Michael Moore is pissed off. I have seldom seen him as angry as he has been in Wisconsin. He is angry that the Republican Party has stolen the American Dream and handed it to the super-rich and to criminal corporations. In this article, he cuts through the superfluous and focuses on the issues we need to address.
Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you’ll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It’s just that it’s not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.
Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.
Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can’t bring yourself to call that a financial coup d’état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.
And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we’d have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic — and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.
I have nothing more than a high school degree. But back when I was in school, every student had to take one semester of economics in order to graduate. And here’s what I learned: Money doesn’t grow on trees. It grows when we make things. It grows when we have good jobs with good wages that we use to buy the things we need and thus create more jobs. It grows when we provide an outstanding educational system that then grows a new generation of inventers, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and thinkers who come up with the next great idea for the planet. And that new idea creates new jobs and that creates revenue for the state. But if those who have the most money don’t pay their fair share of taxes, the state can’t function. The schools can’t produce the best and the brightest who will go on to create those jobs. If the wealthy get to keep most of their money, we have seen what they will do with it: recklessly gamble it on crazy Wall Street schemes and crash our economy. The crash they created cost us millions of jobs. That too caused a reduction in revenue. And the population ended up suffering because they reduced their taxes, reduced our jobs and took wealth out of the system, removing it from circulation.
The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. It’s part of the Big Lie. It’s one of the three biggest lies of the decade: America/Wisconsin is broke, Iraq has WMD, the Packers can’t win the Super Bowl without Brett Favre.
The truth is, there’s lots of money to go around. LOTS. It’s just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates. They know they have committed crimes to make this happen and they know that someday you may want to see some of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them. But just in case that doesn’t work, they’ve got their gated communities, and the luxury jet is always fully fueled, the engines running, waiting for that day they hope never comes. To help prevent that day when the people demand their country back, the wealthy have done two very smart things:
1. They control the message. By owning most of the media they have expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of the American Dream and to vote for their politicians. Their version of the Dream says that you, too, might be rich some day – this is America, where anything can happen if you just apply yourself! They have conveniently provided you with believable examples to show you how a poor boy can become a rich man, how the child of a single mother in Hawaii can become president, how a guy with a high school education can become a successful filmmaker. They will play these stories for you over and over again all day long so that the last thing you will want to do is upset the apple cart — because you — yes, you, too! — might be rich/president/an Oscar-winner some day! The message is clear: keep you head down, your nose to the grindstone, don’t rock the boat and be sure to vote for the party that protects the rich man that you might be some day.
2. They have created a poison pill that they know you will never want to take. It is their version of mutually assured destruction. And when they threatened to release this weapon of mass economic annihilation in September of 2008, we blinked. As the economy and the stock market went into a tailspin, and the banks were caught conducting a worldwide Ponzi scheme, Wall Street issued this threat: Either hand over trillions of dollars from the American taxpayers or we will crash this economy straight into the ground. Fork it over or it’s Goodbye savings accounts. Goodbye pensions. Goodbye United States Treasury. Goodbye jobs and homes and future. It was friggin’ awesome and it scared the shit out of everyone. "Here! Take our money! We don’t care. We’ll even print more for you! Just take it! But, please, leave our lives alone, PLEASE!"
The executives in the board rooms and hedge funds could not contain their laughter, their glee, and within three months they were writing each other huge bonus checks and marveling at how perfectly they had played a nation full of suckers. Millions lost their jobs anyway, and millions lost their homes. But there was no revolt (see #1).
Until now. On Wisconsin! Never has a Michigander been more happy to share a big, great lake with you! You have aroused the sleeping giant know as the working people of the United States of America. Right now the earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those who are in charge. Your message has inspired people in all 50 states and that message is: WE HAVE HAD IT! We reject anyone tells us America is broke and broken. It’s just the opposite! We are rich with talent and ideas and hard work and, yes, love. Love and compassion toward those who have, through no fault of their own, ended up as the least among us. But they still crave what we all crave: Our country back! Our democracy back! Our good name back! The United States of America. NOT the Corporate States of America. The United States of America!… [emphasis added]
Inserted from <Alternet>
I encourage you to click through and read the other half of Moore’s fine piece.
Wisconsin is the starting point. America needs to take it national.
10 Responses to “Michael Moore’s Clarion Call”
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.
Anybody so libertarian as to think this isn’t a serious problem, is not living in the real world.
Are you suggesting a new planet for Teabaggers? Great idea! 😉
An excellent piece by a man who genuinely cares about this country, and he is totally correct. We are sick of being lied to, taken advantage of, and screwed by the fithy rich, and I do mean filthy! Let’s make the 2012 election a complete turnaround on the 2010 one and throw all these lying Republicans and stupid teabaggers from office for good!
We need to do that Jack. If Republicans ever again get the White House, Senate, and House together, America as a Republic is over.
As a Wisconsinite, I couldn’t have said it better myself!
Welcome Maggie! 🙂
To you and your fellow Wisconsinites, thank you so very much for what you are doing!
There is a silver lining to Walker’s black cloud.
There’s folklore to the effect that if you drop a frog into a pan of hot water it will jump out but if you drop it into cold water and slowly raise the temperature it will boil. Like the frog, humans don’t notice slow, gradual change.
The US has been descending into fascism for decades – see Britt’s “Fourteen Defining Characteristics of Fascism”. Sometimes at a medium pace (Nixon), sometimes at a fast pace (Reagan, Bush 41), sometimes at a run (Bush 43) and sometimes at a crawl (Clinton, Obama). Bush 43 got away with running towards fascism because of 9/11; the others made changes slowly enough that people would ignore them as being not much different than before.
Walker’s ham-handed attack on the unions has awoken people to what is happening. It has them riled up. It has them demonstrating in the streets. It has made the nation aware of the GOP’s true intentions. Walker took the frog out of the slowly-warming but still tepid water and threw it into a pot of hot water. The consequences were unintended, but they happened.
The downside is this. This is probably the last chance the US will have to reverse the descent into fascism. It’s all or nothing. Jump out of the pot or resign yourselves to boiling.
Welcome, Paul. 🙂
Se my reply to Jack above. I fully agree that Republicans are giving us a chance by overplaying their hands, but that it may well be the last chance we get.
Yes — a sleeping giant has been aroused ; but by history we have been a complacent Giant ; now- there is a choice , one we never expected to face—-the Giant can roll over and go back to sleep– OR the Giant can remain awake– and bring about change— It will not be an easy or quick fix– this time the Giant has to get all the way out of bed and prepare for a long struggle— My question– my challenge really– Does the Giant have the guts and will to stay the struggle- ?
It is the last chance– I do agree the slide into fascism has been occurring while the Giant remained in a stupor— Will he remain awake and continue the fight or slide back to bed—- ? Does the giant have staying power ?
Thank God for the patriotism of Michael Moore and others who are putting a heck of a lot on the line – for all of us– and for a better future-
Amen to that Phyllis, and it looks like Gov. Wanker is about to grab his ankles.