By: Matt Buckley
Every family has a political outcast. While everyone loves the person dearly, arguments about politics with this person always result in laughter as the rest of the family tries to convince the misguided person that he or she is wrong. The result is laughter all around, while nobody convinces the other side of anything.
Michael Moore would be a perfect example of such a relative, and his new book, Downsize This!: Random Threats from an Unarmed American is a perfect example of one of those fruitless-yet-funny conversations. Moore, better known for his standout documentary Roger & Me, is a liberal diehard who will make you laugh although he fails to persuade.
I could tell I was in for a rough time just from reading the jacket cover. Looking at the quotes of praise for Moore, I first saw sources like the New York Times, Newsday, and Time. These are all part of the mainstream media and slightly skewed to the left, but this was nothing unusual. Then at the bottom...was a quote from The Nation. I subscribed to this magazine for a year, and please trust me when I say that these guys put the diehard into diehard liberal. Ralph Nader, Lani Guinier, and Gore Vidal are the more conservative of this magazine's contributors, and that says a lot. If The Nation has praised a book, that book has received the almost official endorsement of the Old School Liberals.
Yet I digress...read this book anyway! Roger & Me was amazing in how it mixed irreverent humor with an all-fronts attack on political issues. Downsize This! follows in the same line. This approach leads to some great chapters on issues that have lots of bipartisan support.
A typical example is his portrayal of the state of campaign finance. Moore wonders, as most citizens might wonder, if a candidate would actually take campaign money from absolutely anyone. Rather than theorizing, he decided to find out - by sending checks from fictional organizations like Pedophiles for Free Trade and the Hemp Growers of America. While many were returned, Moore takes glee in showing the checks cashed by the Pat Buchanan campaign - from the John Wayne Gacy Fan Club and the Abortionists for Buchanan.
His humor even saves him in cases of clear political bias. His semi-serious attempt to get Rep. Robert Dornan (R-Calif.) committed to a mental institution is a riot. Reacting to quotes from Dornan (without knowing that Dornan was the speaker), officials from various mental institutions told Moore that Dornan "sounds like he is mentally ill," is "having some type of psychotic break," and "needs to get in for some type of evaluation." Sure, this is a purely partisan attack. Nevertheless, it's great humor, and though I disagree with Moore, I had to laugh.
At some points, though, the humor just doesn't help him. Moore dedicates a whole chapter on proving that the Republican control of the House is not a mandate. For Moore, since so few of the people voted in the election, the House elections had the consent of only about half the 40% of the electorate who voted, for a "mandate" of only 20% of the people. This argument is not in itself a bad one (what would Michael Moore say about Fiona Rose?), but pages later he pushes for radical action by Bill Clinton, who himself did not get more than half the vote in 1992, an election in which not more than half the people voted. This mandate is not over 30% of the electorate, yet Moore accepts without doubt Clinton's right to run the country. A basis for this blatant hypocrisy is nowhere to be found, and is not saved by witty hyperbole.
Moore also at times reaches for simplistic arguments when more subtlety is needed. Moore tongue-in-cheekily suggests that pro-life supporters should really be focusing on sperm as the essence of life. He jokes that sperm "is not potential human life - it is human life." His point is not particularly original: the pro-life claim that life begins at conception seems arbitrary. He claims that to be really consistent, pro-lifers must logically provide Social Security numbers to fetuses and demand capital punishment for abortionists and women who receive abortions. One can only assume that Moore is pro-choice, which leads to a problem - Moore is ignoring the fact that the "life-begins-at-birth" position is arbitrary as well: five minutes before birth, is the fetus any less of a life? Not unlike his position on the mandates of the GOP and Clinton, Moore is funny but fantastically inconsistent.
Moore is a funny and entertaining political writer, with a lot to say on issues like corporate welfare, the state of race relations, and middle-class insecurity. While conservatives are not going to agree with him on much, he is worth reading. As a conservative, I would recommend P.J. O' Rourke to any liberal with the warning that they will laugh, yet not agree. Michael Moore recent contribution to political humor will make any conservative laugh, though not necessarily change views.