Thomas Frank asked what was the matter with Kansas. Why did lower-middle class whites vote for the GOP when the Republicans did little for such voters economically. The interests of Kansans economically were supposed to be much more Democrat than Republican. But conservatives in the GOP used social issues — abortion, marriage, etc. — to attract support.
Frank’s argument makes me wonder the same about the Hollywood stars who live in the greater Los Angeles area. Simply on economic grounds, why would people worth millions vote for a party that wants to raise taxes on them?
Then there is the art-makes-viewers-more-humane-and-empathetic argument. Don’t actors in Hollywood play all sorts of American character types, from people who vote for Republicans to business owners, cops (how many cop shows and movies are there?!?), angry white men, and Christian nationalists? If art is supposed to help us see how others see the world, why are Hollywood actors like Meryl Streep so clueless about how so many Americans other than movie stars live?
Not to mention that in the aftermath of Debbie Reynolds’ and Carrie Fisher’s death, the missus and I watched Meryl Streep give a very fine performance in Postcards from the Edge (foul language trigger warning). She plays a Hollywood star who is a drug addict and whose life is hardly stable? If you play that kind of character — and I imagine Hollywood has more people like this than among the rest of the millionaire demographic — do you really get on a soapbox and instruct the rest of the country about how insensitive and vicious regular Americans are (with a straight face)? Don’t you perhaps remember that Hollywood types have their own clay feet (even if outfitted in Prada)?
One last anomaly. Meryl Streep has far more in common with Donald Trump than Mike Huckabee or Ted Cruz. Streep and Trump are both loaded, live lives becoming the rich and famous, cultivate celebrity, and are not overly concerned about abortion, gays, or sex outside marriage. Trump is one of Streep’s tribe.
And now the press can see how hollow and shallow Trump’s way of life is:
Trump understands one thing. In business, on TV and in conducting a presidential campaign, all that matters is making the news. He was famous and infamous, but most of all he was a media tsunami. He was not to be avoided. Fame is Donald Trumpās drug of choice. Being famous gives a person an automatic market value, a faux-virtue that comes from virtual supremacy.
Didn’t they understand that when Katy Perry and Beyonce were headlining for either Barack Obama or Hilary Clinton?
Old Life 
Anomaly? Here’s the difference between the two. One has given up that life of ease and comfort while the other chooses to remain in that world.
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“drug of choice”…fun fact: Trump is a teetotaller. No Courvoisier for this ladies’ man.
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You just know that fact gives fundies and evangelicals a little thrill up the leg, so to speak. It gives them hope that the seed of righteousness lives in the man.
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C-dubs, but (even funner fact) so is Angus Young a teetotaller–Fundies and Hard Rockers Together.
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cw l’unificateur says: You just know that fact gives fundies and evangelicals a little thrill up the leg, so to speak. It gives them hope that the seed of righteousness lives in the man.
huh? for guys who (say they) hate self-righteousness, you guys seem to excel sometimes? š Judge on.
“For Trump, teetotaling was ingrained in him by his older brother Fred, who struggled with alcoholism.āI learned a lot from my brother, Fred,ā Trump told Forbes. āHe set an example. It wasnāt, maybe, the example that people would think, but it really was, in its own way, an example. That here was this fantastic guy, who got caught up in the alcohol, and he ultimately died from alcoholism.ā āI used to say that I didnāt drink because of Fred, I would never drink.ā
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I wonder how many Hollywood multimillionaires stump for Obama or Clinton but secretly vote Republican?
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It’s simple. Most of the actors and producers in Hollywood hate the white bourgeois. The only rich people that they stamp their imprimatur on are those who “identify” with the so-called suffering classes and saddle up to their liberal causes. Just to produce wealth and create middle class jobs is not good enough for Hollywood. Maybe the middle class Americans who spend most of the shekels going to, or buying movies should think twice about throwing more money at them.
Additionally, evangelicals and conservative Catholics supported Trump knowing he was no saint. We just loathed, and I do mean loathed, the Wicked Witch of the East. Compared to her, Trump WAS a saint, a dragon slayer.
So most of us dropped our persnickedyness about personal morality in public life and voted for a candidate based on his economics views, his desire to bring DC under control, his nationalism, and our felling that at least Trump would do us, as believers, no harm. He also had the guts in the second debate to describe partial-birth abortion as horrible, something the other Republicans never would have done. Falwell Jr. looks pretty good now for his early endorsement.
Therefore, in this presidential election, many Christian people voted on a 2K basis, some on a Christian worldview basis. But all hope that a Trump SCOTUS nominee will be pro-life and pro-Christian ethics.
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http://henrystreetburrow.blogspot.com/2008/02/whats-matter-with-obama-supporters.html
My post on this theme included pictures of Will.i.am and Katherine Heigl, so I think I win.
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