Fahrenheit 11/9, Michael Moore’s new film, a critical review

This video from the USA says about itself:

Michael Moore’s FAHRENHEIT 11/9: OFFICIAL TRAILER – In Theaters 9/21

9 August 2018

SEPTEMBER 21 IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE: Michael Moore‘s “Fahrenheit 11/9” is a provocative and comedic look at the times in which we live. It will explore the two most important questions of the Trump Era: How the f**k did we get here, and how the f**k do we get out? It’s the film to see before it’s too late.

By David Walsh in the USA:

Fahrenheit 11/9—Filmmaker Michael Moore clings to the Democratic Party

21 September 2018

Michael Moore has a long history as a documentary filmmaker (Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, Capitalism: A Love Story) and a left-liberal supporter of the Democratic Party.

His new film Fahrenheit 11/9 is an attempt to explain how the election of Donald Trump—a reactionary, know-nothing billionaire—as president of the United States was possible and how the American population might extricate itself from the crisis produced by his coming to power.

If Moore could provide serious and convincing answers to these vexing and pressing problems, and perhaps indicate a way out of the present situation, he would be rendering an enormous political and moral service.

Many of the issues he touches upon—the fascistic character of the Trump White House, the sharp turn to the right by the Democratic Party leadership, the Flint, Michigan water disaster, the depths of poverty in America, the epidemic of school shootings, the cruelty of the government’s treatment of immigrants, the opioid crisis, vast social inequality—are strong arguments for workers to reject the existing economic and political system and adopt a socialist program and outlook.

However, despite various criticisms of prominent Democrats—among them Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama—and the American liberal establishment, including the New York Times, Moore urges his viewers to retain—or perhaps regain—confidence in the Democratic Party and “to save”, as he admits, “the America [i.e., the benevolent American capitalism] we’ve never had.”

In interviews, Moore stresses that Fahrenheit 11/9 (a play on the title of his 2004 film, Fahrenheit 9/11, and the date—November 9, 2016—on which Trump was declared the winner of the presidential election) is designed to help obtain votes for the Democrats in the midterm elections in November. He has told audiences at premieres of the new film that the upcoming vote may be the “last chance” to oppose Trump. Moore warns of the direst consequences, “If he isn’t stopped, now, in the mid-terms, with impeachment, whatever it takes …” (Deadline Hollywood). He commented on Real Time with Bill Maher: “I’m finishing my movie and getting it out before the midterms because I want millions of people to get to the polls. We’re going to bring Trump down.”

…

Fahrenheit 11/9 proceeds in Moore’s customary impressionistic and intellectually careless manner, often praised as non-elitist and “populist”.

The film takes note of the smugness of the Clinton camp on election eve in November 2016 and the certainty of the American media punditry in general that Trump did not stand a chance of victory. Once the unthinkable happens and the Republican candidate is declared the winner at 2:29 a.m. on “11/9”, Moore asks, “How the f— did this happen?”

With legitimate sarcasm, Moore first suggests it must have been the work of “the Russians” and the FBI’s James Comey (whose October 28 letter announced that the law enforcement agency was reopening its investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server as Secretary of State). By way of a side note: the little time Fahrenheit 11/9 devotes to the anti-Russian … campaign … indicates that Moore is well aware of how little interest the broader public has in these upper middle class obsessions.

After a brief excursion into Trump’s quasi-criminal history, his psychological perversity and the demagogic character of his election campaign, Moore turns abruptly to the Flint water crisis. He charges Republican governor Rick Snyder with poisoning the city’s citizens through the decision to draw water in April 2014 from the horribly polluted Flint River. A native of the area, Moore speaks forcefully about the tragic situation and interviews Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, the pediatrician and public health advocate, in regard to the dire effect of lead on children.

…

Moore sharply condemns Snyder and stages various stunts to embarrass the governor, for example, hosing the grounds of the latter’s mansion with “Flint water” and briefly attempting to carry out a citizen’s arrest of Snyder at the Michigan state capitol. But the filmmaker omits entirely the critical role of Democratic Party officials, including State Treasurer Andy Dillon, the mayor of Flint and members of its City Council, as well as Obama appointees in the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Later, Moore takes Obama to task for his widely unpopular May 2016 appearance in Flint, where the president sipped from a glass of water and arrogantly dismissed residents’ concern with the comment, “The kids will be just fine.” However, Moore seems primarily concerned with the harmful impact Obama’s performance had on voter turnout in Flint—and thus Democratic Party prospects—in November of that year.

