Moore writes: "Millions of us - the majority - must come together to insist that President Obama and the Democrats stand up and fight for the things we sent them there to do."

Portrait, Michael Moore, 04/03/09. (photo: Ann-Christine Poujoulat/Getty)

Morning in America

By Michael Moore, Open Mike Blog

08 November 12

his country has truly changed, and I believe there will be no going back. Hate lost yesterday. That is amazing in and of itself. And all the women who were elected last night! A total rebuke of Neanderthal attitudes.

Now the real work begins. Millions of us - the majority - must come together to insist that President Obama and the Democrats stand up and fight for the things we sent them there to do. Mr. President, do not listen to the pundits who today call for you to "compromise." No. You already tried that. It didn't work. You can compromise later if you need to, but please, no more beginning by compromising. And if the Republican House doesn't want to play ball, do a massive end run around them with one executive order after another - just like they have done and will do if given the chance again.

We have to have Obama's back. As he is blocked and attacked by the Right, we need to be there with him. We are the majority. Let's act like it.

And please Mr. President, make the banks and Wall Street pay. You're the boss, not them. Lead the fight to get money out of politics - the spending on this election is shameful and dangerous. Don't wait til 2014 to bring the troops home - bring 'em home now. Stop the drone strikes on civilians. End the senseless war on drugs. Act like a pit bull when it comes to climate change - ignore the nuts, and fix this now. Take the profit motive out of things that any civilized country would say, "this is for the common good." Make higher educational affordable for everyone and don't send 22-year-olds out into the world already in massive debt. Order a moratorium on home foreclosures and evictions. Enact economic policy that will create good-paying jobs and spend the money that's needed to do that. Make your second term one for the history books.

Finally, thanks must be given to the Occupy movement who, a year ago, set the tone of this election year by getting everyone to talk about the 1% vs. 99%. It inspired Obama and his campaign to realize that there was a huge popular sentiment against what the wealthy have done to the country and there was something wrong if just 400 rich guys owned more than 160 million Americans combined (all those moochers and bums). This led to Romney's "47%" remarks and THAT was the beginning of the end of his campaign. Thank you Mother Jones for releasing that secret tape, and thank you to the minimum wage worker who placed a camera on the serving buffet next to the candle. This morning's headline in the Washington Post says it all: "At Romney headquarters, the defeat of the 1 percent." Thank you Sandra Fluke for enduring the insults hurled at you and then becoming an important grassroots leader against the war on women. Thank you Todd Akin for...well, for just being you. Thank you CEOs of Chrysler and GM for coming out forcefully against the Republican(!) candidate, saying he lived in "some parallel universe" when he lied about Jeep. Thank you Governor Christie for your new bromance with Obama. You know, you really didn't have to!

And you, Mother Nature, with all your horrific damage, death and destruction you caused last week, you became, ironically, the undoing of a Party that didn't believe in you or your climate changing powers.

Perhaps they'll believe now.

Once again, thanks to all of you who brought a nonvoter to the polls. In a last minute effort to get Obama an extra million votes he wasn't counting on, I enjoyed talking and texting with your loved ones and friends yesterday who weren't going to vote - but then changed their minds after a little nudge and some TLC ("Damn! Michael Moore? I'm getting in to car right now to go vote.").

To my fellow Americans, I think you'll agree: it was nice to wake up this morning in the United States of America.

P.S. If you missed them, you might enjoy reading my tweets from last night and reliving this historic victory 140 characters at time.

Comments

We are concerned about a recent drift towards vitriol in the RSN Reader comments section. There is a fine line between moderation and censorship. No one likes a harsh or confrontational forum atmosphere. At the same time everyone wants to be able to express themselves freely. We'll start by encouraging good judgment. If that doesn't work we'll have to ramp up the moderation.

General guidelines: Avoid personal attacks on other forum members; Avoid remarks that are ethnically derogatory; Do not advocate violence, or any illegal activity.

Remember that making the world better begins with responsible action.

- The RSN Team

+43 # AUCHMANNOCH 2012-11-08 14:20

Good on you America! Here's hoping that Obama will now man up with the Republicans - sweet reason doesn't seem to work! Like the conservative party here in Australia your Republicans seem to have a 'born to rule' mentality and their flabbers are gasted whenever they lose. They simply cannot believe it. The death of white America? What utter crap!
Well done as always Michael - it's about time you did another movie - can I suggest one on Superpacs and CU?

