We’ve seen a lot of documentaries so far this year; such as
The Yes Men, Outfoxed, Bush’s Brain, You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train,
American Blackout, and This Film Is Not Yet Rated.
A good documentary gives me something not commonly known, so I didn’t care for
Shirley Chisholm ’72: Unbought & Unbossed, and I thoroughly enjoyed
One Bright Shining Moment about the McGovern usurpation of the Democratic machine in 1972.
Right up front they acknowledge the landslide loss to Nixon in ’72, then the movie looks at how George McGovern won the nomination in a convention that reflected the American public more than any convention before or since — and how beating the Democratic machine undermined the campaign in the general election.
With numerous incisive interviews from people who were there, it’s both insightful about present politics and a slice of Americana. Gore Vidal describes America’s government as a plutocracy, and at one point talks about his familiarity with those who govern us:
“You know, I was brought up in the ruling class. They hate the people. The Bush family, if you gave them sodium pentothal and asked them ‘what do you think about the American people?’ You’ll hear such profanity as you’ve never heard before. ‘The American people are an obstacle. The Constitution stuck us with all these elections.”
I think he’s right, it is a plutocracy, and a very cleverly run one, at that.
Here is the degree to which the plutocrats rule: They have convinced middle-class America that they are the preservers of their way of life. While the liberals espoused civil rights for all, women, blacks, and gays, working at making the country live up to the ideals and promises it espoused, the conservatives shrewdly convinced America that they were the ones who stood up for traditional virtues: the flag, mom, and apple pie.
No matter that liberals were the ones helping moms and like flags and apple pie as much as anyone else. Much of Middle America bought the conservative deceit. (By middle I do not mean the midwest, I mean the middle class, from New Hampshire to Florida to Orange county to the loggers in the northwest, sporting toy stuffed spotted owls in nooses.) The plutocrats have convinced middle America that those darn liberals want to take away their very way of life.
I know a guy who goes duck hunting and relishes talking about how he is going to go “murder ducks.” He hopes to provoke a reaction.
Another friend who returned to western Pennsylvannia makes a point of talking about deerhunting. (It seems tied in to the movie The Deer Hunter for him.) He wanted me to see how many shops and stores sport signs offering venision during the fall.
It was his way of saying these are our traditions and our way of life — which you liberals want to take away from us with all your laws and regulations.
Never mind that there is a sheer numbers game involved. When the American population expands from 76 million in 1900 to 146 million after World War II to over 300 million today, and the habitat for wildlife is shrinking and the numbers of ducks are diminishing and the deer have to move to suburbia, husbanding the resources becomes imperative.
Never mind that — at a gut level, those darn liberals are out to destroy traditional American life. And that’s what the conservatives exploit. The plutocrats are calculatingly effective at manipulating the fears of middle America. I work with a woman whose parents in Cincinnati are convinced the only thing keeping Osama bin Laden, al Qaeda, and the Taliban from marching on southern Ohio is George W. Bush.
Say what? Think of how successful a piece of propaganda that has been.
I mean, first of all, the sheer logistics of it: the ships and tanks and planes needed to mount an assault on mainland America.
Does the Taliban have any troop transport ships? Paratroopers? Troop transport vehicles or tanks or the supply lines to mount such an invasion?
How successful a fearmongering campaign is that, that so many Americans have been kept afraid of a cowardly outfit without the guts to even come in out of the shadows?
This nation once faced an immense problem here throughout our country, and FDR said of the Depression during his 1933 inauguration, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.”
To see One Bright Shining Moment is to see a movie about a brilliant and decent man who once presented us with the opportunity of proactive, unfearful governance. The Republicans effectively convinced the average Americans that the blacks were storming out of the cities, the students storming out of the campuses, the Jews ran the banks and the media, and they were all going to turn the country communist courtesy of a McGovern administration. And it was all a huge lie.
Nixon and his operatives ended up disgraced, with many of them doing hard time in prison; McGovern’s campaigners still get together with pride for what they accomplished and attempted.
Until the left figures out a way to show the American people how the fearmongers are manipulating them, and how they will live better if they face whatever problems they have with less fear and more rational proactivity, more guts, the fearmongering and the plutocracy will continue. Because it works so well. Time after time after time.
I’m glad to see you getting riled up about politics. I’ve lately seemed unable to do so myself, although I’m not sure why. Do you think the movie provided more fuel to that fire?
Nice post Ben. I found a trailer for this film.
ybonesy, I think if enough people see it, the movie might help. I enjoyed it mostly for the history, and for the reminder of the optimism of the time, that so many people really felt they could make America a better place. I’m not sure that can be re-kindled, though I’d love to be wrong.
Of the documentaries we’ve seen lately, I’d say Bush’s Brain is the most essential, as it really exposes how bad the illegal acts have gotten (and from Republicans themselves, who dealt with Rove). And unlike Watergate, people seem so inured to it now they no longer care about criminal behavior during elections — that’s a bit scary, to me, in a democracy as arteriosclerotic as this one.
Afte that, One Bright Shining Moment, Outfoxed,and American Blackout are all good, with the last two having minor weaknesses. Yet both the suppression of the black vote (and what McKinney endures trying to expose that corruption), and the decay of media integrity are worth watching.
Yes Men is just a PR stunt repeated, and I had some problems with their execution.
This Film Is Not Yet Rated is good about the juncture of politics and cinema, and how we have chosen violence and gore over sex; the investigative work and testing the system were very well done.
Thanks, whig. I think you in particular might enjoy this movie. I know your “political trajectory” has been from conservative to liberal, so the sense of the times, the zeitgeist of a people’s uprising so much a part of the McGovern campaign might be of interest, if you are the type who enjoys political documentaries. (My wife isn’t so much; she will stick with about half of them, but gets irritated with how “just plain mean” the GOP is.)
I’d be interested in hearing your take on it.
yes, yes and yes. So true. I will check out this documentary. Put it on top of the stack under ‘Pieces of April’. 🙂
I guess it helps if we don’t make the same mistakes, but I think the internet makes a difference this time. Would Dennis Kucinich be the George McGovern of 2008?
I’ll take a look for it. I try to steer clear of politics but end up getting sucked in, again and again.
Amuirin, haven’t you seen “Pieces of April” already?
Whig, I like Kucinich, too. But once you see the documentary, I think you’ll see how different the demographics were. Still, I’d love to see a groudswell for someone like Kucinich, too.
Stevo, you make politics sound like the mob, like infamous scene from the Godfather (and parodied in The Sopranos): “Every time I try to get out … “
Great writing & I agree. I believe that on Earth war must stop because there is Life here.
I am also happy that we have President Obama to attempt to help us through these trying times.
My blogsite: pmespeak.com
Again Thanks!
Phil Edwards