I don’t know what has gotten into CB lately. Usually she guards Matt Damon stories as if her life depended on it. She’s a big Damon-loonie, so much so that I rarely write about him at all. But things are starting to change around here… she’s actually sending me Matty D leads now. I wonder what’s going on? What if CB wants to (GASP) cover Michael Fassbender?! I would die. Literally, as Joe Biden would say.
Anyway, CB sent me this lead and I guess she wanted me to cover it because it’s Matty D being political. Matty talked about politics a bit in his Guardian interview too, except no one paid attention to those quotes because of the public/private school debate. So, to promote Elysium, Matty D did an interview with BET and he got some questions about Pres. Obama’s second term and about Trayvon Martin. I transcribed his answers, but just note that I edited out a lot of his “you knows” and “likes”. I want to make excuses for him, like he hadn’t prepared answers to political questions so that’s why his answers seemed a bit scattered, but really, I expect Matty D to be able to speak off-the-cuff about politics in a much more qualitative way than this:
How do you feel Pres. Obama is doing in his second term?
Matty D: “He broke up with me. There are a lot of things that I really question, you know? The legality of the drone strikes, these NSA revelations are, you know, like… Jimmy Carter came out and said ‘we don’t live in a democracy’. That’s a little intense when an ex-president says that. So, he’s got a lot of explaining to do, especially for a constitutional law professor.”Thoughts on the Trayvon Martin case:
“The Stand Your Ground law, I would hope that they will revisit that. I lived in Florida for five years, we can’t have a world in which people are putting guns in their pockets and looking around for… thinking that they’re the neighborhood watch. We have a police force for that. We should leave the novices at home.”
He side-stepped saying the word “race” which I guess is the way to go when you don’t want your 5 minute BET interview to become the most re-blogged video on the conservative sites. Honestly, I don’t have a problem with his Trayvon answer – he didn’t get into the nitty-gritty of the situation, he was soundbyte-y and that’s fine. He’s promoting a movie, not leading a national discussion on race. But I was bothered a bit by his answer about Obama’s second term. I’m a political liberal too, but don’t come at me with “drone strikes” and “NSA wiretaps” as the reasons to not support Obama.
Also, here’s the new trailer for The Monuments Men, starring Matty D and George Clooney (and Dujardin, Bill Murray, John Goodman, etc).
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
I like Damon. But lately, when he opens his mouth to talk about something other than his films, I wish he would just close it back up.
I have the same feelings.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BUa5oHgYV2k&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DBUa5oHgYV2k
Couldn’t resist.
Agree. It has always puzzled me that we’re supposed to be lectured about politics by people who are famous because of their acting ability and live pretty much in a bubble, anyway, and he’s just demonstrating the reason why it doesn’t make sense to me.
I find it frustrating that these same super-rich people are always the first to tell me (the not super-rich) that I need to donate to whatever cause is fashionable this week.
+1 on this. I used to love his films but I can’t stand actors who spout on and on about their political views – from either side. Can’t watch him, Affleck or Clooney anymore.
That is exactly how I feel about him these days.
gah, this is going to get ugly. I’ll just say he’s not the first to become disenchanted with the administration and I doubt he’ll be the last. He’s talked about this before.
Fairly early in Obama’s first term, I recall Matt Damon pretty angrily saying in a televised interview that Obama misunderstood his mandate and failed to effectively use the political capital he gained in the first election.
Regardless of whether Matt Damon’s opinion about Obama is correct or not, I can see why Obama isn’t all gung ho about hanging out with the guy. Damon has done a lot for social justice issues around the world, like poverty and clean water. You can’t fault him for that. But unless you have the clout & power of a congressman who Obama needs to communicate with in order to get SOME things done, you can’t bitch & gripe that aggressively and expect the President is still going to want to be your bromantic partner. Or whatever they were before Obama broke up with him.
He didn’t lie though.
Obama has violated our constitutional rights as badly as Bush, it’s sad- he was suppose to be better than that.
I’m eternally grateful to have him over Romney but he’s genuinely disappointed me this term. I feel Matt on that one.
