On Wednesday morning, millions of Democrats woke up and realized that what had transpired the previous night had not been a terrible dream.
The American people really had elected Donald Trump as president of the U.S. The Republican party really had retained control of both the Senate and House of Representatives. The Democratic party had not only been defeated, but humbled. Its message had not resonated, and it had lost. Many of its most dedicated supporters felt lost, too.
Soon after, people started widely sharing a blog post from July by documentary filmmaker Michael Moore. In it, Moore had provided five reasons why he was confident Trump would win the presidential election in November. Among them: the anger in the Midwest and of white men; the unambiguous unpopularity of Hillary Clinton; and the disaffection of Bernie Sanders supporters.
In recent years, Moore has receded into the background somewhat, likely a result of a Democratic president running the show. Moore is at his best as a protestor, not a supporter, which is why his fame rose to its height during the George W. Bush administration, when he released films like “Bowling for Columbine,” “Fahrenheit 9/11” and “Sicko” and became a symbol for the everyman of the anti-war left. And it’s why his star faded during the Obama administration as well.
But all the while, Moore has continued to quietly keep the pulse of Middle America in a way many others have not. It’s safe to say now that the mainstream media by and large missed or underplayed the factors cited in Moore’s blog post.
We focused too much attention on tax returns and Trump’s business record, and not enough on a more general sentiment that Washington had forgotten broad swaths of the American people. Not Moore. A native of Flint, Michigan, he correctly realized the overwhelming power of feeling left behind. And now, after a few quiet years, there are signs he is returning to the spotlight with that understanding in hand, ready to fight back against the Donald J. Trump administration.
While many Democrats woke up on Wednesday feeling dispirited, Moore woke up with a plan. Just after 10 a.m. ET, he published a five-point “Morning After To-Do List” to Facebook that provided a blueprint for action. The first item on that list: “Take over the Democratic Party and return it to the people.” In a moment when all felt hopeless for many Democrats, Moore’s message empowered. It resonated, too, garnering more than 416,000 likes and 211,000 shares as of press time.
That night, he joined protestors in the streets of New York. Speaking to CNN’s Don Lemon later on, Moore said he felt as if the protests were “a wave of humanity” pushed along by people who are “scared for their future.” It was also clear that Moore understood the importance of seizing on the moment.
“We had all those big protests before the Iraq War, and once the war started everyone stopped protesting,” Moore told The Huffington Post’s Andy Campbell at the protests. “We’ve got to keep this up. Just like Occupy Wall Street. [Except], this time, we keep it up, and we don’t stop until he’s out of there.”
The next day, Moore released another to-do list. This time, there weren’t five points, but seven. After several years on the sidelines, it appears the documentary filmmaker is back where he’s comfortable: fighting the Republican establishment. And what a fight it will be.
Before You Go
