Michael Moore is a good filmmaker and a funny guy, but he's a political innocent -- and people who presume to lead a movement; that is, send out political messages for all to read, ought to think before they write.
I'll just take one aspect of Moore's message, the question of arsenic in the water. Moore castigates Clinton thusly:
> Do you believe Clinton removed the arsenic from the >water? Not only did he NOT do that, not only did he >make us drink arsenic-laced water for the last
> 8 years, this order he signed stipulated that the >arsenic was not to be removed from the water "until >2004." That's right. Look it up.
But, Mike, you just can't prohibit something like this overnight. Public water systems need to invest in and install new technology. Money has to be appropriated to finance the upgrade. This takes time. It cannot be done overnight. Public policy can't be reduced to simplistic slogans or wish-lists. Clinton gave the water departments three years to upgrade their systems. That's reasonable and will result in less arsenic in the water. Nader, as President, would face the same practical problem.
Yeah, Clinton was a centrist and a coward; Gore was and is a moderate. The Democrats hem and haw and are beholden to big money. But to describe Bush's assault on the environment as no different from what Gore would have done is intellectually incredible.
I voted for Nader (though, only because Vermont was a safe state for Gore). Given the hard-right tilt of Bush's Administration on every issue, the argument that there is no difference between Dems and Reps is no longer credible -- and indeed compromises the possibility that the Green/third party movement can grow beyond the hard core. A political leader/movement that is blinded by ideology and thus cannot describe reality is not going anywhere -- and shouldn't.
Marty
Marty Jezer
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Stuttering: A Life Bound Up in Words
Abbie Hoffman: American Rebel
Rachel Carson: Author, Biologist
The Dark Ages: Life in the USA, 1945-1960
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