The Hollywood Left

Sean Penn

It is common knowledge that Hollywood stars are predominantly liberal democrats. At the 2003 Academy Awards Show, host Steve Martin made the joke that, "A movie star can be thin or skinny. A movie star can be a democrat or....skinny." Like all Americans, celebrities have the right to vote any way they want. Unlike the rest of us, they get to voice their opinion on a much grander scale.

At the 2004 Golden Globe Awards, Meryl Streep belittled President Bush's State of the Union Address. At the 2004 Academy Awards, Sean Penn began his acceptance speech "If theres one thing actors know, other than there weren't any WMDs...." At the 2003 Academy Awards, Michael Moore went on a rant about President Bush, calling him, among other things, "a fictitious President."

Having celebrities turn an award show acceptance speech into a political hit and run is nothing new or even interesting. What is interesting, is having celebrities push politics in their actual work. As you can probably guess, Hollywood gave Clinton positive coverage while Bush just gets bashed.

In 1997, Clinton played himself in the made for television movie, A Child's Wish. Starring John Ritter and My Girl's Anna Chlumsky, A Child's Wish is a veritable Hallmark card of love to Bill Clinton and his Family Leave Act. A dying child's last wish is to meet President Bill Clinton. Because he signed The Family Leave Act, her family is able to take care of her till the end.

John Q, starring Denzel Washington, is one of the most blatant political movies ever made. It is thinly masked as entertainment. The entire theme of the movie is health care. The very last image on the screen is Hilary Clinton in a speech about nationalized healthcare.

Bush pretty much gets ignored by Hollywood. Okay, Whoopie Goldberg had an episode of her television where her character was in a tizzy because Bush used her bathroom. The only person who actually goes on about President Bush is Michael Moore. Moore's new film, Fahrenheit 911, is all about Bush. It suggests connections between Bush and Osama Bin Laden's family. It likewise, criticizes Bush on our war on terror.

Recently, new liberal talk radio shows have popped up. Comedian Al Franken is hosting one. Conservatives have dominated talk radio for the past decade, and liberal's were feeling the heat so they created their own show's to counter balance the conservative ones.

The liberals need not worry about their view being presented to the general public. Hollywood movie's and television show's are so liberal that millions of American's everyday are indoctrinated into their thinking. From environmental and social issues, to political and religious views, Hollywood is so far to the left that it doesn't even know what is right.

Patrick's rebuttal:
Perhaps Eric has never seen Primary Colors. It is certainly no Valentine to Bill or Hilary Clinton. And just a few months ago the conservative press threw up such an outcry over what turned out to be a very tame portrait of Ronald Reagan in the CBS movie that it was never even broadcast on that network but was instead relegated to the much less watched Showtime channel. As for Whoopi Goldberg's show, she actually has both Republican and Democratic characters and she pokes fun at herself as much, if not more, than she does anyone else.

If I remember correctly at this year's Oscars Billy Crystal made fun of both liberals and conservatives. And frankly I thought the crack Sean Penn made about the WMD's was funny. I also laughed at Michael Moore telling the hobbits they were fighting a fictitious war. Where is your sense of humor Eric?

I for one am glad that most actors and filmmakers in Hollywood (and around the world for that matter) are liberal. Think about it for a minute. Imagine a country (or world) where our greatest and most popular modern art form is controlled by those whose chief interests are maintaining the status quo, suppressing freedom of speech and civil liberties and whose mindset has led to the horrific situation in Iraq. Sounds terrifying to me. I only wonder how many 'liberal' movies and television shows it will take to repair the damage done to our credibility in the eyes of the civilized world.