Kevin Costner has been politically active for decades. I remember Costner being invited to the Obama White House a few times, and if memory serves, he was a fundraiser for both of President Obama’s presidential runs. Costner also endorsed Pete Buttigieg in the Democratic primaries in 2020, then when Joe Biden got the nomination, Costner supported Biden. Costner was also critical of Donald Trump during the Trump years. All of which to say, Costner may look and sound like a Republican and he may make the Republicans’ favorite show – Yellowstone – but that doesn’t make him a right-winger.
Enter Liz Cheney, who is quickly becoming the Democrats’ favorite Republican. Rep. Liz Cheney is on the January 6th Committee, and during every hearing, she rips Donald Trump a new one and makes the Republican Party sound like they’re a bunch of incompetent, unpatriotic terrorists. I don’t agree with Liz Cheney on anything involving policy, but I genuinely admire her determination to rip her party to shreds over the Jan. 6th insurrection. Well, Kevin Costner admires her too. He’s been wearing an “I’m For Liz Cheney” t-shirt while filming Yellowstone, and Cheney reposted it:
Real men put country over party. pic.twitter.com/7FaJpahtll
— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) August 1, 2022
The Hill points out that Cheney is trailing 20 points behind her GOP challenger. It’s pretty likely that Cheney knows she’s going to lose her election but she’s not backing down from destroying the MAGA Republicans. And if Kevin Costner wants to support Cheney, so be it. It’s his business and clearly he has admiration for her political stand against the Trumpers. Now, I’m sure this has irritated the hell out of all the MAGA Republicans who love Yellowstone and hate Liz Cheney.
Me watching Trump supporters, the people who act like Hollywood doesn’t matter to them, completely lose their minds over Kevin Costner’s support of Liz Cheney. pic.twitter.com/04bBIFP4RT
— laney (@laneymakesstuff) August 2, 2022
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, social media.
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- Kevin Costner attends the 2022 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones celebrating the 94th annual Academy Awards at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 27, 2022 in Beverly Hills, California,Image: 673587364, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Kevin Costner, Credit line: – / JPI Studios / Avalon
Coool! I hope I am right for thinking he is a good guy, I always remember he stayed good friends with Whitney, even during her troubled years.
She’s been great on 1/6 but I’d hate to see her positions on any other policies. Even abortion. I’m sure she’s pretty bad. But she’s been excellent on 1/6, she adds gravitas & toughness.
He’s a California boy, born and bred. He might have a twang on tv but I’ve never thought of him as looking or sounding like a republican. Mygawd he’s held onto that bod though.
I just googled. He’s 67. 67! Dang, he looks good!
Right? For awhile, I put him and Russell Crowe in the same category of hotness. No hate for Russell Crowe who aged normally as people do, but it just shows how exceptional Kevin Costner’s physique is. Maybe I should give Yellowstone a try. It hasn’t appealed to me before, but I was a big fan of Costner in the 90s.
IMO, Yellowstone is Not Good (full disclaimer, I only made it through one season so maybe it got better). The pacing is awful–so many things happen in quick succession that you don’t have a chance to absorb the last thing before the next happens, and they really, really ask you to leave reason/logic at the door. The actors are great with not-great material, though, and the scenery is lovely. It’s like a soap opera as far as believability and quality of the story. Again, IMO.
You’re so right, Liz has been relentless in her pursuit of justice during the hearings, giving the GQP domestic terrorists the scorn they deserve. That said, she still votes like a GQPer. I guess I’ve known next to nothing about Kevin, assumed he was a repub. He is still so handsome and that role on Yellowstone is a good one for him. I mostly appreciate what they do get right about Native Americans. And the scenery is gorgeous.
I have thought Kevin Costner was a Democrat ever since Field of Dreams, Dances With Wolves, The War, McFarland Texas and Hidden Figures. I am not a huge Costner fan but I did grow up with his movies and I usually really like them because he has been for the underdog throughout. Some actors not seem to follow such an arc. Therefore, not so surprised by him leaning blue. What I am surprised about is him showing it to his MAGA Republican fans. LOL. I say go Costner!
well, well, well… just when I thought nothing in the world could make me watch Yellowstone.
