The men who stormed the beaches of Normandy under a hail of bullets and shrapnel are heroes.
Martyrs thrown to the lions are heroes. Meryl Streep preaching on stage at the Golden Globes to a friendly audience is not a hero.
Contrary to what Twitter at-large believed, Meryl Streep does not belong in the category of those above.
Heroism requires that one faces adversity and challenges and perhaps sacrifices something of value for the greater good.
Streep’s screech accomplishes none of these.
Instead, all this sort of rhetoric accomplishes is further alienating the Liberal agenda from the average American.
This issue should have been resolved after the election.
Hollywood should have learned, after making dozens of videos propagandizing for Hillary Clinton, that lobbing every “-ist” slur at middle America is not an effective method of persuasion.
The reaction to Streep’s speech is emblematic of this self-righteousness that characterizes Hollywood and the gentry liberalism that has come to represent the elite of the left.
Self-congratulatory speeches to audiences with the net worth of mid-sized countries are lauded for their courage.
We are treated to soliloquies about the bravery of individuals that drone on about fashionable issues.
This moral grandstanding and condescension must end.
Those with a soapbox should have learned that the rest of the United States is tired of being shouted at and patronized.
Faced with a field of 17 candidates including governors, senators, and experienced statesmen, Republican voters chose the loudest middle finger to such elites they could find.
Subsequently the American people affirmed that choice despite the apocalyptic messages Hollywood put out about that man.
If these individuals actually wanted to understand those they have shown such disdain for, something that would assist their industry’s bottom line as well, some soul searching would have been undertaken after the election.
Instead, we get the perpetual Fukushima-level meltdown we’ve witnessed since Nov. 8.
We get efforts to abolish the Electoral College. We get tears on prime-time broadcasts.
We get canceled college classes. We get safety pins. God, the safety pins.
In short, we get the message that average Americans are just too stupid or bigoted to make the correct choice. Ignorance or hatred are the only possible explanations for why Americans might disagree with Matt Damon.
This is the most denigrating part of all. Ordinary Americans are not even given the respect of one who made a rational political choice someone else disagreed with.
They are just bigots to be scoffed and scorned.
People who identify themselves as right-wing are tired of the name calling that the people like Streep have perpetuated.
If the left wants to win again, this needs to end.
Certainly for the cohesion of the country it is not healthy or sustainable to have diametrically opposed segments of the population that refuse to engage one another in important civic matters.
zaochamb@umail.iu.edu
