by Jackson T. Benbridge III
Have you turned on your radio or read your local paper and found statements such as this:
�After first supporting Howard Dean, Madonna now endorses John Kerry for President, saying that he�s the only one who can beat George W. Bush.�
�Brittany Spears doesn�t like the color of the ties that President Bush wears so she�s going to vote for John Kerry.�
�Sean Penn visits Baghdad to protest an unjust war.�
I have heard and read such statements and each time that I do I oscillate from being amused to being outraged. I am dumbfounded that our media sources and our society give credence to this segment of our population: the politically motivated celebrity. They're wealthy, flashy and completely out of touch with reality, henceforth what they say or do should not upset me or any other concerned citizens. However, it does bother me.
The problem lies in the American publics' dumb-witted belief that if you are a silicon-injected star of the big screen then you must be smarter then the rest of us. How "they" have become moral authorities in our culture is laughable. I can hear my detractors saying now, �Not everyone listens to what they say.� Really? I beg to differ. Thirty million people voted for the next �American Idol�. Thirty million! Can you imagine if thirty million people voted in the Presidential primaries? I believe that I am justified in writing that society pays more attention to Hollywood and the make-believe-world of reality television then politics and civic responsibility. Why this has taken place is an entirely different entity, which I will discuss at a later point in time.
If you're a Democrat and want a moral authority, turn to Howard Zinn and read a "People's History of the United States". Didn�t the Baldwin brothers state that if Bush got elected they'd leave the country? Why aren't you gone? Canada's a flight away. Need someplace warmer? I�ll pay the extra money to get you to Aruba. Actions not words gentlemen!
My point is simple: whether you are a Republican or Democrat, please do not let the politically motivated celebrity influence your decision this November.
The court jesters are entertaining and amusing but they shouldn�t run the castle.
-David