I’ve always liked Damon; he seems to be one of the few stars who doesn’t have his head up his ass and he keeps it real, kudos.
This completely.
I’m happy to hear someone from the left saying they have issues with Obama, since there exists a prevailing perception from the right that every lefty/dem/liberal supports Obama carte blanche, without any criticism.
I don’t regret voting for Obama twice, but I admit that I’ve been disappointed too many times with him.
Anyway, I love Damon and I loved what he said here–he handled the question about Trayvon very stealthily.
It has not much to do with left or right, anymore. Listen to Alex Jones on infowars.com. I’ve described myself as liberal, always, & I don’t agree with some of the positions there….but wake up, people.
This
Now, I am young and not that informed about US politics, but I did read quite a lot about it. The only candidate I agreed with in almost all cases was Dennis Kucinich. Now, my American friend told me that he could never ever win. Why?
bubbles: the invested interests will never allow it. the national security state will never be dismantled; it’s too widespread, ingrained and too many billions are at stake. security of the people of this country has eff-all to do with it.
damon is absolutely right re the staggering disappointment obama is. how many banksters have gone to jail? his legacy will be one of death, finally succeeding in the first stages of the destruction of social security, and nullification of the constitution.
I’m so glad to read about the disappointment in Obama here.
@Azurea: Excellent post.
Azurea: you put your faith in Alex Jones? Seriously? He’s a joke.
It’s the American system that’s broken, not Obama. Your two-party system doesn’t give you any options. You dislike drone strikes? The Republicans wouldn’t stop doing them, so you have no choice there, unless you want to throw away your vote on a third party who has no chance of getting in.
Your system sucks. Everyone can see it, but people insist on blaming whoever’s president.
I think Lou has a point. In a two-party system, when the two parties grow very close together, a large section of the electorate is effectively disenfranchised. Vote one way, or waste a vote on a fringe candidate. This has happened in the UK where the Labour party (Democrat equivalent) has moved to the right.
Given this, I would argue that civil liberties (eg habeas corpus, freedom of speech and association, etc) can be more important to perceived “democratic values” than the vote. But few people realise this and are happy to sign these rights away in the face of security panics.
+1,000,000
Honestly, the left is sometimes more effective when a horrible Republican is in office. Look at how the left built such a huge coalition against George W. Bush, but won’t hold Obama accountable for doing some of the same things as Bush. Some Democrats won’t even listen to you if you have something critical to say about Obama.
Voting for the lesser of two evils (that would now be the Democratic Party) is sometimes necessary just to make sure a neo-conservative doesn’t win, but last election I decided to vote for the Green Party candidate in protest. I know a lot of people think that is stupid and a waste of a vote, but imagine if a million people realized that there are other options out there besides voting for the same crooks and murderers in both major parties? That would be the start of real change. However, most will continue just voting Democratic or Republican regardless of how much horrible things these people continue to do to our country and abroad.
I just hope that in 2016, the Democrats offer a much better candidate who returns to real Democratic ideals such as saving social security, fixing the economy, fighting for single payer health care, not siding with Wall Street, closing down Guantanamo, protecting rights for women and gays, and bringing our troops back home. We can dream, right?
“Honestly, the left is sometimes more effective when a horrible Republican is in office.”
What a great (and thought-provoking) statement. The rest of your comment is pretty damn on-point as well 😉
I have to agree with MD. I don’t regret voting for BO but I have bouts of buyer’s remorse. I actually am disappointed that he cannot work with Congress (although there are dicks there as well) to resolve the budget issues (sequestration, fiscal cliff). Clinton had his issues but you can never say that he couldn’t get things done with Congress. That’s because Bill knows how to talk.
I liked his answers. I agreed with them. I like that he didn’t go into the TM case and instead just stated that the stand your ground law needs attention.
Jimmy Carter is right, sadly. If it takes Matt Damon bringing up the quote, then I say all’s well that end’s well.
I love Jimmy Carter and felt like he got a bum rap. I think he’s the only one that actually speaks the truth.
