Douglas Murray: GOP Should Leave the Empty-Headed Celebrities to the Liberals

For years the political left has made fools of themselves by sucking up to celebrities. Both in election season and out of it, always it’s the same story. Susan Sarandon, Matt Damon, Eva Longoria and the rest of them all come out to support the Democrat party.

Want to weigh up the rights and wrongs of American foreign policy? Then make sure George Clooney is on your side. Want to address income inequality? Well make sure you’ve got Taylor Swift on board.

Of course the whole thing is ridiculous. And conservatives have not been shy about pointing out that fact. Because it is ridiculous.

As Ricky Gervais said at the Golden Globes a few years back, most actors have spent less time in education than Greta Thunberg. The fact that you can pretend to be other people for a living, or sing, doesn’t mean you know how to run the world. Besides, it doesn’t even seem as though celebrity endorsements are much electoral help. Remember how many celebrities backed Hillary Clinton in 2016? The Democrat candidate for the Presidency that year had an almost complete, clean-sweep of America’s celebrity class. Sadly for Hillary, however, this country is mainly populated by non-celebrities who do not wish to have our nation’s border-policy — for instance — directed by Hollywood.

Ricky Gervais called out celebrities for having less of an education compared to some young starlets. 2020 NBCUniversal Media, LLC

There was a time when Republicans used to gleefully point this out, and more. How low did the Democrats have to go? they asked. Did the nation really need to hear Leonardo DiCaprio’s views on voting before having the temerity to vote ourselves? There was a time that Republicans used to poke fun at all this, noting that politics is a serious business whereas entertainment is, well, entertainment. And while it is perfectly understandable that some ditzy actor might want to pretend to be a serious person by sounding forth about the importance of peace over war, say, why did politicians have to pretend to care about what these dolts did in their efforts to be taken seriously?

Leonardo DiCaprio shared his thoughts on why voting matters in previous elections.FilmMagic/Dia Dipasupil

Of course some people said this was just sour grapes. Since most of the entertainment industry thinks it is best to look liberal, the Republicans have for decades had trouble recruiting celebrities to their own. They had Jon Voigt of course — a lovely man, but not someone who can single-handedly even the scales against the rest of Hollywood. There was Clint Eastwood too, although when the Republicans got him to speak at their annual national convention in 2012 the results were a reminder of why Clint is better scripted than not. The “empty chair” routine must go down as one of the most embarrassing things to have ever happened at a party convention. And that’s a really high bar.

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