Hardly a week would go by between March of 2003 and December of 2008 that we wouldn’t see or hear some Hollywood celebrity climb up on his or her highhorse and protest the Iraq War. However, if you listened carefully, it wasn’t war so much to which they would be objecting, it was the president. Remember Michael Moore at the 2003 Oscars calling it Bush’s “illegal war”? Richard Gere has been heard saying that we need a “regime change”.
Whether or not you or I agree with those statements is not the point of this article. What is the point is how Hollywood has bec0me “mysteriously” quiet on the topic. Since the Iraq War still exists and the number of troops being sent to Afghanistan have been upped, we can intelligently conclude that their silence is not because the war is over. We used to see Sean Penn with his personal video camera walking through the beat up streets of Bagdhad filming homeless children yet I can’t recall him or any other famous actor doing something like that in 2009 not only in Bagdhad or Afghanistan, but anywhere!
For most of you, my point has already been made and for others, I am stating the grotesquely obvious. But since fully expressing my opinion is in my DNA, let me say it anyway. For most in Hollywood, an opposition to war was never about bombed buildings, slaughtered civilians, or dead and wounded American soldiers. It is about politics. And as bad as some politicians can be, this is among the lowest form of human life imaginable due to the fact that these stars are exploiting their fame by trying to influence the public’s mindset against a particular Party. This is called partisanship to the nth power. Just think about it for a few seconds. If they really cared about the things and people I mentioned , where are their humanitarian efforts or speeches today? Jeanine Garofalo can spend an hour on Bill Maher’s show calling Tea Partiers “racists” but can’t expend any of her energy toward the same war she bashed monthly for six years. It is as if the war(s) ended in January of 2009.
Just try telling that to all of the families of the American soldiers who have been returned home in subpar condition. Why don’t you pick up the phone along with a list of phone numbers of Iraqi and Afghan households and tell them that the bombs they hear in the distance and the daily corpses they surely view are simply figments of their imaginations. After all, if Hollywood actors no longer talk about those atrocities, they must no longer exist.
Michael Moore is the Hollywood poster child of this nonsense. He made a documentary of and won an Oscar for belittling that current-day’s president but, in 2009, when additional troops have been sent by the new president for what he should consider and equally unjustifiable war, Moore decides to make an anti-capitalism movie instead. You can call it how you see it. I call it a purposeful attempt at a distraction.
The fact of the matter is that Hollywood has been Liberal for…well…for as long as their has been a Hollywood star scene. It is crystal clear that they are just an arm of propaganda to forward the Liberal cause. The more to the left an issue leans, the larger donations a Liberal politician receives at a fund- raising event. However, acccording to Zogby, as many as 89% of the public believe that celebrity endorsements have no affect on their political opinions.
Somehow, I get the feeling that the next time we hear anti-war sentiment from Hollywood, it will be when we have a different president. It won’t matter if it would be the current president who may attack Iran. That, according to the Rich and Famous, would not be a reason to voice any disdain. No, Angelina Jolie and company will likely just take notes and save them for the inevitable changing of the guard and use it as arsenal against the next guy. Unless that guy is in their camp, of course.
The 2012 Presidential Election is fast approaching
The GOP race is now a field of 4 with only Romney, Gingrich, Paul, & Santorum still standing. Who will be the next candidate to exit the race & who will emerge as the eminent GOP nominee?
Follow us on Twitter & join our 2012 election FaceBook page for updates & new blog articles.
Contact us if you are passionate about politics & want to blog with us.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Angelina Jolie? Serious???????
Get real. Sean Penn is serious, too. But everyone knows he’s just a moronic nut-job looking for his next headline since his acting career is in the toilet at the moment!
Laura,
Rubbish.
Dfunzy,
The point is that it’s not in the MSN and you have to search for it if you want to find it. It’s not as prevalent as when Bush was in office. Taking time for dissent to ferment?? Please. There hasn’t been ANY peep in the news from the Hollywierd elite against Obama. As you point out there is some if you look, but it’s not getting the coverage it once did nor in mass. Hell supposedly the Whitehouse has a direct line to MSNBC’s morning show. That was just reported a week or two ago. Dissent is silenced… even from former supporters.
Erick:
The links show that there has been dissent from the so-called left to Mr. Obama’s policy in Afghanistan. Also that Michael Moore has not been silent on a whole host of issues that he disagrees with President Obama. Also you mustn’t forget that it were Dems and progressives who led the dissent against LBJ and convinced him not to run for reelection.
