Hollywood Liberlism Has Reached Southern Rural America

9-27-2004

And so it is.

Hollywood Liberlism has reached Southern rural America. On Saturday, September 25, 2004, one of the mightiest, if not the mightiest Hollywood Liberal came to Richmond County, North Carolina. Political Activist and Hollywood icon Martin Sheen graced a local Lions Club to help raise campaign funds for two local Democrats.

Congressional District 8, which is currently being held by Republican Robin Hayes, is one of the gerrymandered districts designed specifically to be a Democrat district, but Congressman Hayes has been able to reach across community boundaries, philosophically, racially, and ideologically to have successfully held the seat for several years.

Since North Carolina has once again drawn new borders through re-districting, the legislature made District 8 even more Democrat populated. Given the new possibilty that a Democrat could unseat the popular Congressman Hayes, Beth Troutman ended her stint as a Hollywood actress, came back to her "home" and was selected as the Democrat who would try and defeat Congressman Hayes.

Her "role" as an actress was on the television show the West Wing where she worked with actor Martin Sheen and ultimately led him to accept her invitation to come to the fund raiser for her and the Democrat running against the current Republican North Carolina Labor Commissioner, Cherie Berry.

Of course, the editorial staff of the local newspaper were beside themselves with glee that Mr. Sheen was coming to the county and saw nothing subjective in their spirited endorcement of his arrival during this hotly contested election season. They even produced two front page stories and an editorial praising his highness and all his Hollywood Liberal glory saying the 'president' was coming to town.

In the article that covered the actual event, they described this extremely leftist, anti-war, anti-capitalist Liberal simply as a, "tireless activist for social and environmental causes." Right, and Saddam Hussein was just a 'bad guy'.

The way I see it... and I'm not a campaign manager for any of the Republican candidates running for office from North Carolina, but I sure hope they are taking notice of this event... Republicans have just been given an early Christmas gift all wrapped with a pretty red bow.

You see, if this were Los Angeles or New York City or Miami, there wouldn't be story. It would be just another day during campaign 2004. But we are in the heart of the Conservative South, where even the Democrats own two or more guns and Senator Zell Miller is still considered a political icon.

Every election year I talk with Conservative Democrats who oftentimes vote Republican, but remain Democrats and I ask them why do they continue to vote for Democrats when in fact they don't support the national Democrat strategy. They almost always say that they have always been Democrats, many of the local offices are held by Democrats and those local leaders don't follow the national Democrat party line.

Until now.

Now, all Congressman Hayes or Labor Commissioner Berry has to do is show the Conservative Democrat voting electorate that Liberal Democrats have now infiltrated their once untainted society. No longer can they just sit back and assert that 'those Hollywood Liberals are someone else's problem', because as they say on the farm, 'the chickens have come home to roost'.

The Hayes and Berry campaign ads should knock this softball out of the park... Local Democrats seem to think that working middle-class Southern families need to have the support of Hollywood Liberals to succeed. They want to promote the idea that school, church, work, and home are no longer the foundations for raising a family in the South anymore. Instead, local Democrat leaders now believe the ideology of Hollywood Liberals will create a more suitable environment for their families than Southern Conservatism. Well, that's not what- insert candidate name here- stands for. He/She still believes in the Southern values that have always represented North Carolina's working families and he/she will continue to fight for those values. Your vote for him/her will support Southern tradition, unlike the Hollywood Liberal ideals of his/her opponent.

There is a reason Erskine Bowles never invited Gore or Clinton to campaign for him here and there is a reason why John Edwards was going to lose his Senate seat... they are too Liberal. And in most of the country, but especially the South, being a Hollywood Liberal is even worse.

Today these Democrats are 'rolling out the red carpet' and dancing in the street, but tomorrow several Republicans will be unwrapping their Christmas gifts... a shiny new softball.

Play Ball!

Lee P Butler