No ‘Love’ for the free market in Michael Moore documentary

What’s “Love” got to do with it? When it comes to Michael Moore’s target in “Capitalism: A Love Story,” not much. He dumps on our relationship with that system in his customarily droll and incisive way, meaning the facetiously titled documentary is no mere flirtation. The leftie crusader hammers Wall Street villains, omnipotent lobbyists, every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan, and even Democrats — including Sen. Christopher Dodd and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Corruption, hypocrisy, callousness, personal and institutional greed, and the destruction of the possibility of the American dream for all — these are the crimes. He traces the modern history of capitalism, why it once worked for the working class too, but then how unscrupulous power brokers and the momentum of its own immorality led to the recent economic meltdown.

Even with such vast and deadly serious subject matter, Moore culminates his career as the best-known progressive clown-provocateur by doing again what he does best. He slices and dices up a complicated sociopolitical issue through his one-sided point of view and makes it understandable, thought-provoking and occasionally opinion-changing for laypersons and wonks alike. But he also makes this broad indictment of the free market an entertainment by rehashing the shtick he honed on his more specific/cohesive condemnations of General Motors, U.S. gun violence, our health care system and the Bush administration.

As director, screenwriter, producer, star and narrator, to break down the matter at hand, Moore uses his Every Fat Man persona, performance art-style confrontations, dramatic stories of Average Joe victimization, amazing archival footage and cleverly-concocted illustrations.

This time, these tools aim at how deregulation, union-busting and a gradually decreasing tax rate on the rich since the 1950s (it was 90 percent on the highest bracket under Eisenhower) eventually led to the disappearance of the middle class and the current debacle of foreclosures, unemployment and socialistic government bailouts for corporations instead of for the suffering masses.

The details of his argument for a more democratic/ethical system are compelling, especially as buttressed by newly discovered video of Franklin Roosevelt just before his death advocating for a second bill of rights to protect Americans economically.

Say what you want about Moore, love him or hate him, agree or disagree, he has devoted his career to civics accessibility and forcing open the debate about the profound problems that the nation should be solving. That must be “Love.”