Conservatives Have It Rough in Hollywood
Hollywood it is a dangerous place if you're a man of the right. For some local liberals, diversity of thought is a fine thing — as long as it doesn't include any conservatives.
Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers
Because California, and Hollywood in particular, have been the punch line for so many jokes over the years, I suspect that people who don’t live out here assume we can’t possibly be that wacky.
They don’t know the half of it.
In order for you to better understand with what conservatives in this neck of the woods have to deal, I’ll relate a few typical incidents. The first took place about 10 years ago. My wife and I were invited to a dinner party by the widow of a screenwriter who had been my longtime tennis partner. We were one of six couples which meant that, counting the hostess, there were 13 of us sitting around after dinner. I recall thinking at the time that this is how superstitions come to be perpetuated.
All the men in the group were in show business. As we were all either writers, directors or producers, it was probably inevitable that somebody would bring up Charlton Heston’s name, and in a negative manner. After all, at the time, Mr. Heston had just become the president and spokesman for the NRA, and was garnering a great deal of national attention.
Although I had never met Mr. Heston, we had exchanged a number of congenial letters. So when one of the guys at the party made an insulting remark about him, I naturally took umbrage. But knowing that my wife is always nervous about my ability to turn a minor skirmish into an all-out war, all I said in Heston’s defense was, “Well, whether or not you agree with him, you have to admit he’s got guts.”
The way the other guests reacted, you’d have thought I’d said something along the lines of, “For all his faults, you have to admit that Hitler dressed well and had good table manners.” They were simply outraged.
As I wanted to be certain I hadn’t been misunderstood, I added, “I’m not saying you have to agree with Heston’s point of view. All I’m saying is that, as a working actor, it takes a great deal of courage to be openly conservative in a town where most of the people in a position to hire him are obviously liberals.”
In the end, I could not get a single person, aside from my wife, to acknowledge that, whether or not you agreed with the man’s politics, you had to grant that he had the courage of his convictions.
That evening provided me with one of my more enlightening epiphanies. I had long been aware that left-wingers were on the wrong side of every issue I cared about, but dealing with those 11 weasels confirmed that they lacked even the modicum of honesty required to give a decent man his due.
The next incident took place quite recently. The WGA hosted a reunion lunch for all the “MASH” writers. There were two large tables filled with us old duffs. Over coffee, one of the fellows at my table announced that he had recently canceled his subscription to the L.A. Times. That grabbed my attention, and I said, “Really, Gene? I always thought you were a liberal.”
“What makes you think I’m not?”
“Well, I’m a conservative, so it would make sense for me to cancel that rag. But why did you?”
“Because the Times has gotten too damn conservative!”
Two interesting things then took place. First my jaw hit the floor. Next, the writer who had been seated between us for the entire lunch turned to glower at me, and said, “You’re really a conservative?”
As soon as I admitted I was, he got up and walked away so quickly, you might have thought I’d acknowledged being a leper. But his glower was nothing compared to the sneer I was getting from Gene. “How can you be a conservative?”
I wasn’t sure if what confused him the most was how I could possibly be a conservative if I was Jewish or a humorist or a former “MASH” writer or simply dare to be in his immediate proximity. But all I said was, “It’s easy. I think conservatives are right and liberals are wrong.”
“Wrong about what?”
“Well, Iraq, for one thing. I believe we were right to invade, to topple Saddam Hussein, and to stick around and make certain the bad guys don’t win. I’m sure even you wouldn’t want to see Al Qaeda using Iraqi oil revenue to fund worldwide terrorism.”
“And how long do you think we should stay there?”"As long as it takes. For crying out loud, we still have troops in Korea 55 years later. Heck, it’s been over 60 years since the end of World War II and we still maintain a military presence in Germany and Japan. What’s the big rush to get out of Iraq?”
“In case you haven’t noticed, we’ve lost 4,000 soldiers over there!”
“Nobody regrets that more than I do, but I’ll remind you that we used to lose that many in a single battle. The difference is that in those days, we didn’t have a bunch of people like you insisting that our soldiers had died for no good reason. The fact is, the men and women we conservatives call heroes, people like you and John Kerry call saps.”
With that, he pointed his finger in my face and announced, with eyes blazing and spittle flying in my direction, “You’re George Bush!”
