Stephen Explains It All To "Clarissa"

Dear Melissa Joan Hart:

I’m sorry to have to be the one to break this to you but, contrary to your delusions on the subject, you are not a “victim” of political hate.

You are an actress possessing, at best, a mediocre ability to act and, somehow, you’ve managed to parlay that into phenomenal success on not one, but two television series, in both of which you were probably the least convincing performer.  I’m sorry but, when I watched “Sabrina the Teenage Witch” with my stepchildren, I watched it for the aunts and Salem, the cat.  As far as I was concerned, without them, there was no show.  And I suspect I’m not the only one who felt that way.

This, combined with your ability to parlay that success into other projects in which the limits of your talents were even more exposed, is probably far more, professionally and financially, than many performers of equal or greater ability will ever achieve in their entire lifetimes.  Apparently, that’s not enough.  You also want all of us to believe that, based on some nasty Tweets that you received when you declared your support for Mitt Romney in last year’s presidential election, that you are a political martyr deserving of an unending amount of sympathy and support from your fellow Americans.

Bollocks.

I, for one, am sick and tired of hearing from performers with conservative views about how their careers have been sabotaged by their “coming out” in favor of Republican office-seekers.  Where is the evidence of this?  Where is the record of anyone being driven out of show business in this country because he or she supported Republican or conservative causes?  Where is the record of them being, like their liberal counterparts in the Red-baiting 1950s, driven to flee the country or commit suicide because of political views that fell far short of Communism, but were nevertheless deemed “suspicious” to the political paranoids of the time?

There is no such record, because it hasn’t and won’t happen.  Today’s Hollywood doesn’t give a damn about politics; all it cares about is money.  If you show you can make that, you could support Attila the Hun and still clean up on Oscar night.  In fact, Hollywood was much more caring about politics back in the days when the studios (run by very conservative men, I might add) controlled the business.  When Upton Sinclair ran for governor of California, he had no more ferocious opponent than these men, who threatened to move to other state if he won.

Tell me, Ms. Hart, have you been subjected to that level of opposition?  I didn’t think so.  People have the right to send nasty Tweets, just as you have the right to support Governor Romney or any other Republican.  I’m sure it won’t stop you from making more mediocre television, or making more money off of it.  Please feel free to do so.  And please remember how lucky you are to have a career in the first place.  You will probably end up with more of a career than a lot of more talented, deserving liberal friends of mine will ever have.

Sincerely,

Stephen Rourke (@TheRhinosHorn)