I detest Bush with a passion and everything he stands for. He made criminal decision during his long eight years as president. He was one of the worst. I voted for Obama because I believed in his message. But I am disappointed with some of his decision. I don’t fully agree with everything he’s done.
I think it’s important for a person to question anything that they don’t agree with, and shouldn’t feel like a traitor in the process.
I support that message!
MD didn’t say he didn’t support O – he said O “broke up with him” due of his policies.
He has been week on some stuff and slow on others. In addition to Drones and the NSA, how about Wall Street and the Banking industry? Guantanamo?
Personally, I don’t think one person can “fix” this system. I think the people have to demand change, but we’re all too comfortable here…….on our couches….in the a/c…..with enough time to comment on on websites and not be working all the time….. Too comfy.
Extra erroneous apostrophe above and I spelled Cory Booker’s name wrong below, oh well.
Without wanting to really touch the politics of what Damon says (although I err on the side of @ Marie’s comments), I think he’s talking cautiously and fairly, which is nice to hear from a celebrity. He openly endorsed Obama, so it’s natural that people are going to ask him about this topic a few years on. To me, this is smarter than someone like Beyonce fawning over the president and looking like a famewhore.
However, I will say this: in my experience (caveat), post 9/11, it is difficult to criticize the government/country without being deemed unpatriotic. Damon is allowed to change his mind; at the core of a democracy is the demand that we constantly interrogate our government and insist that they be held accountable. Damon is right to continue thinking and devloping his perspective. Too many people cleave to their self-identification as Democrats or Republican, and when people assume such loyalty without asking their representatives to evolve or go further than the party line, then we essentially give them a blank check, and that’s part of the reason we’re so insanely polarized now.
+1. Indeed. It’s as if political identification has turned into a religion whereby people ignore the negative and operate on faith.
your last paragraph sums it up nicely.
if Bush did the same things he would be torn down by liberals that now support obama for those things.
@Maria, You still seem invested in the polarization, no offense. Maybe I’m reading into the comment incorrectly.
Polarisation and the effects of intense political campaigning also leads voters to perceive bigger differences between candidates than there are actually are. Which obviously leads to dishes of ointment (Cockney rhyming slang) when candidates come into power.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008
That link shows how much smaller the differences between candidates in the 2008 election were than popular opinion probably credited. (I love that site, btw, the quiz on there told me a lot about myself. I’m the bottom left quarter in the graph).
There was similar disappointment in Tony Blair in the UK ten years ago. Third way politics as espoused by Blair and Obama isn’t quite what its supporters expected it to be.
I like it when celebrities express honest, thought-through opinions, even if I disagree with them. So way to go Matt from me.
That quiz was pretty great. I’m the bottom left quarter ( green) too.
Well put.
The way Americans identify so strongly with their chosen party seems strange to me (as an outsider), because the D/R party lines are incredibly weak. A polly may identify as D but often vote R, and vice-versa.
Here in Australia (and in other countries with a Westminster system), breaking party ranks (crossing the floor) is unusual.
It just seems weird … like the American voters have stronger ideas about D/R lines than the American politicians do. Does that not annoy you guys? How do you know how the politician you’re voting for is going to vote, if you can’t trust them to stick to the party line?
Totally agree @Fanty. We have the same problem in Canada. Too many people vote for X party because that’s the way they’ve always voted (if they get out and vote at all–our numbers are despairingly low in this regard in recent years), and there’s no sense of engagement or critical thinking. I completely agree with the sentiment that we need to hold our politicians to account; there’s certainly not enough of that happening. Canada has become an international laughingstock under our current Conservative government, and not enough of the people who voted for that party question why that is.
Canadian politics is much the same. Marc Emery, who actually has demonstrated leadership skills, unlike any of the so called “leaders”, is in prison, for selling seeds.
Politicians don’t have to be nice or honest or honourable or explain their actions – to get elected they just have to be seen as the lesser of two evils. I thought everybody knew this?
I’m voting Kodos in 2016!
The evils seem to be equal at this point.
