Inside the Beltway: Conservatives: Build your own Hollywood

NEWS AND OPINION:

So are they actors, activists, anarchists? It doesn’t much matter at this point. Plenty of West Coast famous folks have dropped F-bombs and spoken out against President Trump, his administration and Republican voters in recent days.

Now comes some good advice from one Hollywood veteran. Roger L. Simon — an Academy Award-nominated screenwriter, novelist, blogger and co-founder of PJ Media — says the curtain should close on such antics and attitudes. A finale is in order, with conservatives leading the way.

“Trump Derangement Syndrome in Tinseltown is simply around the bend and back and around the bend again — and again,” writes Mr. Simon.

“It’s time for conservatives and what Townhall.com columnist Kurt Schlichter calls the ’Normals’ to have an entertainment industry of their own. Hollywood has effectively divorced conservatives (and the Normals). And after a divorce, as they say, living well is the best revenge. The question is how.”

Mr. Simon points out that conservative financiers prefer funding think tanks to the arty world. But then there is reality.

“The truth is, one good movie or television series is worth more than a hundred, or even a thousand, position papers when it comes to moving society,” Mr. Simon observes.

“What is needed here by investors on the right is a little guts for a change. It shouldn’t be so hard, but somehow it is — or has been. It’s obviously true that film, theatre, and publishing are risky investments, but the center-to-right audience is huge. Plenty of ’proof of concept’ exists with films like ’The Blind Side,’ ’Lone Survivor,’ and ’American Sniper’ — just some examples of box office smashes that fit that profile,” he advises.

“It’s also obvious that mistakes will be made in forming companies like this — plenty of them. The lack of financial help has created a dearth of center or right talent. But all this can be corrected with effort, time and a bit of luck. As the Zen Buddhists say, ’You can’t get there by trying. But you won’t get there if you don’t try.’”

Mr. Simon’s newest novel “The Goat,” by the way, was just published.

HOLLYWOOD’S QUIET CONSERVATIVES

“I think you would be surprised at the amount of conservatives in Hollywood,” comedian Michael Loftus tells Fox News, citing “Grey’s Anatomy” star Isaiah Washington, who vexed the locals after deciding to leave the Democratic Party.

“People like Isaiah need to come forward. There are normal people out there. We just don’t think big government is the solution. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t make us evil,” Mr. Loftus said.

Liberal Hollywood activists are tough, though.

“They’re trying to peel away Trump supporters, and make you feel like you’re a weirdo if you lean to the right. ’There is something that must be wrong with you.’ ’How can you be this evil?’ ’You’re a Nazi.’ It’s horrifying. So good people need to stand up,” Mr. Loftus advised.

A LESSON FROM THE ROAD

Some observers offer evidence that America is not necessarily the land of racial turmoil that certain politicians and news organizations claim it to be.

“All you have to do is take a road trip to find out America isn’t racist. As I traveled across America this summer, I found something that would surprise many in the media. I found a lot of racial harmony,” writes David Marcus, the New York correspondent for The Federalist.

He drove from Brooklyn to Arkansas, then on to California.

“Everywhere I went, in the bars and restaurants I haunted along the way, was a level of racial harmony that belies the notion of our nation as a hotbed of racism. The people I met along the way, and there were a lot of them, were white, black, brown, Asian, and Native American, and they weren’t self-segregated within the establishments I found. Much the opposite: they were mixing, mingling, laughing, and drinking together without even a hint of racial tension,” Mr. Marcus continues.

“What becomes clear very quickly is that for Americans who do not choose to center their sense of self on their demographic identities, a whole host of other interests and qualities animate their social behavior. Whether they were college football fans in a Barstow hotel bar, truckers sitting out front of a Greenville, Illinois, motel smoking and sharing beer and tales from the road, or more upscale denizens of a fancy Tulsa wine bar sniffing and swishing a new rose, nobody seemed to care much about skin color,” the columnist says.

“None of this is to say that racism is dead in our society; of course it is not,” he notes. “As far as America has to go to live up to the promise of equality for all, it is wrongheaded and even dangerous not to celebrate how far our country, as diverse as it can be, has come.”

SO MUCH FOR CLIMATE CHANGE TV

Viewers were not particularly thrilled with CNN’s recent seven-hour town hall on climate change, which featured 10 Democratic presidential hopefuls. Fox News aced the entire evening with its normal programming alone, according to Nielsen ratings — and in a big way.

During the lengthy evening time slot, Fox News garnered 2.5 million viewers, while CNN drew 1.1 million, or less than half that number. Even liberal MSNBC did better than CNN, tallying 1.6 million. When all the climate talk was done, CNN ranked third in overall viewers for the seven-hour stretch.

In the prime-time hours, Fox News also dominated the airwaves with 3.2 million viewers — a percentage advantage in the triple digits over CNN’s 1.3 million viewers and a double-digit advantage over MSNBC, which garnered 2.1 million.

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POLL DU JOUR

• 29% of Americans are “unsure” of President Trump’s ideology; 8% of Republicans, 38% of independents and 34% of Democrats agree.

• 50% overall say Mr. Trump is conservative; 68% of Republicans, 37% of independents and 49% of Democrats agree.

• 14% overall say is “moderate”; 18% of Republicans, 16% of independents and 7% of Democrats agree.

• 8% overall say Mr. Trump is “liberal”; 6% of Republicans, 7% of independents and 9% of Democrats agree.

Source: An Economist/YouGov poll of 1,500 U.S. adults conducted Sept. 1-3.

• Helpful information to jharper@washingtontimes.com