The Daily Howler has been running a series of pieces this week on Boston Globe columnist, and alleged progressive, Ellen Goodman. I complained earlier in these pages that instead of accepting Fahrenheit 9/11 as manna from heaven, progressive opinion makers are trashing it in lockstep with the opinion makers on the right. I puzzled over this strange phenomena. But, alas, the Howler nails it:
Moore brings a powerful class perspective to Fahrenheit 9/11—a perspective rarely seen, and often punished, in our celebrity press corps. It is rarely expressed for an obvious reason. Our modern press is itself a high elite; despite pious tales about Buffalo boyhoods, its opinion leaders are all multimillionaires, and even hard-charging young elite scribes know they’re on the millionaire track—and they’re careful not to blow it by getting outside the narrow confines of their elders’ world view. Most of these upscale scribes have little class perspective to suppress in the first place. But beyond that, they have no incentive to challenge their group’s perspectives, and that helps explain the nasty treatment Moore’s film has received in the press. After all, is there any elite more phony and fake than the one that is currently trashing Moore’s film? And make no mistake—these overpaid and pampered poodles tend to identify, not with Moore, but with the powdered phonies he mocks.Every time I get down about the prospect of booting the squatter-in-chief from the White House this fall, and with every bullshit story I read from the lapdog press, I remind myself of a couple of things:
1. Monkey Boy™ lost the popular vote in 2000 by over 1/2 million votes. 537 suspect votes in Florida and a favorable SCOTUS ruling are the only reason Bush's occupation of "the people's house" has now extended almost four years.
2. No one who voted for Al Gore in 2000 will be voting for George Bush in 2004. Just ain't gonna happen.
3. Many who voted for Bush in 2000 will be voting for Kerry / Edwards in 2004.
4. True conservatives and libertarians have had it with Bush, both on fiscal and constitutional issues. They either won't vote at all or won't (at least) vote for Bush.
There now. I feel so much better.
