When Liberals Attack! The Matt Damon "Bourne Stupidity" Edition

Matt Damon is not a genius, he just played one in a movie. Like many movie stars, Damon often gives his opinion on subjects he isn't qualified to speak on. Most of the time people don't care, because they like Matt Damon. He made his career playing characters that appeal to the average joe.

During the 2008 presidential election, however, Damon sounded like your run-of-the-mill elitist and sexist male chauvinist pig when he decided to attack Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin. While he is entitled, as is anyone else, to their own opinions, it's amazing how mean-spirited and petty his attacks were (see YouTube video below).

His rationale for why Palin was not qualified is not only stupefyingly juvenile, it could easily be used against his own choice for President, Barack Obama. He mocked Palin for only being a mayor of a small town and a governor for two years. Obama's public service has lasted about the same time, including only serving two years as a Senator. While each can claim their office brings certain unique leadership experience (executive experience as a Governor versus Washington "inside the beltway" insight as a Senator), it is safe to say that neither Obama nor Palin could claim an advantage or say the other was not qualified.

Damon complains that he doesn't know Palin and fears that "you do the actuarial tables...McCain doesn't make it through his first term, and it's President Palin." Even if you manage to overlook the blatant ageism in suggesting McCain can't live four more years, if he thinks "President Palin" is scary, I can do one better: "President Biden."

Damon suggests that it is "absurd" that a "folksy hockey mom" could face off against Russian President Putin. When critics wrote off Hillary Clinton as unqualified to run for the Senate because her experience was limited to being married to a President, they were labeled as sexist. Damon's criticism ratchets up the sexism, by reducing a sitting governor to "hockey mom" status (as if that is a bad thing).

While Damon may be correct that Palin's "folksy" manner and accent doesn't match up well to Obama's silky, rehearsed rhetoric, he should remember that intelligence cannot be measured in one's speech patterns or demeanor. If such things bother him, he should ask Hillary Clinton what happened to her "standin' by my man" Arkansas accent, or what happened to his own annoying New England accent.

Not only is there a total lack of respect for Palin's accomplishments as a woman, he chooses to belittle and mischaracterize her ideals like only a good liberal can. "I need to know if she thinks dinosaurs were here 4,000 years ago, because she's going to have the nuclear codes," he argues, as if believers in Intelligent Design are just itching to bomb the world into oblivion. Palin, like most I.D.ers, do not contend such an idea and would agree such a time frame is impossible. Damon also suggests that she tried to ban books. Both assertions, with no basis in fact, were liberal talking points used to portray Palin as a radical. We all know, to an extent, it was successful. Mission accomplished, Matt!  

His most well-known insult of the interview is the characterization of Palin's candidacy as some sort of "bad Disney movie." Damon knows, when the facts are hard to argue, sound bites work so much better.  If Damon needs a reference for a "bad Disney movie," perhaps he should look at his own work in animated Disney wannabees: "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron" and "Titan A.E.," both of which meet the definition of torture under the Obama Administration.

Perhaps Damon learned his politics from his childhood next door neighbor Howard Zinn, revisionist history author of "A People's History of the United States." Damon has been involved with several film projects based on Zinn's works, which have earned widespread criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. For people like Zinn, the truth is flexible.

Perhaps Damon is qualified to speak on such matters. After all, how many other people can say they are Harvard dropouts and pretend to be other people for a living?

Perhaps the reason why most people don't care what actors think about politics is because we don't take such an elitist attitude. People realize that leadership does not come with college degrees. It is not automatic with a long resume or lots of experience (Congress has taught us that). Some leaders are not traditional politicians like Damon seems to prefer. They were blue collar workers, soldiers, and parents. Lech Walesa was an electrician who became president of Poland and won the Nobel Peace Prize. Martin Luther King Jr. was a pastor with a dream. Who is Matt Damon to say a former hockey mom who ran a town (I'm sorry, Matt, a REALLY SMALL town) and a state can't be a leader? Perhaps Damon should spend more time recognizing the potential in women and those not as fortunate as he is.