“And you, Gene, are an idiot.”
“Don’t you dare call me an idiot! I didn’t call you names.”
“Of course you did. When you call me George Bush, we both know that’s your idea of the ultimate obscenity. Compared to that, calling you an idiot is almost a compliment.”
What made Gene’s outrage over my lack of decorum so amusing is that I knew something that he didn’t know I knew. Back in 2001, you see, shortly after the presidential inauguration, a friend of mine and his wife were invited to a Hollywood cocktail party. By the time they arrived, most of the other guests had gathered in the living room. As the two of them entered, one of the guests proudly announced, “Well, I, personally, don’t know a single a–hole who voted for George Bush.” At which point, my friend said, “Well, you do now.”
The fellow who felt entitled to make that public announcement in a room with ladies and maybe even a few conservatives present was none other than Gene.
Television writer Burt Prelutsky is the author of Conservatives Are From Mars, Liberals Are From San Francisco (101 Reasons Why I’m Happy I Left the Left).
| Comment |  Digg This |
 del.icio.us |
 |
 |
 PJM Home |
28 Comments
1. Xanthippe:I can easily relate - I’m reluctant to use a label (such as conservative) to describe my political bent, since I live in Santa Cruz, which could possibly be one of the few places even more liberal than Hollywood; also, although I am conservative on Iraq, I’m liberal on issues such as gay marriage and drug legalization, so I refuse to be put in a box.
It’s a given that simply everyone in this town is a liberal - and I’m not quite up to feeling vilified and ostracized (or worse, having my kids be singled out) by speaking up. The few times I have spoken up, I’ve noticed a real difference in how I’ve been treated afterward to the point where I’ve almost always regretted it.
It’s a sad commentary on the state of political discourse in America today.
Apr 19, 2008 - 7:14 am 2. Michael Canzano:Prelutsky , as did Heston has the courage of his convictions. I salute them both. To call a major player in the TV industry an “Idiot” to his face and have to explain to that “Idiot” it was a kind retort compared to him relating to you as the person he equates with Hitler and Satan was absolutely brilliant.
Apr 19, 2008 - 7:41 am 3. Todd:American Christian Infidel
Michael Canzano
Xanthippe - it sounds like you are a libertarian (small “l”) like myself. Solidly in the Republican camp, but more in the Goldwater model of fiscally conservative and socially more liberal. The way I like to put it - personal freedom from government interference in, and individual responsibility for, every level of our lives.
I can relate to being a fish out of water. I am an Ivy League educated, NY metro area born and raised Jew, yet I reject the idiocy of liberalism out of hand - and surprise most with my views. I just went back to law school at a very liberal school - but I proudly display my McCain 2008 button on my persona at all times. Thanks to the beauty of anonymous grading, I am able to stand up in class to defend Scalia and free markets. But it does get rather lonely at times, and the sheer ignorance of some of the liberals is frightening. Obama-mania is in full force all around me, yet when I ask them why - all they can say is hope or change like some brainless bobblehead doll…
Apr 19, 2008 - 8:25 am 4. Tim Furnish:Hollywood must be a lot like academia with bigger salaries.
Apr 19, 2008 - 8:29 am 5. uburoi:I live in Los Angeles and work professionally with artists and photographers; every dinner party my gal and I attend invariably descends into a genteel war, with about 10 couples lined up to take shots at me from all angles of the periphery. Frankly, I enjoy it, and look forward to stridently uttering the things that leftists read about people in red states believing in, but have never actually heard defended in their presence. It is the intellectual equivalent of an athlete running up the sand dunes; for keeping your mind fit and knowing your facts, it is the perfect exercise. Thankfully, my gal, who leans further to the left, isn’t embarrassed; so long as I’m able to forward my case with coherence and butress it with solid research, she seems to find the fireworks amusing. Afterward, her friends all huddle around and ask her some commiserating variant of: “What’s it like to live with a barbarian.” Today, I’ve got to put on my IDF tee-shirt and ready myself for the battle of Santa Monica.
Apr 19, 2008 - 9:18 am 6. Todd:uburoi - haha I do the same
In addition to an IDF T-shirt I proudly wear, I have one emblazoned with the image of Reagan and another with the anti-Che logo. I revel in the nasty looks I get.
