TEN months ago in this space, I wrote that "the rise of an ardent, passion ate, angry and engaged Left is the most important political story of 2003 . . . There is a large and hungry audience in the land for a leftist political-cultural message."
The colossal success of Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" confirms that the most important political story of 2003 is in the running to be the most important political story in 2004. Moore's movie has already sold something like 6 million tickets, a vital demonstration of the cultural energy and enthusiasm that has erupted on the populist Left.
This is an important phenomenon, and its enemies on the Right need to grant the populist Left the respect it deserves. There's no sense coming up with silly arguments to explain how this isn't really the most successful documentary of all time. It is. Deal with it.
The "Fahrenheit 9/11" triumph proves yet again that you can't manufacture a cultural trend, or simply create an institution by willing it into existence. Michael Moore has been building a career as a demagogue for more than 15 years now, with books and TV shows and documentaries. He's the real thing, an American original ?- as opposed to Air America Radio, which was created by elitists trying to imitate somebody else's populist invention.
The Bush hatred that has given such explosive life to "Fahrenheit 9/11" is real, it's being harnessed brilliantly by Moore and others for fun and profit and it's given the Left a renewed sense of excitement.
Excitement and enthusiasm are vital qualities for a resurgent political movement. Its followers need to believe they are catching a wave, not swimming upstream against a tide.
That's how the Bush-haters feel right now. They're full of vim and vigor. They can taste victory in November, and they're practically bubbling over.
And they're in danger of burning out big-time.
When I wrote about the rise of the angry Left 10 months ago, the key piece of evidence was the rise of Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean. We all remember the story ?- Dean comes out of nowhere, raises a huge amount of money, seems all but certain to be the Democratic nominee.
But then, once he actually had to face actual vote-casting people and not merely angry Leftists like himself, Dean melted down.
John Kerry is no Howard Dean, to be sure. But the trajectory of the Democratic nominee's campaign is starting to look a little Dean-ish. Over the last two days, Kerry and his team have trumpeted the success of their fundraising, praising themselves for having generated $175 million in donations. That's what Dean's people did when their fund-raising went so well.
The Democratic party has sent out volunteers on the streets of New York, Washington and other major cities to register voters. The volunteers are carrying clipboards with "Dump Bush" stickers on them, and they ask everyone who passes by whether they think it's past time we "dumped Bush."
They can say anything they want to say and get votes however they want to get votes. The problem is, I think, that they hate Bush just a bit too much. Rage is an unsustainable emotion, especially when there are still four months to go before votes are cast. If the situation inside Iraq stabilizes to some degree and the economy keeps on humming, their anger will lose its purchase with people who haven't made their minds up yet.
Which brings us to the latest bit of political nonsense ?- the supposed threat to George W. Bush from radio comedian Howard Stern. Stern claims he is going to use his morning pulpit to fight for Bush's defeat because he's been getting a hard time from the FCC.
Stern's in danger of making the Lenny Bruce mistake. The great dirty comic spent the last few years of his life boring his audience to tears by lecturing them about the injustices done to him. Stern's listeners want to hear him talk to strippers and insult his producer's teeth. They're going to tune him out if he spends too much time blathering about Bush.
Which is, in a way, the same danger the Democratic Party faces. The hate-Bush stuff has been an extremely effective rallying cry, but scream too long without let-up and you get laryngitis.
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Funny guy!
