Well, I was one of those who said, "Not to worry, Donald Trump is
making such a buffoon out of himself that only a few fools will vote
for him." Okay, so I was off by a few million fools.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/25/17, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
He, I read it again this year and honestly, it just made me cry!
Miriam
Filmmaker Michael Moore. (photo: Sara Krulwich/NYT)
I Warned You Trump Would Win
By Michael Moore, Michael Moore's Facebook Page
24 July 17
One year ago today I wrote this open letter trying to warn my fellow
Americans that Trump was going to win the election that was less than four
months away -- and that he would do it by winning Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio
and Pennsylvania. Needless to say, I didn't do a very good job convincing
those who were sure Hillary would win and that we had nothing to worry
about
with Trump the Idiot on the ballot.
Friends:
I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I gave it to you straight last
summer when I told you that Donald Trump would be the Republican nominee
for
president. And now I have even more awful, depressing news for you: Donald
J. Trump is going to win in November. This wretched, ignorant, dangerous
part-time clown and full time sociopath is going to be our next president.
President Trump. Go ahead and say the words, ‘cause you’ll be saying them
for the next four years: “PRESIDENT TRUMP.”
Never in my life have I wanted to be proven wrong more than I do right now.
I can see what you’re doing right now. You’re shaking your head wildly –
“No, Mike, this won’t happen!” Unfortunately, you are living in a bubble
that comes with an adjoining echo chamber where you and your friends are
convinced the American people are not going to elect an idiot for
president.
You alternate between being appalled at him and laughing at him because of
his latest crazy comment or his embarrassingly narcissistic stance on
everything because everything is about him. And then you listen to Hillary
and you behold our very first female president, someone the world respects,
someone who is whip-smart and cares about kids, who will continue the Obama
legacy because that is what the American people clearly want! Yes! Four
more
years of this!
You need to exit that bubble right now. You need to stop living in denial
and face the truth which you know deep down is very, very real. Trying to
soothe yourself with the facts – “77% of the electorate are women, people
of
color, young adults under 35 and Trump cant win a majority of any of them!”
– or logic – “people aren’t going to vote for a buffoon or against their
own
best interests!” – is your brain’s way of trying to protect you from
trauma.
Like when you hear a loud noise on the street and you think, “oh, a tire
just blew out,” or, “wow, who’s playing with firecrackers?” because you
don’t want to think you just heard someone being shot with a gun. It’s the
same reason why all the initial news and eyewitness reports on 9/11 said “a
small plane accidentally flew into the World Trade Center.” We want to – we
need to – hope for the best because, frankly, life is already a shit show
and it’s hard enough struggling to get by from paycheck to paycheck. We
can’t handle much more bad news. So our mental state goes to default when
something scary is actually, truly happening. The first people plowed down
by the truck in Nice spent their final moments on earth waving at the
driver
whom they thought had simply lost control of his truck, trying to tell him
that he jumped the curb: “Watch out!,” they shouted. “There are people on
the sidewalk!”
Well, folks, this isn’t an accident. It is happening. And if you believe
Hillary Clinton is going to beat Trump with facts and smarts and logic,
then
you obviously missed the past year of 56 primaries and caucuses where 16
Republican candidates tried that and every kitchen sink they could throw at
Trump and nothing could stop his juggernaut. As of today, as things stand
now, I believe this is going to happen – and in order to deal with it, I
need you first to acknowledge it, and then maybe, just maybe, we can find a
way out of the mess we’re in.
Don’t get me wrong. I have great hope for the country I live in. Things are
better. The left has won the cultural wars. Gays and lesbians can get
married. A majority of Americans now take the liberal position on just
about
every polling question posed to them: Equal pay for women – check. Abortion
should be legal – check. Stronger environmental laws – check. More gun
control – check. Legalize marijuana – check. A huge shift has taken place –
just ask the socialist who won 22 states this year. And there is no doubt
in
my mind that if people could vote from their couch at home on their X-box
or
PlayStation, Hillary would win in a landslide.
But that is not how it works in America. People have to leave the house and
get in line to vote. And if they live in poor, Black or Hispanic
neighborhoods, they not only have a longer line to wait in, everything is
being done to literally stop them from casting a ballot. So in most
elections it’s hard to get even 50% to turn out to vote. And therein lies
the problem for November – who is going to have the most motivated, most
inspired voters show up to vote? You know the answer to this question.