Apr 19, 2008 - 9:54 am 7. Bill Bradley:There are idiots at both ends of the political spectrum. There is no question about that.
Incidentally, or more accurately, not incidentally, there is no more long-standing big-name liberal in Hollywood than Warren Beatty.
Warren was a friend of Charlton Heston. He’s a friend of Nancy Reagan, too, and has lunched monthly with her for many years. Cue sound effect of exploding heads.
Warren hired Charlton Heston. Who certainly didn’t lack for work.
Apr 19, 2008 - 9:56 am 8. A Conservative Inside the Left Coast | KyleSmithOnline.com:[...] Over at PJM, a writer tells what it’s like to be at a lefty Hollywood dinner party and say something along the lines of “Whatever you may think of Charlton Heston, you have to admit he had guts.” Outrage ensues. Read the whole thing. [...]
Apr 19, 2008 - 10:10 am 9. ex-democrat:the banal observation that idiots may be found throughout the political spectrum (or did you really mean just at the ends??) should not distract this particular thread from its focus on the peculiarly vindictive variety located among the Hollywood left. And the reason for its virulence is because it is ideology emanating from personal, narcissistic need, not from principle. when you challenge a hollywood leftie, you necessarily (in their mind) challenge their right to think highly of themselves with predictable results.
Apr 19, 2008 - 12:38 pm 10. John:The amazing things you learn from surfing the web … Burt, I remember your pieces for the L.A. Times West Magazine and, in particular, your piece on the Queen Mary’s final cruise. But for the web, I’d have never guessed that a Hollywood conservative has survived to tell the tale. All the best.
Apr 19, 2008 - 4:31 pm 11. BMoon:Don’t feel bad Burt. I was a libertarian in high school and college during the 70’s, arguing von Misies and Hayek in my economics class, reading Greenspan 10 years before anyone ever heard of him, mocking the Kennedys and the anti-war movement- 10 years before the Reagan Revolution. Life will arise from the slime, just as Jesus arose from the dead, and the banality too will soon pass.
Apr 19, 2008 - 10:04 pm 12. Doug:Dittos to ex-dem!
The Man who lived under the “L”
No sign of ahbez. So he went to the police.
“Sure we know him,” said one of the officers. A while back, ahbez had been stopped by a cop who figured from the shoulder-length hair – this was 1946, remember – that the guy was a nut who’d escaped from the asylum. ahbe told him calmly, “I look crazy, but I’m not. Other people don’t look crazy, but they are.” The officer chewed that one over and eventually replied, “You know, bud, you’re right. If anybody gives you any trouble, let me know.” When Mort Ruby made his enquiries, the police told him ahbez didn’t stay anywhere too long, but you might find him up on the hill under one of the ‘L’s in the ‘HOLLYWOOD’ sign.” So Ruby clambered up to the famous sign, and there under the first “L” he found eden ahbez asleep. When he woke up, the songwriter didn’t recognize Cole’s manager. He’d forgotten him completely.
By the time Mort Ruby had a deal on the song, Capitol Records had decided the lyric really was too far out. And that was that, until August 12th 1947, when, at the end of a recording session with a full orchestra and with a few minutes to spare, Cole suggested that they should try the ahbez number. In March 1948 Capitol issued the song “Lost April”, with “Nature Boy” as the B side. By now, there was a rumor in the music business that Nat Cole had one of the greatest songs ever up his sleeve. The first disc jockey to receive the record was Jerry Marshall at New York’s WNEW. He listened to “Lost April”, shrugged, and decided to play the flip side. On March 22nd 1948, at 2.16pm, on WNEW’s “Music Hall”, Marshall introduced the record with the words:
Here’s a winner - a song everybody is going to love.
By 2.20pm the phone calls were flooding into the station. Within a few weeks, while Nat and Maria Cole were on their honeymoon, the song was America’s Number One, a million-seller and a phenomenon. As The New York Age reported…
Apr 20, 2008 - 1:40 am 13. 2nd Asst to the Junior Trainee:TFF, Bert, you speak as though having idiots for friends was actually important to you. Any rational person would simply move to a red state, get a new career, and live happily ever after. Oh, wait a minute! They all have.
