Celebrities In Politics

h/t Dennis Perrin

One of the Republican's favorite rants these days, is about celebrities speaking out about politics. They believe that celebrities shouldn't be allowed to speak about politics, unless they are speaking on behalf of Republican causes.

For instance, radio celebrities like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity, all agree that celebrities should not use the media to promote political viewpoints, that they disagree with. Their favorite targets are Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins and lately, Sally Field.

Recently, I was talking to another musician about this and he argued that musicians should be allowed to write political material. I asked him what he would've done about Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger or Bob Dylan. He pointed out that the public expects these people to be writing political material so that's ok. He went on to argue that Sean Penn should use his resources to promote politics. I asked, don't you expect that of Sean Penn. He didn't have an answer, so I went on explaining that I thought that every American should have the right to free speech. He said yes he agreed that all Americans should have the right to free speech, but celebrities shouldn't be liberals and shouldn't be allowed to promote political views.


Here's a very famous liberal giving a speech promoting a Democratic candidate. Does the Republican Party wish that this celebrity had never become involved in politics?