In my recent Democratiya essay about Michael Moore, I remarked: “Oddly, Moore was not a major presence during the midterm election season….”
Well, Moore’s absence is over.
The U.S. government has handed him a propaganda coup on a silver platter by threatening prosecution over an unauthorized trip to Cuba during filming of “Sicko,” his new movie on health care, which will hit U.S. theaters in late June. (For the record, I oppose the U.S. embargo and call on the U.S. to drop the case against Moore.)
Not having seen Moore’s film, I can only rely on advance descriptions, but his aim is familiar: he wants to contrast the lack of access to health care in the U.S. with the universal coverage to be found in Cuba.
Moore is right to point out the inadequacy of the American system. But given that he has devoted his entire career to condemning governmental abuses and angrily upholding the right to dissent, it will be interesting to see what else he mentions about Cuba in the film.
Viewers might want to know that Rolando Jimenez was recently sentenced to 12 years in prison for writing anti-Castro graffiti. Or that Oscar Sanchez, a journalist, was given four years for “social dangerousness” after reporting on poor factory conditions — exactly the sort of thing Moore used to do back in Flint, Michigan.
Yes, in Cuba, people who do what Moore does tend to get jail time. But when Moore travels there, it’s not to denounce the Castro dictatorship, but to whitewash it.
It’s one thing to make the case for a single-payer health care system. But when you consider the effects of arbitrary arrest and imprisonment on the health and welfare of an individual, it is perverse to laud Cuba for its social services.
Moore, as always, is catching hell from right-wingers. For this reason, he will feel vindicated. He shouldn’t, because his apologetic stance toward Castro runs afoul not of conservative principles, but liberal ones.
The biggest whopper of all? Cuba’s state-run daily Granma has rushed to Moore’s defense: “The U.S. government’s targeting of Moore ‘confirms the imperial philosophy of censorship’ by American officials, [the newspaper] added.” This, from a regime that has outlawed free media for over 40 years.
[Salon’s review of “Sicko” is here.]
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