The filmmaker has his ear close enough to the ground to know that a mass radicalization is under way in America. He comments that the US, in fact, is a “leftist country”, offering a series of poll figures on various issues to back up his contention. Fahrenheit 11/9 also takes note of the increased popularity of socialism. “Why is this not reflected” in the political process, he asks?

Moore’s response is superficial and sidesteps the central questions. He takes note of the obvious shift to the right by the Democratic Party hierarchy. Proceeding farther along this “left” path, he suggests that the Trump presidency has been “decades in the making” and points to the right-wing records of both Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. He argues that Trump “outflanked” Hillary Clinton to the left on various social issues and war during the 2016 presidential campaign, but observes that, in any event, nonvoters, 100 million of them, were the single biggest bloc on Election Day.

Moore’s voiceover continues: “As the Democrats became more like the Republicans, so did the entire liberal establishment, led by the paper of record [the New York Times]: catering to Big Business, minimizing social movements like Occupy Wall Street and cheerleading every war we got into, while also trying to dictate elections.”

Fahrenheit 11/9 gives far too much credit to the individual figures of Bill Clinton and Obama, whose administrations not only pushed the Democratic Party to the right but reflected the shift of the entire political establishment. The source of the reactionary turn by both big-business parties lies in the objective crisis of American and global capitalism. The Republicans and Democrats have tactical differences and divergent political styles, but the American ruling class is united in its determination to impose the consequences of the intractable crisis on both its economic rivals and “allies” abroad and the working population at home.

The implication of Moore’s viewpoint is that the Democratic Party’s decades-long repudiation of its reformist–New Deal past is a mere policy choice carried out by misguided individuals that can be corrected by pressure exerted from below. …

In his voiceover, Moore argues that Obama “paved the way” for Trump and offers a partial list of the Obama Administration’s “accomplishments”: the locking up of whistle-blowers, the murderous drone program, the deportation of a record number of immigrants, enhanced surveillance, endless wars, etc. Why doesn’t the filmmaker call a halt right there? …

Like the man he supported in early 2016, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, the filmmaker denounced Hillary Clinton as a warmonger in the pocket of Wall Street during the Democratic primaries, then turned around and endorsed her—helping, in fact, to channel popular anger and frustration behind Trump! …

Fahrenheit 11/9 wanders on. It contains images of the important West Virginia teachers’ strike and the March For Our Lives against gun violence organized by high school students. The scenes of social devastation in West Virginia are telling and Moore comments, “There are multiple Americas.” However, his interview with Richard Ojeda, Democratic Party politician, West Virginia State Senator and candidate for Congress, is another sham. Ojeda is a capitalist politician

and Trump voter in the 2016 elections

and former Army officer, who boasts on his website about the years he spent “fighting the war on terror” and serving “alongside the bravest men and women I have ever met.” … Moore doesn’t question Ojeda about the bloody US-led wars the filmmaker claims to oppose.

In a move that has aroused controversy, Moore, toward the end of Fahrenheit 11/9, compares Trump to German fascist dictator Adolf Hitler and implies that the former may be preparing some fake terrorist incident, along the lines of the February 1933 Reichstag Fire, that will enable him to proclaim himself “president for life”.

There are great risks in the present situation and Trump’s various references to staying in the White House after his term of office has expired are not to be taken lightly. American “democracy” is largely in ruins and the ruling class is moving inexorably in the direction of authoritarian rule. But this is not Trump’s innovation. The malignant levels of social inequality are incompatible with anything resembling democratic norms and the ruling elite as a whole is preparing to fight it out physically with the working class. …

The “hope” now Moore expresses near the conclusion of the work that we might “get rid of the whole rotten system that gave us Donald Trump” is empty and meaningless, in so far as he continues to support one of the principal props of that “rotten system,” the Democratic Party.