Celebrities lose what little political credibility they had
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By Don Feder– Friday, November 1, 2024 The Washington Times
OPINION:
This campaign may mark the low point of Hollywood’s political influence. All the pop singers, movie stars and celebrities for Vice President Kamala Harris appear to have had no impact.
At times, it seemed as if the entire Screen Actors Guild were piling on former President Donald Trump.
Robert De Niro was reduced to sputtering rage. Bruce Springsteen called Mr. Trump “a moron,” while Rosie O’Donnell called the former president “the worst thing that ever happened to the United States.”
How did we survive four years of low unemployment, relatively secure borders, safe streets and a surge in energy production?
A-listers including Taylor Swift, Beyonce, George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio are backing the Democratic ticket.
Mr. Trump’s Hollywood supporters are mostly the formerly famous, such as Tim Allen, Kelsey Grammer, Scott Baio and James Woods.
Some have had their careers ruined for voicing unorthodox views. In 2016, Mr. Allen’s “Last Man Standing” was the No. 2 comedy on ABC. Then he endorsed then-candidate Donald Trump. Shortly after the election, his show was canceled.
Actress Stacey Dash from “Clueless” had a promising career until she endorsed Mitt Romney’s run for president in 2012 and compounded the crime by initially supporting Mr. Trump.
She recently paid her penance by saying she no longer supports the former president, but that probably won’t be enough to rehabilitate her.
Hollywood’s political culture has evolved from liberal to left to “woke.” Its alignment with the Democratic Party goes back to the New Deal. The 1960s anti-war movement pushed it further left, and racial politics continued the radicalization.
Name a trendy cause that Hollywood doesn’t embrace.
The latest is Palestinian statehood — or the end of Israel.
Actress Susan Sarandon justified the surge of antisemitism after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel with the observation that Jews were “getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country.” She later apologized for saying what sounded like “they had it coming.”
The left has a strong psychological appeal for actors. Most started in the middle class. Now, they have mansions, personal chefs and private jets.
Leftism is a way for celebrities to lessen their guilt over their success, of saying “I may be rich and famous, but I care about people like you,” even when the causes they champion in the name of compassion make things worse for us all.
While seeing themselves as nonconformist, members of the entertainment elite are herd creatures, afraid to take any stand that might make them unpopular with their colleagues. Many of these self-proclaimed individualists are terrified of being different. They are also averse to reality.
Hollywood is a land of illusion. Actors make a living playing dress-up and make-believe.
To be successful, they almost have to be schizophrenic. It doesn’t go as far as Ronald Colman’s character in the 1947 film “A Double Life,” about a Shakespearean actor who identifies so closely with Othello that he ends up strangling his girlfriend.
For many, however, it’s hard to remove the makeup when the show ends.
La-La Land is crawling with low-information celebrities. In an interview during the Vietnam War, Jane Fonda said we were in Southeast Asia to get its “tongue and tingsten” (sic) — tin and tungsten?
Because adoring fans treat them like gods, celebrities believe they have intuitive knowledge on every subject. Those who don’t know their own ZIP code hold forth on reproductive rights and climate change before boarding their private jet.
There have been exceptions. Ron Silver was an actor with an inquiring mind who made the transition from left to right due in part to his voracious reading.
At a time of adversity, Hollywood has never been less influential.
People wonder why they should listen to political lectures from a community known for addiction, perversion, suicide and downright weirdness. The two words most often found in a Hollywood obituary are drug overdose.
Kevin Spacey (Here’s to you, kid!), Amber Heard (sh— happens) and Alec Baldwin (the Daniel Boone of Sunset Boulevard) aren’t names usually associated with normalcy.
The entertainment industry is expected to support Democratic candidates, be they ever so loony. It’s as natural as the Chamber of Commerce opposing higher taxes on business or the National Rifle Association lobbying against new gun laws.
Still, Hollywood risks what little is left of its reputation by going all in for one of the most unpopular presidential candidates since George McGovern.
