Stick to Entertaining Us

Great article by Shannen Coffin on the latest bout of celebrities who think their political views are so important that they carry great weight with the American people. Coffin’s sentiment is this: “If only we cared”. From the article:

But, assuming the mantle of those who could not afford the price of admission — or, who, for some unfathomable reason chose not to attend — last night's Bush-bashing soiree, let me express this sentiment: We simply don't care. We don't care that Moby is upset that "George Bush pretends to be a cowboy" while running up "the largest federal deficit in history." We don't care that Benny Boom thinks "George Bush is probably the first real gangsta we've had in office." We don't care about Bruce Springsteen's thoughts on "economic justice, transparent government, how do we treat our weakest citizens, say, in foreign policy." The views of Hollywood, Broadway, Motown, and for that matter, the runways of Paris and New York don't add an ounce of weight to the serious issues facing our country in this Presidential election. To quote Bill Murray in Meatballs, "It just doesn't matter."

But it does seem to matter to the people running the Democratic campaign for president. Far from running from the most extreme element of Hollywood (if there is such a thing), they've embraced Michael Moore and his colleagues as the voice of the party. Was it an accident that Moore sat ringside with former President Carter during the Democratic Convention in Boston? Or that Ben Affleck is taking time off from his filming schedule to appear at campaign events with John Kerry and John Edwards? Of course not. Apparently, the movers and shakers on that side of the political divide believe that slurs and slogans belted out by such heavyweight talents as Margaret Cho and Ione Skye will have a measurable impact on the way Americans view this election. The Republicans seem to be making the same mistake, trotting out Wayne Newton, Bo Derek, and a lesser Baldwin, Stephen (which one is he?) at next week's convention to prove that they too can attract meaningless endorsements from celebrities currently fit to star in a late-night reality show on UPN.

Let’s say I go to a concert (fill in whichever group you want here). I am paying to be entertained by the group’s music and live show, not for them to start spewing out political rants (and this goes for both sides). My buddy Slubgob has a great link to an Alice Cooper rant about musicians and politics, and even better a plan to show these Hollywood types what their job truly is: to entertain us, nothing more.