+46 # Willman 2012-11-08 17:47

Thank you for this piece Mr. Moore.No more Mr. nice guy President Obama. Time to steal the lunch money from the tea partiers. I enjoy your writing as well as your movie making, I sent the link to this to the White House.

+25 # ganymede 2012-11-08 20:59

Thank you Michael for being you. Your voice and your work has been a kick-ass inspiration to all the passive people out there who have allowed our wonderful country to sink so low. Obama has the potential to be one of our greatest, reformist President, but we will have to continue to hold him to his promises and his words. And to all you people out there who have voted for Republicans for the past couple of decades, perhaps you're beginning to understand why we've had so little respect for your values and crazy ideology. Why have you been so blind to vote aginst your best self interest and against the values and morality that has in the past made us such a great nation and a true beacon of light to the world. Hopefully you've learned something from this election.

+15 # bingers 2012-11-08 21:05

End the filibuster and appoint extreme left wing 35 year old justices to the Supreme Court. That ought to be a fair thing to do to the out of touch Republicans. Maybe they could rule conservatism unconstitutiona l. That would teach the slugs. 8^)

+5 # readerz 2012-11-09 21:40

Breaking news: The SCOTUS is going to try the Civil Rights Act of 1965! This is the worst political news I've heard in all my adult years, and compares to natural disasters. They will probably try to repeal the Civil Rights Act or gut it. They are going to hear this case very soon; the conservatives are probably trying to get it done before Pres. Obama can appoint anybody new.

We need somebody to do a documentary on voter fraud, intimidation, machine hacking, and attempts to protect votes not just in the south but in the north. There has been outrageous fraud in this election.

+21 # dyannne 2012-11-08 22:32

I agree. We all need to press our senators, congress critters, and the president to do these important things you write about here. We need to pressure them with letters, calls, postcards. Forward!

+5 # Doubter 2012-11-09 11:30

And don't forget: REPEAL THE "Patriot"Act and the NDAA!

+17 # readerz 2012-11-08 22:37

As FDR said, "make me." If all the special interests had forced the President's attention away from our concerns, then he needs to hear the real concerns. Put rings of people "hugging" foreclosed properties. Block fracking (at the very least until the chemicals from it are published). Pass a Constitutional Amendment to repeal the Electoral College (or start with many state referrendums; it would get some attention at least). Pass the ERA, starting with state referendums. Have a specific proposal to regulate banks, not allowing investment banks and corporate banks to merge. This will take some work and legal experience to frame the words used. It's time that specific issues were brought to statehouses, and petitions were gathered for specific referendums with good language. And spend time getting out the vote not just for a President but for those pesky mid-term elections and Primaries, where the real candidates and issues are decided. If the President was able to use grassroots campaigns in 2008 and 2012, we should learn his lesson and organize the same way for the causes we care about. It can feel like, as soon as the acceptance speech is over, we don't matter.

+7 # aj616 2012-11-09 13:38

Quoting readerz:

Block fracking (at the very least until the chemicals from it are published).

There's more dangers to fracking then just the chemicals. The ground can become unstable and collapse from the pressure increases and drops. Plus whatever chemicals are used end up in the water supply. Fracking also releases methane, which traps more heat than CO2 and is worse for the environment. Fracking should be banned permanently and forever, no exceptions.

+6 # readerz 2012-11-09 21:22

I agree, but where there are no jobs, people do not elect any environmentalis ts. It's a start to find out what chemicals are used, because you can't tell people their water will be destroyed unless there are names to the substances in the water. One cup of gasoline will contaminate an acre of land, and the stuff used in fracking is worse than gasoline (but we don't know what it is), and a lot more than a cup. And the experience of people in North Dakota is that companies dump it on the sides of roads at night.

I have friends in Youngstown; major cracks in houses from the earthquakes from fracking. Sinking can happen too; who knows what combinations of events.

Ohio had a drought too last summer, but the fracking companies get millions of gallons of precious fresh water. They also take a special sand that is quarried in Ohio; more blight.

Despite all this, if people do not have jobs, they get desperate. If everybody is displaced and looking everywhere else in the country for jobs, it isn't going to stabilize America, and rents/mortgages will rise in some places. Housing is affordable in Ohio, and you get more than 200 square feet of room. Jobs (that aren't fracking) need to come here (in Ohio); all over America, we need jobs. How about in clean energy?

+17 # Rick Levy 2012-11-08 22:51

Michael, if you're not going to be busy in 2016, there's an executive position in Washington D.C. for which you might consider applying.

