I don’t often talk about politics, but after two weeks of conventions, people aren’t talking about much else.
Here’s a sampling of some of my Facebook friends’ status updates in the past couple weeks–
B___ wishes he could write hilarity like Palin has foreign policy experience because “she’s up there in Alaska which is right next to Russia!” Thank u Fox News.
J___ doesn’t understand why Palin’s situation is a “private family matter” but Bill Clinton’s situation wasn’t.
S___ wishes the Jews had a Pope so we could excommunicate Joe Lieberman.
K___ believes John McCain has punched at least one kitten in the face in his lifetime.
A___ agrees with everyone who thinks Sarah Palin is hot. Thank God for Google and jpegs. Go Obama/Biden!
F___ is pretty sure the GOP planted Juno and The Secret Life of the American Teenager to make Bristol Palin sympathetic.
F____ would like to know if Bristol Palin will go to the prom with him?
D___ is wondering if Sarah Palin knows that she really is just a gimmick and a puppet…
M___ is LET’S GO BLUE!!!
Notice a pattern? I didn’t filter this. There was not one comment in favor of the Republicans. (Although, admittedly, “LET’S GO BLUE!!!” is probably regarding a football team.)
My favorite is the one about planting Juno and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. This guy really thinks Karl Rove controls this business he works in? The one in which everyone he knows thinks exactly like him?
Now, I realize this is not a scientific study, but it’s still rather random. Most of these people work acquaintances, not “friends” in the sense that we have similar interests and tastes.
Adam Carolla talked about this very subject this morning. It’s not that there’s a blacklist or anything, but if you’re a Republican or conservative, you probably don’t mention it. It’s like if your boss is a Trojan fan– you probably wouldn’t wear a UCLA hat to work, right?
So, I keep quiet, discussing my political leanings only on my anonymous blog. Sigh.
10 Responses
Ask a liberal for an opoinin, and they tell you something they believe is true for everyone. Ask a liberal if they are more caring than others, they say yes, ask a liberal if they have better ideas, and they say yes, ask a liberal if they should control others by taxing their earnings and using the money for their particular pet programs, and they will say yes, and add that their ideas do lots of good for people.Lilberals view themselves as superior, intellectually and educationally, and that they have all the answers.Conservatives believe you can make better decisions with your money, that you have a right to keep what you earn, that you can have ideas that others may not agree with but it’s okay. Conservatives are actually more tolerant of different ideas than are Liberals.Liberals have their roots in the old Democrat party of slave owners in the south, who did very little for blacks and wanted to keep slavery going even after the civil war. Conservatives have their roots in the Republican party, the party of anti-slavery, the party that fought against civil rights abuses and against the democrats and later dixiecrats that tried to institutute such things as separate but equal or whites only services and facilities.Don’t let liberals fool you into believing they are anything more than wolves in sheeps clothing. They do NOT have your best interest in mind, that’s why they want to remove guns, remove your money, and tell you how to live, raise the price of fuel, and insert government control into virtually every aspect of your lives.Liberalism used to mean independent much like today’s Libertarian party, but over the years, Liberal has taken on a new form, it’s big government, elitist behavior, know-it-all attitudes, and nobody should be responsible for their own actions, everything is relative, it’s called moral relativism, and can be used by liberals to explain any behavior, regardless of how damaging it might be to others.Beware of Liberals, they are dishonest and greedy.
Don’t even get me started – I went to a Meg Whitman rally in Orange county this summer and posted it on my social media outlet of choice. I was then out of work for three months… coincidence?? Clearly, its scandal!
oops — that should have read “… nor am I likely to be overwhelmed by conservative logic and thus renounce my godless liberal ways.”
Proof reading — always my Achilles Heel…
Some old college friends of mine — both having carved out careers as successful television writers — know Rob Long, and told me of his conservative leanings. A couple of years ago, the LA Times confirmed this in a profile of him in which he discussed the difficulties in being right-of-left in this town. I thought I’d kept that piece, but can’t find it in my files, or I’d send it to you. You could probably retrieve it from their web archves, but they’d doubtless charge you for it.
