Why conservatives foolishly embraced Roseanne

Put not your trust in Hollywood princes, conservatives

Roseanne Barr.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

Let's face it — we on the right have a pop-culture inferiority complex. The left has a bounty of A-list celebrities who will endorse liberals' entire agenda and even campaign for their candidates, giving them the patina of The Cool Kids from high school. The right, meanwhile, spends much of its time opposing and rebutting the political activism of Hollywood, but part of that argument includes calls for parity in representation. When we get that, or even get a hint of that kind of celebrity embrace, many on the right will rush to put that celebrity on a pedestal.

Thus we had Roseanne Barr, star of her eponymous television series for ABC, feted as a spokesperson for the silent majority outside of the Hollywood-New-York-D.C. bubble despite a long history of attacking much of what the right believes. Thanks to her portrayal of her Roseanne character as a full-MAGA supporter of President Trump, Barr became an icon for the populist right, someone who forced Hollywood to confront its biases against working-class America. And it worked ... right up until the moment Barr had an epic meltdown on social media and got her show canceled.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Edward Morrissey

Edward Morrissey has been writing about politics since 2003 in his blog, Captain's Quarters, and now writes for HotAir.com. His columns have appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Post, The New York Sun, the Washington Times, and other newspapers. Morrissey has a daily Internet talk show on politics and culture at Hot Air. Since 2004, Morrissey has had a weekend talk radio show in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and often fills in as a guest on Salem Radio Network's nationally-syndicated shows. He lives in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota with his wife, son and daughter-in-law, and his two granddaughters. Morrissey's new book, GOING RED, will be published by Crown Forum on April 5, 2016.