TNR Keeps Laying Eggs

First, Peter Beinart's attack on Michael Moore, and now this! David Callahan at TNR is still focused on the Gore agenda, and wants the Democratic Party to go after Hollywood and its shoddy values. He defends the concept of an attack on Tinseltown:

Filmmaker Michael Moore recently warned that it would be a mistake for the party to pull away from Hollywood, saying that "this is where they need to come to learn how to tell a story" and that America "likes to vote for Hollywood." Moore may be right on the first point. On the second, he should know better. The perceived elitism of the Democratic Party is now its number-one liability and ties to Hollywood play right into that perception, which is why Bush had such a field day with Kerry's "heart and soul" gaffe. What's the Matter With Kansas author Thomas Frank got it right when he wrote last July that "Hollywood stars are as close as America comes to an aristocracy, and being instructed on how to be kinder and better people by pseudo-rebellious aristocrats can't help but rub people the wrong way."

Callahan is wrong. Even though Hollywood stars make average Americans itch, so do other sorts of millionaires. Gore's attacks on Hollywood did not make him appear to be more of an average guy - quite the opposite, in fact. Limousine liberals like Gore and Kerry are hobbled from the outset from successfully carrying out distracting, demagogic attacks on other limousine liberals in Hollywood. Like Michael Moore, Arnold Schwarzenegger has a better sense of how to do these things: he NEVER attacks Hollywood. Neither should the Democrats! Intra-party fighting should be kept to a minimum. The number-one liability of the Democrats isn't its perceived elitism: the lack of policy ideas and craven deference to Republicans are the main enemies.