Who’s
the candidate with the most rabid supporters? Whose crazed fans are going
to
be up at 5 AM on Election Day, kicking ass all day long, all the way until
the last polling place has closed, making sure every Tom, Dick and Harry
(and Bob and Joe and Billy Bob and Billy Joe and Billy Bob Joe) has cast
his
ballot? That’s right. That’s the high level of danger we’re in. And don’t
fool yourself — no amount of compelling Hillary TV ads, or outfacting him
in
the debates or Libertarians siphoning votes away from Trump is going to
stop
his mojo.
Here are the 5 reasons Trump is going to win:
1.Midwest Math, or Welcome to Our Rust Belt Brexit. I believe Trump is
going to focus much of his attention on the four blue states in the
rustbelt
of the upper Great Lakes – Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Four
traditionally Democratic states – but each of them have elected a
Republican
governor since 2010 (only Pennsylvania has now finally elected a Democrat).
In the Michigan primary in March, more Michiganders came out to vote for
the
Republicans (1.32 million) that the Democrats (1.19 million). Trump is
ahead
of Hillary in the latest polls in Pennsylvania and tied with her in Ohio.
Tied? How can the race be this close after everything Trump has said and
done? Well maybe it’s because he’s said (correctly) that the Clintons’
support of NAFTA helped to destroy the industrial states of the Upper
Midwest. Trump is going to hammer Clinton on this and her support of TPP
and
other trade policies that have royally screwed the people of these four
states. When Trump stood in the shadow of a Ford Motor factory during the
Michigan primary, he threatened the corporation that if they did indeed go
ahead with their planned closure of that factory and move it to Mexico, he
would slap a 35% tariff on any Mexican-built cars shipped back to the
United
States. It was sweet, sweet music to the ears of the working class of
Michigan, and when he tossed in his threat to Apple that he would force
them
to stop making their iPhones in China and build them here in America, well,
hearts swooned and Trump walked away with a big victory that should have
gone to the governor next-door, John Kasich.
From Green Bay to Pittsburgh, this, my friends, is the middle of England –
broken, depressed, struggling, the smokestacks strewn across the
countryside
with the carcass of what we use to call the Middle Class. Angry, embittered
working (and nonworking) people who were lied to by the trickle-down of
Reagan and abandoned by Democrats who still try to talk a good line but are
really just looking forward to rub one out with a lobbyist from Goldman
Sachs who’ll write them nice big check before leaving the room. What
happened in the UK with Brexit is going to happen here. Elmer Gantry shows
up looking like Boris Johnson and just says whatever shit he can make up to
convince the masses that this is their chance! To stick to ALL of them, all
who wrecked their American Dream! And now The Outsider, Donald Trump, has
arrived to clean house! You don’t have to agree with him! You don’t even
have to like him! He is your personal Molotov cocktail to throw right into
the center of the bastards who did this to you! SEND A MESSAGE! TRUMP IS
YOUR MESSENGER!
And this is where the math comes in. In 2012, Mitt Romney lost by 64
electoral votes. Add up the electoral votes cast by Michigan, Ohio,
Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. It’s 64. All Trump needs to do to win is to
carry, as he’s expected to do, the swath of traditional red states from
Idaho to Georgia (states that’ll never vote for Hillary Clinton), and then
he just needs these four rust belt states. He doesn’t need Florida. He
doesn’t need Colorado or Virginia. Just Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and
Wisconsin. And that will put him over the top. This is how it will happen
in
November.
2.The Last Stand of the Angry White Man. Our male-dominated, 240-year run
of
the USA is coming to an end. A woman is about to take over! How did this
happen?! On our watch! There were warning signs, but we ignored them.
Nixon,
the gender traitor, imposing Title IX on us, the rule that said girls in
school should get an equal chance at playing sports. Then they let them fly
commercial jets. Before we knew it, Beyoncé stormed on the field at this
year’s Super Bowl (our game!) with an army of Black Women, fists raised,
declaring that our domination was hereby terminated! Oh, the humanity!
That’s a small peek into the mind of the Endangered White Male. There is a
sense that the power has slipped out of their hands, that their way of
doing
things is no longer how things are done. This monster, the “Feminazi,”the
thing that as Trump says, “bleeds through her eyes or wherever she bleeds,”
has conquered us — and now, after having had to endure eight years of a
black man telling us what to do, we’re supposed to just sit back and take
eight years of a woman bossing us around? After that it’ll be eight years
of
the gays in the White House! Then the transgenders! You can see where this
is going. By then animals will have been granted human rights and a fuckin’
hamster is going to be running the country. This has to stop!
