Sharon Stone and Alec Baldwin unleash on Americans

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“Ignorant”, “arrogant”, “without passport or culture”. This week, actors Alec Baldwin and Sharon Stone unleashed themselves on American citizens to explain Donald Trump’s victory. Every four years, celebrities emerge from their bunkers nestled in Hollywood to test their influence and political skill. This is not only patronizing, but counterproductive.

“Are Americans stupid?” This question has tortured European political scientists, campaign teams, media, writers and PMU bar counters for decades. The American has always obsessed the rest of the world. This world which nevertheless uses what it invents, which speaks its language to be universally understood and which waits for its reaction before moving an eyelash.

This obsession keeps the American permanently immersed in reassuring clichés. Namely, he eats shit, drinks sodium, jerks his gun, sleeps in his SUV, brushes his teeth with peanut butter, votes with his feet, and can’t even point to Finland on a map. (As if we could point to Paraguay or Wisconsin without being mistaken, but that’s another story.)

In short: an easy target.

Hollywood has more or less the same idea of ​​these red necks without gray matter who would not have realized to what extent Donald Trump is a danger for their own future. This week, within hours of each other, two Democratic actors unleashed themselves on American citizens to explain the victory of the populist billionaire. Guests of the Turin Film Festival, Sharon Stone and Alec Baldwin took advantage of being thousands of kilometers from the United States to venture into political analyses.

In essence, this is what it looks like:

Even if half of Americans actually have a passport (sorry Sharon), the question is not whether their analyzes are relevant. The problem is that we never needed Hollywood science to know that deep inequalities reduce access to education to an obstacle course. That once far from large urban centers, you have to get up early to find work, an available doctor, a bus that doesn’t squeak, an open counter.

Sharon and Alec could have vented about the institutions, the state of the administration and the policies in place, but that requires a bit more skill and time than treating the average citizen like an imbecile in front of European microphones.

What a strange condescension to take advantage of a free round trip on a private jet and an Italian palace to yell at the American blue-collar worker who doesn’t set foot on a plane. The reflex of the two millionaires also resembles Joe Biden’s reaction, when he lost his nerve by treating Donald Trump’s voters as “floating trash”.

In other words, the intended targets live precisely where the democratic word resonates the least. Where the left-wing elite no longer manages to convince. Where Celebrities Don’t Own Property: Key States. In his first post-defeat interview, Wednesday evening, the boss of Kamala Harris’ campaign spoke with his eyes wide open:

Will simply calling the American ignorant help the Democratic kingpins reassure their base? There is room for doubt. Of course, celebrities are not robots and barricading themselves in the Hollywood hills does not stop them from wanting to bring their strawberries to everything and its opposite. Their loud exclamations must still serve the interest of their party and the future of the country.

If the weight of the stars’ support for Democratic candidates is difficult to measure, the big glitter machine deployed by Kamala Harris did not make her win. Taylor Swift and Beyoncé may have a pool of groupies that gives them a certain influence, but their lifestyle and career will never have any impact on the quality of life of the Americans they will never meet.

This week, by lecturing the Americans without dwelling on the consequences, Alec Baldwin and Sharon Stone, despite their good will, have only given fodder to the far right and widened the gap between party and its electorate. If the Democrats want to make themselves understood by 2028, they would do well to brief (gag?) those who support them.

As the brilliant Ricky Gervais said four years ago, tackling this Hollywood scourge with cruel humor:

Immerse body and soul in the American presidential election