Down Goes McCain-Feingold: My Date With Hillary and History

I didn’t set out to create a film that would go to the Supreme Court and change electoral/political history.

Thursday morning, the 21st of January found me climbing off an airplane in Las Vegas. By the time the day was over Senator-elect Scott Brown was in Washington, Air America was dead, Keith Olbermann’s head had exploded (twice), and Citizens United v. FEC had overturned a century of campaign finance law. It seemed appropriate that it was snowing in Las Vegas.

David Bossie: Chairman of the Board and President, Citizens United

First of all let me clear up any possible misunderstandings: I do not consider myself a great writer/director. I have no connections in Hollywood. I don’t come from money or familial fame. I have no patrons in politics. I don’t have a degree from some hot film school or Ivy League institution. I’m not a genius or political wunderkind. And, I don’t pretend that any of you have seen the film that spawned this Supreme Court case. So, what does that make me? I think that makes me about like most Americans.

I’ve been fascinated by the furor and fury over the Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC. It’s curious to be affiliated with, “the most irresponsible decision by the Supreme Court since the Dred Scott decision.” The left has screamed bloody murder about the demise of democracy. The left-brain has so firmly fixed the idea that “corporation” = evil, villainy, torture (George Bush), into its autonomic system that a clear reading of the case and decision is impossible for them.

Even President Obama seems to forget that he crushed McCain in corporate dollar contribution totals. In fact, Goldman Sachs was his largest corporate contributor. The press screams about unfettered lobbyists as if they are the zombies from 28 Days and yet fail to connect the fact that lobbying has seen its greatest proliferation under our present President (this from the candidate who promised to get rid of lobbyists). CU v. FEC represents everything wrong with America when viewed through the left lens. However, my experience as the director of the film at the eye of the storm, does nothing but reaffirm everything that I believe is good about America.

Making Hillary The Movie gave an opportunity to an unremarkable American to tell the stories of other, more remarkable, Americans whose lives intersected with Hillary Clinton. I didn’t set out to create a film that would go to the Supreme Court and change electoral/political history. I just wanted to find interesting stories from people not unlike you and me and record them. One of the most difficult parts of making a film is deciding what to leave in and what to take out. With then Senator Clinton, that problem was exponentially magnified. One of the Clintons’ former associates described them as a tornado destroying everything in their path. There was, indeed, a wide swath of destroyed institutions, credibility, and human lives to sift through in the wake of the Clintons. We could have cut a weeklong mini-series with the amount of material we had. Rather we settled on a handful of personal stories from people not very different from you or me–people whose lives were crushed in the Hillary Clinton vortex.

Now there was nothing special about making a film on Hillary Clinton that lead to the Supreme Court. It could’ve been a film about any political figure. In fact, in 2004, there was a false start in the direction of a court confrontation when Citizens United‘s film Celsius 41.11 elicited a finding from the FEC. Michael Moore’s film was also cited and release patterns for the films had to comply with applicable election/campaign finance law. Citizens United Executive Producer, Dave Bossie, kept making political films realizing that if he threw enough gas on the McCain-Feingold-free-speech fire, eventually the FEC would bite. And bite they did. The rest is history.

Looking back more than two years since we finished the film, I’m amazed by the ride. I met and became friends with political and social figures who have impacted the march of nations. I shot in the location where our first president bid farewell to his troops. I shared the grief of fathers for sacrificed sons and sons for murdered fathers. I got to finish a film without a studio’s demands or government’s interference. I harshly criticized, in a public forum, a former First Lady and President and never feared reprisal upon me or upon my family. I watched as an expression of political speech from a small group of citizens had its day in front of the highest court in the land. I sat in the chambers of the Supreme Court next to people who had travelled all night to be present to hear the arguments. I watched as a new Justice sat on the bench for the first time. I saw the gears of our Constitutional machine work and churn to render justice and took for granted that at the end of that process, no buildings burned; no blood was shed. Whatever opinions may be, relative to the application of the ruling, there can be no doubt that the journey of this average citizen unequivocally attests to the greatness of the country in which those rulings will be applied.

Don’t agree?…you can make your own movie.

I rest my case.