The Passion of the Neocons

I'll tell you one thing I admire about Republicans: for a party that doesn't care much about the poor, gay and/or melanized, they sure are good at playing the role of an oppressed minority group. And other than FOX News -- who've somehow managed to convince their viewers that they are not part of the mainstream media while simultaneously being "the most watched cable news network" and the only one with a direct line to the Bush White House -- no subsection of the GOP does "oppressed" better than Hollywood conservatives.

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/oct/24/liberals-have-the-edge-in-tv-land/?partner=RSS

HOLLYWOOD — At a recent event for Republicans in Hollywood, an actress was asked whether she had ever worn her pro-Sarah Palin pin to an audition.

"You must be joking!" she said with a laugh, adding, "But I see Obama stuff all the time."

It's no secret that the entertainment industry is overwhelmingly liberal — political donations this presidential cycle from the movie, TV and music industries recently were running about 86 percent Democrat versus 14 percent Republican.

But being outnumbered is one thing, being bullied by your liberal co-workers into keeping your opinions to yourself is quite another.

Is that what's going on? Yes, say many of the industry's conservatives. That's why secret organizations with such names as "SpeakEasy" and "The Sunday Night Club" spring up every so often. They're not conservative per se, they just let it be known that attendees of their gatherings may freely discuss politics without being chastised for not toeing the liberal line.

"Are you kidding me? Of course it's true," Kelsey Grammer said when asked whether the town is hostile to conservatives. "I wish Hollywood was a two-party town, but it's not."

Grammer said he knows of a makeup trailer that sported a sign warning Republicans to keep out and of U.S. war veterans who keep their backgrounds a secret from their Hollywood co-workers because they hear them belittle the military.

He even said that, earlier in his career, his job was threatened by a prominent sitcom director who demanded he donate money to Barbara Boxer's U.S. Senate campaign. To keep his job, he gave $10,000 to Boxer and the Democrats.

Nowadays, Grammer is a bankable actor who is unafraid to speak his mind. His advice to less established industry players, though, is to shut up about politics — "unless you think the way you are supposed to think," and that means liberal.

However, there are many who are trying to make Hollywood more accommodating to political diversity. Andrew Breitbart is one. At Breitbart.com, he's launching a "Big Hollywood" blog with 40 industry conservatives tasked with — among other things — highlighting liberal intolerance.

"There's an undeniably vicious attitude against those who dissent," Breitbart said. "Hollywood is the most predictable place on the planet, not exclusively because of politics but because of narrow-mindedness."

Breitbart maintains that liberals have pushed conservatives too hard in Hollywood and that Americans have noticed. His intent is "to stop the bullying."

One "Big Hollywood" blogger is Andrew Klavan, an accomplished novelist-screenwriter who made a splash with a Wall Street Journal article comparing Batman and the "The Dark Knight" to President Bush and the war on terror.

"It's not easy being different," he said. "The liberals aren't all that liberal. We think they're wrong, but they think we're evil, and they behave like it."

If you lean right, pitch to those who are sympathetic, or at least tolerant of conservative viewpoints, Klavan said. Mel Gibson, Jerry Bruckheimer and Joel Surnow come to mind.

Klavan also said liberalism seeps into too much Hollywood content nowadays and offers as proof the several anti-Iraq war movies that have been box office bombs.

"These aren't even movies about the war on terror," he said. "They're Vietnam War movies, made by people who sit around at Skybar discussing their pacifist worldview."

TV also is too one-sided, he said. "They don't even make fun of Barack Obama," he noted. "How is that possible? The guy's hilarious."

Where were all the social justice advocates when Kelsey Grammer was being bullied into donating money to the California Democratic Party, huh? I didn't see the ACLU taking to the streets for the unnamed actress who was too scared to wear her pro-Palin pin to an audition. Won't somebody speak for the conservatives -- somebody other than the president who has been in charge for the last eight years?

BTW, this article must've been written a few weeks ago, since it fails to mention that while recent anti-Iraq War films have indeed sunk at the box office, the far more recent "An American Carol," David Zucker's so-called "conservative comedy" starring, yes, Kelsey Grammer, flopped harder than Rush Limbaugh getting pushed down a flight of stairs (I couldn't think of a better joke there, but I enjoy the image).