Fahrenheit 11/9—Filmmaker Michael Moore clings to the Democratic Party
By
David Walsh
21 September 2018
Michael Moore has a long history as a documentary filmmaker (Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Capitalism: A Love Story) and a left-liberal supporter of the Democratic Party.
His new film Fahrenheit 11/9 is an attempt to explain how the election of Donald Trump—a reactionary, know-nothing billionaire—as president of the United States was possible and how the American population might extricate itself from the crisis produced by his coming to power.
If Moore could provide serious and convincing answers to these vexing and pressing problems, and perhaps indicate a way out of the present situation, he would be rendering an enormous political and moral service.
Many of the issues he touches upon—the fascistic character of the Trump White House, the sharp turn to the right by the Democratic Party leadership, the Flint, Michigan water disaster, the depths of poverty in America, the epidemic of school shootings, the cruelty of the government’s treatment of immigrants, the opioid crisis, vast social inequality—are strong arguments for workers to reject the existing economic and political system and adopt a socialist program and outlook.
However, despite various criticisms of prominent Democrats—among them Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama—and the American liberal establishment, including the New York Times, Moore urges his viewers to retain—or perhaps regain—confidence in the Democratic Party and “to save,” as he admits, “the America [i.e., the benevolent American capitalism] we’ve never had.”
In interviews, Moore stresses that Fahrenheit 11/9 (a play on the…