Like Reagan did? Clint Eastwood? Arnold Schwarzenegger? Fred Thompson? Sonny Bono? Fred Grandy?

:)

Fair enough, but Fred Thompson was a lawyer before he was an actor, so he doesn't necessarily count. As to Grandy, I think he went to Harvard or someplace similar, right? To be honest, if I was alive when Reagan grew to power within the party in the 60s and 70s, or when Grandy was campaigning for Congress, I probably would have had the same issues.

My main point is that it annoys me when members of Hollywood try to become part of the debate (whether Democrat, Republican, or otherwise). It's part of their right as citizens to speak their mind, but it still bugs the heck out of me.

Plus there's the simple issue of all of the dudes noted save Reagan pretty much sucking.

Jesse ventura?

Yeah, there's that too.

LOL, I avoided outright nutballs because it would only hurt the point (plus, he ran and won as a 3rd party candidate).

And as to the others "sucking", the congressional members were all reelected several times, so their constituents must have thought they did something right. And I'm sure it didn't escape your attention that they were all from the GOP.

It didn't - although I'm not sure where in my comment I made it a point to say that I was annoyed at celebrities advocating for Democrats. I made a blanket statement, and intended it as such - it annoys me no matter their party affiliation.

Fair enough! It still struck me as interesting, though...

Should farmers stick to farming, construction workers stick to construction, and au pairs stick to watching kids? What about being an actor speaks to you as unqualified for political discourse?

If you'll read my follow-up post, I said that it simply annoys me when they (and notice I said celebrities, not just actors) do it. No matter the political affiliation, I've found that, many times, their statements tend to be misinformed, and yet they're trying to act as a voice of the people.

Because of their public persona, when they make those statements, they tend to get plastered everywhere. At a certain point, I get sick of reading them, and it annoys me, whether it's Tom Selleck talking up family values, or John Cusack doing ads for MoveOn.

It's nothing more, nothing less. I have nothing against people having opinions, and I have nothing against actors. People have the right to speak up and speak out, to share their views on the government and how things are run. Everyone gets annoyed at certain things, and I'm simply saying that my annoyance happens to be celebrities playing politics.

It also seems like you're trying to play the "elitist" card with me - if you are, that's fine, but considering my parents are a construction worker and former middle school teacher, the label doesn't fit.

ETA: I was going to mention Curt Schilling as being annoying too, but then people would just say that's because I'm a Yankees fan...

I'm guessing most farmers, au pairs, and construction workers don't have tens/hundreds of millions of dollars that they can use at their disposal to speak out on their political beliefs and act like their words are somehow more important than "normal" people in our country....like they will actually make a difference.

I think that is what KSigKid is trying to say....and it looks like everyone here has missed the point.

I fell the same way. It irritates the shit out of me when you see a bunch of movie stars talking about politics on a national level. Nobody cares what you think....make movies. Like how a couple weeks ago Susan Sarandon made a public announcement that she would move out of the United States if Obama wasn't elected. This was news that was actually reported on bigger media outlets.

Thank you - some days I fear law school has taken away my ability to communicate clearly.

I wasn't trying to play any card, and I read all of your posts. I was trying to find out the reason why it annoys you. In one of your posts you seemed to be saying that actors who were highly educated didn't "count", so it seemed that some basis for your annoyance was their presumed lack of formal education. If it is not, then those statements are confusing. If your annoyance is only that celebrities' statements are everywhere, it might be better directed at celebrity-obsessed culture than at celebrities for saying something.

I don't want to totally hijack the thread, although I may have already done so, so I'll just say this: TexasWSP pretty much summed up my feelings.

In my previous post, I had differentiated Fred Thompson because he had a career in law and politics before he became a professional actor; I tend to think of him as a lawyer/politician who acts, rather than an actor dabbling in politics. I did mention about Grandy's education, but in the next sentence, I noted that if I were a voter when he were running, I would have had most likely had the same issue.

I'm sure there are other similar exceptions such as Thompson, but I just can't think of them right now.

It has (and will) - luckily, that's why I have a job.

Seriously, this isn't rocket science - a celebrity abusing his/her privilege to soapbox on an issue they may or may not be more qualified to speak on than any other retard isn't something we should exalt.

Additionally, using the fact that people were elected multiple times as proof of success is nominally nuts as well - we've proven almost by dictum and mandate that the electoral process is not an efficient market, haven't we?