Dude, Where's My Country? by Michael Moore

) chose not to narrate his latest indictment of the conservative right, Morin does an admirable job of conveying Moore's ideas and subtle (and not-so-subtle) wit. But his accessible, entertaining, DIY challenge to our rulers will rouse readers here and in the US to timely revolt.Although it's curious that Moore ( Stupid White Men He doesn't always hit the nail on the head. He sometimes oversimplifies (especially on the world outside the US, but then, as he says, 'that we know nothing about you should be the scariest thing about us'). Moore stakes himself firmly to the ground of common sense and decency, and isn't afraid to ask obvious but necessary questions. Clark obliged, but soon retreated on his opposition to the war. Less whimsically, he called on General Wesley Clark to carry the banner. He wants Oprah Winfrey to run for President, or Tom Hanks or the Dixie Chicks. Moore makes some telling arguments about how to reach out to that majority ('admit the left has made mistakes') but, considering options for a challenge to Bush, he reveals the limitations of his own political imagination. Opinion polls routinely report majorities in favour of universal health insurance, gun control, tougher environmental regulation. He rightly argues that US public opinion is not nearly as reactionary as is sometimes assumed. But a book like this is more than its blunt, two-fisted prose: it's a tool to be used as part of a multi-pronged movement.Īs Moore is aware, the precondition for his own success was a receptive audience.

As a writer, he's not quite in that class. In Bowling for Columbine, Moore showed that he is a film-maker of technical facility and emotional depth. He helpfully provides a copy of the federal tax form for refunds of $1 million or more, and promises his benefactor, George W, that he'll 'spend it all to get rid of you'. His Stupid White Men sold 600,000 in the UK and several million in the US, which, he dryly recounts in his new book, qualified him for Bush's infamous tax cut.

Michael Moore has chosen the opposite route, and proved that it can work. Can the left communicate to a wide popular audience? Can it free itself of the prison of jargon? Can it reach out to the unconverted? New Labour and its co-thinkers in the Democratic party decided the only answer was to stop being on the left.

Dude, Where's My Country? by Michael Moore