Because of his leading role in NBC's presidential drama, "The West Wing," Martin Sheen could easily say to a confused person, "No, I'm not the president, but I play one on TV."
Thankfully for America, though, Sheen will most likely never be able to claim he is the real U.S. president. His arrogance, hypocrisy and loathing of his own country -- like most of Hollywood's liberal-minded elite -- is simply too un-American for Americans to endure.
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On Tuesday, the BBC published an interview with Sheen that paints the actor, in his own words, as little more than a bitter troll whose palpable disgust with his own country has its roots in George W. Bush's election victory.
As so many Hollywood whiners have done, Sheen resorted to a now-well worn description of Mr. Bush, insulting the former Texas governor's intelligence simply because it is an easy target -- not because there is a ring of truth to it.
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"Speaking to the Radio Times, Sheen … a prominent Democrat Party supporter, did not mince his words about the Republican president," said the BBC.
"George W Bush is like a bad comic working the crowd, a moron, if you'll pardon the expression," the British news agency quoted Sheen as saying.
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A "moron."
Yes, perhaps Mr. Bush doesn't have the polished "slickness" of a Clinton or Gore, but one could also say Mr. Bush lacks the ability to lie like a dog to the American people while sounding so sincere and looking people in the eye while doing it.
That kind of polished slickness is not an attribute worthy of a president, though Mr. Sheen's low class, white trash comment against Mr. Bush's alleged intelligence deficit indicates the actor at least thinks so.
By all means, Martin -- could you please travel abroad more often so you can say something insulting about the president of our great nation and embarrass yourself and every other American citizen at the same time? Bill Clinton and Al Gore didn't embarrass us enough; could you please heap more disgrace on the rest of us?
With Bill gone, we're going through "disgrace withdrawal."
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You know, maybe the U.S. is not really Martin's country anymore. Like so many other pampered Hollywoodites who said, before the election, that they'd leave if Bush won (none have, by the way), Sheen demonstrates a healthy disdain for a country that has treated him pretty damned well over the years.
In the BBC article, Sheen "went on to … criticize the U.S., saying 'Alcoholics Anonymous and jazz are the only original things of importance' it has exported to the rest of the world."
What can you say about such arrogance and disrespect? Though he'd never admit as much, Sheen's insults are really directed against all Americans, and they are magnified when you consider how good we have been to this ingrate.
Where were Sheen's complaints when Clinton was soiling his office? Funny, but I don't recall his complaining about America when he was out campaigning for Gore, or when Gore's boss was debasing his office with any willing woman or with any foreign campaign contributor.
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Maybe that's because one of Sheen's presidential "heroes" -- of the few he says he has -- is John F. Kennedy, whom Sheen played in a 1983 television movie.
Why Kennedy?
"These stories of [Kennedy's] womanizing that unraveled after his death made him more substantial and human to me," Sheen told the British press (my emphasis).
Oh. No wonder he likes Clinton; a president isn't "substantial" or "human" unless he's an adulterer.
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"We idealize our leaders, raise them up so we have the power to knock them down. The American psyche is oddball," Sheen blathered. "As soon as a man becomes president, suddenly there's no more original sin -- as if he isn't going to have a sex life."
Yikes.
Well, Martin, maybe we'd have cared a lot less if the sex Clinton was having was not on the presidential carpeting with a woman who was not his wife. Funny, many Americans are just moral like that. What a bother such morality is to the average Hollywood type. And patriotism.
As an American, Sheen has every right to speak his mind about politics, culture and President Bush. He even has the right to make an ass of himself in a foreign country if he chooses.
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But I've said it before -- if you who populate Hollywood are so resentful of this country, as many of you are, then please "act" on your frustrations and just go away. Few of us will miss you; maybe you'll be replaced by entertainment folk who are thankful for the gifts that are incumbent with notoriety in the richest nation on earth.
Americans in turn can voice their opinion of Mr. Sheen and the current prevailing Hollywood attitude by staying away from the theaters, turning the television off, and simply picking up a good book instead. Obviously, the treasures we have provided these people are not appreciated so we should stop providing them. Collectively, we have that power.
In contrast to Sheen's embarrassing diatribe, I personally was disappointed when Clinton was elected twice. Millions of my countrymen were.
But few of us thought so little of the American gift that we felt compelled to trash our country and our brethren publicly.
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That's the difference between real America and the surreal world of Hollywood, where the country's greatest gifts abound but almost no one realizes how damned lucky they are to be Americans in the first place.