I don’t want to fill this site up with page after page of Dem and progressives who are critical of Mr. Obama’s Afghanistan policy. Among the critics are many members of Congress, including the House Speaker.
Mr Obama announced his policy how many weeks ago? It takes time for dissent to gather stream to result in street demonstrations. Until a few weeks ago, most progressive thought that Mr. Obama was going to find a away for an early disengagement. Also, don’t dismissed Angelina Jolie out of hand. She is a serious person whose views are closer to her dad’s than is widely known. She isn’t reckless enough to go on right-wing talk shows and talk crazy. She is a Hollywood star who has broad disagreements with Mr.Obama’s polices.
dfunzy,
Thank you for your response. I will answer these one at a time:
(1) Unless I missed something, the first link has to do with public sentiment as a whole, not Hollywood. This article is not talking about the general public’s take on the war(s);
(2) I did miss the MM letter to the president. However, that does not detract from Mr Moore’s historical buffoonery. Even this particular letter was laced with negative statements against a few military people which, again, is a suggestion that the military (aka Big War Machine) is infiltrated by thugs who get a kick out of going around and killing innocents. Whether or not that may be true (I’m not saying it is or isn’t), it is just another wrung in Moore’s cynical, demoralizing ladder. Who is he pretending to defend or care about in this letter?
(3) I was/am aware of Jolie’s statements which is why I sarcastically included her within my original text.
dfunzy, again, let’s be honest and real here. It’s the BIG picture. Though there are a few squeaks of dissent from among the celebrity population, it is microscopic compared to what was heard during the Bush administration. I have stated many times here that I am not a fan of Bush II, though I was at one time. But, again, that is not the point of my post. Where are Penn and Gere and Garofalo and Sarandon and all of these other turkeys who were constantly in the limelight when it came to anti-war protests? I haven’t heard anything from them since Obama took office and don’t expect to.
Erick:
When you did your research for your article you must have missed these items:
Anti-war activists losing patience with Obama
http://www.star-telegram.com/local/story/1843242.html
November 30th, 2009
An Open Letter to President Obama from Michael Moore, criticizing the war
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/open-letter-president-obama-michael-moore
News – Angelina Jolie Criticizes President Obama – Celebrity News …
http://www.usmagazine.com/celebritynews/news/angelina-jolie-criticizes-president-obama-20091012
Erik,
A film takes months of postproduction and promotion. Michael Moore’s film was thought up, sold to the investors and started well before Obama was even elected. He can’t just go and switch to another film topic just because it happened the week before the film is scheduled to be released.
You should know better. And that is not a valid argument about MM’s film.
Hollywood is fickle not because a Dem is in the White House. They are fickle because they are drien by what is cool and fashionable. They are only paid the big bucks when they are loved, admired and worshipped by the average American. If the average American isn’t talking about the war, then Hollywood won’t either.
Heck, compare the number of posts on this site in the last six months about that war to anti-Obama posts and health care posts. When was the last time YOU posted anything about the war except as a backhanded jab at Obama? Why should Hollywood be any different? And who said that the Hollywood elite aren’t still talking about it, taking action or being vigilant but that the MSM doesn’t care about covering it anymore? The right wing and conservative sites you frequent certainly aren’t going to give the actions of a liberal celebrity any press unless they make a mistake, say the wrong thing, or do something embarrassing.
Excellent point! Well done!
Erik,
Yet another great article. And, once again, the silence from the left is deafening.
I couldn’t agree with you more. If the war protesters (i.e. Garofalo, Penn, Moore, etc) were so against the war the Bush was fighting, why are they so silent now when their president is escalating the war in Afghanistan and we still have troops in Iraq?
Carina,
Michael Moore brought out his latest movie in the middle of 2009. Long after the bailouts had been made. At the time when this documentary was released, many in the nation were up in arms about the missing money in which the Fed was in charge.
Obama can say that he “wants” to do this and “doesn’t want” to do that. But his voting record speaks volumes.
I find it interesting that you seem to have purposely missed the entire point of my article, which has to do with the hypocrisy of Hollywood and the fact that we don’t hear from any of them regarding the war now that we have a new president.
Newsflash: War is war. If you protest it then, you should protest it now too. The same Iraqis and Afghanis who were dying in 2008 also died in 2009. Where are the “caring” celebrities now?
There never were.
Mmm.. Michael Moore made the anti-capitalist documentary when THE PRESIDENT WAS GIVING BAIL-OUTS. Not when he was talking about sending troops over, which has just been recently. And to add on to that Pres. Obama didn’t want to send any troops but bring them back home…. But then again that was before he was elected president….