Fun_People Archive
6 Nov
How Gore Can Win

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Mon,  6 Nov 100 14:56:10 -0800
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Subject: How Gore Can Win

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From: "Mike Mail (Michael Moore)" <mikemail@cloud9.net>

November 6, 2000

Dear Gore Voters or Those Frightened Enough to Vote for Gore:

Thank you for your 20,000 e-mails. Please consider this letter my olive
branch to you.

I had not heard from most of you until after Gore blew the third debate.
Suddenly, everyone realized Al might lose. No one, including me, expected
this to happen.  For the past week, everyone seems to have totally freaked
out. Fear has gripped all good souls who have become convinced Bush is
going to win.

My phone had been ringing off the hook. People calling on behalf of Al
Gore, Jesse Jackson, and other Democrats begging me to beg Ralph to drop
out or, at the very least, encourage voters in the "swing states" to vote
for Gore.

Nader has endured some brutal attacks. He is being blamed for the
possibility that Bush may win.  When packs of humans become desperate and
consumed with fear, irrational things are said.  Threats are made.

I respect and understand those of you who are voting for Gore because you
fear Bush may win.  That, after all, is our common ground -- George Bush
must not sit in the Oval Office. Yet, to say that "a vote for Nader is a
vote for Bush" implies that if we weren't voting for Nader we would be
voting for Gore. That simply is not true. If Ralph were not on the ballot,
I think most of us would vote for another third party candidate, write
someone else in, or just stay home. That's how disgusted the millions of
us are.

Many of you have written and asked me for help, to do whatever I can do to
stop Bush.  Ralph Nader getting a massive number of votes on Tuesday is
one way to stop Bush should Bush win. Nader's run has ignited an incredible
movement, mostly of young people and workers who are the casualties of the
Clinton/Gore years. I have seen this outpouring first-hand as I have
traveled the country in the past six weeks. A Bush administration will be
met with a furious opposition every step of the way, thanks to Ralph Nader.
So will a Gore administration.

I am surprised as to why most of you think Al Gore is going to lose. I
could be pissin' in the wind here, but I still think Gore is going to pull
this off. You have to have a little faith in your fellow Americans. They
are not THAT stupid that they are going to elect someone even MORE stupid
by voting for George W. Bush. I truly believe that when they pull the
curtain and are in the privacy of their voting booth, they are not going
to be able to pull the lever for W. Why? Self-respect! The majority of
Americans are not going to feel good about themselves being personally
responsible for putting a world-class embarrassment in the White House.

I know a lot of you think the opposite, that all those crazy rednecks out
there are gonna vote Bush on Tuesday. If you chose to see America in that
light, I can understand why you make your electoral choices out of fear.

But -- and maybe I'm just a nutty optimist -- I think the people of this
country are hip to the b.s. They know that Bush in not only a lightweight,
they know that Texas is a rotten place to live -- polluted, crime-ridden,
and behind the rest of the country in everything from education to health
care (hey, but they're first in executions!).

Look at it this way -- have you ever heard anyone say, "Boy, I sure would
LOVE to live in Texas!" Nobody wants America to become Texas. Nobody.

OK, I know this wasn't the help you were looking for to stop Bush on
Tuesday. So let me offer you a number of ideas on how I think your man Gore
can win:

1. Stop calling your Naderite friends and bugging them.  For every minute
you waste sending out e-mails to hard-core and unmovable Naderites, you
could be phoning up someone you know who probably isn't voting and get them
to the polls to vote for Gore. If you really want Gore to win, you have to
make no less than a dozen calls as soon as you are done reading this letter.

2. Take the day off on Tuesday. Call the local Democrats and volunteer you
and your car to go and pick up senior citizens and other voters who need
a ride to the polls. If you are not willing to sacrifice one day of pay to
ward off the Armageddon you have told me will happen if W.  wins, then I
just will not believe the next scary e-mail you send me.

3. Start talking like a winner. For the next 24 hours, just look as thrilled
as you can bring yourself to look, telling everyone you encounter that Gore
is going to kick ass!  YEAH, BABY!! Gore is going to win Florida! Gore is
gonna win Michigan! Gore is winning Pennsylvania! Start quoting poll
numbers. Make them up, just like they do on TV! "Gore is suddenly ahead in
Nevada by 10 points!" "I just heard that Gore is now expected to pull an
upset in Alabama!" It's amazing how catchy this poll fever is. People will
start to believe you, just like they believe the TV. Word of mouth is
powerful. In the movie business, word of mouth, just from people who see
a new movie on Friday night, spreads so fast that by Saturday night ,24
hours later, a movie can be a hit or a flop. The same can happen with Gore
from now 'til tomorrow.

4. Wear a Gore button and don't take it off until Tuesday night. Wear it
to bed. If you can't get one, make one. Put up a Gore sign in your window
right now. Put one in your car. Just go out in your car and drive around
for two hours today with that Gore sign in the window. No fewer than a
thousand people may see it.

5. Send a fax or e-mail to the Gore headquarters. Tell Gore that he needs
to make a bold and courageous statement on Monday night, one that will
bring millions of non-voters out to support him on Tuesday. Tell Al that
he should announce he is going to review NAFTA and the other trade
agreements that have cost hundreds of thousands of these voters their jobs
(and sent may of them to the ranks of the non-voters). Tell Gore to propose
a moratorium on the death penalty, commit to universal health converge, or
promise never again to take a dime of corporate PAC money. Tell him he
should personally go to Baghdad choke that bastard Saddam, finishing the
job Poppy Bush couldn't do.  Or kiss Tipper again. Just do SOMETHING that
is not part of the robot script we have had to endure for the past few
months of the campaign.

6. Another way to get out the vote, especially among those who fear that
Bush will appoint Atilla the Hun to the Supreme Court, is to get people
excited about the Democrats taking back the Senate. A Democratic Senate
could be the roadblock to any anti-abortion justices Bush nominates. I am
voting for Hillary who is also running on the Working Families Party line
on the ballot (click here to read my letter to New York voters about my
continuing forbidden and irrational love for Hillary
www.michaelmoore.com/2000_11_061.html).  Michiganders should vote for Debbie
Stabenow. Other states have liberal-left Democrats running whom we should
support. I know my Green friends won't like this, but we can't fight battles
on multiple fronts right now and we are going to need allies come Wednesday.

Get people excited about voting for Democrats in the House races. If the
Democrats take back the House, 22 members of the Congressional Black Caucus
and 34 members of the Progressive Caucus (the left wing of the Democrats
in Congress) will, because of seniority, become the chairs of the committees
and subcommittees they sit on. That will either be an added block to a
President Bush, or a necessary nudge to a President Gore. (There are a few
good Greens running and some may have a chance of winning. Check your local
listings and support them if necessary.)

I completely understand that if you live in a swing state and you feel your
conscience telling you that you have to vote for Gore to stop Bush, then
do what you need to do.  It's not how I would vote, but I understand and
appreciate what you are going through. Yes, Nader needs every possible vote
in all 50 states, but if you are acting on conscience instead of compromise
then that is all I want you to do.

So, there you go, Gore voters. Chin up. Get busy. Quit whining. Drop what
you are doing and work your butt off for the next 36 hours. And stop sending
me e-mails!  You can burn me and Ralph at the stake on Wednesday.  But
right now, you have work to do. I'll do my part to get the word out on the
Idiot in Waiting.

Yours,

Michael Moore
mmflint@aol.com
www.michaelmoore.com

© 2000 Peter Langston