This diary is in no way meant to trash Michael Moore himself or his films. But his current actions and statements are just annoying the hell out of me and many other solid liberals and Democrats I know.
Michael Moore's statements the past few days regarding the health care bill have been confusing at best and
remarkably destructive and unhelpful at worst. In the midst of this celebration we are having (which is well deserved), and the near remarkable unification on this website that I have not seen since the election of 2008, we hear some on the left that say this bill does not go far enough.
I completely agree. Most of us here completely agree. Having a public option would be great right now. Having absolute universal health care for all, and an end to all the greedy ways of the insurance companies would be great right now.
But we don't live in fantasy-land. We live in America, a Country that President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and all of us had to work so hard just to get to this point on health care
Michael Moore finally decided to get behind this bill at the last minute, which was quite good, as it was a bit unnerving seeing John Boehner on CNN followed by Michael Moore, both with their varying reasons of why this bill was awful. Moore deserves some praise for temporarily ending that rhetoric. He seemed to have acknowledged that this bill is a good first step.
It finally passed, Obama finally signed it into law, and here is Michael Moore again, this time on Democracy Now:
“The healthcare bill that was passed ultimately will be seen as a victory for capitalism,” Moore says. “It protected the capitalist model of providing healthcare for people. In other words, we are not to help unless there is money to be made from it.”
CHILL OUT ALREADY MAN! Yes, this bill is not perfect by any stretch. It does not provide every single person with health care, and if I had written this bill it would be quite different.
Having said that...
People that get sick will not be dropped from their plans because of that anymore.
Our children will not be precluded from care because of pre-existing conditions.
Adults with pre-existing conditions have more options.
Far, far more....
So this defeatist attitude of "nothing is good enough unless it does everything I want" gets us absolutely nowhere. You want to know why Democrats have a reputation of losing? Not only because they don't stand up for what they believe in at times. Because people like Moore are never satisfied with what happens unless it is perfect.... and things aren't usually perfect.
The stereotypical image of the "elitist, whiny liberal" is exemplified best right now in Michael Moore. There is work to be done, and this bill is a great first step. But when Americans, who are now unsure what to believe about the health care bill, hear Michael Moore trashing it already, I don't think it will help our cause or the cause of the millions of Americans who now will have health care.
If nothing else, this bill was worth it for the fact that John Boehner's "impassioned speech" had absolutely no effect at all.