For those who missed it, the Golden Globes happened last night. Jimmy Fallon hosted the event, opening the night with a monologue directed at lamenting the 2016 election and casting aspersions about the hell that awaits us come inauguration day.
Eventually someone will come up with more original material than patronizing regurgitated quips about the ignorant masses that succumbed to bigotry and voted against “reason” and “progress,” thus bringing about the end of the world as we know it, but alas, that day has not yet arrived.
However, I digress …
The highlight of the show, at least as demonstrated by the trending news this morning, was Meryl Streep’s acceptance speech after receiving her Lifetime Achievement Award. In her few moments on stage, Streep chose to use her allotted time to lambaste Donald Trump. She used the infamous moment on the campaign trail, when Trump allegedly mocked a disabled reporter, as the cornerstone of her speech, using it as a launching pad to make a thinly-veiled attack on the GOP, and the horrors sure to come in the next four years.
Blatant mockery of a man’s disability, if that was indeed what happened, would undoubtedly be one of the most revolting examples of a truly terrible election season, one which revealed the vilest traits and tendencies of each candidate. Meryl, from her throne as reigning queen of the American film industry, was right to revile the dehumanization of the disabled. Such an affront on human dignity should be condemned in the most unforgiving terms.
But for some reason, she stopped here in her crusade for the defense of the vulnerable. She forgot to mention the genocide being waged against America’s disabled children in the womb.
Somehow, the heartbreaking statistic that the vast majority of children diagnosed with Downs Syndrome are aborted — to say nothing of the unborn children aborted due to other diagnoses, slipped Meryl’s mind in that moment. And indeed, she also forgot that detail in her past odes to the “empowered” Democratic Party and its candidates, whose platform is largely built upon the slogan “reproductive rights.”
“When the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose,” Streep affirmed to wild applause from the assembled A-list crowd.
Meryl, I couldn’t agree more.
So I have no doubt she is as deeply horrified as I am by the treatment of the Little Sisters of the Poor by the current administration. The Little Sisters, a religious congregation that serves poor people in nursing homes, has been dragged through a costly and devastating court battle since the passing of the Affordable Care Act, because of President Barack Obama’s insistence that they disregard their religious beliefs and provide coverage for contraceptives and abortifacients.
In the final bullet point of her remarks, Streep gave a rousing call to protect journalists and the constitutional right of the free press. She even made mention to such rights being “enshrined” by our Founding Fathers.
Nailed it again, Meryl, you goddess of the silver screen you.
The Constitution is the foundation of our great nation, and any threat to it should be addressed with the utmost gravitas.
I can only imagine, therefore, how Meryl has been kept up at night by the Constitutional overreach of the past eight years.
Throughout his time in the Oval Office, Obama paid scant attention to the Constitution he swore to honor and uphold. When faced with a legislative branch that disagreed with him — one of those popularly elected checks and balances our founders were fond of — the Obama administration managed to force its agenda, whether regarding health care or immigration reform, via executive orders and legislative loopholes.
Freedom of religion, which is protected in that same First Amendment Meryl seemed so taken with last night, has taken a vicious beating under Obama and the identity politics of the Left. Small business owners have been forced to close their doors in the face of discrimination lawsuits. Their rights to religious liberty and freedom of conscience were mocked by the same bedazzled celebrities that cheered for Meryl last night.
Apparently some of the powerful are allowed to bully the weaker without garnering Hollywood’s collective wrath. And apparently sidestepping the Constitution is not so terrible, as long as it is done for the correct reasons.
Meryl Streep is one of the greatest actresses of our time, and no one watching her speech last night could doubt the sincerity with which she spoke. However, as the camera panned the room of celebrities, nodding and cheering her words, it was a moment of almost laughable delusion.
These men and women have used their cultural leverage to shove the liberal agenda into the homes of every American. And in November, the American people voted against them. They didn’t vote against minorities or the disabled. They voted against the celebrity endorsements for Clinton, which told them they were nothing better than “deplorables” if they deigned not to vote for the Democratic platform.
There was a lot of self-righteous tittering and emphatic nodding from America’s social royalty throughout the whole event, but a pitiable dearth of self-awareness.
Kelly Thomas received her B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and her M.A. in Terrorism, Security and Society from the War Studies Department at King’s College London, exploring the intersection of religious expression in the public square and the fight against terrorism. Contact Kelly at [email protected]