-14 # Antemedius 2012-11-09 01:49

Maybe "hold his feet to the fire" and "lean on him real hard like" and tell him you're going to "hold your nose" while you vote for him for his next term. To pressure him, you know.

Oh. Wait...

-4 # Antemedius 2012-11-09 09:04

My apologies.

On reflection, I know that there was no nose holding involved.

+13 # mrbadexample 2012-11-09 03:11

LBJ purportedly said to the Civil Rights organizers who were demanding presidential action that the initiative could not come from the White House. He said "Make Me do it". People need to organize against the excesses of this white house the way they did when W occupied it. And Moore and others need to call out the White house for its concerted and coordinated campaign (including all those nationwide phone conferences with major cities chaired by DHS) on how to 'stop' the Occupy movement. This is a bona fide grassroots movement that isn't going to go away.

Do not assume that Obama will do the right thing because it's the right thing. The work needs to begin now--yesterday, even.

+21 # eldoryder 2012-11-09 04:12

I hope that everyone here remembers Bush43 coming into his Presidential term feeling like he had a "mandate" to rule. His first action was to repeal Bill Clinton's tax rates against the rich, and the luxury tax. We could go a long way towards getting financially healthy if President Obama was to take HIS mandate and simply restore those tax rates.

Let him also tax annuities for the wealthy (but not the retired pensioners who depend on them). END the CEOs taking their pay in annuities so that they only pay 15% on their "income".

President Obama, you made EVERY effort last time to hold your hand out to the Republican House in a spirit of bipartisanship. They responded by biting your hand off like the rabid wolves they really are.

No more Mr. Nice Guy. You have "political capital" now. SPEND some of it!

+24 # rsstein 2012-11-09 04:40

As an enthusiastic supporter of Elizabeth Warren, I am very pleased to witness her victory over Scott Brown, a "pseudo moderate" who was an obedient Republican when voting on major issuies. I have met Elizabeth, and while I am pleased that a woman won, I was impressed by her knowledge and sincerity. She represents the kind od senator we need and a fitting successor for the seat previuously held by Ted Kennedy. I look forward to her activities in promoting sensible actions by a moribund Senate.

Dick Stein
Gorssmann Prof. of Chemistry, Emeritus
Univ. of Mass., Amherst

+3 # James Klimaski 2012-11-09 04:51

Michael, I hope this campaign succeeds. But Boehner has already drawn the line in the sand, "No new taxes for the rich." Obama says he is going to seek advice from Romney. To avoid gridlock, Obama will cave and Wall Street and the 1% will enjoy a very happy holidays. Four more years, ugh.

+11 # mdhome 2012-11-09 06:48

I sincerely hope you are wrong about that!

+12 # mdhome 2012-11-09 06:57

Mr. President: Do not cave in to demands of those who want to cut SS or Medicare, people worked hard for it all their lives and cannot (most) have the safety net snatched
out from under them, they are getting tired enough of cat food for lunch.

+2 # readerz 2012-11-09 21:29

Some say that if they just wait and go over the "Fiscal Cliff," the rich will have their tax break repealed. Then they can put the middle class tax break back. I don't want to do it that way, but Pres. Obama can if he must.

+13 # jjj 2012-11-09 04:56

And Mr President stop making wars. They are expensive and horribly destructive by any means of calculation - moral, economic, etc. The United States war budget is the elephant in the living room of "national debt" (ok a mixed metaphor- get over it). We set ourselves up for attack-we are the bullies of the planet and as long as we continue to be we will remain a target.

+15 # jmar 2012-11-09 05:03

Thank you, Michael Moore. I agree with everything you said. Please set up some way we can join our voices with yours to make this message heard loud and clear to the president and the Senate and the House on both sides of the aisle.

+11 # fredboy 2012-11-09 05:43

Sorry to talk tactics, but if the GOP House refuses to budge and pushes us into another recession, we've got to give them full credit, ie blame. Over and over and over again until the American people get it--and get rid of them.

+13 # guyachs 2012-11-09 06:06

President Obama was willing to put Social Security on the table in the grand bargain and that is wrong. There is a false argument that social security adds to the deficit but it isn't true. Go to http://peripatetictraveller.com/ to see the real facts about social security.

+1 # Antemedius 2012-11-09 06:33

Not willing to. Is going to. In 2013.

Barack Obama, October 24, 2012
...............
President Barack Obama laid out an astoundingly ambitious second-term agenda in an interview published Wednesday, vowing to forge a "grand bargain" with Republicans to reduce the national debt and achieve comprehensive immigration reform—all in 2013.