For me the only reason to watch Yellowstone is Jen Landon’s Teeter. She is a scene stealer and Michaels daughter. I try to copy that accent all the time but I can’t hit it.
Part of the problem is what amounts to a two-party system. We’ve become so divided by the extremists that Democrat and Republican have almost set in cement a specific set of values.
Moderates in both parties suffer. You cannot support anyone that belongs to the other party, even if they are moderate / middle of the road.
I am a registered Independent. I have to change often as NJ has closed primaries. If I want to vote in the primary, I have to be one or the other. I change back to Independent with a week after voting in the primaries.
But yeah, amusing that the people calling other people snowflakes tend to be the biggest ones themselves.
Yes!! This is me, I too, am a NJ resident and have been a registered Independent since I was 19. And I too, temporarily re-register to vote in primaries, ha!
I’m legit going to scream if I have to listen to another person “both sides” the current system and fault the Democrats equally.
One party is fascist. Has enslaved women in multiple states, is pursuing the same across the country. Is attempting to go after birth control (and will move on LGBTQIA+ and minority rights). Has attempted to overthrow the government. Is attempting a constitutional convention. Has no problem with Black people living under the thumb of the police and subject to their whims of “justice.”
There is no both sides here. Claiming that there is does not make an actor more rational or non-partisan.
This “both sides are the problem” rhetoric needs to die. One side is supremely corrupt and trying to take the US back decades. The other side has problems, is mostly moderate (not extreme) but is still willing to govern. How anyone can continue to scream about them both causing problems is absolutely beyond me and is incredibly unhelpful when it comes to trying to save this country.
eh, Costner is kind of not a good guy. maybe he’s changed, but I distinctly remember a masseuse at a resort alleging that he exposed himself to her and asked for a little something extra. when she declined to “help” him, he helped himself.
he didn’t assault her but he was married at the time and it’s pretty gross. and I’d wager that was not the only time he pulled that stunt.
I LOVED Bull Durham but I have a hard time watching him in anything these days.
Gawd I love Bull Durham. He and Tim Robbins make my head spin. But Susan Sarandon has been somewhat problematic too. Wasn’t she Bernie ride or die? All things considered, though, that cast has avoided most major scandals.
I genuinely didn’t know any of this about Costner and you nailed it exactly, he seems like the embodiment of everything Middle America, rights denying, election denying, Covid denying, racist and sexist, gun toting Republicans get all moist over. So this was a very pleasant surprise.
(Ps my hardcore Republican mother’s favorite TV show is Yellowstone, lol)
I’m not a big Costner fan, but he really isn’t most of the things you suggest above.
Haven’t seen Yellowstone — why is it perceived to skew Republican? There’s enough coverage of politics. TV is to escape.
cowboy culture appears to be quite Republican based on how many of those states go red and how many rural communities in Canada vote conservative (I love just north of Montana). I can give some real life connections to the storylines in Yellowstone…
I am from a farming and ranch province and there is a distrust of politicians, libertarian/’leave me alone, and I will leave you alone” kind of mentality that sees government interventions as problematic, ignorant, and over-reaching.
There are two layers that I can speak to from my own conversations with family and friends….
1) Issues with regulations and over reach…An example – in Canada the Liberal Party has just asked farmers to voluntarily decrease excessive nitrogen waste which has been turned into ‘Trudeau is banning fertilizer’. The farmers in my family criticize an Ottawa politician for regulating something he knows nothing about instead of getting to the bottom of why and evaluating the purpose of this request/goal. The ranchers in my area want to be able to sell their beef without all the red tape and middle men and that make it tough but they’re not okay with others forms of meat taking over.
2) On top of that, they see no value in discussing progressive issues because they don’t see how they are relevant to them – they don’t care about the legalization of gay marriage, involving the government in trans rights, safe consumption sites, and so on because they don’t encounter those social issues in the same way that urban spaces do. There is a resentment that urban issues get so much attention while farming and ranching issues get little unless it is to create more regulations.
