“I hate y’all bad,” asserted rapper Cardi B in reaction to Donald Trump’s presidential election victory on her Instagram page, which has 165 million followers. In a now-deleted X post, the former stripper responsible for some of the most sexually explicit mainstream pop music ever released added: “This is why some of y’all states be getting hurricanes,” a reference to recent devastation experienced in such conservative states as Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina. These are not exactly the ravings of some fringe lunatic the Democrats can write off as not representing them — Cardi B spoke at a “Harris for President” rally in Milwaukee a few days before the election.
Nor is Cardi B an outlier among liberal celebrities. In an (also now-deleted) X post, Bette Midler, in a not-so-subtle jab at Trump voters, quoted the late journalist H.L. Mencken, who once described the “plain folks of the land” voting for a “downright moron.” Actress Yvette Nicole Brown in turn wrote (in another deleted post): “AmeriKKKa is showing out tonight. Just showing out.” Musician Billie Eilish on Instagram called Trump’s victory “a war on women” and at a Nov. 6 concert declared: “Someone who hates women so, so deeply is about to be the president.”
Why do we put up with this? It’s not simply that the vast majority of our celebrities are leftists — we all know that most of the entertainment industry leans left, often far left. It’s that they feel compelled to mock and shame the (more than) half of the electorate that politically disagrees with them. America doesn’t just need a new political leadership. We need new celebrities, too.
Leftist Celebrities Put On Another Most Over-Dramatic Performance
As M.D. Kittle documented in a recent Federalist article, the celebrity meltdown over the Trump victory has been characteristically absurd. On her X account, actress Christina Applegate urged: “Please unfollow me if you voted against female rights. Against disability rights. Yeah that. Unfollow me because what you did is unreal. Don’t want followers like this. So yeah. Done.”
Basketball superstar LeBron James “posted a photo with his daughter with a promise to ‘protect you.’” Actor John Cusack wrote: “The fact that the country would choose to destroy itself by voting in a convicted felon rapist and Nazi is a sign of deep nihilism.” He added: “A lot of Catholics voted for Trump. Why bother saying you adhere to any version of Christianity.” Singer and actress Ariana Grande wrote that she is “holding the hand of every person who is feeling the immeasurable heaviness of this outcome today.”
Actresses don’t want conservatives as fans (even if those fans have subsidized those actresses’ wealthy lifestyles). Athletes claim Republicans are out to get their daughters (wasn’t it Senate Democrats earlier this year calling for women to be added to the draft?). And in perhaps the most exaggerated performance to date, former practicing Catholic celebrities have the gall to scold Catholics on their voting decisions.
Our late-night hosts are just as ridiculous. “Today I wore my ‘I am questioning my fundamental belief in the goodness of humanity’ sticker,” quipped Stephen Colbert, who I remember many years ago used to be funny. Jimmy Kimmel uttered banal Dem talking points in proclaiming: “We had the choice between a prosecutor and a criminal, and we chose the criminal to be the president of the United States.” Over at “The Daily Show,” Senior Correspondent Desi Lydic offered more lefty pablum: “He’s a dictator. He’s a fascist. He’s a malignant narcissist …”
It’s Not Their Politics as Much as It’s Their Condescension
The entertainment industry has been leftist for as long as any of us have been alive. Though it may be annoying or frustrating, I’d imagine few, if any of us, have any expectation that the majority of our actors, athletes, musicians, or comedians will voice anything other than the agitprop of the Democrat Party. When a rare conservative appears among such celebrities — such as Clint Eastwood, Jason Aldean, Bryson DeChambeau — we’re surprised, if not elated.
That our celebrities are overwhelmingly leftist is a problem, but it is not the primary problem. Celebrities, like all citizens, are allowed to have political opinions. Rather, it is that they have shifted from simply voicing their political opinions to condescendingly lecturing the American public in every available fora. What, might we ask, makes celebrities so superior to the average American voter that they have anointed themselves our schoolmarmish scolds, our civic catechists, to instruct us on the difference between democracy and fascism?
Celebrities’ behavior is little more than an infantile tantrum over electoral politics. Although we are willing to pay to watch their movies, attend their concerts, or celebrate their performance in the arena, we refuse to take their political advice. How dare we. Our celebrities believe their elite status commends to them such unassailable power that we will unquestionably obey them. When we don’t, they act like a bunch of overtired toddlers in need of a nap.
Nothing better encapsulates this than the risible, histrionic claims by many of these people — among them Whoopi Goldberg, Cher, Miley Cyrus, Amy Schumer, and America Ferrera — that they would leave the country that made them wealthy if Trump won. Go ahead, we dare you.
We Need New Celebrities Who Aren’t Narcissistic Drama Queens
Imagine if you had a friend or relation who constantly spoke to you in condescending cruelty because of your political opinions. Imagine that person calling you a bigot, a racist, a fascist, a sniveling moron so stupid as to be worthy of nothing but unmitigated disdain. If you had any sense of self-regard, you’d remove yourself from such ridicule and avoid that person until he or she demonstrated remorse for his or her mean misbehavior, as well as a willingness to treat you with the decency and respect all humans deserve.
Well, that’s how many of our celebrity class — the people we otherwise admire for their talent, with whom we’d be thrilled to grab a selfie or enjoy just five minutes of their time — think of and treat us. We drop hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars in order to see them or appreciate their work, either on the screen, stage, or field. Yet they have nothing but contempt for us and our political opinions. That we still willingly shell out cash to such arrogant, self-worshiping megalomaniacs demonstrates how deeply we are affected by the self-absorbed vanity of celebrity culture. Just as we would not put up with such treatment from family and friends, neither should we endure it from our celebrities, regardless of their talent.
What Americans need is a break-up from these immature, self-important celebrities and our celebrity culture writ large. As citizens of this great republic, we deserve better. And, as our recent elections demonstrate, we’re perfectly capable of being mature adults and deciding when we’ve had enough.
Casey Chalk is a senior contributor at The Federalist and an editor and columnist at The New Oxford Review. He has a bachelor’s in history and master’s in teaching from the University of Virginia and a master’s in theology from Christendom College. He is the author of The Persecuted: True Stories of Courageous Christians Living Their Faith in Muslim Lands.
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