"It will probably be messy. It won't be pleasant," Obama told the Des Moines Register's publisher and its editor by telephone. The daily made the exchange public after the White House dropped its insistence that it be off-the-record.
...
"I am absolutely confident that we can get what is the equivalent of the grand bargain that essentially I've been offering to the Republicans for a very long time...

"We can easily meet—'easily' is the wrong word—we can credibly meet the target that the Bowles-Simpson Commission established of $4 trillion in deficit reduction, and even more in the out-years...

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/obama-vows-debt-cutting-grand-bargain-immigration-reform-142348400--election.html

+7 # guyachs 2012-11-09 08:40

There is a lot of confusion about what they recommended for social security but you should know this.
, the proposal put forward by the co-chairs of the president’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform included changes to Social Security, though the report explains that Social Security was included “for its own sake, and not for deficit reduction.”

They do know that social security doesn't add to the deficit but it was presented in a way that was very easy to mis-interpret.

+5 # Antemedius 2012-11-09 09:35

Very easy to misinterpret, yes. It wasn't included because slashing it would reduce the deficit.

It was included because there is so much money to be made from not just cutting it, but from managing the money.

William K. Black:
.............................
of course, he's not going to kill Social Security all in one fell swoop, and he's not going to privatize it immediately. But we have to remember the great desire of Wall Street is privatization or even partial privatization of Social Security, because we are talking about trillions of dollars of investments that they would manage, and scores of billions of dollars in additional fees.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=9057

-2 # Antemedius 2012-11-09 09:50

It was included because Obama works for Wall Street.

+6 # tbcrawford 2012-11-09 11:10

As I remember, there was also a very reasonable Progressive budget proposed...than ks to Jan Schkowsky...Not a word from the mainstream media! Perhaps it could be reintroduced from the bottom (grassroots, OWS, etc) up!

+8 # Tje_Chiwara 2012-11-09 06:37

The next fight - the Fiscal CLIFF and Boener's desperate desire to save money for all those small billionaires out there from any tax increase ---- Everybody repeat after me:

NO WAY! NO DELAY!

-6 # Antemedius 2012-11-09 06:59

How well did hoping for change work during his first term, when he needed you to re-elect him for his second?

How well do you think hoping he'll change will work during his second term, while he no longer needs you?

No need to worry about him. He'll be fine in 2016. With a nice well paying job on a high with a corner office on Wall Street from where he can look down and grin at all the starving peasants below, and an SS protected armored chauffeured limo in the basement to get him safely through the crowds at the end of the day.

Face it. Obama inherited a huge mess from Obama. So did eveyone else.

The country is toast now, and it's only going to get worse.

It would have been horrible if Romney had won. But he didn't. And what a relief.

At least Obama supporters won't have to spend 4 years pretending all over again to be opposed to imperial wars, murder of innocent kids around the world with hellfire missiles, global US Govt. state sponsored terrorism, huge handouts being shoveled out the Treasuries door for insurance CEO's and wall street, corporate ownership of a puppet in the oval office, torture of American prisoners in American prisons, etc., etc., and all the other bullsh*t obama has been getting away with so effortlessly that neither Romney nor any other republican would ever have a hope in hell of putting over on people without every democrat screaming for impeachment for 4 years, while the country continues it's ever more rapid slide over the edge.

+9 # tswhiskers 2012-11-09 07:46

I strongly second Mr. Moore's admonition to "act like a pitbull". Most of the Reps. seem to have nothing from Tues.' election results. McConnell still talks as if the country has an inexhaustible supply of elderly white men. Rush et al. insist that DEMS tried to suppress the vote. Somehow the Rep. voters need to understand that Fox News, Rush, Beck and all the Far Right Crazies are not presenting them with the truth of what's going on. Apparently many people are terrified that Obama's reelection portends a hellish socialist future for the U.S. A good start to bringing reason back to the Rep. electorate would be if some Rep. members of Congress would begin to talk and genuinely urge their fellows to practice bipartisanship. It is past time that we Americans see one reality and begin to work together for the good of the country and Reps. let go of their dream of a permanent majority.

