To see Fahrenheit 9/11 on the third anniversary of 9/11 gave the film a certain resonance. It is mixed in its messages – that the Republicans establishment succeeded in stealing the 2000 presidential election because they were more ruthless than their Democratic opponents; that the Bush clan – and George W in particular – was bankrolled by Saudi associates including the Bin Ladens; that after 9/11 the Bush administration wasn't interested in Afghanistan and only got involved there because it couldn't not; that Iraq was the real objective, and that no opportunity was lost (i) to instil fear of terrorism in the America people and (ii) to associate 9/11 and al Qaida with Saddam Hussein in American's minds; that the war in Iraq was motivated by commercial considerations; and that the military forces required to fight it were recruited from working-class communities where alternative job prospects had been severely reduced by the Bush government's social, economic and fiscal policies.
As if to emphasise that latter point – a clip of Bush at fundraiser greeting the assembled company of the exceedingly well-heeled as “the haves and the have mores” and describing them as “my base”. Of course, it is only polite when you are asking people to write you cheques to tell them that they are important to you. He would probably have said the same to a bunch of red-necks at a barbecue. And really that is the point of Fahrenheit 9/11 – that anybody who was absurdly optimistic enough to suppose that people who succeed at politics could be idealistic in their motivations or interested in the general well-being of the human race should think again a bit quickish. The message of the film is that politics for George Bush and his associates is an exercise in consolidating wealth and power at the expense not only of the rest of the world but of much of America as well.
This is the extravagance of eighteenth century politics, from which Europeans, generally, have weaned themselves through a couple of centuries of turbulent and murderous history. Berlusconi is – frankly – an embarrassing throwback; Tony Blair a flawed idealist whose judgement proved not to be the equal of his motives. And one thing that Mike Moore makes clear in his film is how confused are the Democrats by the brazen-ness of this culture of political greed. Having colluded quietly for generations with a self-serving system they can only shake their heads in wonder at how un-embarrassed Republicans have become by the highly visible intellectual and political corruption they have sponsored.
All of which contributes to the difficulties John Kerry is experiencing as he struggles to project a distinctive and attractive Democratic message in the 2004 presidential campaign. By allowing the campaign to be fought on the issue of personality he is effectively saying he can be a better George W Bush than George W himself can: because Bush has set himself up as a war president Kerry finds himself obliged to project himself in similar terms. He's not in a position to tell the American people that the war on terror has been grossly overblown and that the war with Iraq was a grotesque and disastrous piece of self-serving political deceit, and the reason he isn't is that he voted for the latter war and he, like most of America, is still signed up for the former.
A Democratic administration that comes in on a Republican agenda will not be able to effect the fundamental surgery that the U.S. body politic is going to require. More to the point, it could make things worse as its failure to achieve significant reform merely de-politicises the reform-minded portion of the electorate as they say “a plague on both your houses”. Add to that the as-yet unresolved situation in Iraq, which can be expected to haunt the next presidential term, and the economic problems heralded by the twin U.S. deficits, and it is hard to see how the 2005-08 term can offer anything other than stony ground, regardless of whose hand is on the plough.
It's a depressing thought that the best long term outcome for the U.S. and the world of this year's election may be for George W Bush to get his four more years, so that the Republicans rather than the Democrats reap the economic and geo-political consequences of the mistakes and excesses of his first term. In the present climate Fahrenheit 9/11 is little more than conscience-salving entertainment for well-off liberals. The subtext of the film is that things are going to have to get a great deal worse if America is really going to square up to the need for political change.