How sad is it that each election cycle, we have to choose our poison? Politics has become a competitive sport with people choosing “teams” while ignoring the caliber of the players. We are so focused on jersey color (red or blue) that our critical thinking functions have shut down. I am a Republican, but that political perspective is based on my own life’s journey thus far. The journey is not over, my mind is always open for business, so that political perspective is constantly evolving. I never get lathered up over liberals because they too have formed opinions based on their life journeys. To me, it’s all good. I don’t always agree, but that’s the beauty of it: I don’t have to (a realization that’s amazingly liberating). My credo? Mean people suck.
The Monuments Men looks really good! I love George Clooney and it reminded me a little of Inglorious Basterds, one of my favorite films, except not so… Tarantino 😀
You may think Matt needs to shut his mouth and sometimes, I think he should. But he has been honest about his disappointment with Obama (and previous administrations) and he has his right to express his opinion whether or not we agree with it.
I don’t have a problem with anything he’s been quoted saying here. He’s not mean with his criticisms, he’s just saying what he feels here.
Ironic how Jimmy Carter has gone from much maligned one-term President to truth-teller and a gentlemen of great moral integrity. No wonder he got kicked out of Washington where everyone talks out of both sides of their mouth!!
I think really he was maligned at his time because he was a truth teller.
This. He was too honest for his own good, not political material, but by all accounts an idealist with a good heart.
This type of thing is still playing out. The American public loves a “sexy” campaign. If you look at senate races, there are people like Carter (Rush Holt) and sparkle people (like Corey Booker). Corey Booker will win because he is young, attractive, charismatic, he plants himself in news articles constantly, is in tight with Wall Street, the cottage industry of private schools initiated by rich men looking to cash in on education and he has big backers in the tech industry who might make him very wealthy. On the other hand, Rush Holt who has been championing rights, was against the naked airport scanners, against the war in Iraq, was a science teacher, is an older man, who speaks plainly without flair, is upset by the infringements of privacy by the NSA will be left in the dust.
Apparently, we like to be served bullshit.
Apologies for the rant, but it made me feel better.
Corey Booker is a bs pawn of Wall Street? Just because he is charismatic doesn’t make him less dedicated. He’s been in the trenches, fighting for that city, and has demonstrated his loyalty time and time again.
Isn’t Booker the guy that gave Zucker’s 15-year-old kid a job as a board member at Waywire, paid in stock options?
…smh….
@TheOriginalKitten
He’s not what people make of him. I’ll leave it at that.
@kiddo beautifully said! We do love being served bullshit. It’s bizarre. There’s no critical thinking, no reasoning, just the love of image.
@Birdix. He has demonstrated his loyalty and that direction of loyalty is what concerns me. I wasn’t saying that charisma is a bad thing, I was saying that it shouldn’t be the top consideration in voting and that it often skews the way people evaluate politicians, rather than on merit.
@Kiddo: I am ♥ing your posts today.
Drone Strikes are like the Trayvon Martin case: people getting killed without evidence and without a fair trial.
its hard to lecture other countries on human rights when the usa kill people without trials, torture people in guantanamo and abu ghraib and spy on their citizens and the rest of the world.
read into drone strikes because i know this comment wont be published as you dont publish anything critizing america and the human rights violations done by obama. but i beg you please inform yourself about those illegal killings. what would you say if the police in the usa just started killing SUSPECTS? whyt if someone in your family was suspected of something he/she never did and got tortured for it? its no different from drone strikes and cia torture and that leads to the hatred the usa are facing in the world.
in guantanamo there are medical tests on inmates. most of them are innocent, thats proven by now. they were abducted and tortured just beacuse they were suspects and not guilty of a crime.
here is a link from the ACLU:
http://www.aclu.org/files/pages/gitmobynumbers_infographichires-jan2012_0.jpg
92% were never in al kaida. 92%!
here is something about drones:
http://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/drones
which are also used INSIDE of the usa:
http://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/domestic-drones
the nsa thing: read 1984 and why privacy is important in a democracy.
