalty, to continuing the
bombing and embargo of Iraq, to INCREASING the
Pentagon budget (with Gore wanting a larger
increase than Bush!), all the way down to both of
them opposing the return of little Elian Gonzales
to his father in Cuba, Gore and Bush did
everything but ask each other out on a date. At
one point, Gore moved so close to Bush, I thought
he was going to lay a big Tipper wet one on him.

3. "But Bush is going to build the Star Wars
missile shield! Gore wouldn't have!"

A: I get the feeling no one reads the paper any
more. CLINTON/GORE tried to build the same damn
missile shield! Billions were spent by their
administration on this nonsense -- billions that
could have gone to fix every school in America.
The tests failed so many times that they
suspended the thing -- but REFUSED to kill it,
thus leaving the door open for the Cheney Junta
to keep the program going. Am I the only one who
knows this? I mean, I'm not that smart, so
somebody else must have noticed that Clinton not
only promoted Star Wars, he reneged on three key
provisions of the Kyoto agreement last October,
effectively scuttling it, and did a lot of the
things people now believe W. is instituting for
the first time.

4. "So, it sounds like you hate Clinton and Gore
more than Bush."

A: Quite the contrary. I and all other good
Americans consider George W. Bush our mortal
enemy. We're just disappointed in Bill Clinton
and Al Gore. I and others fought for 37 days
after November 7th to stop Bush's theft of the
election. Gore IS the president. He got the most
votes in the country and he got the most votes in
Florida. He won. Some Nader supporters thought I
shouldn't have been so vocal in my support of
Gore's effort to assume the seat that was
rightfully his. I told them that our drive to see
that this country is run by the true will of the
people has no integrity if we do not speak out
loudly about the will of the people being
subverted by Bush, his brother, his cousin at Fox
News, and the Supreme Court. I wish more Nader
supporters -- and Ralph himself -- had been more
aggressive in fighting for what was right in
November and December.

5. "So why on earth did you support Ralph Nader?
There was no way he was going to win. He has a
huge ego, he purposefully tried to hurt Gore more
than Bush, and I heard he owns stock in the very
companies he attacks!"

A: I believe one should always vote their
conscience. The voting booth is not a negotiating
table. It is the one place where every American
needs to be completely honest so that whoever is
elected is a true representation of what people
want to see their government do. I do not believe
in the lesser of two evils theory, even though I
employ it in every other aspect of my daily life
("Let's see, I think the A train will not be as
bad as the D train at rush hour" or "Drinking
Coke will give me heart disease, drinking Diet
Coke will give me MS and cancer. Hmmm. I'll take
my chances with the heart attack."). In the
voting booth, if you always end up settling for
less, you will keep getting less and less with
each election -- because lowering your
expectations only creates lower and lower
candidates of any worth or integrity. With the
lesser of two evils, either way, you still end up
with evil.

Ralph Nader, of all the candidates, most closely
represented how I felt on the issues. I believe
every American should have health care, every
college student should go to college for free,
the minimum wage should be at least $8/hour,
anti-abortion terrorists should be vigorously
hunted down and prosecuted, and on and on. Why
shouldn't I support the candidate who supports me?

Ralph Nader has many faults, as do all of us. But
I've know him for a long time -- and, trust me,
having an inflated ego is NOT one of them. If
anything, this guy needs more ego. I set up an
interview with him and a "Nightline" crew. But he
didn't want to do the interview. He preferred to
sit in a room and rework his speech. Who would
pass up a chance to be on "Nightline?" A guy who
would rather make sure he gives a good speech to
10,000 than to talk in sound bytes to 10 million.

Ralph owns stock. I don't. Never have. To some
people, I guess that makes me nuts, considering
the boom of the past decade. But I do not judge
others on things like this. I mean, I'm on AOL!
What's important are your real actions and what
you do with the money you may be blessed with.
Ralph has put nearly every dime of what he makes
into his projects. And he attacks those very
companies he owns stock in, which, in turn, may
prevent his stock from making any money. I'm not
defending it, I just say to each his own.

Many signed on to the Nader campaign at the
suggestion of Molly Ivins who wrote that, if you
live in a state where Bush or Gore is already
going to win by a big margin, then vote for Nader
and make a statement with your vote. But if you
live in a swing state, then it is your duty to
stop George W. Bush.

Sometime in early October, the Nader campaign
reversed itself and disavowed the "Ivins Rule,"
perhaps because it was becoming clear that they
were not going to make the 5% threshold. Thus,
they began an aggressive second campaign tour in
the swing states of Wisconsin, Oregon, Washington
State, and Florida. I declined to join that tour
as I thought there was no reason to anger the
very people we would have to work with after November.

In fact, I went down to Tallahassee on my own two
weeks BEFORE the election and held a press
conference. I also spoke at a gathering of
thousands at Florida State. I said that it was
easy for me to vote for Nader because I lived in
a state where Gore was going to win by a huge
margin. But you here in Florida have a different
job to do. Your job is to stop George W. Bush. In
the next two weeks, Ralph's poll numbers in
Florida went from 6% to 1.7% on Election Day.