Apr 20, 2008 - 5:13 am 14. Eric Dondero:Perhaps our conservative friends should pose as “libertarians.” Liberals seem to be more accepting of libertarians, on occasion, cause of our sometimes quixotic viewpoints.
As a 25-year libertarian political activist, having served on the Libertarian National Committee, as a Top Aide in a Libertarian Party Presidential campaign, Founded the Republican Liberty Caucus, served as Congressman Ron Paul’s Senior Aide for 6 years, I am hereby giving permission to all my conservative friends to call yourselves “libertarians” on occasion, if you believe that will help you to get over in harshly Liberal environments like Hollywood.
Eric Dondero, Publisher
Apr 20, 2008 - 5:16 am 15. Gary Ogletree:Libertarian Republican blog
I began coming to my senses during the gov’t of my beloved New Democrats in BC (1999). I had been an active volunteer in Vancouver East. Yet the NDP proved to be far more corrupt than the free enterprisers, and far less able to deliver basic services. I had been “bamboozled.” This prompted an examinination of my precious assumptions in light of conflicting evidence. When I left that socialist paradise unemployment was 10% and I was broke. It was 4% in this capitalist nightmare, where I got a good paying job within a month. However, my friends and family still cling fervently to their democratic socialism. My ex, a NY Jewish multicultural priestess calls me hateful when I quote portions of the Koran that call for Jihad and the slaughter of Jews. Her Canadian friends share the same warm regard for the USA as Rev. Wright. My stepdaughter (biracial) is outraged that I said Martin Luther King had been a Republican. My stepson gave his son an Arabic name and thinks if you just say “Peace” often enough miracles will happen. And I’m an old hippie. I feel for you “real” conservatives.
Apr 20, 2008 - 7:15 am 16. Floridan:Great screenplay
Apr 20, 2008 - 7:57 am 17. Burt Prelutsky:Dear John–For a man your age, you have a terrific memory. I wrote the Queen Mary piece in 1969. Good lord, I must be older than I thought.
Regards, Burt Prelutsky
Apr 20, 2008 - 9:43 am 18. “You’re George Bush!” - DUC IN ALTUM:[...] funny little article on Pajamas Media about how much fun it is to be a Conservative in Hollywood… With that, he pointed his finger [...]
Apr 20, 2008 - 1:21 pm 19. Brad Clark:Oh god…where do I begin? Consider the following:
“Well, Iraq, for one thing. I believe we were right to invade, to topple Saddam Hussein, and to stick around and make certain the bad guys don’t win. I’m sure even you wouldn’t want to see Al Qaeda using Iraqi oil revenue to fund worldwide terrorism.”
The above quote is staggering in it misrepresentation. Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, but a secular tyrant. Fundamentalist groups like Al Qaeda were a threat to his authority and were brutally repressed. This is inherent in the Bath political ideology. Even the Bush administration was eventually forced to admit this. Did you mean to imply that Al Qaeda would replace Saddam Hussein? First, this would only be possible because of the invasion. Second, it implies that Al Qaeda would be able to co-opt the entire Bath political and security structure. This is again a glaring contradiction since it implies wholesale conversion of the Sunni from a secular to a fundamentalist ideology. Thirdly, what about the Shia majority and their allies in Iran? Do you honestly believe they would acquiesce to an Al Qaeda take-over in Iraq?
The invasion of Iraq has rescued Al Qaeda from oblivion and given them credibility they could never have achieved on their own. I am astonish that you could defend such a devastating error.
Apr 20, 2008 - 7:00 pm 20. Wake up Brad:Hey Brad,
There was enough evidence that Saddam was involved that a US court convicted him of liability in the attacks, and in collaboration with Al Qaeda. See http://www.husseinandterror.com.
Sincerely,
Apr 21, 2008 - 7:38 am 21. salvage:Wake Up Brad
You are deeply stupid.
Apr 21, 2008 - 7:55 am 22. Mar:I’m a moderate who used to believe in the stereotype that liberals were more tolerant until I moved to the DC area (perhaps not as liberal as Hollywood but in the running). The liberals I’ve met here are the most close-minded, intolerant people ever. I known more than a few who won’t associate with anyone who doesn’t share their political and social beliefs. Conservatives may be outspoken about their views, but I’ve never met one who won’t associate with people who think differently than they do.
