Be What You Tell Yourself You Are.

You tell yourself you're aware, right?  Smart, too, right?  A real American, with American values, yes?

If you have not seen Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 11/9,"* I very strongly encourage you to watch it.  I would suggest sooner rather than later.  And if you hear anything that you know is not a true fact, please leave a comment to clarify what's untrue about what Moore says, and what the true facts are.  It would be more persuasive if you also said how you know.

*Moore has made several documentaries, and I've either seen all of them, or all but "Roger and Me."  He has another documentary called "Fahrenheit 9/11," but that's a different documentary.  9/11 is about 9/11, and 11/9 is about Trump's "victory" in 2016.  Although it's about much more than that.

I realize this is a somewhat long and rambling documentary, and it covers some areas that are not the most germane to the overarching thesis.  But if you're the aware and smart person you tell yourself you are, you'll be able to figure out the connections.  And if you're the real American who cherishes American values you tell yourself you are, you'll understand the problem.

And if you think that because the documentary-maker is Michael Moore, then he probably just picks on Republicans, you're very wrong.  The problem he presents is widely systemic, and he makes clear that it corrupts people like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, too.  He features a number of other Democrats who "went along to get along."  At our expense, of course.  Moore doesn't use the recently common neologism "uniparty," but that's what he means.

Moore discusses more briefly than he probably should have the fact that "Americans" are liberal.  He lists many "liberal" positions, and points out that all of them are favored by a majority of Americans.  So he leaves us with the question as to how we fall into the trap of electing governments that apply themselves to frustrating what's important to us.  He's got a number of partially developed explanations, but they seem generally to involve group dynamics.  One of those dynamics amounts to the dumbing down of the public, which, I'm sorry to say, if you think of yourself as aware and smart, is very active right now.

An example he gives that has applied to various times and countries is the invention of emergencies where there are no emergencies.  Nefarious governments use this technique to distract the public from real issues, and to seize control.  Federal, state, and local governments in this country have done that.  And by the time the public realize they've been had, they're also overwhelmed, overpowered, and under attack.  From their own government.  That's the one they were led to think they elected to represent their interests and welfare.  But the people they elected actually worked assiduously in opposition to the public interest, but only in their own interest, which -- and Moore makes adequate mention of this -- was generally about money.

So, I hope you vote this year, especially if you're one of the aware and smart people whose interest is this country, and I hope you're careful, and not just reflexive, regarding for whom you vote.  I know it's more work for you, but you'll help your best decision-making if you ignore the Ds and the Rs that are associated with the names.  To give you some examples, Rick Scott, who is a Senator from Florida, is almost certainly running for re-election this year.  Scott is, to my knowledge, the richest or one of the richest of the US Senators.  In 1987, Scott co-founded Columbia Hospital Corporation, which eventually became the nation's largest for-profit health care company.  Scott was CEO, but was pushed out before the corporation was fined a record-setting $1.7B for defrauding Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal programs during his tenure as CEO.  This was the result of 14 felony convictions.  Scott then became a venture capitalist and founded "Conservatives for Patients' Rights."  What patients' rights have to do with political leanings is unclear, but it doesn't appear that Scott's interests were ever anything but himself, and he broke laws to achieve his goals.  During a 2000 deposition, Scott pled the 5th Amendment 75 times.  So you might wonder in whose interest and to whose benefit it would be to have Scott in the Senate again.  I mean apart from his.

And of course, there's Donnie Trump, already a convicted felon, who would be facing more trials for many more charges, except he appears to have judges and justices running interference for him.  And he's made no secret of his willingness to dismantle American government if he has another chance.  So, if you live in this country because you think it's a good country (Founding Fathers, Constitution, law and order, and that kind of stuff), you might want to consider the possible inadvisability of electing as president someone who appears to be allergic to following laws and who is very averse to the "melting pot" culture of which his own family were beneficiaries.  You'd at least want to see something that looks more like consistency and less like hypocrisy, right?  We did establish that you're aware, smart, and care about the United States, didn't we?

In any event, all of Moore's documentaries are excellent, and "Fahrenheit 11/9" happens to be timely, too.  If you want to borrow my DVD of it, or any others of Moore's documentaries, you're welcome to, but you have to promise to return it.