Singer-turned foreign policy analyst Barbara Streisand, supposedly quoting Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, commented at a Democratic Party fundraiser last Sunday, “Beware of the leader who bangs the drum of war in order to whip the citizenry into a patriotic fervor, for patriotism is indeed a double-edged sword. It both emboldens the blood, just as it narrows the mind.” The only problem with Streisand’s statement is that nowhere in any work of Shakespeare will you find those words. Streisand later cited an e-mail that she received as the source of her gaffe. (What, Streisand isn’t a Shakespearean scholar, either?)
The fact that Streisand misquotes Shakespeare bothers me very little. Rather, the credence that the Democratic Party and (up until these remarks) the media give her and those like her on political matters displays shameful distaste for substantive politics.
Conservatives are not immune to this trap. I stand behind everything that the National Rifle Association espouses. Seriously, though, is Charlton Heston the best we can do?
Idiotic actors and actresses, however, are tolerable. The true problem is that the cult of celebrity has crept into the ranks of professional news commentary. Ann Coulter, despite her law degree and intellectual capacity, has made her career not on reasoned analysis of the news but rather on two simple character traits: She is at once attractive and obnoxious. She may find many admirers among those who agree with her, but I doubt that she will ever convince anyone with her acerbic and accusatory tone. Coulter’s tirades are just commodity to be mass consumed. By attempting to hide behind a veil of intellect, Coulter makes herself even worse than Streisand.
At the opposite end of this spectrum are those who admit that they are entertainers. Rush Limbaugh (of whom I am a big fan) makes no pretense at intellectualism. He simply “demonstrates absurdity by being absurd.”
Chris Matthews and Bill O’Reilly are respectable in this sense as well. While I think neither has ever admitted that he is basically a mere entertainer, one look at “Hardball” or “The O’Reilly Factor” will reveal that these two gentlemen probably realize their pseudo-seriousness and that people watch them basically to see politicians get beat up. Like Coulter, they exist for our consumption-but at least they seem to know it. As such, we take their commentary with a grain of salt.
Of course, everyone, including celebrities, has a right to express their opinions as freely as they would like. However, the public has a responsibility to critically judge the quality of both the “experts” and their arguments.
I am not convinced that we Americans do so. If we did, William Buckley would be far more famous than Limbaugh, Ann Coulter would be booted off the air and out of the newspaper and, quoting Shakespeare correctly, Streisand’s rant would be recognized as “a tale told by an idiot.”
Smith Lilley is a senior political science major.