Apr 21, 2008 - 4:10 pm 23. Ron:My brother-in-law and sister have lived in LA since the early 70’s. Our first conversation after me becoming a conservative ended with me being called a name too…’simpleton’. So I just had to call her a ‘moron’.
But the interesting thing was my nephew who went to a magnet type public school (they lived in Studio City). He was a part of a class wide audio visual project about the life of a female mexican artist (who had an accident on a streetcar and was impaled but lived) and her communist husband. That they were good. This is what kids learned in High School.
Apr 21, 2008 - 8:37 pm 24. Jewel finds voice for homeless youths:[...] … Because political conservatives working in showbiz are so rare, we always get a bit giddy when we read or hear anything about the subject. Last Sunday, for example, we were stoked when we saw an essay on the right-leaning PajamasMedia website titled “Conservatives Have It Rough in Hollywood.” [...]
Apr 23, 2008 - 2:30 am 25. Gozer the Carpathian:I too am a Californian. (I feel like we’re in an AA meeting.
) Though I’m from the EAST coast of California. (Look it up on a map, there is a river there. It counts. 
) In the deserts where I grew up it was okay to be Conservative. Heck, we barely considered ourselves Californians since California didn’t even want us. (Our High School played in the Nevada conferences. Fun to have all those Nevada Championships plaques in our gym. 
)
I moved down the road to Barstow here in the High Desert and you can deffinetly feel a cooling toward being a Conservative, but at least you’re not cast out because of it. (Since we’re all stuck here in the desert anyway I guess they figure that’s bad enough. :p ) So everything is fine right? Wrong.
See, I work for NASA, or more specifically JPL. They’re down in the heart of Liberal Land. Dealing with them can be bad enough because we don’t live down there (where the civilized folks live), but it turns into a frozen wonderland when they discover you’re a conservative. When there’s 8 hours of nothing to do but watch numbers scroll by on a screen you can end up with some pretty varied conversation topics. I’ve always managed to fight them tooth and nail on every topic that’s come up.
So much so, many of them won’t even show up to the site if they know they’ll be forced to work with me. Or request a different operator. I love it! >:)
Apr 23, 2008 - 10:31 pm 26. Mortimer:More anecdotes and commentary from a poor oppressed COnservative, spare me the self pity, I’ll trade places with you anyday! I also remember when the “Passion” came out and the right was busy trashing those dirty Hollywood Jews, I mean godless liberals, who were on the warpath against Christ as embodied in Mel Gibson and his impeccable recreation of of an anti-Semitic passion play. But when the same bigmouths forgot to mention all those relgious movies made in Hollywood or brushed aside Mel’s drunken confession, how many had the guts to stand up and say, “gee, maybe I was wrong.”
Apr 24, 2008 - 4:39 pm 27. Javelin:Now that Ben Stein made his Moore clone flick about Scientists who refused to accept something supernatural as an explanation, as they should, I’m sure you can get out your martyr crown and polish it a bit.
This kind of dreck is filler that right wing bloggers have been using since 9/11. “Oh gee, look at me, I am a victim of horrible Hollywood liberals, who won’t talk to me and call me a fascist”
This totally subjective screed is just red meat for the type of Con who has to express his moral superiority in terms of liberal ostracism. Like, there are plenty of good old fashioned reasons NOT to go to war with Iraq, like they were never a threat and we didn’t have to, or maybe we should have Congress, god forbid, declare war like it said on some piece of paper somewhere. Maligning your anti-war opponent as an elitists who thinks the troops are saps while you regard them as heroes is simplistic nonsense, sort of populist feel-good therapy. The cream of the Nazi and Imperial Japanese forces were heroic and capable too, which of course doesn’t reflect a whit on their ignoble cause and war. It seems you are just as anti-intellectual and kneejerk as your tormentors.
Apr 24, 2008 - 7:26 pm 28. Angelo Rombola:Well, gee, just because my conservative paranoia is showing doesn’t mean I’m not being hounded by liberals, does it? Or is this reality the real reality I really think it is, really?
Apr 26, 2008 - 11:40 pm