Very important. If citizens are intimidated about speaking their minds or organizing, there is no democracy.
Glad to see a lot of intelligent and well-informed commenters on this thread. Thank you for those links. We no longer live in a democracy. Our government can now jail and even kill anyone including American citizens who have not been found guilty of any crimes. The Obama administration has been especially harsh on whistleblowers acting in the interest of the American people. Snowden has done a major service to the American people and should be awarded rather than hunted down like a criminal by the Obama administration.
We don’t live in a democracy anymore. We live in an era of big government getting bigger by the day. They come across as criminals run amok. If Snowden is brought back here, they will kill him. Perhaps they will do to him what was done to Michael Hastings, and pull a ‘Boston Brakes’ maneuver on his car. No, that is not science fiction. The technology for taking over a car’s controls and computer system is being done.
Whistleblowers in this country are threatened into silence, as are their families. Benghazi is a perfect example of that. It’s incredible what is going on here. They are taking over everything from healthcare on down. The IRS and NSA scandals are alarming to say the least.
Our founding father’s created a nation that would not be controlled by a power hungry dictatorship, monarchy or regime. As beloved as George Washington was, he refused the title of ‘King’ as that is what our founders had left behind. He set a two term limit upon himself, feeling that anything more would enable a president with too much power.
“If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” One of many fantastic quotes Washington made in his lifetime. This country needs to wake up, and fast or else the day will come when we will look around and notice our freedoms stripped and ask “when did that happen?’.
+1 Nicolette! Great post! Wake up indeed.
+ 1,000 for @Nicoellete’s commentary. Right on.
+1000000!!!!
Just curious.. what exactly has Matt said about his movie. I mean I don’t hear anything about it. This film a few months ago was highly anticipated. Lots of chatter. Now nothing. He needs to talk about the movie. Promote the movie. Not sure how it is going to do this weekend. Lots of competition next week so he needs to be working to get butts in the seat.
Kudos to Matt Damon for speaking out about this president’s egregious acts against the Constitution, the American people, and our allies.
Yes, glad that Damon isn’t another mindless celebrity. His comments on both Obama and the Trayvon Martin case are on point.
We can’t have it both ways. We can’t complain when celebs talk about things that are going on in the world or not related to their jobs and accuse them of trying to force fed the public their opinions or tell them to shut up, but on the other hand call celebs that stick to the same talking points in every interview boring.
Just because a celeb is asked to give their opinion on a subject doesn’t necessarily mean they want everyone reading it to follow their opinion. They’re just answering the question. Yes, I know there are some that do want to shove their ideas down the public throats and think that the public should be living their lives in a way more align with their (the celebs) thinking/beliefs, but that doesn’t go for all. So, unless you want nothing but boring interviews to gossip about maybe we should all stop acting as if their being in movies means they aren’t allowed to talk about anything.
Exactly! I have never understood the “shut up and perform” mentality surrounding celebrities who speak their minds. In some cases, they’re using their inevitable platform for a much nobler cause than self-promotion! In others they’re honestly just stating their opinions, as asked. Press junkets get so redundant and tedious and boring that it’s probably refreshing when they have a chance to talk about something other than their love life or co-stars.
No american politician has to explain anything to any celebutard; most of whom live a self-contained bubble anyway;
Since everyone’s getting political, OBama’s not violating anyone’s “Constitutional rights”; the NSA, Al-queda in Yemen, and drone strikes didn’t even exist in 1787; The “founding fathers” have little to say that’s germane to today’s world;
Funny how some progs like to invoke the antiquarian words of SLAVE owners.
Maria, you realize that George Orwell wrote a lot more than 1984, which isn’t even his best work; Try The Road To Wigan Pier, Down and Out in Paris and London, and Homage to Catalonia;
Orwell was an anti-communist working class leftist socialist (1920s-1930s) when those words meant something; He would have opposed al-queda’s religious totalitarianism as much as he opposed Hitler and Stalin; Orwell was no supporter of capitalism, and scorned useless capitalist ornaments like movie stars; Matt Damon affects adversial positions to conceal the fact that he’s a member of the capitalist ruling class.
