Cross posted at MyDD.
Tonight, I saw the DC premiere of Michael Moore's new movie, Sicko. At the event, I also saw and had a conversation with Fox's Mort Kondracke -- who confirmed himself to be a mindless hack.
First, the movie...Sicko was amazing. I don't often tell people to go see movies, but go see this movie -- and bring a couple of your nonpolitical or Independent friends too.
When I saw Al Gore's movie, I went in thinking "Yeah, I support the environment" and left passionately considering myself an environmentalist. When I saw Sicko, I went in thinking "Yeah, we need to improve health care in this country" and left thinking "Holy cow - we need a health care revolution."
See it. See it. See it. And bring your friends.
When I left the theater, I sought out Fox's Mort Kondracke, who I had heard was in attendance. I wanted to see if someone from the TV arm of the Republican Party would at least be human enough to show some sign of sympathy for the many victims in this movie. I found him.
Me: Hi, my name's Adam Green. So, what did you think?
Mort Kondracke: It was a very well constructed piece of propaganda.
He then went on and on, repeating corporate talking points - many of which Moore had debunked in the movie. Ignoring the factual evidence that health care companies actively deny life-saving medical help in order to pad their bottom line (and then give huge salaries to their executives and to doctors who have the best record of hurting patients), Kondracke kept pleading the cases of big companies.
He said Moore's examples of great health care in other countries were bogus, and asked me, "You live in this country, are you hurting?" I informed him that I have health insurance and thankfully have not suffered any grievous injury that would put me anywhere in a comparable position to the people in the movie we had just watched. He didn't really have an answer for that.
I asked him if he has any factual basis or citations what-so-ever for the things he was saying in defense of big companies, and he told me that the literature is out there.
There was obviously no rational or emotional thoughts running through this man's mind. Mort Kondracke is a drone...a hack who is probably so indebted to Fox for giving him a B-rate punditry career that he is willing to play the part of corporate Republican without any open-mindedness or introspection.
I will pay Kondracke one compliment though - he seems to have a nice wife. She was there, witnessing our conversation. I turned to her.
Me: Do you agree with this?
Mrs. Kondracke: Well, I have more sympathy with the message of the movie than he does.
Honestly, that was very heartening. I don't know anything about her other than that one sentence out of her mouth, so if she turns out to be a corporate lobbyist or something I reserve the right to reassess. But for now: Mrs. Kondracke rocks. And she has my sympathies as well.
The bottom line: Non-open-minded Republicans will not appreciate Moore's movie. But it should be a revolution starter for Democrats, progressives, Independents, and open-minded Republicans. See it soon and bring your friends.