Posted on 12/05/2004 11:45:21 PM PST by nickcarraway
The man at the Christmas tree tent in Malibu kept winking at me and nodding when no one else was looking. I smiled and kept looking at the trees. (In Malibu, we Jews have Christmas trees.) Finally, he motioned to me to come over to is table. He cupped his hand over his mouth and took my hand. "We won," he said. "We won."
I knew exactly what he meant. "You can talk about it," I said. "This is America."
"Yes, but it's also Malibu and I don't want people yelling at me."
A few minutes later, I was grabbing a shopping cart at How's Market in the Trancas section of Malibu when a sweet faced middle aged woman approached me carefully. Then she saw a young couple nearby and turned away. Moments later, she ran into me at the egg cooler, looked around to make sure there was no one looking or listening and said. "I love what you say about politics on TV. You're so brave. I'm on your side. There are some of us here but we keep our mouths shut."
"You don't need to," I said. "The election's over. We won."
"Yes, but it's not over out here. Can you believe they just had Michael Moore at the new Malibu bookstore and they've never invited you and how long have you been out here?"
"Twenty-four years off and on," I said.
"Well, anyway, when I see you and I smile at you, you'll know what it's all about. Go Bush," she whispered and headed for the fresh fish.
Earlier in the day when I had been doing some looping at a studio on Radford Drive in Studio City for a movie in which I have a part ("Son of the Mask" if you must know ), a man on a forklift came by and winked at me. "Keep giving 'em hell," he said softly. "There are more of us here than you think. Bush rules."
This is the way it is here. We meet in smoky places. We give the high sign, we nod knowingly. We are like members of the Maquis in Occupied France. Or early Christians emerging from the catacombs in Caligula's Rome. We are the GOP in Hollywood, and on the West Side of L.A. The culture here is so dominantly left-wing, PC, vegan, hate-America that many of us feel we have to behave as if we were underground.
At a self-help meeting where men and women confess to drug use, betrayals, thefts, homicides with cars, at a break, a woman stealthily came up to me last Saturday and motioned me into a corner outside the room in Malibu. "I want to tell you there are some of us who agree with you. We have to keep it quiet because we want to get our kids into the right schools, but we're there. We're there. And there are more of us every day." Then she scuttled off into the night. Slamming crack can be spoken of with a smile, but not voting GOP. That could be dangerous.
But it's changing.
At an intersection on Sunset Strip, in West Hollywood, a young man in a truck, wearing two earrings and closely cropped hair, gave me the V for victory sign as I walked by him. "We're here," he said. "You can't tell, but we're here. Keep up the talk for Bush."
Some idea of just why people whisper comes from another encounter this week among a group of Hollywood types in a hip night spot. I was saying how much I love my self program. "I'm a Republican, but I learn from Democrats," I said. "I'm a Jew, but I learn from Gentiles. I'm sort of famous but the meetings are where I feel safe."
"Hmmm," said a man who had recently been the star of a sitcom but who had seen his whole life crumble under the weight of some truly horrific family violence. "Republican Jew. Republican Jew. Republican Jew who's famous. Who lives in Beverly Hills. Republican Jew who has more stuff than I have. I don't like it."
"It's a free country," I shrugged.
"Maybe," he said. "Maybe."
This is one of the worst little recent examples of how people here feel about Republicans (and Republican Jews, who simply blow their brains out, to use an old hippie phrase ). But rants, screaming about how we're trying to control women's bodies, draft their sons out of their BMW's and send them to war, scowls and frowns at Morton's, hysterical calls from the network when I appeared on TV backing Right to Life -- these are real. Feeling like outsiders, feeling as if we're going to get our cars keyed if we have Bush stickers on them, getting trash thrown on our yard for having up a Bush sign -- these are real. Getting denied screenplay credits because I worked for Nixon, those are totally real.
Yet, we're here, meeting in smoky places, greeting and giving the secret sign in the fog out by Zuma Beach, more of us every day. And in the words of the Civil Rights song I used to sing when I marched for voting rights in Cambridge, Maryland, "We are not afraid. Deep in my heart, I do believe, we shall overcome some day." Even in Los Angeles, even in Malibu, even in Hollywood. Tremble, Barbra, tremble. We are right outside your gates, with our truth. We are not afraid and we shall overcome.
bump for later comments
At the same time our military is courageously taking the fight to America's enemies abroad these Americans on the Left Coast are cowering before our leftist enemies here at home. Shameful! They are scared to be yelled at? You gotta be kidding me! Let the Truth be your sword! If now is not the time to fight back, when?
Thanks for posting this! I adore Ben Stein.
Good guess, but Barretta wasn't a sitcom.
If you read carefully, it seems clear that whoever this is, they did not like Ben Stein, did not like Jewish Republicans, did not like a rich (richer than himself, he said) Jewish Republican who lives in Beverly Hills, and pretty much made threatening noises at Ben for saying to him that this is a free country. The guy said, "Maybe.....maybe."
The Bill Cosby guess does not seem to fit this character. (Miss M)
As for Blake...true, he wasn't in a sitcom, but isn't he also in jail? Stein was talking to the guy face to face. Am I missing something? The guesses seem to overlook some key aspect, every time.
Not that I have a guess...for one thing, I don't watch sitcoms.
Sure am glad all these people in CA voted for Bush, though, because it gave him a lot more heft in his popular vote total.
"Hollywood probably has more closet conservatives than closet homosexuals." - Charlton Heston
I thought he had a brother or sister that was murdered .. and then there was that kooky women he was once married to.
I agree .. I don't think it's him though ...
Thanks for the ping!
No president deserves to have an aircraft carrier named after him more than George H. W. Bush. He is the only former president who was also a naval aviator.
*LOL*
I guarantee you that Bush received a lot more votes in places like Bushwick, East New York, Sunset Park and Ridgewood this year, than he did when he first ran for president, four years ago.
"I thought he had a brother or sister that was murdered..."
You are quite right, if one reads about Grammer's early life it is pretty horrific. I forget the details, but I think he lost more than one family member in violent ways, one person at least was murdered, another may have died in a fire.
But those things happened a long time ago, the way it is written it sounds like the violence came after the sitcom, but that could be unclear. It also says the person's life was destroyed, which Grammer's wasnt, nor Woody Harrelson's either, whom I thought of, who's dad's doing life for murder.
The way the guy is quoted, maybe he is Jewish too. I find it hard to believe a non-Jewish person would focus on a Jewish person's religion like that.
It's also probably easier for a gay conservative to come out as a gay, than to come out as a conservative.
I bet that's right!!
Ben Stein rocks.
I think I heard that Robert Blake is out on bail, but I'm not sure.
I still don't think it's Blake because he hasn't been in anything recently, and certainly not a sitcom.
I could not think of who this is. Does anyone have a good guess? Possibly Drew Carey?
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