Hollywood Binge, Main Street Cringe

Barack Obama went to Hollywood last weekend and raised $11 million dollars. This should not be a surprise because every four years the entertainment community ponies up big dollars for the nominee of the Democrat party. In 2004, Barbra Streisand headlined a fundraiser for John Kerry, and Kerry was as far away from Hollywood glitz as you can get.

John McCain gave the typical Republican response of separating Hollywood from the rest of the continental United States. Although I am a registered Republican, I have to ask McCain a very simple question: From where did all of these “Hollywood elites” come? For the most part, these people come from small town USA.

The biographical histories of the people we see on our television sets, in concert halls, and in the movies embody Republican ideals and they come from small towns and neighborhoods all across our country. Don’t we try to sell the idea of individual hard work, sacrifice and perseverance to make a success of our lives? Take the story of Barbra Streisand, the favorite target of conservatives. Ms. Streisand grew up in Brooklyn and was the daughter of a camp counselor father and a secretary mother, hardly what one would call an elite upbringing. Her father died when she was fifteen, and her mother told her not to pursue a singing career. After high school, Streisand worked in odd venues in New York and in Winnipeg for two years before catching her first break.

The Hollywood connection from Youngstown, OH, where John McCain was speaking on Tuesday, includes the Warner Brothers, “Harry Potter” director Chris Columbus, singer Maureen McGovern, and actor Ed O’Neill. Ed O’Neill’s career included stints as a high school teacher, a bus boy, and a steelworker. His hard work to achieve success is an example of thousands of people who work in the entertainment industry. O’Neill, like Streisand and Oprah Winfrey (Kosciusko, MS), donate significant resources to their hometowns through their foundations. We welcome them home by giving them the key to the city or naming them honorary marshals of the Fourth of July parade.

These small town success stories are real-life expressions of the American Dream. I thought we are supposed to celebrate hard work and success. Oh, I get it…only if the “elite” gives money to your campaign.