There are celebrities who can analyze a political or social situation with a balanced view combining intelligence, factual information, and levity – Tim Allen, Tom Selleck, Kelsey Grammar, Alice Cooper, L.L. Cool J – the list goes on and on. Sadly, Jeff Daniels of Dumb and Dumber fame will not appear on this roster any time soon.
Jeff Daniels as Harry Dunne in Dumb and Dumber
As with most hard-left leaning celebrities who have the right to remain silent, Daniels does not have the ability and appears to channel his slow-witted character “Harry” whenever he is off script.
Appearing earlier this week on MSNBC, Daniels, who is playing the beloved fictional personality Atticus Finch in the stage version of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, went all in, comparing Trump supporters to the actors portraying the KKK on stage.
He then quoted a line from the play: “A mob is a place where people go to take a break from their conscience.” Which was the most coherent statement he made in his time allotment. Left to his own script, on the fly, Daniels simply babbled:
“That’s what I see when I look at Donald Trump’s rallies, that’s when I see the lies he’s spewing at these people, and people going, ‘I gotta believe in something,’ and he said he’d bring my manufacturing job back and she didn’t, and I’m all in. But at the end of the day, aside from ‘Yeah, I don’t want to pay taxes,’ it’s race. It’s race.”
MSNBC host Nicole Wallace simply beamed – not in awe, but apparently to disguise the complete and utter confusion of what the heck the man just blathered on about. To her credit, her eyes didn’t appear to glaze over until near the end of the segment.
Does anyone really care what Jeff Daniels has to say on the state of American politics? Are his words music to the ears of voters who now see the error or their ways in electing Donald Trump president over one of the most disingenuous and loathsome pantsuit-wearing candidates, Mrs. Clinton? He thinks so. He told a seemingly brain-numbed Wallace how he viewed his fellow Michiganders after Trump’s victory:
“I live in Michigan. After the election, I was surprised at some of the people. You know I said, ‘Could you believe this election?’ And they go, ‘Yeah, isn’t it great?’ And you’re going ‘Whoa.’ And my wife’s on Facebook and she goes, ‘We’ve got another Trumper.’ You know, you didn’t see it coming.”
Someone, please hand this man a script before the next cable show calls for a political analysis.
Do Today’s Celebs Make an Impact?
For the most part, a celebrity endorsement tends to affect the ego of the candidate – not so much the voting public. There are a few exceptions, one being Oprah, who is well spoken, wildly popular, and credited for getting a million voters off their keisters to cast their ballot for former President Barack Obama. But even Oprah’s endorsement in 2018 couldn’t move Stacey Abrams into the Georgia governor’s mansion. Pop star Beyoncé did not have fans running to the polls for Beto O’Rourke, and Rihanna’s support of former Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum (D) wasn’t enough to best his opponent.
Perhaps their lack of influence over the electorate it is attributable to the reality that Americans don’t care much for what actors and entertainers think. Shortly after the contentious 2018 midterms, Hill.TV and the HarrisX polling company surveyed likely voters and found that 60% of respondents were off-put and opposed to celebrity intervention, as “they polarize public opinion and distract from the important issues of the day.”
Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg said, “I’m not one of those people who says they [celebrities] should stay out [of politics]. I do think it’s not terribly helpful when the Hollywood elite come out and attack Trump. I think that it doesn’t help Democrats all that much.”
The greatest impact, it seems, is that the Democrats in Hollywood are quickly damaging their careers.
Jim Carrey (left) and Jeff Daniels (right) in the movie Dumb and Dumber
Kathy Griffin, a D-lister wannabe celebrity, found her career completely over when she posed for a photo with a prop representing the bloody severed head of the president. No one wants that level of crazy in their studio. And Johnny Depp, who hinted that an assassination was overdue, now finds his biggest acting job to be in a Virginia courthouse denying that he beat the dickens out of his ex-wife. At least he’s busy again.
But what about Jeff Daniels’ co-star in their most acclaimed movie, Dumb and Dumber, Jim Carrey? He appears, by most standards, to be completely off his rocker. His latest career path involves graphically depicting violent images of the president on canvas. Perhaps the two should once again team up, for the sequel: Two imbecilic best friends, Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) and Harry Dunne (Jeff Daniels), hit the open road, spewing unintelligible drivel about conservatives in an attempt to influence the support of the current and duly elected president of the United States.
As Daniels hysterically claimed, if Trump succeeds in 2020, “it could be the end of democracy.” But it could very well save the Republic.
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