Sunday, September 11th, 2005
A Letter to All Who Voted for George W. Bush from Michael Moore

To All My Fellow Americans Who Voted for George W. Bush:

On this, the fourth anniversary of 9/11, I'm just curious, how does it feel?

What a bizarre question. I assume every American feels the same tragic mélange of sorrow, anger and determination …

How does it feel to know that the man you elected to lead us after we were attacked went ahead and put a guy in charge of FEMA whose main qualification was that he ran horse shows?

That's right. Horse shows.

Oh! I’m sorry … I assumed your inquiry was about the most vicious attack on American soil by a foreign enemy in the history of the nation. It simply hadn’t crossed my mind that one might leverage two national tragedies to score a cheap rhetorical point. But, that’s probably why you’re a multi-millionaire “socialist” and I’m a capitalist mired down here in the middle class.

Having said that. Absent all other issues I have no problem with a FEMA Director whose management experience was earned primarily in the horse show business. It wouldn’t bother me if he had been a hamburger executive … or a car executive … or a former military executive. Organizational and management sills are organizational and management skills regardless of in what context they are learned.

Moreover, isn’t this the same FEMA team (and administration) that did such a laudable job during the hurricanes that hit Florida? Why yes it is! The difference in the equation isn’t those people. It is the scope of the disaster (category 5 hitting a city built below sea level) and the different LOCAL authorities responsible for responding. In Florida it was a bunch of Republicans. In Louisiana it’s a bunch of Democrats.

But why quibble? No rational person believes the government response to Katrina was perfect. Just as no rational person believes it was callous or …. Oops. Sorry.

I’m quite sure that, if one had been available, the President would have chosen someone with extensive experience in category 5 hurricanes slamming into the east coast of the US to head FEMA. Alas, none applied.

I really want to know -- and I ask you this in all sincerity and with all due respect -- how do you feel about the utter contempt Mr. Bush has shown for your safety? C'mon, give me just a moment of honesty. Don't start ranting on about how this disaster in New Orleans was the fault of one of the poorest cities in America. Put aside your hatred of Democrats and liberals and anyone with the last name of Clinton. Just look me in the eye and tell me our President did the right thing after 9/11 by naming a horse show runner as the top man to protect us in case of an emergency or catastrophe.

What an odd statement posing as a question. How, precisely has Mr. Bush shown “utter contempt” for my, or anyone else’s safety?

Honestly … nobody I know on the right has argued that poverty caused the disaster in New Orleans. (We do believe it made it worse.) Clearly, the hurricane itself was an act of nature. Honestly … no amount of money can stop something like that, nor can any amount of education … nor can any amount of good intention … nor can anyone sitting in the oval office. Had Mr. Clinton been ensconced in the White House the hurricane still would have been a category 5 and nothing would be different. That is, of course, with the notable exception that you probably wouldn’t be blaming it on him.

While it is physically impossible to look you in the eye as I write this I can assure you, that if it were possible to look you in the eye I would say precisely the same thing.

I want you to put aside your self-affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger and just talk to me as an American, on the common ground we both call America.

Well, that whole “with all due respect” had real staying power didn’t it?

Are we safer now than before 9/11? When you learn that behind the horse show runner, the #2 and #3 men in charge of emergency preparedness have zero experience in emergency preparedness, do you think we are safer?

Yes. We are much safer now than before 9/11.

You are having a very difficult time keeping your disasters straight. 9/11 was a willful attack planned and carried out by evil men. Katrina was a category 5 hurricane … a force of nature.

Mike, really, looking you right in the eye, with all due respect and in total honesty, and fully putting aside my self affixed label of Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-winger … there is no way to be prepared for a category 5 hurricane other than to live many, many miles away from where they may occur.

Since you insist on confusing the two we might note that, had the Left been awake at the wheel during the previous administration, 9/11 would most likely never have happened. You guys conveniently “forget” that 9/11 was the SECOND time the Islamo-facists tried to destroy the twin towers. Had your party actually done something after the first attack the 2^nd may never have occurred.

When you look at Michael Chertoff, the head of Homeland Security, a man with little experience in national security, do you feel secure?

I don’t look to Mike Chertoff. I look to the Commander in Chief and the United States Military. Both of which are doing an outstanding job under very difficult conditions.

When men who never served in the military and have never seen young men die in battle send our young people off to war, do you think they know how to conduct a war? Do they know what it means to have your legs blown off for a threat that was never there?