I don’t like Kevin or Liz but I do love how the MAGA’s are bugging out over this all. They always want to have their cake and eat it too. They hate Hollywood librals but love that they have trash heaps like James Woods, John Voight, Tim Allen, Patricia Heaton and other C and D listers who are MAGA’s as well. They don’t even ever embrace the true crazies like Kirt Cameron (who’s been an extreme loser fundamentalist for decades) and Ricky Schroder. They want the big ones. Bunch of hatin’ ass, thirsy ass bums.
I get all the enemy-of-my-enemy stuff with Liz Cheney, but she is absolutely just as bad as Trump. Her biggest problem with Trump is that he said the quiet part out loud and gave away the game, whereas the Cheneys and their ilk prefer smile-in-your-face-knife-in-your-back tactics.
I think she’s banking on the fact that if she loses her election she can run for President (or VP on a Pence-Cheney ticket) with her “reasonable republican” shtick, and the annoying part is she’s probably right because so many Democrats are fangirling her so hard about these hearings when in actuality she’ll vote exactly the same way as Trump does and push the exact same policies. It’s a bait and switch, with the establishment republicans acting like the adults in the room so they can get all the credit of deplatforming the extremists and then pick up right where they left off with the same exact agenda.
Couldn’t have said it better myself. I believe she’s playing a long game that will ultimately benefit the same people and entities that are also benefitting from various short games.
Agreed. Even if Democrats vote for her, Wyoming is so ruby red that she knows she won’t be able to hang on to her Senate seat. So, she’s planning for the next step after that.
We’re truly living in the Upside Down when Liz Cheney is “one of the good ones”. But fascist threats to democracy make for strange bedfellows.
I went to HS with Liz (Go Highlanders!) and have generally loathed her since then, but she did finally say she’s not against her sister’s marriage to a woman a couple years ago and now this. So there’s some growth.
She’s her father’s daughter and the long game is totally where she’s at. I never, ever thought I would be even mildly supportive of her, but here we are.
She was also one of the Republicans to vote to protect same sex marriage recently.
Yellowstone films in Wyoming which is where Cheney has her seat so he’s likely doing this so that a crazy MAGA doesn’t end up winning. The Dems in that state have said they aren’t going to run a candidate because it looks like Cheney will end up running as an independent. I’m sure Costner doesn’t agree with any of her positions outside of her going after actual traitors in the GOP.
It films in Montana – the ranch that stands in for the Dutton Ranch is in Darby, Montana. Closer to Idaho than Wyoming, I think. For a season or two it filmed some scenes outside Park City Utah, but I think Montana stepped up big time with tax credits.
My extended family in Wyoming is/was active in the Democratic Party there. We’d joke that there were barely enough democrats in the entire state to fill your average sized IHOP and a Democrat in Wyoming is probably more conservative than a Republican in California.
“ Mygawd he’s held onto that bod though.”
He really has, hasn’t he?!? I would.
Anytime Field of Dreams is on I’m watching. Kevin Costner was my first school girl crush.
I love him in all of his baseball movies, though Susan Sarandon has ruined “Bull Durham” for me.
Sad to read about the masseuse’s allegation. It allegedly happened in 2006, though, and I haven’t read of any other allegations since — which obviously doesn’t mean the incident in 2006 didn’t happen.
This is why I don’t idolize famous people. Any of them (except maybe the two Megs — Sussex and Rapinoe).
Enemy of my enemy is my friend, and MAGA is an enemy to domestic peace, period. End of story.
Agree.
My hubby’s a diehard democrat but he’s sending Liz money. There’s 0% chance a dem will win that seat no matter what kind of batshit crazy maga idiot wins. He’d rather have someone there who doesn’t want to overthrow democracy and will, on occasion at least, vote for things like upholding gay marriage. A signal via her winning her primsry or winning as an independent, also needs to be sent if the US is ever to have hopes of breaking 35% of this country out of their Trump fever. More people like her need to win and the Hershel Walker types need to lose in red states.