The
Presidency -- Just Another Perk
Michael Moore
11/14/00
Dear Governor
and President-in-Waiting Bush:
This has to be the first time in our history that a candidate who is losing
BOTH the popular vote AND the electoral vote insists on being anointed
President of the United States.
I can understand why you expect this title to be yours. You have spent your
entire life having everything handed to you. You have never had to earn your
place. Money and name alone have opened every door for you. Without effort or
hard work or intelligence or ingenuity, you have been bequeathed a life of
privilege.
You learned at an early age that, in America, all someone like you has to do is
show up. You found yourself admitted to a wealthy New England boarding school
simply because your name was Bush. You did not have to EARN your place there.
It was bought for you.
You then learned you could get into Yale with a "C" average. Other,
more deserving, students who had worked hard for 12 years to earn their place
at Yale were denied admittance. You got in because your name was Bush.
You got into Harvard the same way. After screwing off during your four years at
Yale -- and maintaining your "C" average -- you took someone's else's
seat at Harvard, a seat that they had EARNED.
You then pretended to serve a full stint in the Texas Air National Guard. But
one day, according to the Boston Globe, you just skipped out and didn't report
back for a year and a half to your unit. You didn't have to earn your military
record because your name was Bush.
After a number of "lost years" that don't appear in your official
biography, you were given job after job by your daddy and other family members
-- jobs you didn't have to earn. No matter how many of your business ventures
failed, there was always another one waiting to be handed to you. Finally, you
got to be a partner in a ball team -- another gift -- even though you put up
only 1/100 of the money for the team. And then you convinced the taxpayers of
Arlington, Texas, to give you another perk -- a brand-new multi-million dollar
stadium.
So it is no wonder to me why you think you deserve to be named President.
You've haven't earned it or won it -- therefore it must be yours!
And you see nothing wrong with this.
Why should you? It is the only life you have ever known.
I will never forget the footage of you sitting in your governor's mansion the
night of the election when it was first declared that Gore had won Florida.
Surrounded by poppy and mommy, and on the phone to your brother the governor of
Florida, you were a picture of calm. You had not a worry in the world. You told
the press that your brother had assured you Florida was yours. If a Bush said
it was so, it was so.
But it ain't so. And when it dawned on you that the Presidency had to be earned
and won by a vote of the people -- yes, the people! -- you went berserk. You
sent in hatchet man James Baker ("F--- the Jews, they don't vote for us
anyway" was his advice to Poppy in '92) to tell lies to the American
people and stoke the nation's fears. When that didn't work, you went to federal
court and sued to stop the votes from being counted because you knew how the
vote would turn out.
What kills me is how you have turned to the big, bad, federal government for
help! Was not your mantra, during every campaign stop, the following
line:
"My opponent trusts the federal government. I TRUST YOU, THE PEOPLE!"
So now we learn the truth. You don't trust the people at all. You went running
to the FEDERAL court to get your handout ("Trust the machines, not the people,"
you pleaded). But the judge didn't buy it, and for perhaps the first time in
your life, someone said "no" to you.
What will you do now? According to the New York Times, 90% of your campaign
funds came from just 775 American millionaires. Oh, that they could bail you
out of this mess! I wouldn't count on them -- it's not like they have suffered
financially under Clinton/Gore. They know they will do just fine with the
Kissin' Fool. I think, my friend, you are on your own.
Mr. Bush, your only hope is that Gore will wimp out and throw in the towel.
There is ample evidence of how Democrats love to cave. You and your right-wing
friends know the Democrats are weak-kneed and spineless. You remember how Al
Gore and all the Democrats voted to put that anti-abortion zealot Scalia on the
Supreme Court -- and how 11 Democrats made the difference in placing Clarence
Thomas there, too?
That's your ticket. Spook Gore and his party into believing a focus group is
mad at them, take a phony poll that backs that up, get the gasbag pundits to
yammer and hammer him and maybe, just maybe, you'll get the latest plum prize
that is not yours to have.
Yours,
Michael Moore
http://www.theawfultruth.com/
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
mmflint@aol.com