Western democracies, and any moderate in the Arab/Muslim world, face a totalitarian nihilist opponent, but America’s petty legalistic mindset treats this as a routine legal dustup;
French public intellectual Jean Francois Revel said it best:”The problem with American’s is that they have never suffered.”
The Bill of Rights expanded on the definition of privacy.
The 5th amendment speaks to the privilege against self-incrimination, which has been obliterated, since all types of communications are being spied on, without warrant. Criminals first, citizens second, in the eyes on the NSA.
The bill of rights didn’t expand anything; it’s an inert piece of paper; interpretations by lawyers, i.e., supreme court justices,in the decades and centuries since, and based on all sorts of things, extended the application of these terms.
A supreme court decision in 1979 provides the basis for the NSA activities and this is well known if you want to resort to legalisms.
The NSA program has been known for years, and Rep. Dan Coats had an article in a recent Wall Street Journal detailing the disingenuousness of responses/attacks on a program politicians had many opportunities to inquire about.
Your exaggerating because the “evils” you want to attack are really bureaucratic nuisances at best; TSA scanning for 90 seconds isn’t remotely equivalent to Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Russia.
I didn’t imply anything about Hitler or Stalin. But if you want to go there, the type of restrictions or loss of rights in both of those countries happened in increments, so turning a blind eye to infractions that you personally see as inconsequential, is how populations eventually allowed all of their rights to be destroyed and taken away.
Also, last I heard: The 5th amendment is still part of the constitution.
you realize that american laws do not apply in other countries? even if it would be legal in america it does not give the us government the right to violate sovereign states.
how furious would the american public be if it came out that China was spying on the world like the usa do?
im willing to bet that there would be lots of people calling for war.
I’m a little troubled that you’re so okay with drone attacks as an effective method against this religious totalitarianism. Drone attacks fine, they out members of al Qaeda. Sure in that sense they are effective. But they also take out hundreds of innocent children, women, and men. People who have no access to any sort education, clean water, or probably even a constant supply of food maybe even electricity. They already probably fear for their lives on a daily basis because of the very backwards mujaheddin you claim to fear. Then a drone attack happens, their family dies what do you think they’re supposed to think? Supposed to feel?
Happiness? because that one dude that was supposedly an al Qaeda leader just happened to live in their town and is now dead because of the US? Do you think you could be that forgiving if that happened? Do you think with no education no access to amenities books papers pencils you could even begin to move past the emotions you were feeling? That’s astounding.
Yes, the US govt has learned to cover their asses on this issue and reduce the number of people that are targeted. The law protects them legally. Doesn’t make it right. Drone attacks do more harm then you think they do good. They inspire more radical fundamentalism then they do moderates. In fact try and understand where this fundamentalism even came from, you’ll be surprised!
Just look what happened after sept 11th! Irrationality was the name of the game. They hate us for our freedoms the tagline and so much nonsense and our country is in a horrible state. People there really aren’t that different from us and unsurprisingly the US has supported so many of these dictators that encourage a totalitarian regime. And frankly the “west” has interfered with these people’s lives for centuries and painted them a broad stroke of stereotypes and with a racist brush for even longer.
I’m appalled by the number of LIBERALS I’ve met who think we should just nuke the Middle East. Like wow you’re f*cking smart! You just start sounding like the people you hate. Bizarre. We want to strive for peace so we start an ethnic cleansing campaign?
Thank you all for your comments here. I got really scared by the US lately. I’m still very worried.
please stick to being an actor
Are you kidding me?! His answers are close to perfect 😉 I was worried, because I’ve recently developed such strong respect for him as a person, and usually that’s when I get let down, but these answers were really spectacular, in that they are not towing the Hollywood line. I really like a man who can think for himself, and relies on his own brain, instead of the collective brain, schooled by the sensationalist media.
First of all, as far as the government goes, they obviously are NOT to be trusted. We are getting into Terminator 2 territory, with the drones and spying on the public using the Internet. So, “Hello, Government! I’m sure if I or anyone else with my opinion ever wanted to get elected, I know you would read this and put a stop to it.”
