Celebrity Twitter: Without Exception, the Beautiful People Are ‘For the People’

With the contentious Presidential election behind us, the issue of voting rights and voter suppression remains prominent in public discourse. Hollywood seems to be following this trend. The Democrat-controlled Congress is seeking to pass H.R.1 “For the People Act of 2021”, and its supporters claim the bill protects voters’ rights and expands voter accessibility. While its fate remains doubtful after Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) came out in opposition to the bill, it’s not stopping the stars of Hollywood from expressing their opinion on the matter.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, these celebrities’ opinions are uniformly in support of passing H.R.1. These glamorous citizens have even created a hashtag campaign “#CallOutYourSenators” in order to garner support. This campaign seeks to pressure senators into signing the bill, particularly Joe Manchin (D-WV), Kristen Sinema (D-AZ), Tim Scott (R-SC) and Rob Portman (R-OH). Do these celebrities, so quick to advise others, even understand the bill being put forth? Have they looked at the voter data, particularly in their own county, before jumping on the bandwagon?

While this piece of legislation is close to 1,000 pages in length (the only way bureaucrats know how to write bills in D.C.), there are a few points in particular that deserve special public scrutiny. Namely, Ballot harvesting, federal overreach of state’s rights and the continued expansion of universal mail-in ballots without proper chain-of-custody protections.

While it claims to enshrine voter integrity on the Federal level, those opposed to H.R.1 believe it actually ensures just the opposite. Ask almost any Republican in Congress or the Senate, and they are vociferously against this bill becoming law. Particularly, the controversial nature of “ballot harvesting”, which allows partisan advocates to not only collect and drop off ballots, but help citizens fill them out before they’re cast. This practice is currently legal in California although many want it removed. Those in opposition point to the potential for voter fraud and voter manipulation.

Universal mail-in voting will continue to be controversial as well, especially in California. Why? Many people in Los Angeles County took to social media last fall to show that they received multiple ballots, ballots of people who no longer lived at the address and in some cases, ballots for people who had died. A lot of these people were immediately suspended for showing proof of this. Former US Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, was suspended for 3 days in October for posting a picture of his neighbors receiving ballots for their dead parents. Accounts of lesser-known people were similarly suspended for posting screenshots of Grenell’s tweet.

Not one celebrity has dared to even mention Los Angeles’ notoriously troubled voter rolls, how out of date they are and when the last time they were audited and cleaned up. This does not even begin to cover the fact that over 100% of eligible voters are on the rolls in Los Angeles county, a mathematical impossibility.

Meanwhile, Kerry Washington’s twitter has been a non-stop H.R.1 support group as she conveniently neglects the weightier aspects of how this law will codify the problems currently ravaging the Los Angeles electorate. I asked Ms. Washington’s publicist: “In what ways are people’s ability to vote ‘under attack’ and does she have any evidence to support her view?” My request has been ignored. It may be easy for a Black actress to invoke racial undertones to push a political agenda, but apparently much more difficult to defend the position itself.

West Virginia, continue to #CallOutYourSenators. Especially @JoeManchinWV. And in the meantime…everybody can join @mslatoshabrown and @blackvotersmtr for the Freedom Ride for Voting Rights!!!!!! https://t.co/B4enQdDxmX

— kerry washington (@kerrywashington) June 8, 2021

According to the Los Angeles Almanac, the 2020 election saw the largest percentage of eligible voters in Los Angeles county cast a ballot with a whopping 70.8%. This was the only time in the last 30 years that eligible voter turnout was above the 58%, reached during President Obama’s first election in 2008. Similar trends can also be seen throughout the country. In addition to Washington, Leonardo Di Caprio, Amy Schumer and Debra Messing, among many others, seem incapable of telling their substantial followings who exactly is suffering from voter suppression.

It’s not just Washington who took to Twitter, but also America’s Heartbreaker, Mariah Carey. She too also invoked racial language in her public support of H.R.1. She tweeted, “No matter our color, party or zip code, our voices and our vote counts.” This begs the question, “What votes aren’t being counted”? And furthermore, what does race have to do with this? The country saw the largest overall turnout of minority voters both by percentage and overall vote count in 2020. The only demographic that saw a decrease in overall eligible voter turnout compared to the 2008 election was the African American community. Few seem comfortable pointing out that that may be because both Presidential candidates were white septuagenarians and the Vice Presidential candidate on the Democrat ticket, although a woman of color, was still unpopular among all demographics.

Clearly, Hollywood is in dire need of diversity — diversity of thought. A bill that is opposed by more than half the US Senate seemingly cannot find a single opponent in all of Hollywood. That reveals just how out of step the culture creators are with the actual culture.

Celebrities march in lockstep with the mainstream media and D.C. Democrats. The story often falls along this arc: A bill is proposed, the news provides a rosy picture of the legislation and then Hollywood promotes it to the masses while invoking images of fear and victimization. With H.R.1, it’s race. With the “Equality Act”, its orientation and gender identity. None of them seem willing to have a nuanced conversation regarding the practical outcomes of these legislative undertakings. This makes them activists and their opinions suspect at best. This should surprise no one though. As Hollywood increasingly loses its ability to entertain (look no further than the abysmal ratings of the Oscars and Emmys this past year), they are instead resorting to indoctrination of their fandom.