3.The Hillary Problem. Can we speak honestly, just among ourselves? And
before we do, let me state, I actually like Hillary – a lot – and I think
she has been given a bad rap she doesn’t deserve. But her vote for the Iraq
War made me promise her that I would never vote for her again. To date, I
haven’t broken that promise. For the sake of preventing a proto-fascist
from
becoming our commander-in-chief, I’m breaking that promise. I sadly believe
Clinton will find a way to get us in some kind of military action. She’s a
hawk, to the right of Obama. But Trump’s psycho finger will be on The
Button, and that is that. Done and done.
Let’s face it: Our biggest problem here isn’t Trump – it’s Hillary. She is
hugely unpopular — nearly 70% of all voters think she is untrustworthy and
dishonest. She represents the old way of politics, not really believing in
anything other than what can get you elected. That’s why she fights against
gays getting married one moment, and the next she’s officiating a gay
marriage. Young women are among her biggest detractors, which has to hurt
considering it’s the sacrifices and the battles that Hillary and other
women
of her generation endured so that this younger generation would never have
to be told by the Barbara Bushes of the world that they should just shut up
and go bake some cookies. But the kids don’t like her, and not a day goes
by
that a millennial doesn’t tell me they aren’t voting for her. No Democrat,
and certainly no independent, is waking up on November 8th excited to run
out and vote for Hillary the way they did the day Obama became president or
when Bernie was on the primary ballot. The enthusiasm just isn’t there. And
because this election is going to come down to just one thing — who drags
the most people out of the house and gets them to the polls — Trump right
now is in the catbird seat.
4.The Depressed Sanders Vote. Stop fretting about Bernie’s supporters not
voting for Clinton – we’re voting for Clinton! The polls already show that
more Sanders voters will vote for Hillary this year than the number of
Hillary primary voters in ’08 who then voted for Obama. This is not the
problem. The fire alarm that should be going off is that while the average
Bernie backer will drag him/herself to the polls that day to somewhat
reluctantly vote for Hillary, it will be what’s called a “depressed vote” –
meaning the voter doesn’t bring five people to vote with her. He doesn’t
volunteer 10 hours in the month leading up to the election. She never talks
in an excited voice when asked why she’s voting for Hillary. A depressed
voter. Because, when you’re young, you have zero tolerance for phonies and
BS. Returning to the Clinton/Bush era for them is like suddenly having to
pay for music, or using MySpace or carrying around one of those big-ass
portable phones. They’re not going to vote for Trump; some will vote third
party, but many will just stay home. Hillary Clinton is going to have to do
something to give them a reason to support her — and picking a moderate,
bland-o, middle of the road old white guy as her running mate is not the
kind of edgy move that tells millenials that their vote is important to
Hillary. Having two women on the ticket – that was an exciting idea. But
then Hillary got scared and has decided to play it safe. This is just one
example of how she is killing the youth vote.
5.The Jesse Ventura Effect. Finally, do not discount the electorate’s
ability to be mischievous or underestimate how any millions fancy
themselves
as closet anarchists once they draw the curtain and are all alone in the
voting booth. It’s one of the few places left in society where there are no
security cameras, no listening devices, no spouses, no kids, no boss, no
cops, there’s not even a friggin’ time limit. You can take as long as you
need in there and no one can make you do anything. You can push the button
and vote a straight party line, or you can write in Mickey Mouse and Donald
Duck. There are no rules. And because of that, and the anger that so many
have toward a broken political system, millions are going to vote for Trump
not because they agree with him, not because they like his bigotry or ego,
but just because they can. Just because it will upset the apple cart and
make mommy and daddy mad. And in the same way like when you’re standing on
the edge of Niagara Falls and your mind wonders for a moment what would
that
feel like to go over that thing, a lot of people are going to love being in
the position of puppetmaster and plunking down for Trump just to see what
that might look like. Remember back in the ‘90s when the people of
Minnesota
elected a professional wrestler as their governor? They didn’t do this
because they’re stupid or thought that Jesse Ventura was some sort of
statesman or political intellectual. They did so just because they could.
Minnesota is one of the smartest states in the country. It is also filled
with people who have a dark sense of humor — and voting for Ventura was
their version of a good practical joke on a sick political system. This is
going to happen again with Trump.
Coming back to the hotel after appearing on Bill Maher’s Republican
Convention special this week on HBO, a man stopped me. “Mike,” he said, “we
have to vote for Trump. We HAVE to shake things up.” That was it. That was
enough for him. To “shake things up.” President Trump would indeed do just
that, and a good chunk of the electorate would like to sit in the bleachers
and watch that reality show.
(Next week I will post my thoughts on Trump’s Achilles Heel and how I think
he can be beat.)
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