Also, it’s awesome that he recognizes that the problem with the Martin/Zimmerman case rests with the Stand Your Ground law, and not in race or the not-guilty verdict.
If the NSA and drone strikes don’t turn you off there’s something seriously wrong with you. You would change your opinion so quickly if one of those strikes killed one of your family members.
Absolutely. Those drone strikes have killed thousands of innocent people including children and babies. Drone attacks are violations of international law, yet America still uses them against countries we are not at war with. It’s insanity.
Most people are either blind or too lazy to speak out about something that doesn’t affect them. Obama has done some questionable things just like Bush but he gets a pass. Why? He’s a better liar.
Exactly! And we’re just creating more terrorists. People are justified in hating us, with the terrible things we’ve done and continue to do.
I agree with all of you and Amercians deserve answers….now.
Obama makes Bush jr. look good. At least Dubyah wasn’t a constitutional scholar taking a leak all over the most important set of laws in the western world.
No one makes George W. Bush look good.
+1,000,000
Nice try though, Kaboom 😉
..where is my avatar? 🙁
You all misunderestimate dubya too much. He may surprise us yet.
You guys he really did make us laugh tho no? I’m stuck in a YouTube loop of bushisms. It’s hysterical.
@okitt LOL this may be weird but I’ve been wondering where you’re avatar is too. I thought someone else was using your handle!
Someone should tell Matt Damon “don’t quit your day job.”
I’m happy to see that someone who is so much in the public eye and who did so much loud campaigning for Obama is now willing to admit that there are definite problems surfacing.
Also, it makes me actually queasy when people insinuate that we shouldn’t be concerned about the drone strikes or the NSA issues. I’m not sure why those are not considered ‘valid reasons’ to not support Obama.
As someone above said, the loss of freedoms in increments is how you end up with a nation under martial law going WTF happened here?
And Obama is publicly calling them ‘phoney scandals’. And I see people in the background nodding emphatically. Incredibly frightening.
+1
+2
Ditto. I was so annoyed in 08 when there was this gigantic swell of peer pressure that Obama was the ONE and if you didn’t emphatically love and support him during the primary and his candidacy, then you were either racist, dumb or secretly Republican. A few of us on the left tried to tap the breaks and got shouted down, so now I appreciate when someone like Matt Damon is willing to face reality and come out and be critical of someone he supported. That’s actually a sign of an ethical and intelligent person.
@KC – I was just thinking about that. I remember that, for awhile there, if you had anything negative to say about Obama, you were obvs an ignorant Southerner or, as you said, racist. It’s nice to see a shift to actual discussion and I’m glad to see that people are informing themselves, but I hate the damage that’s been done to the US to get to that point.
I find that most Americans – on the left and on the right – are getting a creepy feeling about the direction we’re heading in. It is, in fact, creepy and not at ALL like the country I grew up in in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. One can almost hear Orwell saying “told ya”. Those on the left were (rightly) hyper–critical of Bush while those on the right made fools of themselves defending him. Fast forward and Obama has taken what Bush was doing and stepped it up a notch. Now the righties are (rightly) hyper-critical of Obama while those on the left are making fools of themselves defending him. Everybody has so busy trying to save face for the last 13 years that we’ve lost the plot line. I feel sorry for kids today, truly. They have no idea what real freedom is. The only satisfaction I have in being an old chick is that I’ll be dead before things completely turn to crap.
Well said, Laurie. I 100% agree with you!
People should have listened to Russ Feingold, a man who cares about all people and our country. He voted NO against the Patriot Act and actually read it. Start of all our problems.
Hard to get into anything discussed when the initial premise is incorrect. We’ve never had a democracy in this country. We are a Constitutional Republic.
The scariest part of American politics is people getting their news from blogs and talking head opinion shows.
We are a representative democracy, not a direct democracy. However, there are elements which are purely democratic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventeenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
That is correct. The US was designed as a federal republic consisting of sovereign states. Unfortunately, the states’ sovereignty has been steadily eroding since our founding due to our constant goal-post moving definition of “common good”. We are not a pure democracy, despite the common and oft-used misnomer. In fact, our founders warned against it (mob rules). That said, our system of government and processes are democratic in nature – though decreasingly so. Sadly, we have become increasingly autocratic, where the few at the top ignore what we want and instead dictate what’s good for us, because apparently they know better (all evidence to the contrary). Good luck everyone. Enjoy the crumbs.
We have almost a shadow government, that citizens were unaware of, who are making decisions without input from the citizenry and without too much regard for the constitution and bill of rights. Follow the money. Fear and the military machine is, indeed, profitable: for some, that is.
“I’m a political liberal too, but don’t come at me with “drone strikes” and “NSA wiretaps” as the reasons to not support Obama.”
Umm, WHAT? I think Matt explained himself just fine. It is YOU who needs to explain yourself better.
And while drones and wiretaps are not my hot button issue with Obama that makes me not really support him, they are certainly 100% VALID reasons for anyone and especially liberals to be angry and unsupportive of the president’s policies.
+1 Even if you are an American who doesn’t care about foreign policy, just look at the mess around you at home. Obama’s domestic policy alone should have made Americans take off their rose-colored glasses for Obama a long time ago. The unemployment rate is not improving. We are simply seeing more long term unemployed no longer being included in the unemployment numbers as well as low-paid temp and part-time work being added as new jobs. America is a mess on top of the NSA wiretapping and other horrors the administration is inflicting on innocent people abroad. The quality of life for average Americans hasn’t improved since the Clinton years. Matt Damon is one of the few wealthy liberal celebrities who gets it.
That comment blew my mind, too. And while it’s healthcare that really fires me up, the drones and wiretaps are what frighten me.
This site is getting way political and everyone has the same liberal view. It’s supposed to be a celebrity gossip site. I used to love it but sick of it. I’m done coming to it. This article doesn’t even make sense- he can’t criticize BO for these points? And of course everyone says the same thing in the comments. I’m finding my gossip and escapism, which is what this is supposed to be, elsewhere.
It’s not even what he says that makes me roll my eyes, it’s how he says them. I like him because he seems like a bright guy (went to Harvard BEFORE he was famous, unlike all those silly little star/lets who think that they are brilliant because some big-name school took their famous names), and he has decent range as an actor. He gets on my nerves by always talking down to people though. He acts like the public, at large, would be eating glue right now, if it weren’t for people like him.
Case in point: his whole ‘we have a police force for that’ smacks of an oblivious, privileged upbringing. Methinks that Captain James Obvious Bourne, who grew up in a neighborhood crowded with famous intellectuals and celebs and then became independently quite 1%, doesn’t quite grasp the finer points of living in a neighborhood so overwhelmed by crime & with such an underfunded system to start with that ‘we don’t have a police force for that.’ To put it succinctly, for Capt. Obvious.
It’s not that I like SYG laws, it’s not that I am the NRA’s little lapdog, it’s not that I love guns and am anti-any-gun control laws. It’s just that Matt Damon, descending from on high with his simplistic ideas and his need to tell me about these things called ‘police forces’, really gets under my skin. When I shared an apartment with three other young woman near (albeit not in) the ‘bad part’ of Richmond, if some douche came up to me and said ‘don’t get too carried away with your novice neighborhood watch, little girl. We have a police force for that!’ I would have said ‘Eff you, asshole. Just keep walking down this street, going East, for a few minutes, and make sure to say the words ‘police force’ good and loud. For my entertainment.’ let’s discuss all of these things in the complexity of people who need to protect themselves in America, every part of the country, where they are now.
Patting Americans on their collective heads and letting them know about this thing called a ‘police force’, isn’t profound. It’s just the kind of think a total prick would say. And, if he’s just going to loose gems like that on everyone all the time (he does), instead of saying intelligent things–then, yeah, he should just shut up and act.
I think Damon should run for political office. Senator Damon has a nice ring to it.