Matthew McConaughey’s appearance at the podium of the White House Press Room was quite impressive. The actor, who is a native of Uvalde, Texas, delivered a moving plea for action on the epidemic of mass shootings. He spoke from the heart, without virtue signaling or finger pointing, and if he was vague at times McConaughey did put forward one or two practical ideas, such as raising the age for legal purchase of rifles from 18 to 21. That’s something I’m prepared to support.
But I doubt that partisans on either side really heard what he was saying. In particular, his White House host, the Biden Administration, has demonstrated zero interest in practical measures that can reduce mass shootings and gun violence generally. Biden & Co. are in thrall to the progressive Left and its anti-Second Amendment extremism—a reality made clear by the President’s repeated calls for an outright ban on “assault weapons,” which would do precisely nothing to reduce gun violence.
McConaughey’s White House visit was just the latest in the seemingly unending series of celebrity interventions beloved of Democrats, albeit a refreshing departure from the norm in its tone. The shrieking harpies of The View are rather more representative of the technique, most recently with the ludicrous Whoopi Goldberg leering into the camera and squealing that yes, she’s coming for your AR-15s, America!
The advent of social media has made celebrity culture practically ubiquitous, though without enhancing the credibility of celebrities on issues of public policy. In those blessed days of yore, celebrities concentrated on their actual careers. We seldom heard about their political opinions and they didn’t really think we needed to. But oh boy, today we know all about Barbra Streisand’s ideological obsessions, and Emma Watson’s, and George Clooney’s, etc. Making due allowance for the difference between their philanthropic activities and their politics, it’s fair to say that not always but most of the time these rich, entitled celebs are promoting progressive causes.
They don’t really move the political needle, though. All politics is local stands as a truism because it’s so obviously true. Most people have more important things on their minds than Lady GaGa’s views on fracking. Democrats may have a lock on big-name celebrity endorsements—but with inflation out of control and the cost of a gallon of gas touching $5.00, they’re doomed anyway.
Having said all that, I do hope that Matthew McConaughey’s intervention turns out to have some mitigating effect on an argument in which as ever the two sides are simply shouting past one another.
In other showbiz news, House Democrats are gearing up for their “blockbuster” January 6 TV extravaganza, billed as a stunning expose of ultra-MAGA’s existential threat to “our democracy.” To maximize its impact they’ve even hired a former ABC-TV executive to produce it for them.
Big wow.
Out in the real world, the political impact of the January 6 riot is already baked into the political cake. And if the Dems think that a prime time multimedia presentation will change anything in that regard, they’re just kidding themselves. One way or another, people have made up their minds about Donald Trump and the 2020 election. Anyhow, there’s no shortage of election truthers and tramplers of norms in Democratic ranks. For instance there’s Stacey Abrams, the self-proclaimed Rightful Governor of Georgia. Also there’s Rep. Adam Schiff of New York, who assured us over and over that he was in possession of ironclad proof that Donald Trump was a Russian mole. (We’re still waiting on that evidence, sir.) Then too there’s #ShutdownDC, a radical left-wing group that’s planning to prevent an overturn of Roe v. Wade by preventing the Supreme Court from convening. Gee, I wonder if the Dems will investigate that act of insurrection if it occurs.
Oh, and that ABC-TV producer? His name is James Goldston, and when ABC landed the Jeffrey Epstein story, a blockbuster scoop if ever there was one, he’s the guy who spiked it.
Right from the start, the January 6 Committee appeared as a partisan stunt, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi vetoing the Republicans’ nominees to sit on it. Thereupon the House GOP leadership refused to cooperate at all and only two renegade Republicans, Rep. Liz Cheney and Rep. Adam Kinzinger agreed to serve. Right about now they’re probably coming to regret that decision.
Political theater can be effective when the star knows what he’s doing, as during the presidency of Ronald Reagan. But the January 6 Committee has no star, no dramatic center—no real credibility when all is said and done. Like a prospect of a row of extinct volcanoes, we see the same old familiar, haggard faces of our disreputable political class, grasping for some momentary electoral advantage. Perhaps the two Republican members of the committee can be exempted from that criticism; theirs was the mistake of assuming that their Democratic counterparts were acting in good faith.
I will concede that in the beginning I rather admired Liz Cheney, whose stand struck me as courageous because so obviously fatal in political terms. She was right to say that Donald Trump bears a large share of the responsibility for the outrageous assault on the Capitol, such that he rendered himself unfit for the presidency. But the Democrats stabbed her in that back by turning the investigation into a partisan charade, as she should have known they would.
Tomorrow’s televised hearings are best regarded as a Hail, Mary play by the Democrats, designed to distract attention from the multiple catastrophes that have befallen America since Joe Biden entered the Oval Office. Break a leg, boys and girls, break a leg…