Should we listen to the political opinions of famous elites? Many conservatives are inconsistent on the issue.
When Fox News commentator Laura Ingraham infamously said, “Shut up and dribble” to basketball legend Lebron James for criticizing President Trump, she claimed she wasn’t interested in taking political advice from “someone who gets paid $100 million a year to bounce a ball.”
Is this an accurate representation of what conservative America feels about celebrities sharing their views? For some it is; for many it is not. Certain pundits within the right-wing community seem to have inconsistencies with their own standards for who gets to speak, and who doesn’t.
For example, certain celebrities get a pass because they are conservative, even if they fall into the “Hollywood elite” category that every-day right-wingers seem to despise. James Woods, Kanye West, and Mario Lopez are amongst those who come to mind when thinking of celebrities who have expressed conservative views. They are all but worshipped by regular people and conservative pundits alike. This goes without saying, but Laura Ingraham did not tell Kanye to “shut up and rap.”
Are conservatives so desperate to have their views represented that they’d stunt their own beliefs to fawn over the one-in-a-blue-moon republican celebrity? It’s understandable if that’s the (faulty) reason. It is objectively true that most of Hollywood is die-hard liberal, often campaigning for and endorsing popular democratic candidates come election time. However, it is important to stay consistent with your standards, for public optics if for nothing else. Either you care about what famous people have to say about politics, or you don’t.