+6 # reiverpacific 2012-11-09 08:54

As a foreign tax-paying resident, I welcome Obama's re-election as do all my friends in Europe, S.E. Asia and Australia AND significantly, even Harper of Canada and Cameron of the UK (both conservatives) -who probably were dreading having to deal with a blinkered, international ignoramus and weaselly reactionary as the alternative.
Interestingly enough, there has been -as far as I know- no communication from Nutty-Yahoo although Israeli Vice-Minister Shalom has congratulated Ob'.
Now YOU have to push like Hell for your own and your descendant's sake -don't get complacent and come down on Congress en masse, who are likely to be just as obstructionist as before. I note that Boehner and "Bitch" McConnel had allegedly "Gone to bed" on election night when the press tried to contact them -p'rhaps hiding in some basement where Rove and Co' could soon join the parcel o' rogues. Wonder if the Koch's and Adelson want their money back?
Work to dump, warrantless wiretapping, and targeted drone strikes at home and abroad; only James Bond of legend had a license to kill; assassination and murder are NOT progressive values.
And for those of you who don't like it and infest this forum, there is always Paraguay, Colombia, or Honduras -even Mexico, the practically failed states still allied with the old US order that armed Banana Republic dictators. They are sunny, cheap, authoritarian and can always use fresh patsies for the right-wing bums in charge.

+9 # BradFromSalem 2012-11-09 09:19

Today's speech is critical. I have the utmost belief that the President "gets it". That flattening the tax code is harmful, ignoring climate change is as deadly as a nuclear war, allowing the banks to run away with the wealth of hard working Americans, that putting business before people never helps people. He gets all of it and more.

Now he has to live it. A lot of people believe that a president in his second term being concerned with his legacy is a bad thing. It is only a bad thing if he doesn't stand up for the people that put him in the position to act, by re-electing him.

President Obama, we donated our time and money when the banks abandoned you. We defended you, even while we scolded what we saw as your "deficiencies". Prove us right and show us NOW, before Jan 1, that you not only get "it", but will act accordingly. The people have spoken, all you have to do is explain that you are doing what the American people asked for.

A dramatically more progressive tax code, strict controls on the banks, stop the wars, engage America in doing big stuff to reverse climate change and create jobs in a WPA plan to implement that reversal.

There is plenty more that needs to be done, but if you make that your agenda, your legacy of making a fundamental change will never be in doubt.

+4 # fishermanbob 2012-11-09 09:37

Great article Michael! Like you, I'm hopeful that Obama will act on what he knows(in contrast to the past and present republican party) what has to be done. I'm dubious because of what he said and did after he was elected in 2008. Fool me once... People like yourself can do much to keep the heat on because you get the chance to hold the microphone and share your correspondence.

+3 # ABen 2012-11-09 09:56

I am confident that Obama will play hardball with the teabagger led House on the issue of increasing revenue and infrastructure jobs bills. The do-nothing Repubs will have to be dragged screaming and kicking to pass any legislation along these lines, but that is usually what happens when children are forced to "eat their peas."

+5 # Colbertgp 2012-11-09 10:56

My thoughts exactly! When you compromise and things don't work out, you get blamed, by the other-side, for the failure just as if there was no compromise at all.

At least act as if you WON and they LOST when it comes to whats important.

The Democrats should try and find out who stood in line longest, who voted last after standing in line,who cast the first absentee ballots for them,and ask them what they want done first, these things probably should not be compromised.

+2 # Jim 2012-11-10 10:27

Moore, you nailed it...again. Although I'm a Canadian from the 'great white north', I have obvious vested interest in the political machinations south of the 49th. Living next door to the global giant makes your decisions and directions highly relevant. We, too, breathe more easily with the advent of Obama's victory (in a CBC poll Canadians would have voted 72% to 10% for Obama over the battery powered mormon). But many of us are appalled at the effect of American foreign policy with its nearly 1000 global military installations, its ridiculous scale of armaments manufacturing, its lack of gun control, its rampant racism, its Tea Party mentality, its fascination with mentally/emotio nally disturbed people like Donald Trump, its incarceration of Bradley Manning, its support of Israel at the cost of Palestinian freedom to pursue a decent existence, its huge economic inequities, its subservience to the interests of banks, corporate kingpins and the ruling 1%...In short, thank you Michael Moore for voicing the concerns of billions on this planet who share your desire to see justice, egalitarianism and common sense return to the table in Washington. We in Canada, Europe and beyond are disgusted by the current version of "the land of the free and the home of the brave" because it is neither and because the insidious contagion affects us. Please keep saying what needs to be said.

Refresh comments list
RSS feed for comments to this post

THE NEW STREAMLINED RSN LOGIN PROCESS: Register once, then login and you are ready to comment. All you need is a Username and a Password of your choosing and you are free to comment whenever you like! Welcome to the Reader Supported News community.