Larry David is the only comedian who can make Trump derangement syndrome funny.
In a 2020 episode of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” the anti-Trump, anti-social David dons a MAGA hat in a Beverly Hills restaurant, knowing that his “people repellant” will guarantee that no one crowds him at the sushi bar.
It worked.
Before Nov. 5, David’s stunt would have worked in blue cities nationwide, but in the weeks following the 2024 election, Trump voters are sporting MAGA hats proudly, openly, in New York City and, most famously, in a swank Beverly Hills restaurant where six MAGA-hatted young women dined, undisturbed, on Nov. 9.
Not for a moment do I think that David will recant his notion that Trump has already “thrown 250 years of democracy out the window” or that Oprah will retract her belief that if Trump wins reelection, “It’s entirely possible that we’ll never have an opportunity to cast a ballot again.”
Nor do I think that the Hollywood elites who peered down from giant screens during Oprah’s town hall meeting for Kamala Harris will admit that their smug contempt for Trump supporters was a voter repellant — against Harris.
If Hollywood celebrities’ preelection contempt for Trump supporters proved counterproductive, their postelection antics have been downright clownish. David himself could not have written a sketch more laughable than the clip of Sharon Stone blaming Harris’ loss on “Americans who don’t travel, who 80% don’t have a passport, who are uneducated.”
But filmmaker Michael Moore’s talent for condescension is not limited to the hoi polloi who voted for Trump. On Nov. 13, Moore declared that Americans “are not a good people” because our founders set in motion a “non-stop cavalcade, a laundry list of evil deeds that led us directly to last week.” The image of Moore indicting our founders calls to mind Mark Twain’s wish “to become so rich that I can instruct the people … like those kindhearted, fat, benevolent people do.”
Missing from today’s parade of “benevolent” leftists is Jerry Seinfeld, who told The New York Times about a local prep school’s plan to allow “emotionally distressed” students to skip school on Nov. 6. In the week following the election, national news accounts mocked Trump-averse university students who had survived Trump’s win by playing with Legos, therapy dogs and “sensory fidgets.” Before the 2024 election, providing “self-care” for grieving leftists had been standard university practice, but Seinfeld has made infantilizing young adults a subject for derision.
Even more encouraging is comedian Bill Maher’s comeuppance for his fellow Democrats who, like strategist David Axelrod, blame Harris’ loss on “racism” and sexism.” To account for the higher percentage of African Americans who voted for Trump, Maher explains, “Black people can’t afford to indulge rich white people’s need to endlessly flagellate themselves. They just want prices to go down and good jobs and the police when you call them.”
As for the left’s claim “we’re the smart ones,” Maher counters, “Democrats have become like a royal family that because of so much incest has unfortunately had children who are retarded.” Maher’s advice for the uber-left is to “Stop screaming at people to get with the program and instead make a program worth getting with” because “you, with your aggressively anti-common-sense agenda and sh–ty exclusionary attitude, blew it.”
Los Angeles Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong agrees and, on Nov. 15, went public, admitting, “If we were honest with ourselves, our current board of opinion writers veered very left.” Soon-Shiong’s plan to add “conservative and centrist voices” to the LA Times’ editorial page runs counter to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s resolve to “Trump-proof” California.
In late October, The New York Times reported that Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has plans to expand its readership by adding conservative voices to the Post’s editorial page. And if the sudden demand for MAGA hats in Manhattan souvenir shops signals New York’s shift to the right, The New York Times may decide to balance its editorial page as well.
Victorian poet Matthew Arnold warns, “Nurse no extravagant hopes,” but there’s no curbing my enthusiasm for the prospect of lower prices and a secure border — in short — for the common-sense agenda for Trump’s second term.
Nan Miller is professor emerita in literature from Meredith College and resides in Raleigh.
