Left-leaning Hollywood: A myth dies

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/recall/cl-et-rutten23aug23,1,7801362.column

If Arnold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign does nothing else, it ought to excise the mythology of liberal Hollywood from our popular consciousness once and for all.

The notion that Hollywood marches in ideological lock step — left foot always forward — has long been useful to publicity-seeking congressmen, right-wing culture warriors and moralists-on-the-make from the Legion of Decency to the Traditional Values Coalition. In fact, there was a time, not so very long ago, when the mere mention of Jane Fonda's name was so remunerative to conservative fund-raisers' direct mail campaigns that they should have put her on retainer.

Like so much in politics, it all works very nicely — until you consider the record:

Schwarzenegger is traversing a well-marked path from entertainment celebrity to elective office, and all who have preceded him have been Republicans, foremost among them Ronald Reagan. Age and Constitution permitting, he probably could have been elected to a third presidential term. There's former U.S. Sen. George Murphy and the late Rep. Sonny Bono, who came to politics through song and dance. Clint Eastwood was probably America's most famous small-town mayor.

The last time a certified Hollywood liberal had a real shot at elective office it was 1950, when one-time actress Helen Gahagan Douglas — whose husband was actor Melvyn Douglas — ran as the Democratic candidate for one of California's U.S. Senate seats. She, of course, was defeated in a bruising campaign by a young Orange County congressman named Richard M. Nixon.

Its just that liberal hollywood gets marginalized and told to shut up cause no one wants to hear the opinon of movie stars in political matters, then they turn around and choose a right wing movie star to run for office.

gave so much flak to Tim Robbins, Jenneane Garafalo, etc, to the point of nearly calling the traitors, mocking them for being an actor attempting to take on policy, and then they turn around and run one of the most moronic actors ever as a candidate. There's just no logic to it. :crazy: