Celebrities, like the rest of us, are absolutely entitled to their political opinions. And just like with anyone else, we’re allowed to be critical of those opinions. So when, for example, Nicole Kidman tells us all to just accept and support Tump’s presidency, that’s her right. Just as we have the right to turn around and say hell no. In an interview with UK TV host Victoria Derbyshire, Kidman (who has dual American and Australian citizenship) said,
[Trump is] now elected and we, as a country, need to support whoever is the president. That is what the country is based on. And however that happened, it happened, and let’s go.
First of all, that “however it happened” is upsettingly telling. Kidman is saying that however Trump won—with potential interference (on the part of Russia and/or the FBI), with an explosion of fake news, and without the popular vote—the end result is to be respected, no matter what. It’s the political version of “finders keepers,” and no, Nicole Kidman, we don’t have to accept playground bully rules in our political system.
What, exactly, does “support” mean? Not criticizing Trump? Since when is that “what the country is based on”? Isn’t our country is based on discussion and debate and freedom of dissent? What would this country be if we didn’t have the power to express outrage and disappointment at the actions of our President?
Well, for starters, given how many of our presidents owned slaves, slavery might have taken a while longer to eradicate—you know, if we weren’t allowed to criticize our leadership. Similarly, by most reports, Eisenhower didn’t want to support desegregation and dragged his heels to uphold Brown v. Board of Education. What if we hadn’t had the ability to criticize Bush’s mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, or the bigoted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, or Nixon’s corruption, or the Vietnam War, or if suffragists hadn’t let Woodrow Wilson know they wanted the right to vote?
And what might the country look like soon if we follow Kidman’s advice and refrain from calling out Trump? Well, freedom of the press is gone, that’s for sure. Freedom of religion, too, thanks to that proposed ban on Muslims (not to mention his placement of anti-semites in positions of power). Oh, and remember when he said that women who seek abortions should be punished? Are we not allowed to criticize these things? Is that now unpatriotic?
No, Nicole Kidman, blindly, silently supporting “whoever is the president” is absolutely not, and has never been an American ideal.
(via Mediaite, image via Shutterstock)
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