Celebrities are mostly left-wingers. The statement is boringly obvious to any mildly intelligent person. But we still have to say it because the celebrities themselves don’t seem to know it. Indeed, the high-profile personalities of our entertainment industry seem to think of themselves as possessors of wisdom and truth rather than as adherents of any distinct political outlook.
This thought occurred to us when we read the late-night talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel’s remarks to the New York Times on October 17. In September, Kimmel used his nightly monologues to censure Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) for introducing legislation that would substantially change the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The eponymous star of ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! had already exhibited some interest in the subject of medical care in May, when he tearfully denounced Republican attempts to repeal and replace Obamacare. Kimmel argued that newborns like his son Billy, who had a heart condition, could be denied health insurance if Congress repealed the ACA’s guarantees.
When Kimmel returned to the topic in September, reporters at the Daily Beast quoted anonymous sources claiming that he had been in touch with, among others, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), the Senate minority leader. That led commentators on Fox News and elsewhere to ridicule the late night star for regurgitating Democratic talking points.
The Times’s Dave Itzkoff asked Kimmel if in fact he conferred with the Democratic leader before his monologues on the Graham-Cassidy bill. His answer?
Like many a celebrity before him, Kimmel seems genuinely unaware that there are two sides to the debate; he seems to think the fight is between those who want people to have health insurance and those who don’t. And he is prickly about the accusation that Democrats on Capitol Hill were “pulling [his] strings.” What we appreciated, though, was the openness with which he admitted (a) that he “didn’t know anything about health care” and (b) that he contacted Chuck Schumer to figure out what he should say.
It’s not very often that you encounter that kind of candor among celebrities fancying themselves political savants. If only Michael Moore had admitted that he knew nothing about guns when he produced Bowling for Columbine. If only Bruce Springsteen and George Clooney would admit, even to themselves, that their liberalism has mainly to do with attitude and style and bears little relationship to any distinct set of policies.
In another sense, though, Kimmel’s candid admission is a reminder of just how infantile our political culture has become. The debate over health care in America isn’t a real debate, which would be a contest between two overarching views of how citizens can create a fair and affordable health-care market. Instead our “debate” is dominated by know-nothing pop-culture icons who sway their audiences with weepy emotional appeals and ludicrous diatribes in the near-total absence of knowledge or argument.
Not that Republicans have much room to complain. There is a know-nothing pop culture icon who has far more sway over our political culture than Jimmy Kimmel—and he is not a Democrat.
