Racial fears behind anti-war silence

"Foreign policy is not about protecting a president." ~ El Rushbo

Like many, many others, have you also been wondering what happened to all those Bush-era anti-war celebrities? Well, the HollywoodReporter dug up a few of the founding fossils of the anti-war movement in Hollywood to see why all the silence, and what they reveal just reinforces why so many on both sides of the aisle aren't opposing this president (echoes what Rush discussed last week, as well as today)...

NewsBuster: Radical-left actor Ed Asner was blunt with Paul Bond of The Hollywood Reporter about how celebrities won’t be mobilizing against military actions launched by Barack Obama: "A lot of people don't want to feel anti-black by being opposed to Obama," he said.

So once again, it's all about Obama...not about Syria or the people of Syria or foreign policy in general. Just Obama.

And as mentioned previously, to reflect on what Rush said last week, he reiterated today...

RUSH: "Bingo again. It's the same reason the Republicans are not standing up and stopping this or opposing it. Nobody wants to be seen as anti-black, and so opposing Obama is not seen as opposing Obama. It is racism. It is perceived as being against black people. Because of the nature of this nation's past in terms of slavery, whenever a black person reaches a position of power we've got to relax all the standards.

It's because of the soft bigotry of low expectation, because of all the sympathy, because we feel so bad for what happened that they can't do anything wrong. We're not gonna permit that. It would just be so unfair. It'd be so unfair, the first black president to get there and be subject to criticism? It's not fair! It's not fair! We got a long way to go before we level the playing field on what happened in the days of slavery.

So even the most virulent anti-war protesters in Hollywood are afraid to speak up, because even more important to them than their anti-war position is their position on race -- and don't doubt that for a minute. The civil rights movement is why Hollywood is liberal. Eighty percent of it, minimum. Maybe 90%. Do not doubt me. The civil rights movement, the marches in the sixties, all of that is exactly why Hollywood's liberal on everything else.

When you throw in the first African-American president, you shut 'em up on anything else that they disagreed with. Not even Ed Asner and Mike Farrell or anybody else out there wants to even get close to being thought of as anti-black. That's more important to them than anything else. They could sit by and watch Obama launch a massive attack and not say anything, because to be critical of it is to be anti-black. That's practically a quote from Asner himself, and he wasn't just talking about himself."

Folks, this is cowardice. Despite the fear, and irregardless of whether the man is polka-dotted, any policy, domestic or foreign should be about the substance of that policy and the people it affects, not about protecting the one who puts it forth. Content, not color.

Related link: Solving the Mystery of the Missing Anti-War Celebrities