Mike … Look me in the eye and honestly tell me that you’ve seen “legs blown off” in battle. If combat experience is required to comment on, or manage, a war what, precisely, are your qualifications? I mean, dude, you and your entire cabal have spent the last thirty years running as fast and as far as possible away from military service.

Moreover, (and I know this is a bothersome point), we have a thing called the Constitution … and it actually spells out what the legal qualifications are to be the Commander in Chief. (Seeing “legs blown off” isn’t one of them.)

Moreover …. “threat that was never there” … I’ve seen your “films” and read several of your “books” so I know you’re more than a bit delusional. But, precisely how many Republican/conservative/born-again/capitalist/ditto-head/right-wingers do the Islamo- fascists have to behead before you’ll concede there is a “threat.”

Do you really believe that turning over important government services to private corporations has resulted in better services for the people?

Yes. Absolutely. Without a doubt. But only if we are using your definition of what constitutes legitimate “important” government services. Mine, I suspect is a somewhat shorter list.

Why do you hate our federal government so much? You have voted for politicians for the past 25 years whose main goal has been to de-fund the federal government. Do you think that cutting federal programs like FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers has been good or bad for America? GOOD OR BAD?

BAD. (Wow. It feels good to keep the caps lock on doesn’t it? Really kinda cranks up the self-righteousness. KNOW WHAT I MEAN?)

We don’t hate “our federal government.” We want it be the limited federal government we all agreed to (you know the one defined in that Constitution thing) not the tyrannical elitist pseudo-socialist dance macabre that the left has favored for the past forty or so years.

Our main goal isn’t to de-fund the federal government (that is merely a tactic)… Our goal is to make the government rational and get it out of the business of infringing on the legitimate rights of the citizenry in the name of racist elitism posturing as “social justice.”

With the nation's debt at an all-time high, do you think tax cuts for the rich are still a good idea? Will you give yours back so hundreds of thousands of homeless in New Orleans can have a home?

Yes. Tax cuts for everyone are a really, really good idea. Check the numbers Mike. When the tax rates go down federal revenues go up. Happens virtually every time. Moreover, I am not rich. You are. So I am sure you are living in a $160,000 home, much like mine and donating the balance of your ill-gotten, greedy capitalist “profit” to those less fortunate than you. For the record … I have given more money to the relief effort than I anticipate getting from any tax cut.

Do you believe in Jesus? Really? Didn't he say that we would be judged by how we treat the least among us? Hurricane Katrina came in and blew off the facade that we were a nation with liberty and justice for all. The wind howled and the water rose and what was revealed was that the poor in America shall be left to suffer and die while the President of the United States fiddles and tells them to eat cake.

Yes. I do believe in Jesus. Really. And yes. He did say something very much like that. But how Katrina proves we are not a just nation is an idea that continues to elude me.

Please, Mike. The wind howled to the level of a category 5 on a Thursday. On Friday the levees, built to withstand category 3 hurricanes, broke and flooded the city. What man, other than the aforementioned Jesus, plans or reacts to that with perfection?

But, leaving aside the pre-storm screw ups of local (Democratic) officials, and the small army of dysfunctional idiots who turned the city into a war zone just when charity and team work were needed most, ( and who were largely created by 40 + years of a sustained Liberal attack on the family generally, and an equally vicious 40 + year long Liberal crusade to keep black America as poor and ignorant as possible … and therefore totally dependant on the government teat.) The fact remains …

Federal responders were on the ground within the week.

That's not a joke. The day the hurricane hit and the levees broke, Mr. Bush, John McCain and their rich pals were stuffing themselves with cake. A full day after the levees broke (the same levees whose repair funding he had cut), Mr. Bush was playing a guitar some country singer gave him. All this while New Orleans sank under water.

As you confuse disasters you confuse men. Mr. Bush is not Jesus. Perhaps Jesus could have foreseen the extent of the disaster … and the fact that fatuous nut-jobs posing as social crusaders would leap at the chance to use a tragedy of biblical proportions for political gain … but alas Mr. Bush has no such powers.

By the way … where were you & your rich pals. No doubt within moments of hearing of the disaster you had personally pledged … what ¾ … at least … of your multi-million dollar fortune to the relief effort. I mean, Mike, how much does one man need? Surely you aren’t keeping a positive balance in your check book when there is so much suffering going on right in front of your nose? Have you at least sworn off cake? (Nothing personal … but it couldn’t hurt.)

