Posted by
Mugged on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 11:41:04 AM
Another week and another handful of celebrities are in the news trumpeting their lefty political views – sigh. Just in the past couple of days we’ve heard from Barry Manilow who refused to suffer the indignity of sharing a stage with conservative Elizabeth Hasselbeck on The View and Sally Fields who used her acceptance speech at the Emmys as a platform from which to speak out against the war. And that’s just in the last 48hrs or so.
The list of outspoken liberal celebrities grows larger daily as more and more exploit their high public visibility to air their political views. This is well within their rights and one can hardly blame them. I’d certainly do the same if I were their shoes.
But what I find amazing is that they all march in perfect lefty lockstep. Conservative musicians and movie stars are a rare and precious commodity and are sighted far less often than Big Foot or Elvis. In Hollywood liberals rule: Streisand, Sheen, Penn, Cusak, O’Donnell, Goldberg, Belafonte, Glover, Sarandon, Robbins… the list goes on ad nauseam.
So how is it that liberalism is so universal among our talented friends? I think it must be, in part, due to the emotional nature of the artists mind. A person ruled by his emotions is truly a person in chains. (the same explanation applies to the question of why young people are, on average, much more prone to liberal thought.) It seems obvious that a high degree of emotionalism is an essential element of an artist’s personality. And even a casual listening to some of their statements will make obvious the fact that these folks are speaking from the heart with no bothersome filtering by the mind. It’s in the gut, it’s on the lips, it’s out the mouth.
Combine that fact with the surreal bubble in which celebrities dwell and plain, old fashioned peer pressure and you have a perfect recipe for madness. Within this bubble all things will take on an extra sheen of intensity. A conservative is not merely someone with whom you disagree philosophically. Rather, they’re to be loathed and hated as dangerous, brutal Nazi knuckledraggers. Bush (and all of the worlds intelligence services, incidentally) wasn’t simply mistaken about WMD, he lied (LIED!) in order to start a war for oil. And irrationality doesn’t stop there. Our Hollywood friends constantly liken our President to Hitler or Satan or both and accuse him of the worst dictatorial aspirations while jetting off to hobnob with Hugo Chavez – a genuine dictator by any measure. Arrrgggggg!
Will there ever come a day when these people realize that their charmed lives are made possible by the strength and security of the nation. Security paid for with the blood and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform? Will it dawn on them that if the country were actually spiraling into totalitarianism, as they contend, that they would have long since been “disappeared” rather than speaking out at peace demonstrations and living in luxury far beyond the imaginations of their fans? Does Hanoi Jane foster any illusions that had she would have been free to speak out against her country had she been a citizen of North Viet Nam? Does Rosie really think that if her government was capable of offing 3000 of it's citizens in an impossibly complex plot that she would be allowed to live long enough to out them on national television?
So here’s my challenge to Sean Penn, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, Cindy Sheehan, or any other high profile bozo who thinks Hugo Chavez is creating Heaven on Earth in Venezuela. Put Up Or Shut Up! I’ve noticed that you always seem to buy round trip tickets for that workers paradise. A quick visit and photo op with Chavez, and then it’s back to the mansion in Malibu. So let’s see some action to back up all the verbiage. Move down there. If the Bush is Satan and Chavez a modern day saint why would you want to stay here? I’m sure Hugo and his crew would enthusiastically welcome such a public relations coop. In fact, I’ll go you one better. If any of those mentioned above take the plunge, divest themselves of their US property (and ideally their US citizenship) and permanetly move down to Hugo’s little love fest I will donate $100 to MoveOn.org. (Note to celebrities. In my working class world $100 is a huge commitment). So there it is. Any takers?