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Fahrenheit 9/11 Turns Up The Heat on Bush, but Can it Sway Swing Voters?

Larry Atkins

OpEdNews.Com

So maybe Michael Moore's controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 does preach to the choir. But as a member of the liberal Democratic choir, I hope that Moore's movie can recruit some new members and change the tune of some swing voters.

In amassing $22 million in its first weekend, Fahrenheit 9/11 has already become the biggest grossing documentary of all time. What's remarkable about the movie's success is that it isn't being widely distributed--thus, block-long lines and sold-out theatres have been the norm.

While skeptics might dismiss the phenomenon of the movie's success as a result of publicity and controversy, there might be something deeper. It's true that many people who are flocking to this movie are staunch Bush-haters who have already formed their opinion of the current administration. However, since the movie does show disturbing images from the Iraq war and posed questions that the mainstream press shied away from, it might make some people see things in a different light.

I saw the movie at a theatre in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, a small suburb of Philadelphia. Jenkintown is located in a swing district in a key battleground state. During the movie, people laughed at the portions that portrayed Bush as a buffoon and applauded loudly after the movie.

There was stunned, attentive silence during most of the film, especially during the portions where a mother talked about losing her son who was killed in Iraq.

After the movie, there were several volunteers standing outside the movie theatre registering people to vote.

Hopefully, this movie will serve as a rallying point to energize the liberal base against Bush. There's also the chance that it might convince a few independents and swing voters to vote for Kerry.

No doubt, the right wing attack dogs are out trashing Moore and his film as unpatriotic, left-wing liberal lies and propaganda.

The film shows us many images that most Americans haven't seen, such as severely wounded American soldiers with amputated limbs, bloody battle scenes, as well as American soldiers and their families questioning President Bush and the Iraq war. It also raises legitimate issues about the Bush administration's ties to the Saudi government as well as its decision to invade Iraq, given Bush administration officials' statements before 9/11 that Iraq and Saddam Hussein did not pose a threat to the United States. Moore's film also raises a legitimate issue about the military's aggressive recruitment of underprivileged teenagers, while only one member of Congress has a son or daughter in the military.

John Kerry has been defined unjustifiably as a flip-flopper by Bush campaign ads and conservative columnists and right-wing talk radio.

What Moore does through his movie is no different than what Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Charles Krauthammer do on a daily basis- present and spin facts in a partisan manner.

Up until recently, President Bush has received a free ride from the media, which served as patriotic flag wavers after 9/11 and in the months leading up to the Iraq war. Moore's excoriation of Bush is no different from the right wing media's lampooning of Kerry every day. If the so called "liberal media" had raised the same issues that Moore's movie raises, would we have launched this war against Iraq, which had no weapons of mass destruction, no clear ties to al-Qaeda, and no involvement in the September 11 attacks?

Would we have been silent while the administration conducted a half-hearted effort to get Osama bin Laden and instead diverted resources from Afghanistan to Iraq? Would we be more outspoken and demand that more resources be put into homeland security?

To paraphrase a well-known Bushism shown in the movie--Bush fooled us once, but he won't fool us again. It's unrealistic to expect Fahrenheit 9/11 to win too many fans in the Red states, but if Moore's movie can convert 537 voters to pull the lever for Kerry, maybe it will make a difference.

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Larry Atkins, a lawyer and writer, has written over 200 Op-Eds, articles, and essays for many publications, including the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Baltimore Sun, Chicago Tribune, Christian Science Monitor, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Dallas Morning News, Detroit News, Indianapolis Star, Kansas City Star, Los Angeles Daily News, National Public Radio (Commentaries for the national versions of Morning Edition and Only a Game), Newsday, Philadelphia Inquirer and Inquirer Sunday Magazine, San Francisco Chronicle, and Seattle Post-Intelligencer. He teaches editorial writing as an adjunct professor at Temple University. His e-mail address is larryLTatkins@aol.com

This article is copyrighted by Larry Atkins and originally appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News.

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Published in OpEdNews.com.