It would take ANOTHER day before the President would do a flyover in his jumbo jet, peeking out the window at the misery 2500 feet below him as he flew back to his second home in DC. It would then be TWO MORE DAYS before a trickle of federal aid and troops would arrive. This was no seven minutes in a sitting trance while children read "My Pet Goat" to him. This was FOUR DAYS of doing nothing other than saying "Brownie (FEMA director Michael Brown), you're doing a heck of a job!"

All of which is utterly irrelevant. Of what possible use is a fly over by anyone? This is going to come as a shock Mike … but famous people wandering around trouble spots don’t generally accomplish anything more than stroking their own out-sized egos. Well, OK .. I admit you’ve also made a lot of cash off of it … but it doesn’t help anyone who really needs it.

Like your “seven minutes” stupidity this is a red herring of Moby Dick proportions.

My Republican friends, does it bother you that we are the laughing stock of the world?

My Democratic friend … ask Bin Laden if we’re a laughing stock … ask the “Arab street” … ask any Islamic Fascist how funny they think the US is post 9/11. Oh they’re mad … hell they hate us … they’re dancing in the streets at our misery. But the only laughing they do is of the utter frustration type.

The only folks I see working to make us a laughing stock are … well … you and your ilk. Durbin is a laughing stock and an historical ignoramus … Kennedy is a monumental hypocrite and a laughing stock … you are a bloated ignoramus who has made a fortune via cheap shot, distortion and intellectual flabbiness. By any rational analysis you are the poster boy for “laughing stock”.

But the United States of America .. a laughing stock … maybe in the circles you travel in Mike. But, so long as legions of people continue to risk death and imprisonment to immigrate to the US on a daily basis … Well, let’s just say your question probably says more about the company you keep than the status of America Mike.

And on this sacred day of remembrance, do you think we honor or shame those who died on 9/11/01? If we learned nothing and find ourselves today every bit as vulnerable and unprepared as we were on that bright sunny morning, then did the 3,000 die in vain?

You just refuse to get don’t you? Dude … the evidence is entirely to the contrary. Since that “bright sunny morning” we have not been attacked on American soil.

Our vulnerability is not just about dealing with terrorists or natural disasters. We are vulnerable and unsafe because we allow one in eight Americans to live in horrible poverty. We accept an education system where one in six children never graduate and most of those who do can't string a coherent sentence together. The middle class can't pay the mortgage or the hospital bills and 45 million have no health coverage whatsoever.

The US has spend something like 7 TRILLION dollars fighting poverty since 1965. Still, by your own reckoning 1 in 8 Americans still live in “horrible poverty” after the largest transfer of wealth in human history.

Face it Mike … forty years of arrogant liberal posturing have been nothing more than a concerted attempt to create and maintain precisely the conditions you describe above. You NEED an underclass. You WANT and underclass. Your party DESPERATELY RELIES on the existence of a permanently impoverished and ignorant pool of voters who are addicted to the dole.

We don’t accept any of that. Hell ... we’ve been fighting 40+ years to fix it. What the poor need is less government not more. Fewer handouts not a lifetime of welfare. Strong families … not abortion on demand and programs that reward children for becoming pregnant.

In short, what the poor need is what the rich used to get rich … LIBERTY. Give it back you greedy, arrogant twit.

Are we safe? Do you really feel safe? You can only move so far out and build so many gated communities before the fruit of what you've sown will be crashing through your walls and demanding retribution. Do you really want to wait until that happens? Or is it your hope that if they are left alone long enough to soil themselves and shoot themselves and drown in the filth that fills the street that maybe the problem will somehow go away?

We will never be totally safe Mike. That’s life. But, we can minimize many of the risks that come with living in the modern world. How can we do that? With a very strong military a commitment to the creation of wealth that capitalism ensures and reliance on the strength of our polity and the justice of our cause.

We are certainly not made safer when fat, rich white boys make a career of denigrating the very system that makes them so comfortably fat & rich.

I know you know better. You gave the country and the world a man who wasn't up for the job and all he does is hire people who aren't up for the job. You did this to us, to the world, to the people of New Orleans. Please fix it. Bush is yours. And you know, for our peace and safety and security, this has to be fixed. What do you propose?

Yes. We do know better … much, much better than you. As a rule we can distinguish truth from lies and patrotism from arogance … which is why we can confidently relegate you and the nonsense you palm off on our more ignorant brethren to the ash heap.

I have an idea, and it isn't a horse show.

Yours,

Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com