BLUEANON BLAME GAME! ‘Scapegoat’ George Clooney to ‘Step Back from Politics.’
“George Clooney feels he is being used as a ‘scapegoat’ in the furious blame game over who could have cost Kamala Harris the election – and will now take a step back from politics,” reports the Daily Mail.
Clooney “threw his support behind Harris after penning a blistering op-ed on why Joe Biden would cost the Democrats the win if he didn’t abandon his campaign,” the report continues, adding, “but it still wasn’t enough to prevent a historic victory for Donald Trump.”
“Clooney has since been criticized by Democrats for his influence during the election, with some claiming Harris’ loss was his fault.”
To be fair, it could have been far worse, according to former Obama speechwriter Jon Favreau: Biden’s internal polling had Trump winning 400 electoral votes, ex-Obama official claims: ‘Catastrophic mistake.’
To be fair, Ed Morrissey files Favreau’s statement as “Too Fun to Check.” “[C]olor me very skeptical on this claim, at least until Favreau produces the data. Team Kamala has begun spinning like a top to blame Biden for the loss in order to preserve her potential as a candidate down the road, and this looks like a political myth in the making. ”
Meanwhile, Variety, when not being obsessed with getting Ezra Miller’s pronouns correct, is big mad at everyone in flyover country! Stop Blaming ‘Celebrity Endorsements’ for Kamala Harris’ Loss: We Need to Hear From Artists Now More Than Ever.
In the end, it’s not just about newbie registrations or political conversions — it’s about inspiration for the already committed, too, and salve. Those who already knew who they were going to vote for don’t cherish the memory of hearing Isbell sing “Hope the High Road,” Springsteen do “Land of Hope and Dreams” or Gaga perform “God Bless America” any less for the electoral loss. And in the wake of the national defeat, there’s a sense of feeling less alone and ready to move forward even in some of the tweets that have gone out. Watching Eilish dedicate “Your Power” to disheartened women the night after the election is re-heartening. Even having Bette Midler tweet out a lengthy, trenchant H.L. Mencken quote — basically, as gallows humor — can feel a little healing, even if it’s a big Hollywood celebrity and not your personal BFF sending it through.
Whether it has any effect or not, everyone has to answer the question for themslves, if not their children: “What did you do in the war, daddy?” Imagine feeling — as Bruce Springsteen did — that “Donald Trump is the most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime,” and then stifling that because of what the New York Post or the twits on Elon Musk’s platform might write.
I agree! In fact, going forward, the left should take inspiration from this 2016 Onion headline:
