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I've been reading, listening to, and watching Michael Moore since before he started making award-winning movies. He is bright, witty and creative, and he is passionately political.
What the right wing calls the liberal media in this country, is actually pretty middle of the road in my view, since they mostly are about showing both (or even more) sides of an issue journalism, which is what the Fourth Estate (the press) is supposedly about in a democracy.
Fox News and similar right wing / religious media outlets which outrageously claim that they are "fair and balanced" are nothing close to what they proclaim to be.
Yes, Michael Moore is a shameless liberal. So what? In a democracy, we should have tolerance for his viewpoints, and even for positions further to the left than his.
The current Republi-Crat "big money" big-business/military industrial run political system is the anti-thesis of democracy. Practically every other industrialized nation that practices democracy has a parlimentary system that allows minority parties actual politicial representation (even governments/nations which we helped create such as Germany, Japan, Israel, and even Iraq).
Yet in the USA, we have this antiquated political system that primarily serves mostly those whom can afford to pay for (or basically buy) elections, and then call it a democracy. The Republicans and Democrats are basically two sides of the same coin.
What we have is not a democratic system, but orchestrated political theater designed to alienate, placate and sedate a nation of people that have been made to feel powerless to cause real change.
When Ross Perot ran for President he hurt the Republicans. When Ralph Nader ran, he hurt the Democrats. Yet in a parlimentary system, each of their parties (the Reform Party and Green Party respectively), would have instead gained minority seats and then forced concessions from the people they were most closely aligned with in order to form a majority coalition. Their ideas for change would have been heard.
Over time their ideas could gain further acceptance, and real change could happen. Instead we are taught the lesson that to vote for a third party challenger is a wasted vote or helps our biggest opponent. We are in serious need of real political reform, if not revolution in this country.
The most powerful scene for me in "Sicko" is where Amercians living in France had gathered to meet and speak about the differences they noted in the two systems. They indicated that in France, the government is afraid of the people, which is why they act primarily to please/appease the people, whereas in the US, people fear the government.
I applaud the efforts of Michael Moore and others whom are willing to travel a difficult path to effect real change in this country, because the old style is clearly failing us...
ADG
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