I try to keep my politics out of the workplace. If the subject comes up, I’ll add my two cents, but it’s a long time since I initiated such conversations. What’s the point? If my co-workers agree with me, then I’m just preaching to the choir. If they don’t, then we’ll argue until reaching that point of awkward stasis where we more or less agree to disagree. I’m not going to sway a conservative to turning liberal, nor am I likely to be overwhelmed by conservative logic and thus my godless liberal ways.
If I like someone’s work (and Rob Long is a terrific writer), I don’t really care about anything else. It’s the work that matters. As for politics — we are who we are, and don’t all have to agree on everything. Where we can meet, nnd agree, is the common ground of appreciation for good work : in this case, thoughtful, eloquent writing.
I do listen to Rob Long’s commentary. I had no clue he was conservative. Shows how prejudiced I am. I just assumed “successful TV writer” = “liberal” (Joel Surnow and Bob Cochran excepted, of course.)
Anonymous:
I can sympathize with conservatives here in Hollywood, where the Left Coast dominates the political field. I’m a juicer, not a deep thinker or student of politics, but as one who has been paying attention for a while now, perhaps I can shed a little light on why so many liberals oppose conservatives and conservative viewpoints with such visceral vehemence.
There’s a line from an Auden poem that applies here: “…those to whom evil is done, do evil in return.”
With the election of Ronald Reagan – patron saint of conservatives and the Republican party — in 1980, came a turning point in American politics. During the campaign, Reagan almost single handedly turned the term “liberal” into the politically functional equivalent of the word “nigger.” This caught on with his rabid fans, and over the next 12 years of conservative Republican rule, became entrenched in the semantics of our political scene. The advent and popularity of conservative talk radio (with Rush Limbaugh as the prime offender), deepened this divide by several orders of magnitude, treating the term “liberal” with such sneering contempt that in effect, it became a sort of low-grade hate speech.
Understand, I detest terms such as “hate speech” – but in this case, I’m not sure how else to describe it.
No matter what your political/cultural stance might be, imagine how if would feel to have 12 years of presidents use that word on a daily basis – on national television, no less – always with the underlying implication that being a “liberal” was somehow un-American?
I can tell you, it didn’t feel good. If you poke someone with a stick long enough, sooner or later he’s going to hit back — and true to Auden’s dictum, under this relentless verbal assault, the once-tolerant liberals became hardened, bitter, and utterly cynical in their own contempt for conservatives.
By the time Bill Clinton was elected, the term “liberal” had become so toxic that most left-of-center believers adopted the word “progressive” to describe their political leanings. To stand up and declare ” I’m a liberal” was to invite slack-jawed stares of disbelief.
In Hollywood now, the shoe is on the other foot – conservatives are the scorned, marginalized party here. To tell you the truth, I don’t like that either. I’m a believer in people rather than ideology, and try to judge those I meet and deal with on the basis of their actions rather than their political views. I’ve met many conservatives I like a lot, and more than a few liberals whose pious mewling and absurdist logic turn me all the way off. Yet, if asked to state my own political stance, I would say “liberal.”
We humans are highly imperfect beings. In my experience, there are just as many wacky, out-of-touch-with-reality liberals as rabid, foam-at-the-mouth conservatives – and in a way, the extremes at both ends of our political spectrum seem closer to each other than the rest of us who occupy that increasingly narrow ground in the more-or-less middle. I hate it that things have become so polarized these days. No good good can come from this. As Lincoln noted, “a nation divided cannot stand.” Right now, we’re a nation divided, and if we don’t pull out of this highly partisan ideological death spiral, we’re all going down together.
If you’re looking for a sympathetic (and successful) conservative ear here in Hollywood, check out Rob Long, who has been writing and producing television for nearly 20 years. He’s got a website, and delivers a terrific 4 minute commentary on KCRW every Wednesday evening at 6:45 – or anytime on the KCRW website. I may not agree with your politics, but he might – and maybe you won’t feel quite so alone in the liberal enclave of the Industry.
I realize I’m not the only one, but we are rare. Do you ever talk like that on set?
You’re not the only one. It’s amazing the emotion and foundless reasons some people invest in hatred of all things conservative. They want to “talk” to the people that hate us because they “just don’t understand us,” but refuse to listen to any facts at all, and in turn, hate us. Just look at some of the comments on Daily Kos. And they say we’re full of hate.