In the interests of full disclosure, I must admit
that, in large part, it is for very personal
reasons that I put in countless hours helping
Ralph Nader. Yes, I supported his platform, but
real life is not about platforms and policy
statements. It's about people and what they mean
to you on a personal level. In 1986, when I was
broke and unemployed, Ralph Nader called and
offered me a job. It didn't pay much but it got
me through a tough time. He then made it possible
for me to shoot "Roger & Me" while working out of
his office over a two-year period. Without his
support and the help of the people in his office,
I don't know if that film would have ever been made.

I owed him so much, yet when the film came out
and received this incredible response, Ralph felt
slighted and ignored for the contribution he had
made (suddenly he had some ego!) and attacked me
in the New York Times. I was stunned. For a long
time I just attributed it to his pettiness and
eccentricity. But as time went on, I wanted to
heal this wound, because the world wasn't getting
any better, and it sure didn't help that Ralph
Nader and I weren't talking to each other.

So, I invited him to the premier of "The Big One"
and he came. I stood at the back and watched him
laugh all the way through the film. Afterwards, I
went up and apologized to him for any pain I may
have caused him. I offered to give some of the
proceeds from my film to his Center. He didn't
know what to say, but his look said it all.
Reconciliation is never a bad thing.

When he called last summer to ask for my help
with his campaign, I felt it was a debt I needed
to repay. It also didn't hurt that I agreed with
every damn thing he had to say! But I had met Al
Gore, and immediately liked him. So I wrote him a
private letter asking him to explain why I should
vote for him instead of Nader. He sent me back a
four-page response. I decided I had to help Ralph.

6. "So, thanks to you and that little pity-party
story you just told, you and Ralph put George W.
Bush in the White House! Bastards!"

A: I have decided to come clean on this one. I've
wasted a lot of time since November explaining
how Ralph actually did quite poorly around the
country (except among young people and people who
earn under $15,000 a year, his two largest voting
blocks that surpassed the 5% mark), and that he
didn't hurt Al Gore because, in Florida, Al Gore
won the election. Why aren't you angry at the
Supreme Court and the political machine that
rigged the whole damn thing? How odd you would go
after someone who is your ally on so many issues
when it was Al Gore, not Ralph Nader, who voted
to put Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court. And
blah, blah, blah.

I told Ralph that, from now on, when he is
accused of costing Gore the election, he should
say, "You bet I did! It was all me!! I alone, the
mighty Thor Nader, hold enough votes to deny him
or any Democrat the White House or control of
Congress should they not straighten up and fly
right. If the Democrats don't stop acting like
Republicans, we will deny them all power. If they
start behaving like the true opposition party
that fights for working people, women,
minorities, the environment, and an equitable
distribution of the wealth, then we shall allow
them to enter the Promised Land!"

Of course, that would take too much ego -- but I
sure would like to hear Ralph deliver those words
in the mighty voice of Thor!

7. "OK, enough of this! Baby Bush is destroying
the country! What do we do to stop him?"

A: Well, I guess, seeing how we are responsible
for this mess . I guess we better clean it up. In
my next letter, I will propose a plan for what I
think we need to do to stage our countercoup.

In the meantime, my good Democratic friends, lets
stop the blame game and join forces for the
common good. Blaming is the tool of the coward
who is afraid to confront his or her own
culpability. Don't blame Nader, blame yourself. I
blame myself for not being able to persuade
enough people to see that there was a better way
to go. Al Gore needs to accept responsibility for
blowing his own campaign and all three debates.
How you could not defeat the dumbest man in
America when you've been given a high IQ and
three chances to do so is beyond me. Al, after
you screwed up, I had to get my ass down to
Florida to try and save yours. And I don't even
believe in half of what you stand for! I just
couldn't have it on my conscience that a Shrub
would be running the country. My trip there, and
all the notice it received around the state, cost
Ralph, my friend, perhaps thousands of votes,
most of which went to you!

But at least 537 didn't make the switch. So, I'll
devote the next four years to being the biggest
pain in the ass ol' George has had since that cop
made him take a Breathalyzer. To the Gorestopo
out there who still won't let up with their
bellyaching and fingerpointing after this letter,
let me remind you of one final thing. Those
greens and activists you keep attacking for
voting for Nader? Lay off 'em, 'cause they're
your only hope.

THEY are the ones who will lead the marches, hold
the sit-ins, organize door-to-door until they
drop to protect our environment, fight for
women's rights, and stand up against racism and
war. You don't think the party hacks down at the
local Democratic headquarters are going to risk
going to jail or mobilize millions to stop the
Bush tax cut or save the Alaskan wilderness, do
you? You had better stop trashing the very people
who are going to be doing all the work for you in
the next four years. Disagree with their
electoral choices, fine. But give 'em a bit of
gratitude for always being the ones who fight the
fights that need to be fought.

Enough. On to our mission.....

Yours,

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com