The left has provided us with some head-scratching internecine debates, but this one from Hollywood -- involving progressive actresses Susan Sarandon and Debra Messing -- is the dumbest in quite some time.
Newsweek reported on Sept. 13 that Messing had launched a tweet offensive against Hollywood standard-bearer Sarandon, lambasting Sarandon for, in her words, “giv[ing] Trump CREDIT” for inspiring more women and minorities to run for political office. Messing embedded in one tweet a sample of an interview that Sarandon conducted with Variety.
STFU SUSAN. Oh yes, PLEASE let’s give Trump CREDIT. I mean how else are you able to walk out on the street. Convince yourself that that this CATASTROPHE of a President who you said was better that HRC IS NOT ripping children away from parents seeking asylum, holding children https://t.co/UuXLLdahaB
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) September 12, 2018
Judges who will support jerrymandering efforts, not to mention destroying ALL good will and allied relationships across the Globe. Oh, and lest you forget Syria, Crimea, and putting PRO-RUSSIA agenda BEFORE the United States best interests. YES, do go on
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) September 12, 2018
Trump. Only a self righteous, narcissist would continue to spout off and not - in the face of Americans’ pain and agony -be contrite and apologize for your part in this catastrophe. But, you do you Susan.
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) September 12, 2018
Making such an accusation of Sarandon seems downright odd considering she is a dedicated activist for left leaning causes. However, a quick watch of the discussion stifles any surprise. Sarandon’s offending interview contains her mulling over Trump’s accomplishments as president, where she claims that “what he’s done that is the most significant is that … unintentionally … he has energized” his political opposition in young people, people of color, and women. Later in the video she refers to the commander-in-chief as “bumbling” and extols Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders.
Plainly, Sarandon was mentioning the silver lining for the left in Trump’s presidency. She’s as far-left (or more so) as the rest of her industry. Perhaps Messing doesn’t get irony. “STFU SUSAN,” she tweeted, and “I mean how else are you able to walk out on the street.” On the other hand, Messing’s friendly fire might have been a clumsy response to Sarandon saying elsewhere in the interview: “I mean in all fairness to Trump, this stuff was all laid in place over the last twelve years. I mean this didn’t just suddenly happen.”
So great is the ideological intolerance in Hollywood that distinguishing Trump-as-symptom from Trump-as-cause is heresy. Hollywood’s left is short on ideas and civility, but it has anger to spare.
