On Tuesday, The Washington Post published a nifty little trend piece on rich Hollywood socialites and their newfound political games. Writer Michelle Ye Hee Lee discussed how flipping the House -- as in the U.S. House of Representatives, not the mansion up for grabs in Jennifer Aniston’s latest divorce -- “has blossomed into Hollywood’s nerdy new hobby.”
Though, don’t get caught up in the classic impression that these are just clueless coastal elites. These individuals believe they have an excellent strategy in ripping Washington, D.C. from Republican fingers. All it takes are a few well placed million dollar donations to a few out-of-state, progressive politicians, encouraged by swanky wine dinners in their Malibu beach communities.
Donna Bojarsky, political consultant to the stars (if you will,) told Washington Post that “Flipping the house has become a major, major pastime in Hollywood,” adding that “People are handicapping races … There’s the constant sharing of political updates, much more than there ever was before.”
Lee mentioned Bill Chais, CBS co-executive producer of the TV drama, Bull, and host of one of these SoCal political get-togethers. Chais claimed that he has become “maniacal” in his political motivations, hoping to do everything possible to flip the House in 2018. Lee noted that many other Hollywood elites have jumped on this congressional campaign bandwagon as well. She stated:
Hollywood’s fervor for this year’s midterm elections rivals that of recent presidential campaigns, according to Democratic donors and strategists in the Los Angeles area who say the energy is driven by a belief that a Democratic-controlled House can serve as a powerful check on President Trump.
This enthusiasm is no surprise considering how vocal progressive celebrities have been in their dissent. Now it seems, they’ve really begun to put their money where their mouths have been. People in the Los Angeles metro area have already donated “$2.4 million to House candidate committees so far this election, with the vast majority going to support democrats.”
Apparently, this is the most money given to democratic house candidates by California elites since 2008, and “it’s nearly $1 million more than they gave for the 2016 elections.”
On the surface, this might sound like a welcome addition to Democrat efforts, however Lee wrote that many, even their Democratic allies, warn of this particular strategy as doing more harm than good to the party as a whole.
She claimed that some strategists “privately worry that the money is being splintered between individual candidates and ‘resistance’ groups rather than the major party committees and PACs, limiting their ability to combat well-funded GOP groups.” To reinforce this claim, Lee cited the fact that only $300,000 has been donated to the DNC, as compared to the $1 million given in 2014.
Many still support the DNC, but in the wake of establishment Dems’ failure in 2016, many more have decided to give to more progressive, or socialist “anti-Trump” resistance groups, such as Indivisible and Swing Left.
Jessie Hunt, spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, stated that Hollywood’s increased political role, which seeks to go further left “only magnifies how little this cycle’s House Democratic candidates have in common with mainstream voters who will determine the House majority.”
Maybe we should calm down on insinuating that lefty hollyweirdos are “out of touch.” Letting them believe they are involved and doing a good job just might end up working out for everyone involved, well everyone except democrats.
