“Fahrenheit 11/9”

“Fahrenheit 11/9” is an eye-opening documentary concerning the 2016 presidential election and the first 18 months of Donald Trump’s presidency. Michael Moore blended irreverence with political statements, using comedy as a tool to change the hearts and minds of his viewers. This movies intention wasn’t to get Trump supporters to recognize they were duped, but instead a reflection of how the Democratic party is as complicit in the president’s rise to power as the conservatives who blindly supported him.

A plethora of other issues were all shown in the film. These include the plight of teachers and working-class families in West Virginia, the Democratic establishment’s timidity and pro-Hilary Clinton bias, the shooting in Parkland, the electoral college, and voter apathy. However, the most interesting issue to me that Moore brought up in the documentary was Governor Rick Snyder and the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Snyder was responsible for switching Flint’s water supply from Lake Huron to the contaminated Flint River to benefit corporate interests. The lead contact in children’s blood was off the charts, however; government officials falsified the data to show regular levels of lead. Most shockingly, Moore points out how Snyder ordered that the water used at the General Motors factory in Flint be switched back to Lake Huron, because the Flint River water was damaging the auto parts (and GM was one of his donors), but that the citizens would continue to drink the toxic water. Moore and other officials believe this to be a criminal act. I chose this issue as one that may impact my chosen field of finance. In the first light, hopefully one day I’ll be working for a big corporate financial company. The situation that has happened in Flint is highly due to mismanagement of the water supply. It also calls for millions and millions and millions of dollars to have the water supply resituated. If I was ever to work for the state, or even General Motors, in the financial aspect, I would have to figure out if we had the budget to fix this water issue, and I would also need to understand how each transaction would affect the given accounts.

One of the most surprising issues to me throughout the whole documentary was the Democratic National Party. This section of the film illuminates the political corruption leading to a nation that stays home rather than casts a vote in an election when they feel they can’t make a difference. Moore brings up the issue of super delegate and their role in the 2016 presidential race, but he does so to expose the ways that party leaders have suppressed progressive candidates. In this example, Moore focuses on West Virginia, where all 55 counties sided with Sanders in the primary. Still, the state’s super delegates chose Clinton as their nominee. Similar situations occurred in other states as well. This was especially surprising to me because I never imagined this kind of corruption going on within the US government. If citizen’s votes are going to be overruled, then that would indeed lead to the mindset of “my vote doesn’t matter.” However, that is not even the case here. The case is that Bernie Sanders actually won many states by a landslide, but somehow he still managed to lose. The Democratic Party wanted Clinton as their candidate, and not Bernie Sanders, so they did everything in their power to fix the vote and results, which they did successfully. The Democratic National Party belligerently robbed Bernie Sanders of winning West Virginia along with many other states, just in an effort to rise Hilary Clinton to fame.

Although many stories and controversial topics were elaborated on, with complete honestly every story Moore talked about surprised me. The sequel does a great job of compiling issues that have defined politics in the United States for the last few, tumultuous years. From Gwen Stefani, to Government Snyder, to the Democratic National Committee, the Electoral College, and Barack Obama, everything I saw in this film made me aware to knowledge I did not have in the past. Concerning Gwen Stefani, Trump was allegedly upset NBC was paying Stefani more to serve as a judge on The Voice than they were cutting him to host The Apprentice. On Trump’s first rally on June 16, 2015 he paid people $50 each to crowd into Trump Tower and wave “Trump 2016” signs as he announced a presidential campaign. This is all relevant because Moore alleges this was a ploy by Trump to show NBC just how beloved, and valuable their star was. Although the plan backfired because Trump called Mexicans “criminals” and “rapists” which resulted in a pink slip from NBC, it was from this moment on he fell in love with speechifying to cheering MAGA crowds and decided to give the candidacy a real go. One more surprising issue I saw was that of concerning Barack Obama. In 2016, Obama visited Flint, Michigan and made light of the ongoing contaminated water crisis by sipping a glass of tap water in the middle of a speech in which the people of Flint thought he was going to announce federal aid was coming to help solve the health crisis. Moore includes this not just to critique Obama, but because it very well may have ensured Trump’s win in Michigan. All the number of voters who turned out to the polls to elect Obama in 2008 and 2012 suddenly felt betrayed and abandoned, so they didn’t bother to cast votes in 2016. Trump took Michigan by just 11,612 votes.

Cite this page