Thursday, December 17, 2009

Go ahead, boycott!

Baseball-cap-wearing Michael-Moore-mouthpiece Michael Moore has called for a boycott of Connecticut in reaction to Sen. Joe Lieberman's nightmarish, self-centered manipulation of the national health-care legislation now before Congress. Moore blames the people of Connecticut, who voted Lieberman into office, for the current weakened state of the bill. He states in a recent tweet that "we'll boycott your state" if those of us here in Connecticut don't immediately begin a recall process against Lieberman.
Well, first of all, we don't have a recall provision for a situation like this. But secondly, and far more interestingly, I wonder just what form such a boycott might take. I guess primarily it would mean that Moore himself would refuse to enter Connecticut. I don't think most people here would qualify that as a great loss. I don't think we see much of him, or his spending power, anyway. But then there are the others who constitute the "we" in his threat. Does Michael Moore have a large posse of followers who stand ready to do his bidding? Could there be another Jonestown somewhere in our future? (Well, at least it doesn't look like the carnage would take place in Connecticut.) Or is Moore now speaking on behalf of all the people in America who are unhappy with Sen. Lieberman? This would be a significantly larger group, and it'd represent quite a leap in Moore's already heady sense of self-importance. Of course many of those who are fed up with Lieberman live in Connecticut, which would make it especially hard for them to boycott it.
Finally, practically speaking, how would the boycott work? Moore could order his minions to stop buying Pez and Wiffle balls, I suppose. He could refuse to step aboard an Otis elevator (using the stairs might do him some good). But could he afford to abandon the campuses here (Yale, Wesleyan and others) that serve as incubators for his followers? Could he afford to turn up his nose at the many Connecticut residents from the entertainment world who help fund his adventures?
Like most successful agitators, Michael Moore notoriously sees the world in black and white. He has trouble fixing his jowly gaze upon the likes of a Joe Lieberman, who, unlike stolid Charleton Heston or Roger Smith, changes his coloration from day to day. It's much easier for him to take a shot instead at the entire state of Connecticut, which, I might point out, excepting Lieberman, has elected what is likely the most Michael-Moore-friendly slate of legislators in America.
So bring on the boycott, big guy! Dazzle us with your powers to deny and demean. Maybe we'll put your head on the top of a Pez dispenser.